Just a quick note to let everyone know that I've changed my photo album links -- I'm now sharing my photos through Google's Picasa program, so things are more accessible. However, there are no photo captions and the albums are arranged a little differently, so things aren't as informative. When I have some free time, I may get around to adding some descriptions to pictures so no one is left wondering. The albums include pictures from my dispatch, so have a look!
Also, two new terms in the glossary. Enjoy!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Oops
Well, today was interesting. This morning, after PT, we were getting ready to load up and go somewhere. I went into the back of the truck I always ride in to get my gloves and my sunglasses from inside my helmet. When I looked in the truck bed, I couldn't see it. Then I looked at the line gear and it seemed like we had fewer bags than usual. So I hopped into the truck and I discovered that my line gear wasn't there. I checked the back of our other truck just to make sure it hadn't been moved over to there instead -- no luck. So I asked Ervin if he knew of anyone taking my line gear. He said he had pulled it from the truck yesterday. It was back at the house in Boulder. Oh, brother. I explained that I had left my gear in the truck because I knew a few of us would be driving it up to Ned that night to hang out. But he had pulled my gear into the house when we got back from work and never mentioned it to me.
So now I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. No helmet, no ear protection, no eye protection, no gloves, no yellow Nomex shirt, nada. Ervin went and told Chad and explained the situation, which is why I think I didn't get in trouble for not having my line gear. Chad had me throw a new bag together from spare stuff in the AmeriCorps cache at the work center. Unfortunately, that took up enough time that both teams had to leave without me for whatever assignment they were going on. So I hung around the work center until around noon when the teams came back. In Ervin's defense, I should have checked the back of the truck. Ultimately, it was just a miscommunication, so it was no one's fault really. Still, it was embarrassing because I know I'm more responsible than that. It's kind of ironic because the day before, Ervin had recounted a story to us about one of his dispatch experiences last year in which someone else was left in charge of his gear while traveling and that person left his helmet behind. He said that the moral of the story was to stay in charge of your own gear and not pass the responsibility on to anyone else.
But it was certainly the right day to not have my gear: apparently, all the teams did was drive around for about an hour and a half before getting word that the smoke report they were following was a false alarm. So they came back to the work center, we all had lunch and then we rehabbed saws for a little while. Our team followed Chad's rig down to Boulder and waited around for him while they ran errands. Around 4:30, he let us go as long as we stayed at the ready until 5:30. So we went home, did our Weekly Progress Report and chilled out until we were officially off the clock.
In other news, I'm looking forward to this weekend because I have friends in town. Jamie, Jenna and Ana, girls I worked with at Tortillas! back home have spent part of their summer on a road trip across the US. They called me when they were in L.A. and told me they'd be coming through the Boulder/Denver area soon. They're getting in tonight and they'll be here until Sunday or Monday. I have a packed weekend ahead of me. We're planning on hanging out the whole weekend. On Saturday, I've invited them to join me and some of my teammates in Nederland. The town is having its Mining Days festival, in which they celebrate the mining history of the town with chainsaw competitions, rock breaking competitions and setting of dynamite (so I've heard). It sounds like a fun time and I want to show the girls around the town because it's definitely a memorable place.
So now I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. No helmet, no ear protection, no eye protection, no gloves, no yellow Nomex shirt, nada. Ervin went and told Chad and explained the situation, which is why I think I didn't get in trouble for not having my line gear. Chad had me throw a new bag together from spare stuff in the AmeriCorps cache at the work center. Unfortunately, that took up enough time that both teams had to leave without me for whatever assignment they were going on. So I hung around the work center until around noon when the teams came back. In Ervin's defense, I should have checked the back of the truck. Ultimately, it was just a miscommunication, so it was no one's fault really. Still, it was embarrassing because I know I'm more responsible than that. It's kind of ironic because the day before, Ervin had recounted a story to us about one of his dispatch experiences last year in which someone else was left in charge of his gear while traveling and that person left his helmet behind. He said that the moral of the story was to stay in charge of your own gear and not pass the responsibility on to anyone else.
But it was certainly the right day to not have my gear: apparently, all the teams did was drive around for about an hour and a half before getting word that the smoke report they were following was a false alarm. So they came back to the work center, we all had lunch and then we rehabbed saws for a little while. Our team followed Chad's rig down to Boulder and waited around for him while they ran errands. Around 4:30, he let us go as long as we stayed at the ready until 5:30. So we went home, did our Weekly Progress Report and chilled out until we were officially off the clock.
In other news, I'm looking forward to this weekend because I have friends in town. Jamie, Jenna and Ana, girls I worked with at Tortillas! back home have spent part of their summer on a road trip across the US. They called me when they were in L.A. and told me they'd be coming through the Boulder/Denver area soon. They're getting in tonight and they'll be here until Sunday or Monday. I have a packed weekend ahead of me. We're planning on hanging out the whole weekend. On Saturday, I've invited them to join me and some of my teammates in Nederland. The town is having its Mining Days festival, in which they celebrate the mining history of the town with chainsaw competitions, rock breaking competitions and setting of dynamite (so I've heard). It sounds like a fun time and I want to show the girls around the town because it's definitely a memorable place.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I'm So Over Chipping
Today at Open Space, Earth 4 and 5 switched assignments. They went to do trail building and we went off and chipped. I’m really over chipping. Thankfully, we don’t have anymore chipping to do with the Forest Service, so we don’t get it every day. But still. Over it. Although we did totally power through our section of the park today. The team chained out every pile of slash so things moved very efficiently.
Yesterday was a bit more interesting. When we got to the work center, Chad had the people who didn’t go to the tanker base the day before or who didn’t go to California change into their Nomex. They were skipping PT to check out a smoke report. Travis and Coby also had to change into their Nomex because, after being on stand by last week, they were finally getting dispatched. They’re not going to California, but they’re going to some fires in western Colorado.
That left seven of us – Scott, Blake, Joanna, Chris, Harrison Jordan and me. Patrick took us on a little two-mile loop run and then we did the “Eagan” version of push ups – instead of an increasing and decreasing pattern, like 2/4/6/4/2, you just do twenty of every style. Our group went back to the spot that we’ve been cutting at for the last week. Joanna and I paired up and went off to a section to start cutting. Around 12:45, Steakly called us over the radio because one of the squads would be leaving to check up on some lightning strikes (I think?) and one of the AmeriCorps rigs was going with them. So Joanna, Blake and Harrison went off with them.
That left just Scott, Jordan, Chris and me. We had lunch before we rearranged our cutting layout. But before we could get back to cutting, Steakly had us head back to the rigs because there was a storm approaching. It started raining when we got back to the rigs and we waited it out for about an hour. I’m not gonna lie, I fell asleep. It kinda sucked to not be cutting, but I’m not going to object to an opportunity for a nap. Once it looked clear, which was around 3:00, we went back out again to cut for the remainder of our day.
I ended up cutting by myself with no swamper, so my progress was really slow. I’d cut down a tree, buck it and limb it and then I’d have to move it all into a pile. Then I’d cut another tree. Luckily, they were mostly small trees so I could move faster than if I had to take a bunch of big ponderosas or something.
When the day was over, we headed back to the work center where we met back up with the smoke-report group and the group that left while we were cutting. The smoke report people said that their assignment ended up being an extensive PT hike that was straight up in some pretty gnarly terrain. I guess I got lucky.
Yesterday was a bit more interesting. When we got to the work center, Chad had the people who didn’t go to the tanker base the day before or who didn’t go to California change into their Nomex. They were skipping PT to check out a smoke report. Travis and Coby also had to change into their Nomex because, after being on stand by last week, they were finally getting dispatched. They’re not going to California, but they’re going to some fires in western Colorado.
That left seven of us – Scott, Blake, Joanna, Chris, Harrison Jordan and me. Patrick took us on a little two-mile loop run and then we did the “Eagan” version of push ups – instead of an increasing and decreasing pattern, like 2/4/6/4/2, you just do twenty of every style. Our group went back to the spot that we’ve been cutting at for the last week. Joanna and I paired up and went off to a section to start cutting. Around 12:45, Steakly called us over the radio because one of the squads would be leaving to check up on some lightning strikes (I think?) and one of the AmeriCorps rigs was going with them. So Joanna, Blake and Harrison went off with them.
That left just Scott, Jordan, Chris and me. We had lunch before we rearranged our cutting layout. But before we could get back to cutting, Steakly had us head back to the rigs because there was a storm approaching. It started raining when we got back to the rigs and we waited it out for about an hour. I’m not gonna lie, I fell asleep. It kinda sucked to not be cutting, but I’m not going to object to an opportunity for a nap. Once it looked clear, which was around 3:00, we went back out again to cut for the remainder of our day.
I ended up cutting by myself with no swamper, so my progress was really slow. I’d cut down a tree, buck it and limb it and then I’d have to move it all into a pile. Then I’d cut another tree. Luckily, they were mostly small trees so I could move faster than if I had to take a bunch of big ponderosas or something.
When the day was over, we headed back to the work center where we met back up with the smoke-report group and the group that left while we were cutting. The smoke report people said that their assignment ended up being an extensive PT hike that was straight up in some pretty gnarly terrain. I guess I got lucky.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Fun with Smitty!
Where did I leave off? Thursday was more cutting, as was Friday. On Thursday, we did a PT hike. Oh my, thank God for California. Honestly, I never thought I would see those hikes in California as a good thing. But I am definitely seeing how much they helped me. I did really well on the PT hike, I was actually up toward the front and I didn’t slow down when I had my turn carrying a saw. Friday’s PT was the Gates of Hell six-mile run. I did pretty well on that too, so I seem to be making progress catching back up to where I was before I spent two weeks at sea level.
On Friday, Harrison, Coby and I worked with Smitty, who reminds me a lot of my dad. He’s so cool. He cut two tanks to start the day off. I thought Patrick was fast, woo! Smitty had both me AND Coby swamped out at one point. Then Coby and I switched off on a saw, until Smitty had me get on another one while Harrison was cutting. He let me take care of all of the small stuff for the most part so he could watch Harrison take some of the larger trees. Then I took some large ones as well and made some pretty good cuts, according to Smitty.
And then … I hung a tree. Grr. It was a pretty decent size. But this was the first time I hung a tree, so at least I managed to make it this far. Smitty walked me through how to get it down. First, he had me make an angled cut across the trunk to give it a way to slide apart, but that didn’t work. Then he had me to a window cut, which was really cool to learn. What you do is you cut a square window out of the center of the trunk. It was a little awkward from my angle because I’m so short (never has my short stature been so apparent as it has since I began wildfire). You knock out the cube that you’ve cut out and you put a sturdy tree limb through the window. Then you push on the limb and use it as a handle to roll the tree out of where it’s hung up. It was a little crazy, but still really neat to learn how to do it. Of course, it’s the kind of thing where I would have to have a really experienced B level sawyer observe and help me out with it, I can’t just go doing it on my own whenever I hang a tree.
After work on Friday, Smitty had all of AmeriCorps for a potluck on the behalf of the Forest Service. It was incredibly nice of them, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone off the clock. Smitty’s house is amazing, it’s beautiful and there’s so much to it. He really is a cool guy, and his wife is so sweet.
Eventually, everyone left Smitty’s and a handful of us went down into Nederland for the evening. I crashed at the bunkhouse for the night and headed back to Boulder on the bus the next morning. I spent most of my day on Pearl Street again. I went grocery shopping today. Yes, we seem to be settling in nicely down here in Boulder.
On Friday, Harrison, Coby and I worked with Smitty, who reminds me a lot of my dad. He’s so cool. He cut two tanks to start the day off. I thought Patrick was fast, woo! Smitty had both me AND Coby swamped out at one point. Then Coby and I switched off on a saw, until Smitty had me get on another one while Harrison was cutting. He let me take care of all of the small stuff for the most part so he could watch Harrison take some of the larger trees. Then I took some large ones as well and made some pretty good cuts, according to Smitty.
And then … I hung a tree. Grr. It was a pretty decent size. But this was the first time I hung a tree, so at least I managed to make it this far. Smitty walked me through how to get it down. First, he had me make an angled cut across the trunk to give it a way to slide apart, but that didn’t work. Then he had me to a window cut, which was really cool to learn. What you do is you cut a square window out of the center of the trunk. It was a little awkward from my angle because I’m so short (never has my short stature been so apparent as it has since I began wildfire). You knock out the cube that you’ve cut out and you put a sturdy tree limb through the window. Then you push on the limb and use it as a handle to roll the tree out of where it’s hung up. It was a little crazy, but still really neat to learn how to do it. Of course, it’s the kind of thing where I would have to have a really experienced B level sawyer observe and help me out with it, I can’t just go doing it on my own whenever I hang a tree.
After work on Friday, Smitty had all of AmeriCorps for a potluck on the behalf of the Forest Service. It was incredibly nice of them, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone off the clock. Smitty’s house is amazing, it’s beautiful and there’s so much to it. He really is a cool guy, and his wife is so sweet.
Eventually, everyone left Smitty’s and a handful of us went down into Nederland for the evening. I crashed at the bunkhouse for the night and headed back to Boulder on the bus the next morning. I spent most of my day on Pearl Street again. I went grocery shopping today. Yes, we seem to be settling in nicely down here in Boulder.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Back to Business as Usual
So here we are again. As you know, I got back from dispatch on Thursday. As a result, I had Friday off, which was nice. I did my laundry, hung out in Ned, pretty much did nothing.
A few things changed while I was gone. Levi made the decision to leave the program. I won’t go into it because it was his decision. He will be missed. Laura, the team leader for Earth 4, also decided to leave. Again, I won’t go into it. But I thought I should note that some things changed while I was on dispatch. Transition week was apparently a little dramatic. On Saturday, Earth 5 packed up and moved down to the house in Boulder where Earth 4 had been living last round. It was decided that we would swap housing for this round.
On Sunday, I did the grocery shopping, as per usual. We have less money because we’re now a team of nine, so I have to make it stretch a little farther and we had to restock. So this week is going to be less ideal than normal in terms of our food situation. But it’s not terrible. After getting that out of the way, I spent the rest of the day walking around Boulder. I went to Target and did some shopping to restock my red bag. I ran a few other errands of a similar nature, and ended my day at a café called The Laughing Goat. It was really nice and they make some great iced teas.
It was back to work on Monday. PT was a struggle, I was sucking air for the whole run. Oh, elevation. The camp crud that I contracted on the way home from California didn’t help much either (camp crud: a run-of-the-mill cold that you get from living at a fire camp, working long hours and not getting much sleep). I’m back to square one, it would seem. The push-ups, crunches and pull-ups weren’t bad, though, so I don’t have a lot of catching up to do.
All the chipping at campgrounds has been finished. Our new project consists of thinning out certain areas in order to promote aspen growth. Can’t say it’s the most flawless assignment, but it’s a job. So Jordan and I were paired up with LeBlanc for our section. He pretty much just let us go at it. I let Jordan have the saw all day, because it had been about two weeks since he had even touched a saw. He was loving it. So I just swamped. We’re supposed to put all the slash into big piles that will get burned in the winter. I miss swamping this stuff! It’s so much easier than the brush in California. And I get to make piles of it? Awesome! Cake!
Yesterday, Harrison and I were paired up and we just swapped out after each tank of gas. Cutting was a bit frustrating for me, it had been a while and, like I said, they kind of just let us go at it. It was weird to fly solo. I definitely have a lot to work on still. And all of my trees were pains, they all needed to be wedged or pushed over. One sat back on my bar during the back cut. Grr!
For dinner last night, I made meatballs from scratch with spaghetti and then steamed a bunch of asparagus that Paul brought back from Michigan while he was on break. He got about four pounds of asparagus for $7. That’s crazy! It’s a shame their season is over or I would ask his mom to ship us more. Even with the postage, it would still probably be cheaper than buying it here. After work, a few of us went to the café down the street, Amante. It’s a very Italian coffee place, where they even serve Italian beers and wine. They also serve gelato, which was quite good. I know my team was really disappointed to have to leave Ned, but I think we’ll enjoy Boulder thoroughly. On Saturday night, after we moved in, a bunch of us went to a bar that had karaoke and had a good time. I felt like we were in Texas, when we would go to the bowling alley’s bar for their karaoke nights. I still haven’t gone up on stage. Maybe before AmeriCorps is over … then again, maybe not.
We were back to working with Open Space today. We did more trail building, but the work wasn’t so bad this time around. The team split into two groups and we managed to establish a better system of cutting into the trail to get the proper grade and everything. We only went until 3:00 because of the heat. I’m not complaining
A few things changed while I was gone. Levi made the decision to leave the program. I won’t go into it because it was his decision. He will be missed. Laura, the team leader for Earth 4, also decided to leave. Again, I won’t go into it. But I thought I should note that some things changed while I was on dispatch. Transition week was apparently a little dramatic. On Saturday, Earth 5 packed up and moved down to the house in Boulder where Earth 4 had been living last round. It was decided that we would swap housing for this round.
On Sunday, I did the grocery shopping, as per usual. We have less money because we’re now a team of nine, so I have to make it stretch a little farther and we had to restock. So this week is going to be less ideal than normal in terms of our food situation. But it’s not terrible. After getting that out of the way, I spent the rest of the day walking around Boulder. I went to Target and did some shopping to restock my red bag. I ran a few other errands of a similar nature, and ended my day at a café called The Laughing Goat. It was really nice and they make some great iced teas.
It was back to work on Monday. PT was a struggle, I was sucking air for the whole run. Oh, elevation. The camp crud that I contracted on the way home from California didn’t help much either (camp crud: a run-of-the-mill cold that you get from living at a fire camp, working long hours and not getting much sleep). I’m back to square one, it would seem. The push-ups, crunches and pull-ups weren’t bad, though, so I don’t have a lot of catching up to do.
All the chipping at campgrounds has been finished. Our new project consists of thinning out certain areas in order to promote aspen growth. Can’t say it’s the most flawless assignment, but it’s a job. So Jordan and I were paired up with LeBlanc for our section. He pretty much just let us go at it. I let Jordan have the saw all day, because it had been about two weeks since he had even touched a saw. He was loving it. So I just swamped. We’re supposed to put all the slash into big piles that will get burned in the winter. I miss swamping this stuff! It’s so much easier than the brush in California. And I get to make piles of it? Awesome! Cake!
Yesterday, Harrison and I were paired up and we just swapped out after each tank of gas. Cutting was a bit frustrating for me, it had been a while and, like I said, they kind of just let us go at it. It was weird to fly solo. I definitely have a lot to work on still. And all of my trees were pains, they all needed to be wedged or pushed over. One sat back on my bar during the back cut. Grr!
For dinner last night, I made meatballs from scratch with spaghetti and then steamed a bunch of asparagus that Paul brought back from Michigan while he was on break. He got about four pounds of asparagus for $7. That’s crazy! It’s a shame their season is over or I would ask his mom to ship us more. Even with the postage, it would still probably be cheaper than buying it here. After work, a few of us went to the café down the street, Amante. It’s a very Italian coffee place, where they even serve Italian beers and wine. They also serve gelato, which was quite good. I know my team was really disappointed to have to leave Ned, but I think we’ll enjoy Boulder thoroughly. On Saturday night, after we moved in, a bunch of us went to a bar that had karaoke and had a good time. I felt like we were in Texas, when we would go to the bowling alley’s bar for their karaoke nights. I still haven’t gone up on stage. Maybe before AmeriCorps is over … then again, maybe not.
We were back to working with Open Space today. We did more trail building, but the work wasn’t so bad this time around. The team split into two groups and we managed to establish a better system of cutting into the trail to get the proper grade and everything. We only went until 3:00 because of the heat. I’m not complaining
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Dispatch, Big Sur, Los Padres National Park, California – Part IV
--7/4/08
Nooo! I woke up this morning and my right arm itched a little – I have poison oak. It’s official. Damn. I think my immune system just gave up. We’ve been in so much of it for the past several days that I think maybe my resistance wore down … if I’m even resistant anymore. I was as a kid, but that could have changed by now.
We sawed for the first half of the day. I got saw time but ended up cutting my chaps. Reflecting on it, there were a lot of things that led up to it happening. Our assignment for the day was to cut along a dirt road to widen the line. We were above the marine layer, so it was pretty hot and a little unforgiving. I had just started my third tank, though I was slow-moving as it was my first time cutting something other than a ponderosa. Cutting brush is quite different. It looks easy, but it really isn’t, particularly when everything is overgrown and tangled up together.
Anyway, I was cutting on a slope at one point and I went to pop the chain break on by pushing on it with the back of my left hand. As I did, I think my right hand pulled back on the saw simultaneously. As a result, I pulled the saw back over my right knee, which was up higher than normal because of how I was standing on the slope. I felt something on my knee and when I saw that the chain had stopped, I knew what had happened. I immediately turned the saw off and told Patrick I was done. He asked if I was tired; I responded that I wasn’t, that I had cut my chaps so I was off the saw (a rule that Paul, our saw boss, had put down from Day One as a safety precaution). We got back to the top of the slope where the road was and inspected the damage. I had cut about a three inch slice through my chaps. Later on, Patrick said that I had managed to cut through all the layers of Kevlar. The chaps definitely did what they were supposed to do – as soon as the saw cut into it, the Kevlar tangled the chain and instantly stopped it.
Still, I was pissed. Paul sat me down at lunch to debrief about what had happened and I told him. He asked if I was okay to keep swamping or if I had been shaken up by the whole thing. I told him that I was just pissed because cutting my chaps meant that I had done something unsafe and I just thought that I was better than to let something like that happen. Paul made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. So I was off the saw for the rest of the day and I was back to swamping.
At the end of the day, we yellowed down (took our yellow Nomex shirts off), and we were heading back to camp when we drove by a backfire operation that was going on and we pulled over. We got the word to yellow and gear back up. They had us line out and watch the green for a while, which means to watch across the line from the fire in order to make sure no spot fires start from drifting embers. Some of us were actually watching the “blue” – the ocean – because we were standing along Highway 1, which runs right along the coast. Steakly had me and one of the sawyers, Tai, bump out of the line and mop up part of the area along the road that was already burned out. He relieved me of that duty, though, after he noticed I was playing dodge ball with some of the larger rocks that would come lose and tumble down the hillside. He missed the one that fell on my foot, though. That was a bit embarrassing and I hope no one saw it. I heard it falling and looked up to see where it was coming from so I could move, but by then it was already on my foot. It hurt more than I expected.
After Steakly sent me back into the line, I was standing around watching the green again. As brush was being burned up, it would scare the animals living on the hillside out of their burrows. Rats, mice, and the occasional rabbit would then scramble down the hillside and scurry across the road. At one point, I was watching one rat scamper across the road. He’d go a little ways, pause, and then move again. As he went, he moved more in my direction until he was two feet from me. I stared at him, expecting him to be frightened by my presence but then he moved again and paused right between my boots. He sat there for a few seconds and then moved on. I was astonished! He was a bold rat. Tai was next to me in the line and he couldn’t believe it either.
Meanwhile, I still got to celebrate the Fourth of July with the coolest fireworks ever – a backfire complete fire grenades and flares to keep things burning. It was quite impressive and it was the closest to fire we’ve been so far.
By the end of the day, my oak had firmly established itself on the inside of my right arm. I’m doing my best to not scratch it.
--7/5/08
I went with Jo this morning to the medical tent to get a steroid shot for my poison oak. Let’s hope it helps.
Today sucked. Royally. And it was mostly my attitude that made it suck. We had a hike up a hill today that was really difficult for me. It took me forever to get to where we were supposed to be. We dug a line around a rock outcropping. The hike back down was almost as bad.
I’m so slow. I hate having a big gap between me and the person in front of me all the time. I hate being such a weak hiker and holding people back. So many times today I was ready to lose it and cry and give up. So many times, I felt like my legs and back would give out. The poison oak hit me harder than I thought. It’s not painful, but it’s incredibly distracting and uncomfortable. My right arm is swollen and prickly from the elbow down. Any time I would pull on a root or something, my muscles and skin would tense and not want to work anymore.
I don’t know where my physical limits are, I’ve never been particularly good at judging them. So I just keep going. I’ll never get stronger if I quit. It’s a big deal to be on the saw squad. I don’t want to disappoint anyone by not hacking it. And I don’t want anyone to think I don’t respect the position. Like, I feel like I pissed Paul off today because I dropped the ball.
I just don’t know. Today was so rough, but what can I say or do? This is normal for dispatch, it’s what I can expect. Besides, everyone else is also going through it. And it could always be worse.
7/6/08 – 7/8/08
We swamped for the first half of the day. We also cleared out some lumber and other building materials that was stacked too close to a house. We did some other structure prep stuff as well. I was pretty miserable and bitchy for most of the day because of my arms. They are so swollen that my crew is teasing me about how jacked up I look. One of the guys told me that I looked like I had Popeye arms.
After lunch, we waited around to hear about our next assignment. We got the go ahead to do a burnout. We were originally going to only do about a mile-long stretch along Highway 1 between certain bridges.
Jo and Harrison got to use drip torches while the rest of the crew held the line and watched the green.
I also got to use a drip torch. I burned out a little around a house and along the road. Then I hopped in a rig with JT, Andrew and Sam and we parked up at a house and hiked a really loooong hike (of course) to get to another house at the very top of the mountain. JT, Andrew and Sam had to wait for me a few times. That was slightly embarrassing. I also discovered that my headlamp didn’t work (of course). So we got to the top and I got to burn out around the entire house. It was pretty sweet. From below, everyone said they were concerned at first because it looked like I set the top of the mountain on fire. We walked back down to the rig as Andrew and Sam burned out along the road as we went. I tried to stay away from the flames and the heat because it was irritating my oak-y arms, so I walked ahead of the lighting. JT had me drive the rig down to Highway 1 and park it and then meet back up with my squad.
Apparently they had been waiting for three hours. I had no idea our part of the burn out had taken that long. After waiting a little while, my squad lined out along a line we had cut, swamped and scraped earlier that day. They lit it off and we held there for a while.
Eventually we got word that we were in for the long haul – it had been decided that our crew would do the full 2.8 miles that was originally planned instead of just the one mile on our shift. So after the flames along our line died down, a section of my line gathered up around a warming fire and we ate dinner. As the night wore on, people would drift off for an hour or two. At one point, a tree near us torched and burned like a pyre for a little bit. Tai brought it to Paul’s attention just as Paul was drifting off to sleep. We all watched it intently for a bit. I definitely am learning a lot on this dispatch, especially regarding the attitude toward fire and fire behavior. The entire time the tree was torching, I sat there thinking “Do we do something about it?” But everyone else just watched and let it take its course.
I slept one or two hours on the line on the ground. I woke up around 4:00 am or whenever sunrise was and tried to keep the fire going. We waited around until about 7 or 8:00ish. After being still for so long, my arms were in so much pain. They were incredibly swollen. We finally went back to camp around 9:00ish. Along the way, we heard rumors and were asked about the possibility of working four more hours. The squads all said they could, but in my mind I knew I couldn’t. My arms were a mess. When we got back to camp, almost the whole crew went to the medical tent. I got another shot, some steroids in pill form and some topical steroid cream to put on my arms. JT and Steakly let us shower, get breakfast and then we broke down camp. Apparently because we worked such a long shift (almost 30 hours), we think that maybe they couldn’t get us on another full 16 hour shift before we demobilized the next day.
So after camp was broken down, we loaded up and JT and Steakly led us to Pfiffer State Beach, which was awful nice of them. They then got us out of camp and put us up in a pretty swank hotel in Carmel for the night so we could actually get some decent sleep. Everyone went out for dinner except me. I took a nap, my arms felt awful, it made me cry at one point. I took a shower, which helped a little. Jo brought me back some pizza. I felt slightly better as I went to sleep. I slept with my arms propped up on pillows on either side of me or above my head. I felt better when I woke up the next morning. They’re peeling a lot more now.
We left the hotel and went back to camp to demob. The trucks were cleaned and inspected. We reorganized and restocked our gear, returned things that had been signed out, collected the last of everyone’s laundry. Finally, we got on the road and started to make our way back to Colorado.
Nooo! I woke up this morning and my right arm itched a little – I have poison oak. It’s official. Damn. I think my immune system just gave up. We’ve been in so much of it for the past several days that I think maybe my resistance wore down … if I’m even resistant anymore. I was as a kid, but that could have changed by now.
We sawed for the first half of the day. I got saw time but ended up cutting my chaps. Reflecting on it, there were a lot of things that led up to it happening. Our assignment for the day was to cut along a dirt road to widen the line. We were above the marine layer, so it was pretty hot and a little unforgiving. I had just started my third tank, though I was slow-moving as it was my first time cutting something other than a ponderosa. Cutting brush is quite different. It looks easy, but it really isn’t, particularly when everything is overgrown and tangled up together.
Anyway, I was cutting on a slope at one point and I went to pop the chain break on by pushing on it with the back of my left hand. As I did, I think my right hand pulled back on the saw simultaneously. As a result, I pulled the saw back over my right knee, which was up higher than normal because of how I was standing on the slope. I felt something on my knee and when I saw that the chain had stopped, I knew what had happened. I immediately turned the saw off and told Patrick I was done. He asked if I was tired; I responded that I wasn’t, that I had cut my chaps so I was off the saw (a rule that Paul, our saw boss, had put down from Day One as a safety precaution). We got back to the top of the slope where the road was and inspected the damage. I had cut about a three inch slice through my chaps. Later on, Patrick said that I had managed to cut through all the layers of Kevlar. The chaps definitely did what they were supposed to do – as soon as the saw cut into it, the Kevlar tangled the chain and instantly stopped it.
Still, I was pissed. Paul sat me down at lunch to debrief about what had happened and I told him. He asked if I was okay to keep swamping or if I had been shaken up by the whole thing. I told him that I was just pissed because cutting my chaps meant that I had done something unsafe and I just thought that I was better than to let something like that happen. Paul made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. So I was off the saw for the rest of the day and I was back to swamping.
At the end of the day, we yellowed down (took our yellow Nomex shirts off), and we were heading back to camp when we drove by a backfire operation that was going on and we pulled over. We got the word to yellow and gear back up. They had us line out and watch the green for a while, which means to watch across the line from the fire in order to make sure no spot fires start from drifting embers. Some of us were actually watching the “blue” – the ocean – because we were standing along Highway 1, which runs right along the coast. Steakly had me and one of the sawyers, Tai, bump out of the line and mop up part of the area along the road that was already burned out. He relieved me of that duty, though, after he noticed I was playing dodge ball with some of the larger rocks that would come lose and tumble down the hillside. He missed the one that fell on my foot, though. That was a bit embarrassing and I hope no one saw it. I heard it falling and looked up to see where it was coming from so I could move, but by then it was already on my foot. It hurt more than I expected.
After Steakly sent me back into the line, I was standing around watching the green again. As brush was being burned up, it would scare the animals living on the hillside out of their burrows. Rats, mice, and the occasional rabbit would then scramble down the hillside and scurry across the road. At one point, I was watching one rat scamper across the road. He’d go a little ways, pause, and then move again. As he went, he moved more in my direction until he was two feet from me. I stared at him, expecting him to be frightened by my presence but then he moved again and paused right between my boots. He sat there for a few seconds and then moved on. I was astonished! He was a bold rat. Tai was next to me in the line and he couldn’t believe it either.
Meanwhile, I still got to celebrate the Fourth of July with the coolest fireworks ever – a backfire complete fire grenades and flares to keep things burning. It was quite impressive and it was the closest to fire we’ve been so far.
By the end of the day, my oak had firmly established itself on the inside of my right arm. I’m doing my best to not scratch it.
--7/5/08
I went with Jo this morning to the medical tent to get a steroid shot for my poison oak. Let’s hope it helps.
Today sucked. Royally. And it was mostly my attitude that made it suck. We had a hike up a hill today that was really difficult for me. It took me forever to get to where we were supposed to be. We dug a line around a rock outcropping. The hike back down was almost as bad.
I’m so slow. I hate having a big gap between me and the person in front of me all the time. I hate being such a weak hiker and holding people back. So many times today I was ready to lose it and cry and give up. So many times, I felt like my legs and back would give out. The poison oak hit me harder than I thought. It’s not painful, but it’s incredibly distracting and uncomfortable. My right arm is swollen and prickly from the elbow down. Any time I would pull on a root or something, my muscles and skin would tense and not want to work anymore.
I don’t know where my physical limits are, I’ve never been particularly good at judging them. So I just keep going. I’ll never get stronger if I quit. It’s a big deal to be on the saw squad. I don’t want to disappoint anyone by not hacking it. And I don’t want anyone to think I don’t respect the position. Like, I feel like I pissed Paul off today because I dropped the ball.
I just don’t know. Today was so rough, but what can I say or do? This is normal for dispatch, it’s what I can expect. Besides, everyone else is also going through it. And it could always be worse.
7/6/08 – 7/8/08
We swamped for the first half of the day. We also cleared out some lumber and other building materials that was stacked too close to a house. We did some other structure prep stuff as well. I was pretty miserable and bitchy for most of the day because of my arms. They are so swollen that my crew is teasing me about how jacked up I look. One of the guys told me that I looked like I had Popeye arms.
After lunch, we waited around to hear about our next assignment. We got the go ahead to do a burnout. We were originally going to only do about a mile-long stretch along Highway 1 between certain bridges.
Jo and Harrison got to use drip torches while the rest of the crew held the line and watched the green.
I also got to use a drip torch. I burned out a little around a house and along the road. Then I hopped in a rig with JT, Andrew and Sam and we parked up at a house and hiked a really loooong hike (of course) to get to another house at the very top of the mountain. JT, Andrew and Sam had to wait for me a few times. That was slightly embarrassing. I also discovered that my headlamp didn’t work (of course). So we got to the top and I got to burn out around the entire house. It was pretty sweet. From below, everyone said they were concerned at first because it looked like I set the top of the mountain on fire. We walked back down to the rig as Andrew and Sam burned out along the road as we went. I tried to stay away from the flames and the heat because it was irritating my oak-y arms, so I walked ahead of the lighting. JT had me drive the rig down to Highway 1 and park it and then meet back up with my squad.
Apparently they had been waiting for three hours. I had no idea our part of the burn out had taken that long. After waiting a little while, my squad lined out along a line we had cut, swamped and scraped earlier that day. They lit it off and we held there for a while.
Eventually we got word that we were in for the long haul – it had been decided that our crew would do the full 2.8 miles that was originally planned instead of just the one mile on our shift. So after the flames along our line died down, a section of my line gathered up around a warming fire and we ate dinner. As the night wore on, people would drift off for an hour or two. At one point, a tree near us torched and burned like a pyre for a little bit. Tai brought it to Paul’s attention just as Paul was drifting off to sleep. We all watched it intently for a bit. I definitely am learning a lot on this dispatch, especially regarding the attitude toward fire and fire behavior. The entire time the tree was torching, I sat there thinking “Do we do something about it?” But everyone else just watched and let it take its course.
I slept one or two hours on the line on the ground. I woke up around 4:00 am or whenever sunrise was and tried to keep the fire going. We waited around until about 7 or 8:00ish. After being still for so long, my arms were in so much pain. They were incredibly swollen. We finally went back to camp around 9:00ish. Along the way, we heard rumors and were asked about the possibility of working four more hours. The squads all said they could, but in my mind I knew I couldn’t. My arms were a mess. When we got back to camp, almost the whole crew went to the medical tent. I got another shot, some steroids in pill form and some topical steroid cream to put on my arms. JT and Steakly let us shower, get breakfast and then we broke down camp. Apparently because we worked such a long shift (almost 30 hours), we think that maybe they couldn’t get us on another full 16 hour shift before we demobilized the next day.
So after camp was broken down, we loaded up and JT and Steakly led us to Pfiffer State Beach, which was awful nice of them. They then got us out of camp and put us up in a pretty swank hotel in Carmel for the night so we could actually get some decent sleep. Everyone went out for dinner except me. I took a nap, my arms felt awful, it made me cry at one point. I took a shower, which helped a little. Jo brought me back some pizza. I felt slightly better as I went to sleep. I slept with my arms propped up on pillows on either side of me or above my head. I felt better when I woke up the next morning. They’re peeling a lot more now.
We left the hotel and went back to camp to demob. The trucks were cleaned and inspected. We reorganized and restocked our gear, returned things that had been signed out, collected the last of everyone’s laundry. Finally, we got on the road and started to make our way back to Colorado.
Dispatch, Big Sur, Los Padres National Park, California – Part III
--6/30/08 7:00ish am
So the line we dug yesterday? The plan is to line it out with hose, with pumps at both anchor points. But doing all of this has a 5% chance of working if the fire reaches it. We have yet another new supervisor who is a Hot Shot and thinks the idea is stupid, especially since apparently they haven’t been able to hold a hand line since the first started, AND the fire has managed to jump dozer lines that are four blades wide. It’s hard to judge how things are going because all the action is on the other side of the mountain. But I guess things are getting worse. The fire is growing, I know that much – 40,000 acres.
I don’t have to wear my chaps or Siggs today, I’m gonna be so spoiled.
Our crew is definitely the coolest group of guys ever. Everyone is so nice and willing to help one another. I adore Paul, he’s hilarious and a great squad boss. JT is also really awesome and sets the bar really high as far as crew bosses go. I mean, sure, it’s my first dispatch, but I can’t imagine everyone is as great as this crew. All of the members are totally chill, too. Everyone has a great sense of humor and they’re all really interesting. Everyone has a different story.
--8:00ish pm
So we ended up going up to the house from yesterday but we just waited around. We were gonna lay hose, but the supervisor nixed the idea. Instead, we cut, swamped and dug line underneath three bridges. That was a bit of a pain, but it’s got to be done I guess.
While we were driving back to camp, we passed a few places where the first crested the ridges of the mountains and it was coming down toward the road. It seems to have made a big push today and it’s actually backing down the mountains now.
--7/1/08
It’s July 1st. I called Chris yesterday for his birthday, talked to him for a bit. Poor guy – when I called him before we loaded up in the morning, I woke him up and then when I called him after we were off the clock, he was about to go to bed. Sorry, bro.
Today is also Day 7, the halfway point. It’s surprising and odd – the days go by pretty quickly but the week itself seems to move slow. I can’t believe it’s only halfway over. It feels like it’s been a lot longer.
I have to admit, I am starting to feel the wear a little bit, both physically and mentally (more so mentally). I’m a little surprised that I don’t feel very sore every morning. At Surf, I would always wake up feeling like a Mac truck hit me. But that hasn’t happened, with work or dispatch. It’s nice, to say the least, because it makes working a little easier. But yeah, mentally I think I’m starting to feel a little strained. I want to stay positive and, for the most part, I am. I can tell I’m starting to break a little, though. Yesterday, I got a little snippy with Nick and Patrick on the ride back to camp. I also feel frustrated because I haven’t been doing as well as I’d like. I’m still really slow and weak on the hiking and sometimes I’ll be super klutzy at swamping and it’ll just piss me off. I’ll feel myself get more aggressive with throwing slash and stuff.
I hate feeling week and I really hate walking along and fearing every step. I’m exaggerating but it really is stressful to always feel like my footing is unsure and unstable. I have yet to find a way to resolve this issue. I’ll try going slower but then I fall behind and hold up the rest of the line. Blah. I guess there isn’t much I can do but keep trying. I just feel helpless and a bit pathetic. I don’t like being a bad swamper, I don’t want to be a bad swamper.
In other news, fire info: 47,000 acres, 1300+ working on the fire. We cleared out under two more bridges today and it was a little more treacherous than the last few times. JT took each of the squads to a little waterfall to chill for a few minutes. That was nice of him. Harrison and Malcolm jumped in, but the rest of us didn’t. I would have, except I didn’t want to spend the rest of the work day in wet underwear under my Nomex.
I’ve acquired some awesome scratches on my arms and face as the result of being a swamper. Not gonna lie, it would be pretty cool if some of them scarred. But they’re all superficial scratches.
I think I bruised my foot, right on the knuckle of my big toe. I can’t figure out what I did, though it’s probably from climbing. It hurts to walk because emy boot creases right up against it.
--7/2/08
So last night as I was getting ready for bed, you could see backing fires up on the ridges. It was really cool to see, I wanted to keep watching but I desperately needed sleep.
Fire stuff: 52,000 acres, 1500+ people working the fire. It’s 3% contained, but what that means is just that the fire may not have reached the lines yet. There are dozer lines everywhere but the fire has yet to burn up to it, so it can’t be considered contained.
Today is Day 8, six left to go. Everything is yellow because of the smoke, it’s really bizarre. It’s like there’s a camera filter over the sun or like I’m wearing tinted sunglasses.
--7/3/08
Last night, coming back to camp, you could see backing fires along the ridge lines. So the fires have crested the ridges and are now on the way down toward us.
Yesterday was rough, it was my breaking point. We cut and dug line down a hill yesterday (or, at least, we started it). It had to be super wide and it was a really steep hill. I already get frustrated at my frequently unstable footing, so that just put me on the edge. Every step I took, I felt like I was going to plummet to my death. It felt awful. We were also moving way too fast for my comfort.
So this morning, Steakly came up to me before we loaded up and told me that Eric would be swamping for Patrick today. He asked how I felt about it, I said that I was still good to swamp and that yesterday was rough just because the terrain shocked me so much. But he and JT said that they wanted to give me a break. So we hiked up to another spot to continue our line building. I was still swamping, but to help the saw team, not as a sawyer’s swamper.
I was pissed. It made me feel like they thought I couldn’t hack it. And it really made me get down on myself for breaking yesterday. I just felt like they were all, “Well, thanks for trying but …” I’m by no means an awesome swamper, but I thought I had demonstrated that I was doing everything I could and that I could hold my own.
So I just jumped around and swamped for different teams most of the time. Eventually, I was helping Eric with Patrick because he’s not used to swamping for him. Then Eric said he had to take a bit of a break. So I kept swamping for Patrick from a distance (I didn’t have any chaps on) and waited for Eric to be ready to go again. At one point, Patrick needed to refuel his saw so I went over to where Eric was resting to grab some of the Siggs. He had Steakly and Paul with him and his pack was off. He really wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t look so good either. As I grabbed the one Sigg, Paul handed a pair of chaps to me. So I snapped them on and jumped back in.
I hate to admit it but the break was nice – I managed to hike up without much difficulty because my pack was lighter than normal. I felt really good and I wasn’t tired when I had to be Patrick’s swamper again. I was definitely concerned about Eric. But I was also glad to be back in my normal role. It turns out that Eric was really dehydrated and hadn’t had much of an appetite lately. He went to the hospital, got an IV in him and he should be okay.
So the line we dug yesterday? The plan is to line it out with hose, with pumps at both anchor points. But doing all of this has a 5% chance of working if the fire reaches it. We have yet another new supervisor who is a Hot Shot and thinks the idea is stupid, especially since apparently they haven’t been able to hold a hand line since the first started, AND the fire has managed to jump dozer lines that are four blades wide. It’s hard to judge how things are going because all the action is on the other side of the mountain. But I guess things are getting worse. The fire is growing, I know that much – 40,000 acres.
I don’t have to wear my chaps or Siggs today, I’m gonna be so spoiled.
Our crew is definitely the coolest group of guys ever. Everyone is so nice and willing to help one another. I adore Paul, he’s hilarious and a great squad boss. JT is also really awesome and sets the bar really high as far as crew bosses go. I mean, sure, it’s my first dispatch, but I can’t imagine everyone is as great as this crew. All of the members are totally chill, too. Everyone has a great sense of humor and they’re all really interesting. Everyone has a different story.
--8:00ish pm
So we ended up going up to the house from yesterday but we just waited around. We were gonna lay hose, but the supervisor nixed the idea. Instead, we cut, swamped and dug line underneath three bridges. That was a bit of a pain, but it’s got to be done I guess.
While we were driving back to camp, we passed a few places where the first crested the ridges of the mountains and it was coming down toward the road. It seems to have made a big push today and it’s actually backing down the mountains now.
--7/1/08
It’s July 1st. I called Chris yesterday for his birthday, talked to him for a bit. Poor guy – when I called him before we loaded up in the morning, I woke him up and then when I called him after we were off the clock, he was about to go to bed. Sorry, bro.
Today is also Day 7, the halfway point. It’s surprising and odd – the days go by pretty quickly but the week itself seems to move slow. I can’t believe it’s only halfway over. It feels like it’s been a lot longer.
I have to admit, I am starting to feel the wear a little bit, both physically and mentally (more so mentally). I’m a little surprised that I don’t feel very sore every morning. At Surf, I would always wake up feeling like a Mac truck hit me. But that hasn’t happened, with work or dispatch. It’s nice, to say the least, because it makes working a little easier. But yeah, mentally I think I’m starting to feel a little strained. I want to stay positive and, for the most part, I am. I can tell I’m starting to break a little, though. Yesterday, I got a little snippy with Nick and Patrick on the ride back to camp. I also feel frustrated because I haven’t been doing as well as I’d like. I’m still really slow and weak on the hiking and sometimes I’ll be super klutzy at swamping and it’ll just piss me off. I’ll feel myself get more aggressive with throwing slash and stuff.
I hate feeling week and I really hate walking along and fearing every step. I’m exaggerating but it really is stressful to always feel like my footing is unsure and unstable. I have yet to find a way to resolve this issue. I’ll try going slower but then I fall behind and hold up the rest of the line. Blah. I guess there isn’t much I can do but keep trying. I just feel helpless and a bit pathetic. I don’t like being a bad swamper, I don’t want to be a bad swamper.
In other news, fire info: 47,000 acres, 1300+ working on the fire. We cleared out under two more bridges today and it was a little more treacherous than the last few times. JT took each of the squads to a little waterfall to chill for a few minutes. That was nice of him. Harrison and Malcolm jumped in, but the rest of us didn’t. I would have, except I didn’t want to spend the rest of the work day in wet underwear under my Nomex.
I’ve acquired some awesome scratches on my arms and face as the result of being a swamper. Not gonna lie, it would be pretty cool if some of them scarred. But they’re all superficial scratches.
I think I bruised my foot, right on the knuckle of my big toe. I can’t figure out what I did, though it’s probably from climbing. It hurts to walk because emy boot creases right up against it.
--7/2/08
So last night as I was getting ready for bed, you could see backing fires up on the ridges. It was really cool to see, I wanted to keep watching but I desperately needed sleep.
Fire stuff: 52,000 acres, 1500+ people working the fire. It’s 3% contained, but what that means is just that the fire may not have reached the lines yet. There are dozer lines everywhere but the fire has yet to burn up to it, so it can’t be considered contained.
Today is Day 8, six left to go. Everything is yellow because of the smoke, it’s really bizarre. It’s like there’s a camera filter over the sun or like I’m wearing tinted sunglasses.
--7/3/08
Last night, coming back to camp, you could see backing fires along the ridge lines. So the fires have crested the ridges and are now on the way down toward us.
Yesterday was rough, it was my breaking point. We cut and dug line down a hill yesterday (or, at least, we started it). It had to be super wide and it was a really steep hill. I already get frustrated at my frequently unstable footing, so that just put me on the edge. Every step I took, I felt like I was going to plummet to my death. It felt awful. We were also moving way too fast for my comfort.
So this morning, Steakly came up to me before we loaded up and told me that Eric would be swamping for Patrick today. He asked how I felt about it, I said that I was still good to swamp and that yesterday was rough just because the terrain shocked me so much. But he and JT said that they wanted to give me a break. So we hiked up to another spot to continue our line building. I was still swamping, but to help the saw team, not as a sawyer’s swamper.
I was pissed. It made me feel like they thought I couldn’t hack it. And it really made me get down on myself for breaking yesterday. I just felt like they were all, “Well, thanks for trying but …” I’m by no means an awesome swamper, but I thought I had demonstrated that I was doing everything I could and that I could hold my own.
So I just jumped around and swamped for different teams most of the time. Eventually, I was helping Eric with Patrick because he’s not used to swamping for him. Then Eric said he had to take a bit of a break. So I kept swamping for Patrick from a distance (I didn’t have any chaps on) and waited for Eric to be ready to go again. At one point, Patrick needed to refuel his saw so I went over to where Eric was resting to grab some of the Siggs. He had Steakly and Paul with him and his pack was off. He really wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t look so good either. As I grabbed the one Sigg, Paul handed a pair of chaps to me. So I snapped them on and jumped back in.
I hate to admit it but the break was nice – I managed to hike up without much difficulty because my pack was lighter than normal. I felt really good and I wasn’t tired when I had to be Patrick’s swamper again. I was definitely concerned about Eric. But I was also glad to be back in my normal role. It turns out that Eric was really dehydrated and hadn’t had much of an appetite lately. He went to the hospital, got an IV in him and he should be okay.
Dispatch, Big Sur, Los Padres National Park, California – Part II
--6/26/08
It was hazy and foggy for most of the day. We cut on a steep slope in the black where there had been a burnout earlier in the week. That was a little crazy, I felt like I was rock climbing at times because I was using plant roots to pretty much belay up and down the side of the slope. At one point, my crew boss JT stopped Patrick’s saw and had us listen really carefully – you could hear a seal barking on the beach below the mountains, haha!
We cut and swamped out around a house and there was a lot of poison oak everywhere. I pretty much ended up falling and throwing myself into it for the most part. I’m not allergic to ivy or sumac back home but I’m not sure if such a resistance would transfer. If I’m not allergic, I probably am by now though because I was in so much of it today.
After we swamped out around another part of the house, the saw squad played Throw Things Down The Hill, which was amusing. Bedsheets and I chucked some boles down the hill and I beat him, which was astonishing because I could barely lift mine. While we were waiting for the other two squads to dig line through the cut we made, the saw squad (now apparently known as “Sawsquatch” and answers to the Chewbaca call) had “M&M time” where we all ate the peanut M&Ms from our lunch.
--6/27/08
Some of the crew are already showing signs of oak outbreak, particularly JT and Steakly. We’ve already come up with an idea for a crew shirt because of how the oak will probably be a memorable part of our dispatch: “Stoked for the Oak! I think I got it!”
Today we did a lot of hiking to do more structure assessments and prep. We also cut some low-hanging limbs along a road. There wasn’t much to do today. We actually ventured above the marine layer today. What a difference! The marine layer is this area right above the shoreline where it’s foggy, cool and humid. But it only stretches so high up the mountain ridges. So today we ventured above the marine layer to clear out around a weather station to keep the brush from interfering with the readings and to give it a line just in case the fire got too close. It was super hot above the marine layer. The sun wasn’t blocked by the fog, humidity was really low, below 20% down to the single digits. It was also really dry. We finally understood why we weren’t seeing any action, but yet kept hearing reports about the fire spreading so much – the majority of the activity is taking place above and beyond the marine layer.
This dispatch has been a lot of firsts for me: first time to California, first time seeing the Pacific Ocean. I now get to add another to the list: first rattlesnake encounter ever. We were digging line and clearing out around a house when one of the guys on our crew lifted up a piece of board to move it and the wooden pallet that was underneath. Chilling out under the board was a rattlesnake. It was crazy, we all took a few steps back. Then some guy from one of the crews that was prepping the actual house grabbed a combi and looked like he was going to kill it. We all protested; One, because killing the snake would be unnecessary and two, because what if he missed?! So the guy managed to scoop the snake up and shoo it off into the woods. It all rattled our nerves a little bit (no pun intended).
We would have moved on to another assignment, I think, but we ended up hanging around for a while because the other crew that was up at the house managed to back their rig over the hill and get it stuck on the edge. So part of our crew tried to help them get all four wheels back on the ground, but to no avail.
--6/28/08
Before lunch this morning, we finished clearing out around the weather station. It seemed even hotter today, and it probably was. I think I must have had about three quarts of water plus a Gatorade. And I don’t ordinarily drink Gatorade, so I know I was sweating.
We also cleared out around another house today. It had an amazing view, the back porch hangs out over the mountain on which it's perched and you can see straight down to the ocean. It was beautiful … and completely indefensible, if a fire should reach it – the whole house was constructed of wood that had long been dried out and weathered. It’s a shame. I hope it’ll survive.
In other news, I still don’t seem to have any poison oak. On the saw squad, it’s just me and Bedsheets who remain unaffected.
We also ran into some typical fire dispatch confusion today. JT explained to us that the reason it was taking so long for us to get sent to another assignment is because the structures that they want us to prep could either be considered cleared or still need clearing, it all depends on whom you ask. He also tried to scout an indirect line for us to dig but the marine layer came in and ruined visibility.
--6/29/08
Our plans changed … again. We’re in another division with another supervisor. Last night, single-digit RHs (relative humidity) were being recorded. The dozer lines that have been plowed didn’t hold, so there’s talk of pulling back and trying something else.
We ended up waiting around until about 10 am and then headed up to a house to dig a line near it. That sucked. The hills were difficult for me to navigate. It became very apparent to me how weak of a hiker I am. It was incredibly frustrating. I was the second Pulaski and, at one point, Jordan practically had to push me up the next step. I did not enjoy digging line, I definitely prefer swamping.
But the house was really cool. It belongs to a woman who is about 100 years old. Her late husband was the mayor of Carmel twice. The housekeepers opened it up to us, they said we could use the pool and everything. Alas, we didn’t get to. But we got to enjoy the fresh figs and white plums that grew on the property, as well as some cool shade on the lawn next to the pool.
It was hazy and foggy for most of the day. We cut on a steep slope in the black where there had been a burnout earlier in the week. That was a little crazy, I felt like I was rock climbing at times because I was using plant roots to pretty much belay up and down the side of the slope. At one point, my crew boss JT stopped Patrick’s saw and had us listen really carefully – you could hear a seal barking on the beach below the mountains, haha!
We cut and swamped out around a house and there was a lot of poison oak everywhere. I pretty much ended up falling and throwing myself into it for the most part. I’m not allergic to ivy or sumac back home but I’m not sure if such a resistance would transfer. If I’m not allergic, I probably am by now though because I was in so much of it today.
After we swamped out around another part of the house, the saw squad played Throw Things Down The Hill, which was amusing. Bedsheets and I chucked some boles down the hill and I beat him, which was astonishing because I could barely lift mine. While we were waiting for the other two squads to dig line through the cut we made, the saw squad (now apparently known as “Sawsquatch” and answers to the Chewbaca call) had “M&M time” where we all ate the peanut M&Ms from our lunch.
--6/27/08
Some of the crew are already showing signs of oak outbreak, particularly JT and Steakly. We’ve already come up with an idea for a crew shirt because of how the oak will probably be a memorable part of our dispatch: “Stoked for the Oak! I think I got it!”
Today we did a lot of hiking to do more structure assessments and prep. We also cut some low-hanging limbs along a road. There wasn’t much to do today. We actually ventured above the marine layer today. What a difference! The marine layer is this area right above the shoreline where it’s foggy, cool and humid. But it only stretches so high up the mountain ridges. So today we ventured above the marine layer to clear out around a weather station to keep the brush from interfering with the readings and to give it a line just in case the fire got too close. It was super hot above the marine layer. The sun wasn’t blocked by the fog, humidity was really low, below 20% down to the single digits. It was also really dry. We finally understood why we weren’t seeing any action, but yet kept hearing reports about the fire spreading so much – the majority of the activity is taking place above and beyond the marine layer.
This dispatch has been a lot of firsts for me: first time to California, first time seeing the Pacific Ocean. I now get to add another to the list: first rattlesnake encounter ever. We were digging line and clearing out around a house when one of the guys on our crew lifted up a piece of board to move it and the wooden pallet that was underneath. Chilling out under the board was a rattlesnake. It was crazy, we all took a few steps back. Then some guy from one of the crews that was prepping the actual house grabbed a combi and looked like he was going to kill it. We all protested; One, because killing the snake would be unnecessary and two, because what if he missed?! So the guy managed to scoop the snake up and shoo it off into the woods. It all rattled our nerves a little bit (no pun intended).
We would have moved on to another assignment, I think, but we ended up hanging around for a while because the other crew that was up at the house managed to back their rig over the hill and get it stuck on the edge. So part of our crew tried to help them get all four wheels back on the ground, but to no avail.
--6/28/08
Before lunch this morning, we finished clearing out around the weather station. It seemed even hotter today, and it probably was. I think I must have had about three quarts of water plus a Gatorade. And I don’t ordinarily drink Gatorade, so I know I was sweating.
We also cleared out around another house today. It had an amazing view, the back porch hangs out over the mountain on which it's perched and you can see straight down to the ocean. It was beautiful … and completely indefensible, if a fire should reach it – the whole house was constructed of wood that had long been dried out and weathered. It’s a shame. I hope it’ll survive.
In other news, I still don’t seem to have any poison oak. On the saw squad, it’s just me and Bedsheets who remain unaffected.
We also ran into some typical fire dispatch confusion today. JT explained to us that the reason it was taking so long for us to get sent to another assignment is because the structures that they want us to prep could either be considered cleared or still need clearing, it all depends on whom you ask. He also tried to scout an indirect line for us to dig but the marine layer came in and ruined visibility.
--6/29/08
Our plans changed … again. We’re in another division with another supervisor. Last night, single-digit RHs (relative humidity) were being recorded. The dozer lines that have been plowed didn’t hold, so there’s talk of pulling back and trying something else.
We ended up waiting around until about 10 am and then headed up to a house to dig a line near it. That sucked. The hills were difficult for me to navigate. It became very apparent to me how weak of a hiker I am. It was incredibly frustrating. I was the second Pulaski and, at one point, Jordan practically had to push me up the next step. I did not enjoy digging line, I definitely prefer swamping.
But the house was really cool. It belongs to a woman who is about 100 years old. Her late husband was the mayor of Carmel twice. The housekeepers opened it up to us, they said we could use the pool and everything. Alas, we didn’t get to. But we got to enjoy the fresh figs and white plums that grew on the property, as well as some cool shade on the lawn next to the pool.
Dispatch, Big Sur, Los Padres National Park, California – Part I
-- 6/24/08 10:48 am
After leaving the work center at 5:15 am (MT) and meeting up with the rest of the offices who would make up our crew, we drove all day and arrived at a hotel in Winnemucca, NV (just outside of Reno) around 10:00 pm (PT).
We left the hotel at 7:00 am this morning and stopped for breakfast before getting on the road. After breakfast, Steakly pulled me aside and asked me how I would feel about being on the saw squad when we finally made it to California. I was a little speechless at first. I replied that Harrison or Jordan might be a better choice because they probably have more saw experience than I do. Steakly brought up a tree that I had cut down with Pat Owens last round and he mentioned how impressed he was with my cut and how I approached it. I told him that Owens had walked me through it, but Steakly said, “Yeah, but you were the one who made the cuts.” I said that I would definitely be willing to try, my only concerns were how my lack of experience would factor into the equation, either by slowing down the crew or being a liability. But I also said that, though I don’t need or expect anyone to hold my hand through the experience, as long as someone would be willing to answer my questions and walk me through some things, I’d definitely do my absolute best. So he told me I could think about it during the drive and to just let him know. As soon as I got back in the truck, I texted Nikki about it. She was stoked for me and told me to go for it. I also told Jo, Harrison and Jordan. We talked about it for a little while, they all said I should go for it. I was still feeling a little unsure. I asked Nick Fetsch (Ned Forest Service guy on dispatch with us) what he thought about it, and he said, “It’s a lot of work. It helps with fire experience. The sawyers will work you really hard. It’s up to you, though.”
At the next rest stop I talked to Patrick about it, since the plan was for me to be his swamper on the squad. He said that if I thought I could keep up, he’d be cool with it. I kept thinking about it and I was still conflicted. I knew that I would be the weakest one and with the least amount of experience; my best may not be enough for the task at hand. I also know that I can get tired easily. I guess I was also hoping for a little more encouragement from Fetsch and Patrick as sawyers and having worked with them in Ned. I guess the most I can do is try. I’m back facing the dilemma I always face: I’m worried that I’ll disappoint everyone. And, once again, I feel like I have to prove something as a girl and be stronger than everyone else. Well, I’ll try my best.
Switching gears for a second – we just passed through Reno and it’s really smokey. As we were driving into Winnemucca last night, I just thought it was getting foggy in the evening. But it’s smoke from the fires in Northern California. It’s crazy, the visibility is so low.
-- 1:59 pm
Notes on travel: California reminds me of the one time my family drove down the shore during a really bad east coast drought and everything was dry and dead, there was no green at all. The grass looks like straw. But it’s startlingly juxtaposed next to very irrigated grape valleys and other fields of crops. It’s still really smoky too. You cannot see the sky, it looks so hazy and overcast. It’s really unusual.
--5:13 pm
I just saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life! We’re near Monterey Bay.
--6:00 pm
So we’ve begun settling into camp and we just had our first briefing. We’re staying at a fire camp at Andrew Molera State Park, near Big Sur. Here’s the info I have: The fire is 8500 acres, up from the 2000 we had originally heard when we got dispatched. Five structures have been lost and Type 1 crews are maxed out across the country, almost all of them were here, are here or will be here soon.
Our crew boss is JT Wensman, with Steakly doing crew boss training. The saw squad’s boss is Paul Ostroy. There are three B sawyers – Fetsch, Patrick and Tai Rogers – each paired up with a swamper – Malcolm Wiley, me and Nick Biedscheid (everyone calls him Bedsheets), respectively. The other two squads are led by squad bosses Darin Toy and Clay Harvey. Jo, Harrison, Jordan, and everyone else are divided up among those two squads.
--9:35 pm
Food trucks. That’s how they feed us. Drum corps! Haha. What else? I’ve got nothing else right now. First night. Sleeping with Joanna.
I’ll be swamping for Patrick. I’ve made up my mind for that: I’m doing it. I’m doing it and I’m not going to complain. Everyone has been telling me that it’s hard. So what? I wanted a challenge, here it is. I’ll do it, I’ll push myself and I’ll try as hard as I possibly can. It’s time to find new limits. I can do this. It’s hard, but that won’t stop me. Yes, I do have something to prove – I can do it. If I puke, I puke. I’m. Doing. It.
--10:something pm
Briefing before bed: there’s been requests for lots of resources, choppers, dozers, dozer bosses, crews, etc. The fire is definitely expected to grow.
--6/25/08
One day down, 13 to go. I survived my first day on the saw squad and I actually wasn’t too bad at times. And I can only get better (I hope). My entries for the next two weeks may take on a different format because there’s not much time to write.
So, first day on saw squad swamping for Patrick. I’ve got some new accessories as a swamper. In addition to my line bag, which weighs 37 lbs, I’ve got to carry three Sigg bottles (two filled with gas, one with oil, for refilling the saw at a moment’s notice), I have Patrick’s radio harness (so I can monitor radio traffic for him), I wear a pair of chaps religiously over my Nomex, and I carry two tools (a Pulaski and a pounder). I weigh 140. Add to that my line gear and my new stuff and I’m maxing around 200 lbs on a 5’3” frame.
We got a slow start this morning. We had some different assignments. For a little while, we cut, swamped and dug a line near a bridge and some huge redwoods around tiny place called Big Sur Inn. We also put in some checked line and burned around a mountain house. The smoke was awful, I got caught in it a few times. We got treated to an air show, which was cool. We could see several choppers filling their buckets along the coast and dumping them, as well as a few retardant planes flying overhead.
After leaving the work center at 5:15 am (MT) and meeting up with the rest of the offices who would make up our crew, we drove all day and arrived at a hotel in Winnemucca, NV (just outside of Reno) around 10:00 pm (PT).
We left the hotel at 7:00 am this morning and stopped for breakfast before getting on the road. After breakfast, Steakly pulled me aside and asked me how I would feel about being on the saw squad when we finally made it to California. I was a little speechless at first. I replied that Harrison or Jordan might be a better choice because they probably have more saw experience than I do. Steakly brought up a tree that I had cut down with Pat Owens last round and he mentioned how impressed he was with my cut and how I approached it. I told him that Owens had walked me through it, but Steakly said, “Yeah, but you were the one who made the cuts.” I said that I would definitely be willing to try, my only concerns were how my lack of experience would factor into the equation, either by slowing down the crew or being a liability. But I also said that, though I don’t need or expect anyone to hold my hand through the experience, as long as someone would be willing to answer my questions and walk me through some things, I’d definitely do my absolute best. So he told me I could think about it during the drive and to just let him know. As soon as I got back in the truck, I texted Nikki about it. She was stoked for me and told me to go for it. I also told Jo, Harrison and Jordan. We talked about it for a little while, they all said I should go for it. I was still feeling a little unsure. I asked Nick Fetsch (Ned Forest Service guy on dispatch with us) what he thought about it, and he said, “It’s a lot of work. It helps with fire experience. The sawyers will work you really hard. It’s up to you, though.”
At the next rest stop I talked to Patrick about it, since the plan was for me to be his swamper on the squad. He said that if I thought I could keep up, he’d be cool with it. I kept thinking about it and I was still conflicted. I knew that I would be the weakest one and with the least amount of experience; my best may not be enough for the task at hand. I also know that I can get tired easily. I guess I was also hoping for a little more encouragement from Fetsch and Patrick as sawyers and having worked with them in Ned. I guess the most I can do is try. I’m back facing the dilemma I always face: I’m worried that I’ll disappoint everyone. And, once again, I feel like I have to prove something as a girl and be stronger than everyone else. Well, I’ll try my best.
Switching gears for a second – we just passed through Reno and it’s really smokey. As we were driving into Winnemucca last night, I just thought it was getting foggy in the evening. But it’s smoke from the fires in Northern California. It’s crazy, the visibility is so low.
-- 1:59 pm
Notes on travel: California reminds me of the one time my family drove down the shore during a really bad east coast drought and everything was dry and dead, there was no green at all. The grass looks like straw. But it’s startlingly juxtaposed next to very irrigated grape valleys and other fields of crops. It’s still really smoky too. You cannot see the sky, it looks so hazy and overcast. It’s really unusual.
--5:13 pm
I just saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life! We’re near Monterey Bay.
--6:00 pm
So we’ve begun settling into camp and we just had our first briefing. We’re staying at a fire camp at Andrew Molera State Park, near Big Sur. Here’s the info I have: The fire is 8500 acres, up from the 2000 we had originally heard when we got dispatched. Five structures have been lost and Type 1 crews are maxed out across the country, almost all of them were here, are here or will be here soon.
Our crew boss is JT Wensman, with Steakly doing crew boss training. The saw squad’s boss is Paul Ostroy. There are three B sawyers – Fetsch, Patrick and Tai Rogers – each paired up with a swamper – Malcolm Wiley, me and Nick Biedscheid (everyone calls him Bedsheets), respectively. The other two squads are led by squad bosses Darin Toy and Clay Harvey. Jo, Harrison, Jordan, and everyone else are divided up among those two squads.
--9:35 pm
Food trucks. That’s how they feed us. Drum corps! Haha. What else? I’ve got nothing else right now. First night. Sleeping with Joanna.
I’ll be swamping for Patrick. I’ve made up my mind for that: I’m doing it. I’m doing it and I’m not going to complain. Everyone has been telling me that it’s hard. So what? I wanted a challenge, here it is. I’ll do it, I’ll push myself and I’ll try as hard as I possibly can. It’s time to find new limits. I can do this. It’s hard, but that won’t stop me. Yes, I do have something to prove – I can do it. If I puke, I puke. I’m. Doing. It.
--10:something pm
Briefing before bed: there’s been requests for lots of resources, choppers, dozers, dozer bosses, crews, etc. The fire is definitely expected to grow.
--6/25/08
One day down, 13 to go. I survived my first day on the saw squad and I actually wasn’t too bad at times. And I can only get better (I hope). My entries for the next two weeks may take on a different format because there’s not much time to write.
So, first day on saw squad swamping for Patrick. I’ve got some new accessories as a swamper. In addition to my line bag, which weighs 37 lbs, I’ve got to carry three Sigg bottles (two filled with gas, one with oil, for refilling the saw at a moment’s notice), I have Patrick’s radio harness (so I can monitor radio traffic for him), I wear a pair of chaps religiously over my Nomex, and I carry two tools (a Pulaski and a pounder). I weigh 140. Add to that my line gear and my new stuff and I’m maxing around 200 lbs on a 5’3” frame.
We got a slow start this morning. We had some different assignments. For a little while, we cut, swamped and dug a line near a bridge and some huge redwoods around tiny place called Big Sur Inn. We also put in some checked line and burned around a mountain house. The smoke was awful, I got caught in it a few times. We got treated to an air show, which was cool. We could see several choppers filling their buckets along the coast and dumping them, as well as a few retardant planes flying overhead.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
I'm alive!
Okay, get comfy – this is gonna take a while. I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been absent for the past two weeks because I was on dispatch in California, working on the Big Sur fire in Los Padres National Park. While I was on dispatch, I took notes every day on the work we were doing. So my plan is to recount everything over the next few entries by backdating. A lot happened while I was gone so my writing may get a little scattered at times or it’ll mimic a Joseph Conrad novel and run on for lines and lines before you see a period. But I will do my best to recall and explain everything as comprehensively as possible.
First, let’s begin with how the dispatch came about. Second round had concluded and my team made its way back to campus in Denver on June 21, after doing a few hours of ISP in the morning at Ned’s community garden (which potentially completed my 80 required ISP hours, but I have to work that out with Ervin). After settling in to the dorms, everyone went out on the town in Englewood to catch up with other teams and spend time with everyone that we hadn’t seen since last transition week or CTI. The next morning, Nikki and I went down into Denver to just hang out and spend some time in the city. There was a Gay Pride festival that day near City Hall, so we mixed in with that party for a while. That was a lot of fun, things were crazy. It was a really hot, but beautiful day, a great day to be in the city. Then Nikki and split off – I wanted to take care of some things on the internet and she had to go buy some birthday gifts for friends that she would see when she went home on break. So I was wandering downtown, got online at a Starbucks, etc.
At one point, I decided to call Nikki to see how she was doing and if she wanted to head back to campus or do something else. I picked up my phone to call her but it was off (my phone has recently acquired the habit of shutting itself off at random moments, regardless of whether or not I’m using it at the time). When I turned it back on, it practically blew up. I had five text messages, two voicemails, three missed calls between Joanna (from Earth 4), Ervin and Nikki. Ervin’s voicemail and Nikki’s text only said, “Call me!” pretty much. I was really concerned, so I immediately called Ervin. He asked where I was and I told him that I was downtown. He told me that I needed to get back to campus because I was getting dispatched to a fire in the North Zone (the northern part of the Arapaho/Roosevelt National Forest). I also called Nikki and Joanna and they had called me to relay the same message. So I hopped on the next Light Rail back to campus and Ervin, who turned out to be a stop ahead of me on the same line, waited for me in Englewood and drove me back to campus. On the ride back, he filled me with what little he knew – Joanna, Harrison and I would be going. We were to head up back up to the work center in Ned very early the next morning in order to be ready to leave for the fire. On our way up the road that leads to campus, he got a phone call. I heard him say, “Well, that changes everything.” When he hung up, he turned to me and said, “You’re going to California.” Whoa! I screamed as soon as he said that. When I first heard I was getting dispatched, I was super nervous but upon hearing that I was going to California, I was so ecstatic.
So I got back to campus and immediately met Joanna at the cafeteria for dinner. Plans changed again while we were eating dinner. We found out that Jordan (Earth 4) would be dispatched with us. We also found out that we were actually leaving after dinner and spending the night up in Ned to make leaving the next morning a little easier. So Jo and I finished dinner and got our stuff together in our rooms. I was really glad I had been too lazy to unpack earlier that day because I just zipped my suitcases back up and loaded them right back into the truck.
Once we got back to the bunkhouse, we double- and triple-checked our line gear and red bags. I called Laura to let her know we got there. I called Chad to do the same and I called Devin Steakly as well, who was going to be one of the Ned Forest Service guys getting dispatched with us. Patrick from the work center also swung by to just fill us in on when we’d be leaving and some things to expect the next day. He told us we’d be driving to California to work on the Basin Complex fire in Big Sur, Los Padres National Park.
I went to bed around 11:00 pm and woke up around 4:00 am to get everyone else up and have enough time to eat, load up and get up to the work center. We left the Ned work center around 5:15 and met up with the other crews at the Fort Collins work center. Our crew was considered an Interagency Handcrew because we were made up of people from different offices in the area. There was our work center, the South Zone for Arapaho/Roosevelt. We also had people from the North Zone, people from Parks and Services, and people from Boulder County Sheriff’s Department.
The amusing thing about all of this was that on Saturday night while we were all out in Englewood, I remember turning to someone at one point and saying, “Man, I just wish a fire would pop so I could get dispatched and just blow off transition week.” Lo and behold … =)
Okay, I hate to leave you in a state of suspense, but this will have to be continued later. I’ll post entries from the actual dispatch as soon as I can. I also hope to have more pictures up soon.
First, let’s begin with how the dispatch came about. Second round had concluded and my team made its way back to campus in Denver on June 21, after doing a few hours of ISP in the morning at Ned’s community garden (which potentially completed my 80 required ISP hours, but I have to work that out with Ervin). After settling in to the dorms, everyone went out on the town in Englewood to catch up with other teams and spend time with everyone that we hadn’t seen since last transition week or CTI. The next morning, Nikki and I went down into Denver to just hang out and spend some time in the city. There was a Gay Pride festival that day near City Hall, so we mixed in with that party for a while. That was a lot of fun, things were crazy. It was a really hot, but beautiful day, a great day to be in the city. Then Nikki and split off – I wanted to take care of some things on the internet and she had to go buy some birthday gifts for friends that she would see when she went home on break. So I was wandering downtown, got online at a Starbucks, etc.
At one point, I decided to call Nikki to see how she was doing and if she wanted to head back to campus or do something else. I picked up my phone to call her but it was off (my phone has recently acquired the habit of shutting itself off at random moments, regardless of whether or not I’m using it at the time). When I turned it back on, it practically blew up. I had five text messages, two voicemails, three missed calls between Joanna (from Earth 4), Ervin and Nikki. Ervin’s voicemail and Nikki’s text only said, “Call me!” pretty much. I was really concerned, so I immediately called Ervin. He asked where I was and I told him that I was downtown. He told me that I needed to get back to campus because I was getting dispatched to a fire in the North Zone (the northern part of the Arapaho/Roosevelt National Forest). I also called Nikki and Joanna and they had called me to relay the same message. So I hopped on the next Light Rail back to campus and Ervin, who turned out to be a stop ahead of me on the same line, waited for me in Englewood and drove me back to campus. On the ride back, he filled me with what little he knew – Joanna, Harrison and I would be going. We were to head up back up to the work center in Ned very early the next morning in order to be ready to leave for the fire. On our way up the road that leads to campus, he got a phone call. I heard him say, “Well, that changes everything.” When he hung up, he turned to me and said, “You’re going to California.” Whoa! I screamed as soon as he said that. When I first heard I was getting dispatched, I was super nervous but upon hearing that I was going to California, I was so ecstatic.
So I got back to campus and immediately met Joanna at the cafeteria for dinner. Plans changed again while we were eating dinner. We found out that Jordan (Earth 4) would be dispatched with us. We also found out that we were actually leaving after dinner and spending the night up in Ned to make leaving the next morning a little easier. So Jo and I finished dinner and got our stuff together in our rooms. I was really glad I had been too lazy to unpack earlier that day because I just zipped my suitcases back up and loaded them right back into the truck.
Once we got back to the bunkhouse, we double- and triple-checked our line gear and red bags. I called Laura to let her know we got there. I called Chad to do the same and I called Devin Steakly as well, who was going to be one of the Ned Forest Service guys getting dispatched with us. Patrick from the work center also swung by to just fill us in on when we’d be leaving and some things to expect the next day. He told us we’d be driving to California to work on the Basin Complex fire in Big Sur, Los Padres National Park.
I went to bed around 11:00 pm and woke up around 4:00 am to get everyone else up and have enough time to eat, load up and get up to the work center. We left the Ned work center around 5:15 and met up with the other crews at the Fort Collins work center. Our crew was considered an Interagency Handcrew because we were made up of people from different offices in the area. There was our work center, the South Zone for Arapaho/Roosevelt. We also had people from the North Zone, people from Parks and Services, and people from Boulder County Sheriff’s Department.
The amusing thing about all of this was that on Saturday night while we were all out in Englewood, I remember turning to someone at one point and saying, “Man, I just wish a fire would pop so I could get dispatched and just blow off transition week.” Lo and behold … =)
Okay, I hate to leave you in a state of suspense, but this will have to be continued later. I’ll post entries from the actual dispatch as soon as I can. I also hope to have more pictures up soon.
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