fighting fire in a rainforest

we spent the past 10 days on a 220ha fire just north of mcbride - in an interior rainforest. it was the most unusual fire that i've ever been on. in some freak weather event, the fire raged downslope through cedar and hemlock (one of the least likely to burn fuel types that exist). our crew worked the bottom edge of the fire, often hiking up to 800m through unburned devil's club up to our eyeballs to get to spot fires that needed to be put out. we didn't use pumps or hose because of how spread out the spots were. instead, we carried around canvas pails so that we could use water from small streams where they existed. if there was no stream within 50m or so, we'd just use dirt to put the fire out, or if the fire was too hot for dirt, we'd buck up whatever was burning and pile it up to let it burn itself out over a day or two and then we'd go back to check on it. we got our fair share of rain on the fire, and spent a good chunk of our evenings picking devil's club thorns out of our skin and scratching mosquito bites (i guess they don't just live in the skeg), but all in all, it was a pretty fun fire, mostly for it's uniqueness.

NOT impressed by the devil's club!


a huge cedar stump. funny story...my squad noticed a sign for an "ancient forest" with 2000 yo cedars on the way down to the fire that we wanted to check out. so on our last morning, we got up extra early to make the drive and hike to see it and still meet everyone in pg on time. turns out the biggest tree in there was no bigger than what our fallers had been cutting (don't worry, they only cut the burning ones) on our fire!

rodeo weekend in the john

...and we did it up in fine style. on saturday night, 18 of us headed to the rodeo dance in our best country digs and danced the night away to the music of a live country band. a lot of the guys are even saying it'll be tough to beat for the best night of the year!

just another weekend in the north

paddling the pine river...one of the few good things about a wet summer is that this river actually has enough water in it to paddle. and a lot of log jams. which were no problem to get around in the canoe with paul, but a got a little scarier when i was negotiating them in a kayak by myself (having kayaked maybe 5 times before and not at all in the past 5 years)!




shootin' shit...i'm not very good at skeet shooting (or skeet throwing for that matter), but i can blow the smitherines out of a beer can with the .17! we were even environmentally friendly little rednecks and picked up all our shells before we left :)




and sleeping in the hay loft (after an amazing into-the-sunset horseback ride)



the action-packed canada day weekend also included a very boring sick day and camping, tequila and fire works at hart lake. oh northern canada!

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.

first fire of the year

We had to wade through ankle deep snow to get to a 10 ha fire, which grew another 4 ha overnight and burnt a bunch of our hose. It just doesn't make sense....

but I'll take it...giddy-up!!

The overtime has begun!

Been a While....

My dad asked a very good question last night: what am i gonna blog about now?

True, life back in Fort St. John doesn't seem quite as interesting as cycling around south america....but i'm hoping to keep things interesting enough to talk about. Even if no one is listening :)

I just got back to FSJ last night and am working on settling in and fighting the urge to throw everything in my car and run away. Actually, I couldn't afford enough gas to get much further than the city limit line so it looks like I'm in for yet another summer with the rhinos. Now if only the snow would melt and the water stop falling from the sky so that we could get some fires.....