....day 1...

We missed the ferry. As unbelievable as it sounds, we missed it to Port Angeles, and spent the better part of Friday snoozing and walking around Victoria's inner harbour. Spent the night at Wallys and are now driving thru Olympia. Will make it to Tillamook today and then make some miles tomorrow. Lessons learned so far:

1) Don't touch anything in the camper that you aren't 100% sure how it works.
2) Wine is cheaper than doggie bones in Washington State.
3) It really, really rains here. Gumboots would have been quite a clever idea.
4) The almighty loonie is on it's way to crushing the greenback..... Love it!

Kettle Valley

Dog deer! Thats what these two little bucks were, both probably 2 years old. Will make for some tasty chops in my freezer. Nice to get out with Bryan for the weekend to a hunting spot that my family has been goin to for the last 45 years. We've got the area pretty dialled so we got both of these on the second day. A couple of does walked so close to where I was sitting that I could have almost touched them. The first whitetail buck was racing along through some trees chasing a few does and popped out right in front of me. The second deer was later that day way up on a hillside, I'd gone to look at a couple of muley does in a cut block when BOOM I heard Bryan shoot from behind me. 2 deer dressed out and hanging by dark, head back to the island next morning.

Lake Fishing

Calgary for a quick 50th birthday visit with Al and Angie, Steve and Naomi, Bryan, Mum and Dad; loss of the Apollo rocket in a Farmers field before we quickly boarded the plane back to Kelowna. We loaded as much gear as possible into the Jetta and ripped up to the Bonaparte Plateau (Sunday to Wednesday) for some canoeing and fishing while we waited to hear about the California fire deployment. Bad news, season was over everywhere, and upon waking up to snow on wednesday, quickly changed plans to exit Canada for Baja asap. In Salmon Arm tonight, off to go deer hunting with Bryan for the weekend. Bowron will have to wait until next summer.

On Island

Back to the Island with Alyssa for the weekend. Fishing and surfing in 2 short days. The pictures sum it up, perfect getaway from the doldrums of september firefighting. Thanks mum and dad for a great weekend.

Quesnel Lake, Bowron Lake, Wells Gray Park to Seymour Arm.

It has been about a month since I've placed an update, but with good reason... The camera broke. I have a small knapsack that I take on fires and it gets stuffed with protein bars, powdered gatorade, radios, headlamp, knife, wallet.... Anyways it broke. In a nutshell, since our bust on the island, we flew out to the Gothics did 2 fires, Mabel Lake for one (had a quick swim in the lake afterwards), back to base for a night, built a helipad on the Momich Complex north of Adams Lake (hellish amounts of work), did a 3 day fire above the Adams River, then back to base for a day..... Alpha get your bags packed your off to Williams Lake. The Cariboo, a different sort of place, but one with some great country. Our first was on the Shores of Quesnel Lake, you can see where we slipped down to the lake for a bath afterwards and then fished for an hour while waiting for dispatch to the next one. The jewel was the next fire to Bowron Lake. A sneak preview of where I hope to be at the end of the month. Ancient Old Growth, moss 2 feet thick and zero understory on the forest floor. As you can see, the big spruce was absolutely splintered by the lightning and presented a good challenge for Colin. The tree beside the shattered hulk is actually the top that blasted free of the main bole and stuck in the ground. Coffee service is a bit rustic, but worthwhile in the mornings. We have upgraded to mugs from the old tuna cans.

After all of this we headed to Seymour Arm, stopping enroute and circling the helicopter around an old extinct volcano (cinder cone) in Wells Gray Park. Seymour Arm is at the North end of Shuswap Lake, and there was a large fire that we cut a fuel free section around and established a portable relay tank to pump water to the fire. 3 days later and its Labour Day; time to spend watching movies and chill for a bit.

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.