Island time

Week long base change to Vancouver Island. Based out of Campbell River, the first fire was directly below Mt. Cain and then we had a couple of steep ones in Tsitka River drainage. This last one shows us hoisting out off of the hillside. Has been super busy still!! Hard to believe we have been rolling since July 17th. Pretty lucky. A month left and everybody is starting to look like they've had a long season. Just got back from 2 fires north of Revelstoke near the Gothics Lodge. Slept on the hill again last night and now back in Salmon Arm refitting gear. Expect to be back out within the hour.

Lillooet Fire Complex

Just back from 4 days at Lake Koocanusa and off immediately for Lillooet to build helipads. Pad building is something that I always look forward to. Usually there is some type of time clock on you from an irate fire boss, fire activity below is in the back of your head as you see plumes of smoke rise through the day, and it always separates you from the pack with your ability to get trees on the ground. No cold trailing through old burns, no soot or ash in my lungs (black boogers), and only saw dust and sweat at the end of my shift to brush from my hardhat. The immediate concept is to fly into an otherwise inaccessible area and rappel in to a location that we think is appropriate (semi-level or something approaching it). We scout the area and try to locate two large trees perpendicular to the slope, 14' apart from one another, and free from defects (cat-face or other obvious structure deficiencies). These we save until the end, and fall everything else for a 100' diameter from pad centre. Using materials that are already on the ground, we lug, curse, and heave 16-20' logs towards the centre and begin construction. From year to year, I always forget fires, but always remember the pads we built and the teamwork it took to get it in place.

K11122-Clearwater Zone Wells Gray Park

5 Days spent on a piece of Wells Gray Park. A quick station to Blue River where no other than, the world famous, Dan Baker comes strolling over to our machine; a fire later and this followed by a dispatch to Wells Gray Park. No access for any other crews, unchecked timber for miles, and a big patch of smoke rising up from the patch of fire retardant that had been dropped earlier in the day. Now, I'm not sure why Dodsworth snorted a bunch of pepper from the beef jerky up his nose..... but it was ridiculous.

Penticton and Christian Valley to Kamloops

Have spent the last 4 days on fires, travelling over much of southern B.C.. Have covered over some amazing country, all very remote, and our contact with civilization a voice on the other end of the radio and the dwindling noise of a departing helicopter. Am now back in Salmon Arm and am now the only crew left on base. Spoke with Al tonight, and am going to make it out to Calgary or the Lake in the middle of next week. Family much in my mind; am thinking about you if you read this. Looks like we are heading out again soon, all the best.

Okanagan

Fire in Penticton, I think they're calling it Gallagher Lake. We spent the afternoon in Kelowna before flipping down to this fire near Oliver. We were warned about rattlesnakes and scorpions, but it was the cactus that took it's fair share of casualties. As you can see, Colin found a big patch of spines embedded in his knee at one point. Long, slow days of digging guard and looking for elusive smokes that evaded our efforts from the previous day. Breaks are spent looking for scraps of shade beneath the Sage and hulks of burned out Ponderosa. Pat Quinn at the casino. Man, he is huge!! Hands like baseball mitts. I think I mumbled something about, "congrats Coach on your Edmonton signing..". The last one, trying to get on top of the casino fountain at 2 am. Classic.

Long night

Sent to Westbank. Worked through the night. Drove back to Salmon Arm this morning for a break. 8 hours of sleep and then back on max's for the night. Beautiful to see the sun come up against the hillside with the lake at the bottom; sad to see peoples homes threatened with fire.

Base hawk and fire frog

Beautiful long day today. Got a fire call at 7:30 and drove out to a pile burning near a nice lake, took the better part of the day and a back-hoe to put the thing out. Rescued the little toad before he got cooked. Tomorrow will return back with Alyssa and bring the canoe and rods. Looks to be good fishing. We have a young red-tailed hawk that sits on the end of the rotor blades and swoops down on gophers when they poke their heads up. Base hawk is becoming a bit of a favorite with the crews but a menace to the pilots who are tired of cleaning hawk shit off of the machine.

Give this a try sometime, though I must admit I didn't take the photo. Tyson Hopkins snatched it on his blackberry. Really summarizes what we see sometimes though. Sunset, Bastion mtn. in the background, and Shuswap Lake visible as a tiny thread down below. Today was spent doing the same stretcher/attendant hoists, but over the top of the hill and without the view. The job is pretty varied, somedays flying over the peaks in the Purcells and others playing beach volleyball glued to the pager. Fires are usually always the same: smokey, gnarly trees, and at some point in the day you're going to get lots of digging. Will attempt to keep a posting of some events I see in the next year while on vacation.