beer drinking, sling-shot slinging and hot springing

We had three days off following our first fire streak and Jodie, Doyle, Dean and I headed up to Liard hotsprings for a little bit of fun and relaxation (though, truth be told, I was far more tired when we got home than when we left!).

mostly because having doyle around was just like having a little brother there (and i guess i'd sort of forgotten what that was like).

he roped and tied me


shot his slingshot at me


jumped on me


and sat on me


but at least i wasn't the only one being harassed... the buffalo got a taste of his sling-shot, too!


we went for a big hike just south of the hotsprings, just choosing a nice long ridge from the highway and going for it.


it was the first time that dean had ever gone hiking for fun...and i'm still not sure just how much fun he actually had


but we made it, and at the top, we were all smiles :)


but after a long hike, a rainy descent and a million mosquito bites, bathing in the hotsprings felt very deserved

this time's for real

yeah yeah, so i really am going to start blogging again now (just for you, ma!)

here's what the rhino's have been up to so far this year:

the first few weeks were pretty slow...and cold...
we almost got stuck on our way out to crying girl to check up on a 'make sure you're campfire is out' sign


but not long after, we finally had our first fire call - to a surprisingly big and steep fire near dinosaur lake that was a little tougher than what we normally have as a 'warm up' fire. on the first night, the fire actually burned over our hose lay (and some gear)


after a few more days of rain (with some snow chucked in), the weather warmed up again and we had two solid weeks of fires. by we, i mean the rhinos. for most of those two weeks, i was held back in FSJ for training. bah.

we had a really nice fire near chetwynd... there was some good fire behavior and a tanker show when we first arrived, it was dry and steep and we got to enjoy honey garlic chicken wings from Murray's Pub every night! the fire started because of a campfire that got away. when we got there, we found the fire ring and a bunch of empty beer cans laying around it. whoever was responsible must have been worried about an investigation or something, because they came back in the night a few days later, gathered all the beer cans and scattered the rocks used in the campfire ring!

the best part of this fire was watching dawley catch a mouse.


after missing out on a trip up to toad river (my favorite place to fight fires) because of training, 10 of us headed to a beautiful fire on the sikanni river, where we stayed in the hunting lodge.


and met peanut - not the prettiest dog i've ever seen (we actually nicknamed a guy on our crew after the little pug), but he certainly has a lot of character. if you got up and left your chair at dinner, he would hop right up on it and take your place.



on the sikanni fire, we were flown into one of the nicest heli-spots i've ever been dropped off at - we had to hike down a long ridge from the top of the mountain to get to our fire.




this fire was actually an overachievement by the MoE who were doing a wildlife burn. so the owners of the hunting camp didn't really want it out at all since it would create more hunting grounds for them. a good dose of rain took care of it just as well as we could have anyway.