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.
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