The Pleasures and Perils of Life as a Hotshot-2005: Part 2- Kings and Corn

[SherpaStyle]

In case you missed Part 1

Well, Kings and corn isn't entirely accurate, but Silvers and Flames doesn't sound quite as cool. For our second big assignment of the year we were called to AK. We were all in disbelief from the time we got the call from dispatch on the afternoon of July 15th, until we finally reached the fire line on the 18th. The two days of travel were long and tedious due to the anticipation of finally making it to a place that I've dreamt of visiting since I was 10 years old. We were forced to cut back on some of the niceties that one might generally pack for a trip to AK due to a weight restriction of 45 lbs. of gear per person (fireline gear and personal gear). I was in a bit of a pinch considering my line gear weighs 30 lbs. without water. So, in order to cut back to 15 lbs of personal gear I started downloading. Tent- a bivy will do. Raincoat- a little rain never killed anyone. Long underwear- it can't be any colder than Jackson... Emergency blanket/tarp- how often do I use that thing? Once we arrived at the Missoula airport we were informed that the plane that normally carries 5 crews at 5500 lbs each would only be taking 4 crews, so the weight limits wouldn't be in effect. We were all a bit disgruntled to hear this news, but the excitement that our crew was going to AK for the second time in it's history of 38 years kept our spirits high.

Glaciers from plane


We arrived in Fairbanks on the night of the 16th. Sleep didn't come easily for the first few nights due to the perpetual daylight. We found that things are a bit backwards in AK when we arrived at the Incident Command Post in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. In the 2 hours we spent waiting for our transportation to the fire we witnessed 2 car accidents, a drunk lady who spent 45 minutes trying to bribe us to save her house and let all her neighbors houses burn down (she finally decided it was time to leave when the second accident happened in a 3 acre parking lot with 6 cars in it), and a supply unit leader who was threatening to gouge one of his coworkers eyes out and skull fuck him. It was an interesting intro to the Last Frontier.

We finally got transported to the fire, where we began to set up camp and waited for the second half of our crew. After a couple hours we began to worry. They had left for camp almost 2 hours before us. When they arrived their chauffer's excuse for getting lost was that he knew the roads in the area TOO well. The remainder of the day was spent setting up camp because it was too late to get flown to the fire. When you put 20 guys from N. Idaho in the wilds of Alaska, their redneck tendencies come out in full force. We had the nicest camp I've ever seen. Our shitter was the envy of the entire fire.

Setting up camp


The flag pole for the shitter


The fire was on the Kenai National Moose Range. When we first arrived on the fire we were told that it was a Wildfire Use Incident, meaning the fire isn't being actively suppressed, it's just being monitored and guided away from structures and other valuable resources. Eventually the fire became catergorized as a regular fire, although our tactics didn't change much. Our goal was to conduct a huge burnout in order to obliterate over 100,000 acres of bug-killed timber.

Alaskan "sunset"


The first day we spent on the line it rained intermittently until we were pulled off the line at 8 o'clock. I began to realize the mistake I'd made by not packing the raincoat. Our spirits remained unscathed as we humored ourselves by exchanging bear stories with Timmy, our bear guard for the assignment. The Silver Valley boys were all enamored with the idea of getting paid to tote around a shotgun looking for bears on fires all summer.


It continued to rain through the night and into the following day. We were unable to make it to the fire because it was too foggy for the helicopters to fly. Instead we spent the day improving camp. The boys constructed chairs, tables, tiki torches, a spit, and various other knick-knacks to make our camp more enjoyable. It didn't take long to see that being stranded in a confined area with a group of people could easily result in a Lord of the Flies type of scenario. It would only be a matter of time before we might start calling someone "Piggy" and have a moose or bear head driven through a spike at the entrance of our camp.
Making tiki torches


The amount of rain we'd gotten in 24 hours had us all worried that our days were numbered on the Kenai, but the forecast called for drier weather, so the fire management decided to hold on to us and continue to prepare for the burn out. We spent the next 3 days cutting a fuel break through the bug kill in preparation for the burnout.
Bug Kill


The third day it rained again, so we were told to pack up the bug spray because we were headed for Eagle, AK, where the mosquitos would be so thick you couldn't breathe.

To be continued...

[SherpaStyle]

...We hopped on a bus with one of the local AK hotshot crews and headed for Soldotna. I thought we had a pretty burly crew this year, but we look like teenagers next to the AK natives. We came to the conclusion that in order to be on an Alaska shot crew you have to be over 6'3" or have more hair on your face than on your head.

The following morning we were greeted by the supply guy who didn't hesitate to warn us that the f'in bus driver was a witch. We flew out of Soldotna in a small 15 person plane, arrived in Eagle and shipped off to the Boundary Creek Fire on helicopters. We dropped our gear at camp and started hiking towards the hotshot crews that were burning out. A 3 1/2 mile warm up hike got the blood flowing again. We enjoyed the show until it became our turn to burn. We only made it about 1/2 mile before the humidity rose and the tundra stopped effectively carrying fire. We headed back to camp for the night.

Saws watching the burn.7-23






Day 2 on the Boundary Ck Fire was a long one. We passed the morning hours by cutting Black Spruce in preparation for a long day of burning. The burn began in the early afternoon. Three hotshot crews were burning different areas of the fire at the same time. Our column is on the left, the column that almost burned up our camp is on the right and Lolo's column is the one in the middle on the opposite side of the fire.
Three seperate columns


My day started out sort of rough when I was packing a Dolmar full of saw gas on my shoulder. Generally, if you spill saw gas on yourself it stings a little and then stops hurting, but apparently Alaskan gas is a little more volatile. After about 30 seconds I realized that my shoulder was starting to burn, so I lowered the gas can from my shoulder and continued hiking. The burning didn't subside for 45 minutes, but I failed to acknowledge the severity of my circumstance. I sucked it up and kept hiking. The day began to drag as my shoulder continued to throb and the miles of patrolling dozer line in thick smoke added up. As the burn continued to the south I was left behind to monitor the 2 miles of line we had already burned. I wandered back and forth taking advantage of any pocket of fresh air I found along the way. Eventually, I was relieved of my duty to patrol the line by a supervisor on a 4-wheeler. I knew my crew had gained a lot of ground by the location of the column they were putting up as they progressed. I set to hiking and didn't slow down until I reached them. It took over 45 minutes to catch them. The two columns on our side of the fire had joined and we were carrying the burnout to the south in order the tie it into the burnout Lolo was conducting. I didn't get much of a break before we were on the move again.

Holding


Burning.7-24


The two seperate columns were billowing above us and we knew things might get interesting when they joined. We finished the burn around 7 pm. I sat and admired the column that towered 10,000 feet above me. I turned my radio off to listen to the force of the fire that was consuming thousands of acres of fuel. Within a few minutes we began to hear thunder. A few of us looked at each other in disbelief. The column had created thunder, which is very rare. In the distance I could hear radios beginning to chatter, so I turned mine back on. Shit was hitting the fan. Apparently 1 1/2 miles away there was a huge fire whirl that was blowing by a bar and liquor store. People were yelling over the radio. It was unnerving to listen to. Firestorm. A term that most of us scoff at, due to the Howie Long's portrayal of such an event. Everyone was ordered to pull out. We started hiking in. Once we reached the ridge where the commotion was occurring, I learned that tact is seldom used on fires in Alaska. The fire activity was intense, but by the time we arrived it didn't seem there was any cause for panic. The fire had spotted across the highway and the spot was growing quickly. We dove in and began to cut line with another shot crew. After 30 minutes or so it became apparent that the sopt was out of our control and we weren't going to catch it with the resources we had. Air attack estimated it to be 1000 acres before the night was over. We called it a loss and headed towards the nearest helispot, relieved to learn that we didn't have to hike another 6 miles back to camp. All in all I hiked nearly 15 miles that day.

Fire


As I lay in my bivy that night, my shoulder continued to throb. I finally mustered up the courage to touch my skin to find out how bad it was. There was no denying it anymore, I knew I had a pretty bad partial thickness burn covering most of my right scapula. The next day I lightly placed my pack on my shoulders and attempted to hike without aggrivating it. After a couple miles of hiking I decided I was in enough pain to have the other EMT look at it. I stripped off my shirt for him to check it out. As our foreman was in the middle of giving the daily weather briefing he glanced up and saw my shoulder. He stopped mid-sentence. "Temps 65-70, RH 30-...Holy shit, Liz! What the hell is that from?" I got all taped up and proceeded with the day.
Chemical burns suck!


The next few days we secured the line we burned out. We kept ourselves entertained by looking for caribou sheds and having an MREat-off.

Caribou rack


Each squad had a contestant who had from 7am to 10 pm to consume as many MREs as possible. The contestants breaking into MRE number 1. The guy on my squad started off a little too fast and puked by 1300. The winner ate 9 MREs, probably around 15,000 calories. It was pretty disgusting.
MREat-Off


Benzoil's defeat


Cooking salmon


A cold front moved in as we neared the end of our 14 day roll. The last 2 days the high only got to 45 degrees. Our efficiency decreased dramatically as we were more inclined to stoke the hot spots on the fire rather than put them out. The cold weather made people start talking about skiing and the season to come, which was still 3 months out. I had to walk away from the conversation a few times. I can't deal with thinking about skiing while I'm on fires until at least September, I get too depressed.

The sawyers heard that Black Spruce is a good tool to use to knock back fire in tundra. They learned it doesn't put out smokes very well, but at least it kept them warm.


Another sawyer's idea of a mopup tool.


Part 3 is in the works. It might be another couple weeks though...

Hotshot crew shuttle

[13]

Sweeeet pictures, Liz.

Go big or go home seems to be the Alaskan motto for everything. The column from the Bdy. Creek fire is enormous, dude.

[Tippster]

Incredible. How's the shoulder?

[Karl Stall]

Thanks for sharing - amazing lifestyle.

[Pura Vida]

AK is such an amazing place. I had dreampt about since I was a kid as well and had my dream realized last summer, spending 3 months up there. Thanks for sharing, it brings back good memories. The immensity of the fires up there is crazy. While I was not there fighting fires, we did spend the first 3 weeks engulfed in the windblown smoke with virtually no visibility. The upside to this was once the winds shifted and the landscape revealed itself we saw what an insane place we were in and made us appreciate it that much more. Stay safe, thanks for the TR

[Buzzworthy]

That was rivetting! I just went straight thru that. So cool.

Hope that shoulder heals well. Wow, that is some serious gas.


Your pictures will look REALLY nice on my (not existing yet) coffee table!

[Pinner]

Glad to hear you're staying safe.

Bummer about the rug burn, though.

[Buzzworthy]

Bummer about the rug burn, though.

Nominated for POTD.

[ill-advised strategy]

I laughed until I had tears....9 MRE's...

UT-NUC's conclusion...he'll die of whatever happens when your bowels are completely plugged. Seriously, how long was that dude constipated after the MREatoff?

Thanks for that!!

[freshie247]

Gravy TR.That chem burn didn't look like fun.

[LAN]

Bummer about the rug burn, though.

Looks more like tundra burn to me.

[SherpaStyle]

I laughed until I had tears....9 MRE's...

UT-NUC's conclusion...he'll die of whatever happens when your bowels are completely plugged. Seriously, how long was that dude constipated after the MREatoff?

Thanks for that!!

He actually ended up with "flu-like" symptoms for most of the night...ie constipation never had a chance to become established. I think MREs are a diarrhetic now. The 500 calorie dairy shakes were the ruin of the other two competitors.

The man, the myth, the legend:


The shoulder's all healed up. Rug burn, eh...ouch, that was a low blow, pin.

[ill-advised strategy]

Yeah, it seems like MRE selection/ luck of the draw would have something to do with it, at least in a close race...you know, if you get a lot of vagitarian bean burritos you're way ahead of the vienna sausages/meatloaf...etc..

hard to say. I know this, MRE's don't have any kind of diarretic effect on my ass.

were there rules relating to consuming every part of the beast....then making some sort of implement from it's hide?

Grrrreat pics!!

Let's hope for more fire and more $$ and more great trip reports from the panhandler!

[ill-advised strategy]

so....what's new w/ the IHC?

[truth]

Rug burn, eh...ouch, that was a low blow, pin.

Nah, that would've been on the knee.

[Phatstix]

Killer post! I think your quote summed up what I was thinking. Well, except I don't have a big house......
You are one hardcore mamacita!

[SherpaStyle]

so....what's new w/ the IHC?

Season ender: September 10th

That's one well trained rookie!

We just got home from the Signal Rock fire where it snowed 4 inches and the temp was in the upper teens every morning. It was awesome!

Now its on to stacking sticks for the remainder of the fall, unless we go down south for hurricane relief. I'm still waiting to find out about the permanent (lead crewmember) position I applied for at the beginning of the season. The job closed May15th and the cert expired Sept 9th, but somehow our supt got another extension. I think he's just trying to figure out a way to justify giving the job to his "son" who has the same amount of fire experience as the 4 other people in the running and less quals/intelligence/leadership skills. It should be interesting to see what happens with it. It could get ugly.

We don't really have a tentative layoff date. Our 1039 is up around Oct 20th, but if we don't get dispatched again I doubt we'll work that late. This job gets pretty tough this time of the year... Seeing snow the other day made me lose focus completely. I wish there were no in between seasons. Just going from full-on fire season straight into full-on ski season would be nice.