Thursday, July 27, 2006
the pump site
I can't believe I've been in FSJ for 6 years and I've always complained that there's no lake to swim in. Of course there is. We call it the pump site. It ain't pretty, but it's got a dock and water and, hey, those are the most important components of the whole beach experience, right?
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
oh those rhinos (cont'd)
After a few days off, we were back to work, this time about an hour up the Alaska Highway in Wonowon. The fire was pretty dead and we got a bit of rain, but it was still overtime and, like always, we managed to have a lot of fun:
Dustin and I worked our asses off one day trying to lay as much hose as we possibly could. Jake loaded us up with as much as we figured we could carry and off we went down the muddy cat guard. Dustin had 12 hoses (= 180 lbs) and I had 10 (= 150 lbs). We made it the full 800 meters to where we needed to go, but not without a lot of yelling and pushing each other on, in part to keep it fun, but also because it was excruciatingly painful
There is nothing more fun on a fire than to have a quad to rip around on, especially when it's really muddy out. I had a blast wowing the guys with how fast I ride and how I could get through the mud pits that they all got stuck in ;)
The only crappy thing about the fire was all the rain we got...rhinos hate the rain!
Dustin and I worked our asses off one day trying to lay as much hose as we possibly could. Jake loaded us up with as much as we figured we could carry and off we went down the muddy cat guard. Dustin had 12 hoses (= 180 lbs) and I had 10 (= 150 lbs). We made it the full 800 meters to where we needed to go, but not without a lot of yelling and pushing each other on, in part to keep it fun, but also because it was excruciatingly painful
There is nothing more fun on a fire than to have a quad to rip around on, especially when it's really muddy out. I had a blast wowing the guys with how fast I ride and how I could get through the mud pits that they all got stuck in ;)
The only crappy thing about the fire was all the rain we got...rhinos hate the rain!
oh those rhinos
The past three weeks have been insanely busy with fires all around northeastern BC.
First, we were sent out to Tumbler Ridge, where we worked on three different fires, one of which actually caused the town to be evacuated for a few days. The fire we spent the most time on was out the Wapiti Forest Service Road and in the mountains where I had done some hiking before.
We got a great smoke and flame show right from the camp where we were staying. The first night that we were sent out to the fire, we actually thought that we were helping to tear down the camp because they were worried about it burning over. It was a little unsettling to hear that we were actually going to stay and sleep in it instead!
This was the most impressive fire behavior that we've seen in a long time...which got us all pretty excited.
The perfect helipad - on a sandbar in the beautifully clear and cold Wapiti River.
You don't see this every day - a helicopter had a mechanical problem when it was flying right over where we were working and got his bucket caught in a tree and had to drop it. The pilot was pretty excited when he found out that we had found it and cut it down because I guess these things cost over $20,000. If this ever happens again, I think we'll sell it on eBay.
First, we were sent out to Tumbler Ridge, where we worked on three different fires, one of which actually caused the town to be evacuated for a few days. The fire we spent the most time on was out the Wapiti Forest Service Road and in the mountains where I had done some hiking before.
We got a great smoke and flame show right from the camp where we were staying. The first night that we were sent out to the fire, we actually thought that we were helping to tear down the camp because they were worried about it burning over. It was a little unsettling to hear that we were actually going to stay and sleep in it instead!
This was the most impressive fire behavior that we've seen in a long time...which got us all pretty excited.
The perfect helipad - on a sandbar in the beautifully clear and cold Wapiti River.
You don't see this every day - a helicopter had a mechanical problem when it was flying right over where we were working and got his bucket caught in a tree and had to drop it. The pilot was pretty excited when he found out that we had found it and cut it down because I guess these things cost over $20,000. If this ever happens again, I think we'll sell it on eBay.
colored chalk
I was out for coffee with Jodie the other night (ok, it was actually cheesecake, not coffee) and I she asked me what my plans were for the next few years and whether I'd be firefighting again next summer.
I told her that I hadn't really thought about my plans since Rob and I broke up, and that for now, I just look at my future and see a big blank chalk board.
She said, "yeah, just like an empty chalk board with a whole lot of brightly colored chalk at the bottom, just waiting for you to write on it".
I think that sounds pretty exciting.
I told her that I hadn't really thought about my plans since Rob and I broke up, and that for now, I just look at my future and see a big blank chalk board.
She said, "yeah, just like an empty chalk board with a whole lot of brightly colored chalk at the bottom, just waiting for you to write on it".
I think that sounds pretty exciting.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
a quick catch up on stuff too complicated to blog about
Ok, so I've been avoiding my blog. There's just no funny way to write about bad news and so I've just not been writing at all. Well, it's finally time to get on with blogging so here's the quick and dirty about what's gone on over the past month:
~Rob and I broke up. Yup, big news after 5 years.
~I'm slowly shifting from sadness to excitement at the prospect of being on my own and making my own decisions for the next few years. On that note, I've found a travel buddy for the winter - Jodie, the rookie on our crew this year. We get along really well and she's super adventurous and into the biking idea. More on that later
~We've been incredibly busy with fires for the past 3 weeks - they say that the situation has been more complex than in Kelowna in 2003 with all the interface fires that we've had. It's slowed down a bit now, but we're still on fires around FSJ.
That was easy enough. And now that it's over with, we return to our regualarly scheduled blogging.
~Rob and I broke up. Yup, big news after 5 years.
~I'm slowly shifting from sadness to excitement at the prospect of being on my own and making my own decisions for the next few years. On that note, I've found a travel buddy for the winter - Jodie, the rookie on our crew this year. We get along really well and she's super adventurous and into the biking idea. More on that later
~We've been incredibly busy with fires for the past 3 weeks - they say that the situation has been more complex than in Kelowna in 2003 with all the interface fires that we've had. It's slowed down a bit now, but we're still on fires around FSJ.
That was easy enough. And now that it's over with, we return to our regualarly scheduled blogging.
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