Catching up a little ...

My apologies for not posting sooner. I've been pretty busy after work for the past week or so. I'll explain ...

First of all, the marathon was a great success. John, Chris, Harrison, Keenan (wildfire team leader) and Chad all ran the full marathon, with John finishing at an impressive 3:36. This is his sixth marathon. Joanna, Jared (E4), Hawk (a FS guy) all ghost-ran the half marathon. I capped for Nikki, so that she could get some ISP hours by volunteering (capping is when you try to inform and recruit new members for AmeriCorps by setting up tables and booths at public events, schools, etc). Capping was actually pretty successful, we met a lot of people and got the word out. Blake and I left early to go grocery shopping, as it was a Sunday.

Last week wasn't anything special in particular. We went back to one of the camp grounds, Kelly Dahl, where we had cut at the beginning of the season. We had a few more trees (160 or so, allegedly) to cut and chip. The bole wood (the trunk itself) was going to be collected for industrial purposes. So, in addition to limbing the tree and chipping the slash, we had to drag all of the boles to the road and try to line them up.

It also snowed last week. It made cutting particularly chilly. I had two pairs of long underwear on the one day.

The real reason I wasn't able to get online much last week was because we were working on our gift to the Forest Service. It is a yearly tradition that the wildfire team gives a gift to their Forest Service work center. There is a basketball net, as well as some adirondack chairs and a birdhouse from previous classes. For the longest time, we could not come up with an idea. Then someone suggested a soap box derby car. It seemed amusing and fun, but it never materialized.

Finally, the weekend before last we said, "Okay. Are we going through with this? If not, we need to find something." It wasn't a firm goal, but we really wanted to have the gift done prior to the seasonals getting laid off (they all turned in their gear this past Friday). The soap box derby car, we finally admitted, wasn't going to work - it was fun, but it didn't really relate to our work, nor did it serve any real purpose. Suddenly, someone suggested a porch swing. That weekend, Blake and I went online to find plans on how to construct a swing, as well as a frame for it (we didn't think hanging the swing from the bunkhouse awning would be a good idea since it's not our place). We got all the plans and a list of materials. On Monday, Ervin went down to Boulder to take care of a few things while we were all at work. While he was in Boulder, he got everything we needed at Home Depot.

We started working on it Tuesday night. That evening, we snuck into the work center and cut all of the pieces for the porch swing itself. On Wednesday, we couldn't do anything because the work center was being used after work. Thursday, we constructed the porch swing and cut some of the pieces for the frame. On Friday, I actually went down to Boulder to see a show, but the people who stayed in for the night assembled the frame.

We were going to hang the swing on Saturday, but then ... around 3:00, we heard that there was a fire started by a car along the side of the road near Lyons (outside of Boulder). The seasonals had just turned in their gear the day before, so we were pretty much the only resources left on our forest, aside from Chad, Egan and Owens. Chad told us to be ready, just in case it panned out. Well, it did. Paul, Chris and I moved our stuff to one of the squad trucks, while everyone else made phone calls to get everyone who was in Boulder back up to the bunkhouse. We managed to get everyone rounded up and head out in less than two hours. Once we got to the fire, we dug some line around it with the other firefighters who were there. After that, we laid out some hose and mopped up until after dark. We wrapped up and headed back to Boulder. On the way back, Chad got us dinner at a really cool New Orleans-style restaurant in Lyons called Oscar Blues.

They requested us for the next day, so we all got up early and headed out. There wasn't any food in the house, because Sunday is normally my shopping day. Luckily, we managed to get someone to go for us (I made a list while I was eating breakfast on the off-chance that we could swing such a favor). But in the mean time, there wasn't really anything to bring for lunch, so we all ate MREs (Meal Ready to Eat, or Meal Rarely Enjoyed, if you prefer). It's a little funny because this fire was a few firsts for me: it was my first local fire (a little crazy, considering it's the end of a quiet fire season and I managed to get to do two national dispatches). It was also the first time I had ever eaten an MRE. Somehow, I got through two dispatches without eating them. So everyone told me I had to eat one, which was fine because I couldn't pack a lunch anyway. So I did. It wasn't bad at all; I had spaghetti with meat sauce, as well as some crackers and cheese spread.

We spent the second day gridding for a spot fire that had popped up across the road -- we found it, it was dead out. After lunch, we then mopped up until they let us go. Chad gave us off on Monday. We presented the swing to everyone after we got back from the fire. We're going to hang it tonight, hopefully.

Rumor has it that this is our last week of work. We're supposed to head back to Denver next Tuesday so we can turn in our fire gear for the next class of wildfire teams. We actually may get to meet some of them on Friday because Chad asked for help with their field day after their wildfire classes. It's so strange that it's almost over. We've been doing this for so long that it had the feeling as though we would just continue. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. I'll certainly miss the chainsaw. Cutting such a fun thing to do. Gosh. It's really almost over.

Tomorrow night, I hope to watch the rescheduled Phillies/Rays game and ... well, I won't jinx them. I just hope that the outcome is good, my city deserves it.

Your garden hose has it easy ...

Things have been back to business as usual. After our trip to Storm King on Thursday, we cut a little on Friday and did some saw rehab. Nothing too exciting over the weekend. I was actually looking forward to grocery shopping. So little had been spent during the time I was gone because almost the rest of the entire team was on a prescribed burn for about a week. I wasn't concerned with the budget as I went to Sam's and Wal-Mart. But, try as we did ... we were still under budget. Oh well, there's plenty of good food and that's really all that matters.

We had Monday off because of Columbus Day, which was a nice treat. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a pumps class. We learned about everything concerning pumping water on fires, things like portable pumps and engines, how to hook them up, different hoses and fittings, how to effectively apply water and foam to fires, and so forth. There was also a little math class involved, as we learned how to calculate necessary pumping pressure based on how long the hose lay was, the fittings involved, etc.

Last night, I made some chili and the team had dinner in front of the tv as a whole so we could watch the Presidential debate. After that, I flipped on the rest of the Phillies/Dodgers game and I got to see my team win the pennant. The Phillies are going to the World Series for the first time since I was eight. Granted, that's nothing compared to the Red Sox, but don't get me started on which city has experienced more misery as sports fans.

Anyway, today was our field day for the pumps class. We went around three different stations in small groups. We learned how a Forest Service engine works with regards to delivering water to a fire. We also hooked up pumps in a variety of ways.

We have a lot of people from the wildfire teams converging on Denver this Sunday for the Denver marathon. Our whole team is going to either run, volunteer or cap. It should be a fun, but long day. Of course, the first thing I wondered was how late I'll get around to grocery shopping. I'll have to deprogram myself after I get out of NCCC, haha!

Photos update

Memo: I posted links to albums from my Oregon dispatch and from the Storm King Mountain hike. Enjoy!

The Storm King Mountain hike

Today the Forest Service took us to Storm King Mountain in Grand Junction, CO. There’s a memorial trail that leads to the site where 14 firefighters died in fighting a fire in 1994, the greatest number of fatalities on a single incident. It was a two-mile hike up to the crosses that marked where each firefighter died. We stopped at a few look-out points along the way and read the corresponding signs regarding wildland fire fighting and the mountain. There were two helitack firefighters who perished, along with nine Prineville hot shots and three smokejumpers.

We hiked with our packs on, partly to better understand what the firefighters were up against that day. Once we reached the memorial, there were old snags covered with t-shirts from other hot shot crews who had visited the site. There was also an AmeriCorps baseball cap. Each cross had lots of trinkets and firefighter items. People left everything from flowers to a cutting wedge and a scrench.

The most incredible thing was to realize how the firefighters had made it as far as they did, running up a line they had cut earlier in the day with their packs on. It was not easy country to hike and we were going at a casual pace. Even more astonishing was how the two helitack guys made it even farther, about a quarter-mile away from where everyone else perished.

After everyone took the time to appreciate the site, we hiked back down to the rigs, where we loaded up and went to a park nearby that had a memorial to the hot shots from Prineville. A similar memorial is also established in Prineville, OR, where the hot shot crew was from.

I wish I could say more about visiting the memorial, but it’s something that needs to be experienced. While hiking around the crosses, I could only try to imagine what was going through their minds. One of the hot shots, Bonnie Foltby, was 21, the age of two of our teammates. And until this visit, I had never realized the gravity of the work we’re doing. It was clear, from all of the things left by others, that the memorial on Storm King is truly sacred ground for wildland firefighters.

We had seen a documentary on the Storm King fire that explored how the firefighters perished, but it was interesting to actually be in the place and tie it all together. We all kept running through the speculated scenarios with each other, how they ran up the line, how they tried to escape, how the fire burned, how they fell, some so closed to each other and others farther apart. One hot shot, Scott Blecha, was so close to the top of the ridge that it’s heartbreaking to see. One of the smokejumpers was from the Missoula base that my crew visited on the way back from Oregon. It was strange to make that connection, since I had only been there a few days before.

As we hiked down, I turned around to look back up at the site. In the documentary, it zooms out to show all of the crosses on the hillside. But, with fourteen years gone by, a lot has re-grown and you can’t see the crosses anymore. What you can see, though, is a charred snag at the top of the ridge, overlooking the memorial. From a distance, the snag itself looks like a cross.

If you want to read more about the event, this website does a pretty good job on explaining everything, along with some pictures of the area. You can also read Fire on the Mountain by John Maclean.

Oregon Dispatch, Part IV

9/29/08 7:43 AM
We’re mopping up in the same spot today. Surprise.

Fire info: 1000 acres, 30% contained.

JT thinks that they just want to try and hold the lines until Friday or Saturday, when it’s supposed to rain. Containment has increased and size hasn’t changed, so things seem to be going well. The SIT report said the expected 100% containment could be achieved by Oct. 3, which is Friday, and our last day of work. Things might be somewhat chill here if it all goes as planned.

-9:38 PM
Mopped up again. There was a big sketchy, scary tree that was burning from the inside and it was on a tripod of bark at the base. I worked the hose for a bit while mopping.

Alpha, the AmeriCorps rig, got a flat after work.

I’m gonna miss JT, and my squad. The crew, once again, is awesome. There’s a lot of humor and fun, no matter what we’re doing.

I’m sleeping under the stars again. I may do it for the rest of the role, it’s easy enough.

It’s quite nice.

9/30/08 8:27 AM
Fire info: 1000 acres, 40% contained

We worked the most active part of the fire yesterday, which was essentially the mop up of a burn out around the edges of a meadow with sketchy trees in the black.

We’re getting plenty of action, which is better than staging for IA.

I’ve had some conflicting feelings lately. At one moment today, I may have realized that this job is not the career for me, long term. But with all the great people I meet, I feel like I’d be missing out on sharing some awesome experiences with them and I’d feel like I’d be disappointing people for bailing after one season. I dunno.

-6:50 PM
We went back to the same spot, mopped up a little, had another relaxing lunch where we took our time. After lunch, I worked the hose one some flare ups. We went to a gas station after work to fuel up, air up our tires a bit and just waste a little time.

10/1/08 7:32 AM
Fire: 808 acres, 60% contained

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a fire shrink. It’s clearly under control.

We’ve got the same assignment today, we’re hoping to drag it out through Thursday. It’s supposed to rain Friday night, JT said he hopes we’ll get demobed Friday so we don’t have to sleep through it. I don’t really care, just as long as I could get two days R&R after the role.

The leaves are changing colors, it’s nice to see a bit of that, especially being from the east.

-6:39 PM
We had another relaxing lunch. Another sketchy tree fell nearby beforehand. While we were mopping up, we heard it crack a few times and we could see it swaying a bunch. Shane drew our attention to it because it he called out that it was going to fall. It didn't, though. Instead, it tipped with the wind for a good while. JT (crew boss) and the saw boss were going to investigate it and maybe take it down if it was possible. I kept an eye on it while Kira and I were working on some spots. Shane was also watching it from his vantage point. Then, I could hear a strong breeze about to come through the area so we all stopped and waited. Sure enough, the tree tilted to at least 45 degrees, went a little more and then we heard it snap and it came down. It was a relief to finally have down.

We had a hose butterflying competition after lunch. Butterflying hose is when you grab one end and then weave the hose around your arms in a figure-eight pattern. Each squad put someone up to represent and they all played Bear-Hunter-Woman to decide the competing order (kind of like Rock-Paper-Scissors, Woman beats Hunter, Hunter beats Bear, Bear beats Woman).

After some nagging from Diana, I spun a broken pounder handle for the crew to show them a little what colorguard was like. The pounder handle spun like a sabre, it worked surprisingly well.

We gathered by the trucks after all the hose was gathered. The squad boss in training from my squad had everyone do push ups with packs on as a way to mockingly build crew morale (he was in the Navy). Jared from AmeriCorps went against someone from North Zone to see who could chug two quarts of their water faster. Jared won.

-8:37 PM

So we’re on the demob list for tomorrow. I’m a little conflicted about that. I’m fine with going home, but … I want to stay all fourteen. It’s only two more days, I’m having lots of fun with this crew. Going back means going back to the responsibilities of my team. I’m not keen on that, not yet. It’s like leaving a drum corps tour and going back to real life. Also, this is minor but, I want my two days off and I’m not sure that it’ll happen if we don’t work the full fourteen.

I’m looking forward to hotel fun, though. Kira, Jane and I have mused over having a little spa time the first night of travel. Shower, shave the legs, scrub the dirt out of ever pore.

I dunno. Maybe JT can work his magic at briefing. Then again, the fire is shrinking and we’re losing our purpose. I guess we’ll see.

10/2/08 9:28 AM
We’re about to leave camp, we got demobed this morning. I’ve showered and Kira and I made our dispatch t-shirts. We’re keeping the same configuration for the drive home, so George will be riding with us. JT said we’d be taking a "more northern route," so we’re wondering if that means that we’re going somewhere in particular.

10/3/08 8:54 AM
Montana! I was obsessed with Montana for a while, thanks to a little state report I did in fourth grade. I don’t remember any of it, but I know that for a long time, I just wanted to move to Montana because I love the mountains.

We headed north through Oregon and stopped at some falls, the second highest waterfall in the nation (I forget the name). You could see Washington state from across the highway and that’s actually where we ended up going. We stayed in Spokane last night, of all places.

-6:01 PM
We stopped at the smokejumper base in Missoula. It was so cool! It really makes me want to be one, even though the physical requirements are pretty beyond my reach without extensive, obsessive training. I guess I’d like to be a smokejumper in the same way that everyone wants to be a famous rock star or something. Missoula itself is a sweet little hub of a town, too.

10/4/08 9:59 AM
We drove so much yesterday. We went all the way until 11:00 PM so we could make it to Sheridan, WY. As we drove through Casper, WY, Jared and I were looking out the window when we drove by the Troopers’ bingo hall (the Troopers are a drum corps, Jared and I both marched corps). We looked at each other and we were like "Uh … was that THE Troop??" It definitely was, they’re from Casper and their sign had the crossed sabres with the number 11. That was a nice little surprise.

Oregon Dispatch, Part III

9/27/08 7:42 AM
After the spots yesterday, JT suspects that the fire won’t be downsized and transitioned to a Type 3 tomorrow, it may take a bit longer. We’ll see.

-9:13 PM
We went up to the same point as yesterday. We didn’t have to haul the rest of the hose, thank goodness. Our performance yesterday may have earned us some brownie points with Butch, our task force leader for our division. Instead, we dug some line around the spots from last night and mopped up a little in the black. Slow day, good day.

Camp is moving tomorrow, we’re packing up after breakfast. For the rest of the role, we’ll either be driving to breakfast and dinner or MREs for breakfast and drive to dinner. Hopefully it’ll be real food all the way.

We got done work early, so I got to shower. Yay! I now know that I can go at least a week.

9/28/09 7:27 AM
So we broke down camp this morning and circled up to find out that we’re actually getting demobed today, but we’re going to another fire that’s about 3 hours away.

Fire info:
Rattle Fire – 18,078 acres, 60% contained
Kitson Fire – 1000 acres, 25% contained

-8:55 PM
We got to the new fire camp, checked in and waited around for a bit. We found out that we were working that day, so we headed over to our division and mopped up for a bit. Tomorrow may be staging for IA (initial attack) stuff, who knows.
This fire seems better organized but there are more creepy-looking contractors, it seems.

We’re sleeping under the starts tonight because camp would take took long to break down, should we get called to some IA stuff. Never done it before, hopefully I won’t get a ton of bug bites out of the experience.

I have a cell signal! Woo!

-9:14 PM
Almost forgot … while mopping up today, Kira and I came up with a t-shirt idea for this role. On the front, it’ll say "Northern Colorado Mop Shots" (instead of Hot Shots) and on the back it’ll say, "I’ll grid your hot spot." Heh.

Also, there’s oak here. Ack! I haven’t seen any yet, but I feel itchy thinking about it. JT says the patches that have appeared on my hips are pack rash, but I dunno. Then again, it could be psychosomatic.

Oregon Dispatch, Part II

9/23/08 7:28 AM
Everyone is coughing or sneezing, kind of like the last dispatch with the oak but this time it’s a cold.

Rumor is that camp is going to relocate tomorrow. I don’t know how that will work.

Fire info: forgot to look today, but from what I heard, the size hasn’t changed much. I really think we’ll just be mopping up this whole time.

Sent my postcards this morning. One to the team, one to the family.

I got seven hours of sleep last night, but I was sweating my butt off even though it was supposed to be the coldest night so far. When we woke up, it was 18 degrees. It’s gone up to 32.

No blisters so far, knock on wood. I still haven’t showered. I’m not going to until we have another day where we got off a little early. I’m doing cleansing wipes showers for now.

More coughing, less runny nose. This usually means I’m getting better. I just hope this cough dies down. It’s just as annoying as the congestion.

-9:52 PM
I’m gonna get plenty of sleep again tonight!

We finished the rest of the line this morning, then gridded and mopped informally for the rest of the day. The task force leader said it would be cool if we took an "afternoon break," so we did.
More and more crews are demobing, but no more are coming in. I think everyone is aware that we could potentially stay the full 14, but we need to take it easy – we don’t want to run out of work by going too hard core every day.

Fire info: 17,145 acres, 48% contained

I coughed a lot today, blew my nose a little. The Sudafed has worn off and I still feel okay. The coughing is a tad annoying, but oh well. At least I’m getting better.

Shane stayed back in the rigs today because he sprained his ankle yesterday.

I was gonna shower tonight since we had extra time but I got a little confused and thought it was later than it actually was so I just washed my hair and face in a sink and called it done. Maybe tomorrow …

It’s not so cold today/tonight.

We switched task force leaders today and got a great review from the ones that we had.

9/24/08 7:11 AM
Guess fire camp isn’t moving, no one has said anything about it.

Not coughing as much. Yay! Getting better! I’m still taking some Sudafed today, though.

-9:34 PM
Today was rough, I didn’t end well. We hunted for hot spots first with a GPS. It sorta worked, we hiked all over the place to look for heat. After lunch, we pulled hose from the lines, we’ve begun to "rehab" the area. We were on the edge of the wilderness where my squad dropped our portion of the hose.

What bugs me most was how weak I felt trying to haul the hose. It was the fact that JT gave us a little "chill out" pep talk, saying that we don’t want to work ourselves out of a job. And yet everyone has us motoring through to get all of the hose pulled. Uh? So what are we going to do tomorrow? All I know is that if we get sent home early, I don’t want to hear any complaining.
So the end of the day was a little rough for me, physically. My legs had had enough, my hip hurt and my pack has been sitting/hanging unevenly for the past two or three days so that it tugs on my right shoulder but not my left.

On a more positive note, Jane is so obviously totally in her element. I’m really happy for her. She looks like she’s supposed to be here.

I didn’t shower tonight, loading up at the end of work took way longer than I thought. Oh well again. I still don’t feel dirty.

I felt okay today, even after the breakfast Sudafed wore off.

I heard a guy talking on the way to our little camp area, he said they’re downsizing the camp to five crews, plus a few engines and sending everyone else home. Hopefully, we’re one of the five staying.

Not much change in the fire info, didn’t seem worth reporting.

We saw a few flames on the hill near where we park. Spotting? Who knows?

Oregon Dispatch, Part I

I’m back! My plan is to do what I did last time, to make a whole bunch of posts that recount my time on dispatch. Sit back and enjoy!

9/18/08 8:35 AM
So here we are again. After work yesterday, we got home early. So Nikki, Jo and I were having a snack when the phone rang. Jo answered and it was Chad. He said that they were on a conference call and Travis and I should make sure we’re ready to go as early as that night (though he doubted it, he said the next morning was far more likely).

I woke up at 4:30 am, showered and got ready. While I was eating breakfast, Travis told me that he was gonna try and get out of the role for family reasons. Won’t go into it, not my place. So Mary, a FS person, and I ended up driving an AmeriCorps truck (Alpha) to the Boulder office to meet up with Squad 1-2 and drive to the work center in Fort Collins. Jane, from the North Zone AmeriCorps team, is going in his place. Jared (originally from Earth 4) and Kira are also along for the role. We’ll be riding in Alpha on the way to Oregon. JT is crew boss again, yay! There’s also another guy on the crew from North Zone who went on my California dispatch as well. We have Egan, George and Diana from South Zone, our work center.

I’m going to try my damndest to improve on last time. I complained a lot. I don’t want that, I left last role feeling like I disappointed people by whining about my oak. Not this time. I’m going to try and stay as positive as possible.

And now … for the fire info:
Rattle Fire, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Tuesday, Sept 16: 11,200 acres, 25% contained
Spot fires up to 2 miles
Boulder Creek Wilderness, mostly
COLD at night, 20s (70s during the day)

-11:01 AM
We just stopped in Rollins, WY and we stopped at the same rest stop as we did on the way home last time!

-12:09 PM
We’re stopping in Rock Springs, WY for lunch. I’ve been reading A People’s History of the United States lately and I just came across a passage … "In Rock Springs, WY, in the summer of 1885, whites attacked five hundred Chinese miners, massacring twenty-eight of them in cold blood." (p.266) Now, all we’re doing is stopping for lunch in Rock Springs, so we’re not touring the town or anything. But my guess is that there’s probably no acknowledgement of this incident anywhere in the town. I guess it just made me wonder how many other events of that nature have been passed over in our nation’s history. I mean, the point of Zinn’s book is to bring such things out into the open. But, still … there’s probably a lot of history that residents don’t know about their own communities, myself included.

-9:41 PM
So Kira’s parents found the SIT report online – they were kind of amazed that they found it, haha – and the fire as of today is 14,000 acres, 30% contained (mostly dozer line), 1000+ people working it.

9/19/08 6:41 PM
Fire camp!! So, for the last 30 minutes of the drive, we listened to any song on any iPod that had the word "fire" in it. Lame, I know, but still fun. I’m not on the saw squad, I’m on one of the regular, hand crew type squads. Diana is my squad boss. Kira’s on my team. No info on the fire yet. I don’t have a cell signal at camp, what’s that all about? For once, Verizon works but AT&T doesn’t. Usually I’m the one with the signal and no one else. Oh well.
We had dinner, the tent is set up. We’ve got an assignment tomorrow, 5:30 am wake up.

9/20/08 7:18 AM
Gear is all set. I woke up feeling like I have camp crud. What the heck? It’s a scratchy throat and a runny nose. I must have caught something before we left Ned. It better clear up!

Fire info: 14,227 acres, 28% contained

So we may just be mopping up and digging contingency lines (augh!) or we’ll be doing direct attack with a bunch of other crews. Apparently there are 8 hand crews like us so the work could be nice and spread out. I’m still dreading the hike, though, from the looks of the terrain around us.

-10:07 PM
We ended up mopping up along a line, after spending half the day in the rigs, driving around trying to find our task force leader. We’re working in an old growth forest area, we’re surrounded by colossal trees. I got to work the hose a bit toward the end of the mop up, had to dart up the hill (it’s steep) after a few little flames. The hike wasn’t so bad, but then it’s Day 1 and we didn’t work for half the day, so …

I’ve yet to shower, we’ll see how long that lasts.

9/21/08 7:12 AM
Fire: 16,225 acres, 28% contained

I am super congested this morning, but then George gave me some Sudafed that he got from the med tent (apparently we’re both sick). It worked wonders! I feel pretty good, still congested a little but not worn down. It also probably has something to do with the fact that I got seven hours of sleep last night. Amazing! I’m not showering for the rest of the dispatch! I actually don’t feel too dirty. But then, it’s just the beginning of Day 2.

-6:33 PM
We mopped up all day, had to remop a few areas (a little bitter about that but there’s a lot of stuff on the ground). The echoing thud of massive trees falling surrounded us for the day, a few snags sounded a little close. Some of the very distant ones sounded like waves crashing when they fell.

There was lots of disorganized gridding. We wold start out in a nice line and then just kind of scatter because some hot spots that we found would take longer than others to snuff out. We also had to stand around a bit to wait for the sawyers to take care of some of the snags and smaller trees.

It sprinkled on and off throughout the day. We left early because it started to rain steady and get cold and the task force leader didn’t want anyone getting too wet and chilled.
I am filthy. I feel okay, but I really hope I start to get better. Today was a pain, constantly having to blow my nose. George stayed back today to see if it could help his condition improve faster. I’m definitely not the only one sick, then.

-9:12 PM
We got off so early from work that I’m in bed! I was going to shower but I decided against it. A hot shower might help how I feel but 1) it might not help that much, 2) it takes time and 3) sleep might help more.

9/22/08 7:28 AM
I got eight hours of sleep! I feel pretty good. Still a little congested, but good. I was gonna go to med this morning but it wasn’t open, or I went to the wrong tent. I’ll try again tonight because I also want to swing by information and get free stamped postcards! Sweet!

We have the same assignment as yesterday (mop up) but higher up in the same area.

Fire info: 16,907 acres, 48% contained

I’m coughing a little more today.

-9:12 PM
We mopped up, cold trailed and gridded a little today but it pretty much turned into Seek and Destroy. The weather warmed up a little today, the sun actually came out. Around 3:00 pm, we started digging line along the black where the burn out stopped. We heard that there was a bet placed between JT and the task force leader as to whether we could finish the line today. We ended up digging a line that stretched pretty far, but we still fell short. We never did hear what the terms were.

The hike as we dug the line sucked a little, my feet are feeling it. We dug for about four hours.

I got my free, stamped postcards with Kira, I’ll probably write them now.

I can feel my Sudafed wearing off, ack! More people are getting sick.