Jellystone

"Well, everybody wants to go forever; I just want to burn up hard and bright..."

The Saturday that I returned from Browns Park, I knew Matt was supposed to fly in that evening, but I was still happy and surprised to hear a familiar voice when he called. After driving all day, I was probably babbling even more incoherently than usual, but I didn’t have to be asked twice if I wanted to come out to Yellowstone that night - we live so far from each other, who knows when I’ll see him next?! Anyway, what’s another 2 hours driving on top of 10 anyway? So I merely transferred my stuff from my fire bag to my backpack - it seems I’m always ready for a spontaneous overnighter in this profession - and went to Yellowstone!

It was nearly midnight when I got there, but we caught up on life and had a few laughs before calling it a night. The plan: Hike on Sunday.

On our way to breakfast Sunday, we overheard a hotel manager talking to one of the maids: “Be sure to do a great job on room #xxxx, Ted Turner is staying there.”

What?! Dude, that’s Matt’s room! He knew he was being moved out to a different hotel, but Ted Turner was moving in?! HA! We can say we jumped on the bed in the room Ted Turner slept in. ;)

We later picked up a small guide book to day hikes in the park - and without much hesitation, Matt shows me the trail he wants to do. Avalanche Peak. Hmm, sounds pretty cool… 2 miles… no problem… 2,100 ft. elevation gain. Wait, let’s do the math… that’s one hell of a hike! So I look at the difficulty rating. And can you imagine that it says “Very Strenuous”? And can you imagine that it is the most difficult hike in the entire guide book?

I knew Matt and I would be good hiking partners. We’re both masochistic.

The road was closed about a mile before the trailhead, but as soon as we got off pavement and onto the actual trail, it was up, up up! The weather called for snow, which we laughed about, but now that we were actually outside, it was cold, gray, and especially ominous looking in the Absaroka Range to the south. No worries, though, as we were having a great time; Matt called out “HEY BEARS!” to scare the grizzlies off and I huffed and puffed behind him, enjoying every grueling step.

Once above tree line, it was colder, windier - but with a great view of Yellowstone Lake and the snowy, triangular peaks of the Absaroka mountains… and the impending snow storm drifting in our direction. We paused just long enough to snap some photos, eat gummy bears, and get cold! Fortunately, the descent of Avalanche Peak was much quicker and easier than the way up, as the clouds rolled in quickly. Our timing was nearly impeccable, because we stayed dry for the entire length of the trail. But that all changed once we reached the road, our car waiting one mile away at the barricade.

It began sprinkling, which gave way to rain. Rain jackets on. Rain gave way to… hail, driven directly in our faces by the wind. Which, by the way, HURTS! We ran to the car and threw ourselves and our bags into his rented red Toyota in a soggy heap. I don’t know about Matt, but just seemed amusingly appropriate to get stuck in a hail storm after an exhausting hike in an awesome national park, with a friend you don’t get to see very often. Silly situations like that are what the best memories are made of. :) Oh, and we also saw a grizzly sow and her cub earlier that day, which was a neat first for both of us.

And when we drove back to Old Faithful, the harsh hail turned into soft, fluffy snowflakes that probably wouldn’t have hurt so much if they blew in your face. How considerate. (Matt insists that the park is controlled by animatronics - and I don’t doubt it anymore, now that the weather has been 70 degrees and sunny since he left!)

It snowed a little more and was blustery and cold the rest of the day, which was fine for recuperating indoors. He was moved to a cabin at the Old Faithful Lodge, where all the “Fishheads” were staying for the Wild Trout convention. But we chose to chill at the Old Faithful INN - the sweet old historic place that was built log-cabin style, with a tall cathedral ceiling and dim light bulbs that simulate candle light, and plenty of tables, chairs, benches, and a huge stone fireplace to encourage lounging in the lodge area. I absolutely fell in love with it! We spent a good while telling stories at the bar and then finally running up the log stairs and hiding in the shadows ofthe upper balconies. I really wanted to climb the stairs to the crow’s nest, which had been close due to some earthquake that had skewed the supports; we entertained the thought of being like ninjas and sneaking up their, but… well I actually don’t why we didn’t just do it, but next time there will be no excuses! We will do it! :)

We did that until the week hours of the evening and then had a sleepover, with the intent that his cell phone would be my alarm clock and wake me early enough to drive 2 hours back to work on Monday morning. I woke up feeling refreshed and alive… but certainly not like I woke up early enough for it to be 5 am. Ends up his cell phone lost service and never went off - it was now 6:30, and I had to be at work at 7:30! I rushed out of there but I knew there was no way I would make it - and I wrote an earlier journal about what happened that morning. Yellowstone looks gorgeous at sunrise, especially when it’s SNOWING! As I wrote before, it was a near blizzard the closer I got to RRL (red rock lakes).

Anyway, Matt was giving his presentation on Tuesday morning, which I wanted to attend. He did a fantastic job and lots of people told me to compliment his outstanding performance. :) Later that day, he wanted to go fishing and I wanted to go hiking… so we compromised and went on a 3 mile hike in to Grebe Lake, where he was bound and determined to catch a grayling. He had a successful flyfishing endeavor the previous day on the Firehole River, but alas his luck ran out. I read a book amongst the PRIMARY forest (yeah, I remember what that means now, Matt!) while he gracefully propelled that fly through the air, like some beautiful and serene “Fish Montana” commercial. It looked cool to me, but apparently the fish weren’t as impressed and he didn’t even see a single one rise.

After our wilderness expedition, we were starved… but the wait for the only decent restaurant that wasn’t closed for the season was nearly an hour long. Jokingly, I asked the hostesses if we could just eat our dinner in the hallway outside, which was furnished with plenty of nice tables and chairs. To our pleased amazement, she said “Well, you can order it to go and if you eat it out there, we won’t stop you!” SWEET!

So all those other suckers waiting for a table in the restaurant had to watch and drool as our gourmet dinners were delivered to us ala white cardboard boxes before they even got seated. We brought it back to Matt’s cabin and ate like king while watching “The Boondock Saints” on his laptop PC. Another great day comes to a close!

The next morning, we said adieu and I figured I wouldn’t see him again until my southeast road trip, if at all. I wake up early and make it to work on time, and it’s another cold, biting day. Wait, where’s my jacket? UGH! In my hurry to leave, I left my jacket in his car, when I thought I actually had it with me. He was going to Bozeman to visit his girlfriend’s brother… so it looked like I was going to see him sooner than anticipated! I felt rotten to be crashing his plans for the evening, but he insists that it was no problem (and I’ll just hope he wasn’t just saying that!) I met up with him and Phil at a great pizza place on Main Street and had a few laughs with them, watched the boys play pool, and then walked around the vacant streets of Bozeman. Man, that town was sure dead for a Wednesday night! Phil was a lot of fun and if I end up around Bozeman, I’ll have to hit Matt up for his number so we can go biking together or something. But once again, we said goodbye, and I warned Matt that I may be in the neighborhood in the near future. Other than that, who knows when we’ll get to see each other again… But I do know that it’s a groovy coincidence that after having classes together but not really hanging out in college, we have gotten to hang out a couple times this year and we always have a blast! And I want that Von Bondies CD that I left in the car AGAIN! Cheers to a memorable vacation with a great friend, and fond memories of laughing over ridiculous things and singing and dancing in the car!

Where's your head at?

“It hasn't been that long
Since we drank to the sunset, until it was gone”

It’s that time of the year again. As the leaves glow golden and the wind blows a little cooler, I’ve felt more introspective, more alive… and more sappy. Yeah, I’m feeling obnoxiously emotional and sensitive - I’m not used to it! J Whether it is the beautiful fall weather, the high I still have from having the best time of the summer with Matt in Yellowstone, the ending of my first season as a wildland firefighter, or simply the result of too many hours behind the wheel and too few hours of sleep, I’m not sure. Whatever the combination, something infectiously magical is in the air and the past week or so has been happy, sad, fantastic, exited, nervous… surreal!

Yeah, I’m excited to go back to Detroit. The Lions are still 2-1 and nothing beats a good sports game and buffalo wings at the bar! Even better is trying to decide whether to blow my money on some U of M football tickets or hockey tickets, and getting back to the music scene and seeing some concerts and hopefully get to see Erich’s band “the book was better” for the first time since they played at our New Year’s Eve party in 2002! Heather, hope you are ready to see some blues again! Jeff and Amadeo, you’re going to show me a proper homecoming, right?? Can we wear costumes? ;)

What am I going to do for the fall and winter? We’ll just play it by ear. Hopefully I’ll get a job for the winter in the southeast, but I’ve even entertained the idea of finding some small cabin in northern MI, buying some x-country skis or snowshoes, and borrowing Steve’s dog for a few months to keep me company. It will be bizarre going from remote MT to uber-urban Detroit, but I’m open to ideas of where to go and what to do! (Though the southeast is on my list... see you boys soon!)

Adding to the fact that I’m torn about moving, hopeful yet nervous about the winter, and have a bright-eyed and ignorantly-optimistic outlook about the cool adventures and opportunities I might stumble upon, I just finished reading “Hawk’s Rest”, a book Gregg let me borrow. It’s about the battle between outfitters and rangers at Yellowstone over hunting, grizzlies, wolves, and ethics. Beyond that, though, it is the memoirs of a backcountry ranger, going through the same emotions about the end of his season as I am. Corny? I suppose, but he really hits it on the nail and gracefully puts to paper all the crap floating around in my head. ;)

It’s also strange that I’ve had so many people breeze in and out of my life; people I would consider friends, despite only a few weeks or even days spent together. Who knows when or if I will see them again? Ya’ll should check out Heather’s journal for her ideas on the subject. It’s amazing how much of an impact certain individuals can have, even when your time together is limited. But I have a feeling I’ll be seeing a few certain people in the future…

In six days, I’ll be in Seattle reunited with Brian, and that’s about as far ahead in advance as I’m going to plan!

"Would you like to do a shot with me?"

"Yah yah yah!"

Jeff just introduced me to a ridiculous old school cassette he owns by a Yooper/Wisco band called the Happy Schnapps Combo. When he used to do fire here, I guess him and this dude Tom would just tear it up in their old heavy engine and blast that cassette down the road.

It's goofy polka. They tore it up in the engine to goofy polka. Steve, you've got to listen to it. :)

time to CRASH

Phew! Finally done updating about the fire crap.

Now I only have to write about how much fun I had with Matt in Yellowstone! And how utterly exhausted I am from driving all over the bloody place!

Ya'll will just have to wait, stuck in suspense I'm sure <sarcasm>. I'm going to pass out in bed now.

(This photo was taken with Gator near Black Butte just north of us. I figure some July flowers might be nice amidst all this winter weather!)

Alamosa Fire

The rest of my detail out of Browns Park was great. After that first day of burning at Fish Springs, we had a larger unit the next day - 1600 acres with 7 people. We broke into two teams - me, Kevin, a guy from BP, and a biotech from Fish Springs on the east; Nathan, Ben, Amy, and Mike Grainger (FMO at CMR) on the west side. Burning this would be a little tricky, because there were many small grass islands surrounded by wet soil - we couldn’t walk to them, so we were going to have to get creative. On our side, we had a few flare guns and an ATV, along with our drip torches. Kevin and I had way too much fun shooting flares onto each little island, throwing fusees and watching the firewhorls. Walking with the drip torch for miles would have taken a long time, so I sat in the back of the pickup and created a wall of fire as we drove along, while the biotech threw fusees into the tall grass. It took all day but it was fun!

We met up with the other team after we were both done. Apparently they had some tricky part along a canal - Amy would walk along with the drip torch, but it would ignite so quickly and so hot that she’d have to run and jump into a canoe and have Nate paddle frantically away to the next island! Sounded like a good time to me!

What better way to end a day of pyrotechnics than with a nice swim in the middle of the desert? Yep, it was fantastically unbelievable - a sweet swimming hole hidden within the refuge, 25 ft. deep and 72 degrees - complete with a diving board! We had pizza (yes, there is pizza delivery to Fish Springs, go figure!) and most of us didn’t have swim suits so we jumped in with t-shirts, shorts, nomex… Kevin even jumped in with his White’s boots on, disproving the myth that you can’t swim with them on.

Flames could still be seen in the distance from the bunkhouse, but it was deep inside the unit and no chance of it escaping. And so ended my first prescribed burn experience in Utah!

So back to Browns Park I went to be reunited with Bart. It was short lived.

Monday, Bart, myself, Colby (an engine boss detailed in to Browns Park from Buffalo River in Arkansas) and Joe were going to head south to Alamosa in southern Colorado to do a more complex burn. But Hurricane Ivan had a different idea and was headed right towards Bart’s house. In a last minute decision, he flew back to Florida and the other 3 of us went to the burn. (The hurricane didn’t end up hitting his house thankfully!)

Met many more great fire people at Alamosa, and we all camped out in tents outside of a house. A few engines from Kansas and Nebraska - Deon, Tim, Trent, Jesse, and a few other guys - all headed up by Ken K. A few other engines helped the day of the burn, including the State of Colorado, San Juan Hotshots, Forest Service and various overhead guys, but they didn’t stick around. I’m not even sure of the total number of people that actually worked on this one - maybe six or seven Type 6 engines (like what Red Rocks has), 1 heavy (Type 4?) engine, a helicopter, a hotshot crew, meteorologists, and other random people for the 1,000 acre fire. Apparently this burn was going to be a bit tougher - the fuel (grasses and greasewood again) was incredibly dry and continuous, with a few areas that had a good potential for spotting. It really wasn’t necessary to have quite that many resources on it, but they wanted to take every precaution.

I worked with Colby from Arkansas, and man did he get into my satellite radio! Back in the day it sounds like he was hardcore and dangerous, telling me stories about seeing Jackyl at some seedy bar in the Carolinas, singing along with Ozzy and Ugly Kid Joe. I brought back his wild side for a few days. ;)

The burn itself went pretty well, it was fun to watch but not a whole lot for us to do. The shots used drip torches to ignite the outsides, while our force of engines just made sure nothing bad happened. This fire was much more intense and traveled quickly, with dust devils and firewhorls over 100’ tall. It was a good show. J They brought the helicopter to drop these things called “ping pong balls” to light the middle. Overall, everything went smoothly and I got a lot of good pictures.

The day after the burn, most people left but a few engines stayed behind to do mop-up. Lucky me, I was one of the 8 fortunate souls to do the “hard part” of the whole burn - a deep layer of organic material burning all the way down, still hot and smoking. When mopping up, the idea is to put out the hot spots - but everything was a hot spot! This stuff would burn for days easily. We did what we could, walking probably a mile or so and checking to within 100’ of the burned area, stopping every few feet to touch potential hot spots with our hands to see if they were warm. As you can imagine, one becomes very dirty very quickly when rutting around in ash and dirt. When we found a hot spot,we’d put some water on it and dig around in it to put it out. If you think it sounds tedious, then you are absolutely correct! It took us literally all day to do our section, and that organic crap that was burning deep started smoking like nuts as the day went on, blowing right over where we were working. It wasn’t fun, but we got it done.

The night after the burn, we all went out for Chinese food. I sit down next to this tall, blonde older man and we start to chitchat, and I’m being goofy like always, and he seems to be getting a kick out of my conversation. I even found ways to poke fun (good-natured) at him and kept him laughing. In the meantime, Colby had ordered the same meal as me, and there was a nice little red pepper that just looked too delectable to refuse. Somehow, he didn’t realize this inconspicuous little pepper was in fact a HOT pepper, and soon thereafter he started to notice this fact as his mouth lit on fire and his eyes watered. Poor guy was MISERABLE and no matter how much water he drank, nothing would overcome the power of the pepper. We all noticed and started laughing, and this guy I was talking to points out the pepper on my plate.

With a smug grin, I grabbed that little pepper, popped it in my mouth, and ate it. Just like that.

They’re laughing and watching to see how I react to it. It was fine… a little hot… burning! Burning!

Ahhh, but the joke is on them. I had something to prove (not really, but it sounds noble). J I can handle hot food better than most. So I just smiled as poor Colby was still trying to wash his mouth out. Yeah, it was hot, and yeah my nose started running, but I just kept on conversing with my new friend. I think I impressed him, whoever he was.

So then we get our fortune cookies. I open mine and read it - and giggled at myself when I added the phrase “in bed” to the end of it. I looked at his, which said something about bringing prosperity and joyfulness to others…”in bed”. I laughed again, but he had no clue why.

“Haven’t you ever added the phrase “in bed” to your fortune?” I asked him.

No, he hadn’t… but sure enough, once he reread it, he started laughing and everybody else shared their reinvented (and improved, in my opinion) fortunes. Heh heh, I taught an older man a naughty new trick. J

From then on, he referred to me as “Pepper Girl”. I made a new friend.

A new friend that just so happens to be the second most important man in Fire, Carter. Like, if there were a president, he’d be the VP. I told the “VP” of fire to turn his fortune into a dirty blessing. HA!

Fortunately, I might have a been a sarcastic, potty-mouthed goofball, but I think he liked it!

That night (Thursday), we were rewarded with a hotel! And the first shower since Sunday night! Guess what happens when you strip down after mop-up? Well, first of all, you probably have nice salt lines on your shirt from sweating so much. The best part, besides looking in the mirror and realizing you look like you’ve been rubbing your face in the dirt, is taking off your pants and looking like you are wearing black nylons. All that ash just works its way right through your clothes. It was hot. ;) But when you’re that dirty and tired, nothing is more rewarding than watching all that black water run clear in the shower (except a cold beer AFTER the shower that is)!!

Friday morning, we left Colby to watch the fire for the weekend while myself and the other guy from BP went back. After a long day of driving, we arrived at the bunkhouse just in time for… a party. I was tired but how can you say no to elk burgers, beer, and good conversation? Nat, who does interpretive stuff, and Steve the LE (with the word “HEY” tattooed on his arm - a simple yet highly intriguing fact) tried to get me to stay another night to go to the ho-down they were having (with a live bluegrass band and dammit, I couldn’t stay!), which was tempting but I had to get back to Red Rocks to see my friend Matt. Speaking of tattoos, they asked if I had one and I said “Yeah, a sun and a moon.” When they asked where and if they could see it (on my lower back), I turned around to pull down my pants a little bit and they just broke out laughing - they thought I meant I had a sun tattooed on my ASS (moon)! So of course the conversation kept steering in the direction of my ass for the rest of the evening. Thanks guys.

So Saturday I cruised back to Red Rock Lakes solo, almost 10 hours of pure musical bliss. Of course, shortly after I arrived to an empty bunkhouse did Matt call me and say he was in Yellowstone and soon I was driving towards my next adventure!