adventures of the wooly marmot

Yesterday, Jodie (a rhino rookie) and I went hiking in Tumbler Ridge. It was a great day, although we were both soaked and freezing when we got back to the car because of both the hail and the fact that we couldn't resist playing in the snow on the ridge-top.

It's a three-hour drive back to Fort St. John from Tumbler. We got home around 9pm.

This morning, I went out and started my car and it was making an awful screeching noise so I figured it needed some oil. I drove down to the gas station and bought some, then popped the hood. Turns out it wasn't my engine screaming at all - it was a MARMOT! A big marmot! Under my hood!

As soon as it saw me open the hood, it scrambled way down into the middle of my car so that you could only see it's tail. I just stood there dumbly for a few minutes wondering how on earth I was going to get this marmot out of there. A few men that were filling their trucks noticed my confused look and came over to offer help. They thought I just didn't know where the oil went. They thought it was hilarious that there was a marmot under there and all wanted to help get it out so we spend 1/2 an hour in the shell parking lot, poking my marmot with a stick trying to scare it away. No luck. And I was going to be late for work.

So I closed the hood and drove out to base. It sounds cruel, I know, but the furry little guy survived a 3-hour drive in there yesterday.

When I got out to base, a few guys from the crew came out to help with the poking and the stupid thing still wouldn't leave.

So, I got in and drove away again - this time to park in some long grass hoping that he might feel more comfortable getting out into the grass than onto pavement. I left the hood open and scattered some crumbs around. By noon, he'd made his escape - probably into another car that was parked nearby :)

A marmot in his natural habitat:


And the marmot in his not-so-natural habit:

chuck truck got stuck

Oops! It looked like just another mud hole from a distance...
This happened on the drive home from the fire that we were on in Vanderhoof one night after a couple solid days of rain. We knew the roads were bad, but had no idea that they were this bad!





Ian - the proud driver.

and you thought fire fighters had to be tough

it seemed like a good idea....

...to load up our skis and snowmobiles and head into the mountains for some late-season skiing. Such a good idea, that we raced around packing at 8pm last night and headed out of town for the pine pass. There were 5 of us (Jeff, Brett, Eric, Cole and I) and we were determined to get in some turns while there was still snow up high. We drove the 2.5 hours to the pine pass, then up up up and old logging road until we came to a fork and decided to wait until morning so that we could see which way to go. We unloaded Cole's sled and all 5 of us cozied up on his deck for the night. It was a pretty restless night, but great to be out under the stars and full moon. We woke up at 6, giddy about skiing on such a bluebird day. But fate was against us. We headed further up the road to where the snow got too deep to continue and started to get the snowmobiles off and ready to go. Cole's, which ran just fine about 10 minutes earlier, wouldn't start. We (no, they, really) tried everything, and it just wouldn't go. We looked longingly at the snowy mountain and angrily at the snow machine and decided we might as well just head home while it was still early enough to do something else. But not before having a little fun trying to get Cole's truck stuck in the snow. When we finally got down to the highway in our truck, we found Cole parked on the side of the road and looking under the hood. First the snowmobile and then the truck....there was a big hole in his new radiator. A few minutes and a quick fix later and we were on our way again - driving home in snowpants and jackets, with ski goggles on our heads on what could have been the ultimate ski day :(

Pics will come later, I can't seem to get them to load right now.

knock on wood, but this fire season is HOT!

We've been working more or less non-stop since I got back to FSJ. Since April 25, I haven't had a single day off and only 3 days without fires. It's been amazing - it's never been this hot and dry up here this early in the season.

This week, I'm acting as a squad boss because a few of the regular squad bosses are away doing courses. It's been a pretty steep learning curve. I had one day as a crew leader on a fire, and the next day, I was in charge of the whole fire. I definitely did a few things wrong, but learned from my mistakes. Overall, though, I think that it went pretty well. I've always been one to care about the quality of my work, but I never realized just how much more I would care when I actually had to sign my name to a fire and guarantee that it was out. Especially a really big, ugly fire that we spent way too little time on and with far too few resources. I'm pretty sure it's done with, but I've still got my fingers crossed that it won't come back to haunt me.

We haven't had much time for hanging out yet this year, because we've been leaving early for fires most mornings, but we did get together for quite a shin-dig on Friday night. We knew that we had to start work at 6:30 the next morning, but we were told we'd only be on the fire for a few hours and then we could sleep all afternoon. So, we partied hard. For some (not me this time, fortunately), way too hard. The next day, there were a lot of sorry looking rhinos on the fire line. And we were all even more sorry when we learned that there was way more work that we thought and that we'd be working for 16 hours that day. Ouch!

In any case, fire season is off to a record-breaking start and I can only hope that it keeps up its current pace for the next few months...

the good ole pump hose test

Hooray! The fitness test is over! And not only did I pass, but I placed right up there with the guys for finish times. And then I barfed.