Yellowstone. For the rest of the week Kimsey, Scott and I camped out in Wyoming. We hit most of the popular geysers, canyons, falls, fire damage, mountain views and wildlife. Hiking is by far the best way to view the park. The roads are full of RV's that are incapable of going over 5 mph and people that like to view the herds of buffalo from the comfort of the middle of the road. On the flip side the hiking trails are pleasantly empty since the majority of people don't get past the road access overlooks. On our last night we went into town to a rodeo. While waiting in line someone gave us free tickets located in the locals section. Saved us $20 a piece and we got some of the best seats in the arena. For my first time at a rodeo it was great. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone interested in animal rights.

Break! Much needed and deserved RR from the Americorps life style. For the first weekend Brooks, Kimsey, Scott, Melanie and I went to Vegas. I'd post some pictures but no one took any... You know what they say "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". Personally I won about $50 and lost about $60. The way I figure with all the comp drinks I'm way ahead of the casinos.

Brinker Fire - 14th-17th, 94 acres. Located in Northern CO's Hot Sulfur Springs. The forest experienced a 90% beetle kill from the Mountain Pine Beetle. When the fire started the dead trees crowned into huge flames which engulfing a huge area of standing dead. In addition it burned a logging operation that included large log piles. By the time we arrived a bull dozer had built a line around 70% of the fire. Our goal was to build line around the remaining fire and contain any spot fires. It took us all day and ended up being around a half mile of hand line (34 chains). The next day we spent mopping up. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures.

Spinning Weather

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Its hard too see what Steve "Hawk" is doing but we spin weather to determine relative humidity. We also do temps and wind.

Brinker Fire from a distance

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The fires edge is up on the top of the hill

Gold Lake Mountain Resort

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Gold Lake Mountain Resort

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Three men doing one man's job

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Filling blivets

bucket drop operations (picking up water)

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Heli tech

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The air support for Spring Gulch was out of Gold Lake Mountain Resort & Spa. Great little place in Ward, CO.

Spring Gulch Fire - Three acres. Spent three days working on this fire doing a variety of duties. First job was filling blivets for the heli-tech crew. The blivet water bags are 55 gallons and way around 400 pounds when full. The helicopter was designed for the Nepalese army in the 70's and is allowed to carry 800 pounds when at full capacity. It can operate at extremely high altitudes. We also watched as it took several bucket drops. The next two days I spent mopping up on the fire, Also we did a fire check on the Gold Hill Fire. Fire checks are doing a final walk through a fire to call it out after mop up operations.

Arkansas Mountain Fire - Mop up

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Checking for heat

Arkansas Mountain Fire - Short morning of mop up. Fire started from a lighting strike totaling around a half acre. It had a high priority because it backed up to a house. Due to the easy road access it got labeled a "water show" since we has pump trucks dumping water on smoke and hot spots. The duff was up to 6 inches thick which allowed for burning under the ground that you cant see. It took several days after we left before it was considered out because of that underground burning.

Trail construction

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Making duff, mineral soil and rocks do our bidding.

Proudly completed trail

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Aaron, Scott and Patrick

Falling!

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After making a back cut and hammering in some wedges the tree falls. We later stripped the bark off and cut the tree into sections.

Face cut

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Using an axe you chop out a 45% angle. Cutting a clean face leaving no Dutchman(hard to explain but very bad).

Cross Cut saw

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In a wilderness area restrictions limit felling to hand tool(that means no chain saws). The bark is striped from this tree that will soon be a bridge. We strip the bark so that any rock dust that has been blown into the bark will not dull the saw. The cut that is being made is the "face cut" it determines the direction of falling.

Moffat Tunnel

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At the base of the James Peak Wilderness is the Moffat Tunnel. 6 miles long and ends at Winter park. Above the tunnel is the Continental Divide. We got to tour the vent building that pushs the diesel exhaust out.

James Peak Wilderness. For the last couple days a group of 6 corps members including myself have been doing trail maintenance. Frank our contact with the Forest Service Recreation has been instructing us and leading our work. Mostly we've been clearing trees that have fallen on trails, building drainage and improving or creating trail.

The Blue Mountain Fire made the local news paper and CNN local. Completely unrelated: A group of us ran into the filming of The Real World (MTV) in downtown Denver on my birthday. It was hilarious how staged it is. MTV must have a deal with the local authorities since they had 4 officers there. Must be more important then enforcing the law.