July 21. Were on our way home to Negrito for some much needed R&R. We got three days off this time. Most of us are getting over the poison oak. Only two people on the crew ended up without it. I'm still sitting here itching...

July 19-21.

July 19-21. Staging for fire. We got the opportunity to watch a ton of fire behavior from a park on the Los Padres. Great learning experience.

July 18. Ian. He got the oak pretty bad.

July 18. Inversion on our way to camp. I slept on a yellow jacket nest last night. Woke up with a sleeping bag full of bees biting me. Ended up sleeping in the buggy. At this point more then half the crew has gotten poison oak shots and were getting tired of itching. My arms swelled up pretty good.

July 17. Jesse again... Nice mustache.

July 17. I think these things are endangered.

July 17. Richie!

July 17. Burnout operations. Our chunk of line was behind a bunch of structures. Our goal while burning was to not nuke out the "nice old mans back yard". So, we took it slow and brought fire down off the ridges and meet up with the dozer lines. The burn went extremely well. I even got to burn a good part of the day. The saw teams rarely get a chance to burn so it was awesome.

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July 16. Olie.

July 16. Our chunk of line isn't to be burned until the 17th so after prepping we watched the fire behavior from the other crews that had started to burn.

July 15. Plans changed to burning off dozer line. We spent the day prepping for the burn. One could sum up the day as swimming in poison oak. By this point we've had one guy get flown off the Gap fire to get treated for oak. His legs swelled up at least twice normal. Base camp has a trailer set up just for giving shots and prescription drugs for oak.

July 13. Erin...

July 13. East Basin Complex. Watching heavy helicopters pound the brush.

July 13. East Basin Complex. Los Padres N.F. The Gap Fire was getting buttoned up so they redirected us to a higher priority fire a few hours north. Our assignment is to access a slop ever from they day before and go direct with line. The area is considered wilderness. In this picture you can see the 5 blade wide D8 dozer line right through the middle of the wilderness area. Odd sight in a wilderness area. The local wilderness oversight group didn't care about dozer line but they got up in arms that people were driving ATV's on it. Found that pretty funny.

We didn't end up going direct because the slop was to dangerous. Dewey said it resembled South Canyon in terms of preheated fuels, potential fire behavior and lack of a safety zone.

July 9-12. Breaking down spike camp and building sling loads of trash and gear.

July 9-12. Jesse again...

July 9-12. Gap Fire. Graham and Jesse.

July 9-12. Gap Fire. After hiking into spike camp Dewey put me on the spot and had me direct the long line helicopter drop of our spike gear and water. It was my first time directing in a chopper and the pilot was anything but helpful. I heard later that the crew was crowded around the radios listening to my radio traffic. It was good laugh apparently. Murphy's law was in full effect. In the end it went well.

July 9-12. The many uses of chap stick.

July 9-12. Gap Fire. The crew is going to spike out until the line is complete. The hike in would be brutal everyday otherwise. On the way to So Cal our buggies exhaust pipe broke and we causing some issues. So I got delegated into staying in camp all morning while they got parts and fixed it. I would have liked to be with the crew instead of being board out of my mind in camp. I ended up helping the mechanic fix the exhaust which speed things up a bit. Then hiked into the spike camp.

July 8. In the picture you can get an idea of the brush. It wasn't to horribly thick and steep. We ended up making good time.

July 8. Gap Fire. The assignment was direct line. I cut almost all day in the brush and got supper dehydrated. I had to give up the saw because my arms started to cramp. looooong day.

July 8. Gap Fire. New division today. The priority is protecting some homes up in the brush mountains. The closest access to the fire was Alan Parsons house. From the Alan Parsons Project which apparently is a band that was popular in the 70's. I'd never heard of it. He's got a nice house with plenty of buggy parking.

July 7. Fire picked up late and sending the crew into some direct line building. You can see another division in the background that lost their line at the end of the day.

July 7. Gap Fire. Long exposure down in a "coolie". Thats Canadian for drainage.

July 7. Gap Fire. Back in the brush! Its our second time in So Cal this year. Earlier this season in San Berdoo we had thorns and 10 ft brush. In Santa Barbara we now have poison oak and 12-20ft brush. This is when I got poison oak the first time. I'm still itching as I write this...

July 6. Dispatched to Souther California. Spent the day traveling and anticipating.

July 7. Gap Fire. We got redirected once in So Cal. Santa Barbara bound. A couple of the guys got to see the Pacific for the first time. One Hotshot saw the ocean for the first time.

We arrived late to the fire line. Put in some hose and mopped an edge of the fire that had gotten hot the day before. Lots of houses in some really bad spots.

July 3-5. Wind blowing into the fire nicely.

July 3-5. Fire picked up a little but the rains never let it get any bigger then this.

July 3-5. Long Fire Use. Burning down to the road.

July 3-5. Long Fire. The whole crew is together again. This shoot is of us bringing the fire to the road before we left for the night.

July 3-5. Long Fire Use. We got approval to fire use the Long Fire. For most of us this is our first fire use. Fire use is different from a controlled burn in that you might put some fire on the ground to corral the fire and keep it controlled. However, mostly as a crew member you just watch it and check for spot fires. Easy work. The district ranger wanted the fire well documented so I got to be the official photographer. Since we didn't have much to do I hiked around getting pictures of flame lengths and the lighting tree.

July 2-3. Long Fire Use. On the second we got dispatched to the Silver Fire but got canceled. On the third we got dispatched to two separate fires. One squad went to the Water Fire. While my squad went to the Long Fire. When we arrived the fire was scouted out and determined to be a lighting strike. This time of year is monsoonal rains in New Mexico. That creates a great opportunity for a fire use fire. To use a fire instead of suppressing it takes approval from high up in the Forest Service so we spent the day watching the fire. Also we did a little burning to keep the fire in check. Since the location is close to our base we spent the night in the barracks while the other squad got rained on all night.

Picture is of Dewey joking around with some safety glasses he found on the side of the road.

June 29-July 1. Rest and Relaxation. Went to Flagstaff. Had a good old time. Only damper was the news articles about two helicopters that collided during medical evacuations in Flagstaff. One of the six people that died was a Hotshot who was being flown to a hospital for an allergic reaction.

June 28. We spent the next couple days moping up different edges of the fire. Today we got released for paid days off. This picture is of the sun set from fire base camp which was a high school.

June 26. Big Matt walking the road that was burned off of.

June 26. We ended up griding in the green most of the day for spot fires. Sounds like the crews doing the burning today had some good action.

June 26. The column growing as the burnout meets the main fire. This area of NM near Albuquerque had burned earlier in the season. The fire next to this was the Torigo Fire and it consumed numerous homes.

June 26. Another picture as we zoomed by the burnout.

June 26. Big Springs Fire. On the 25th we staged in Ruidoso. When we arrived on the Big Springs fire several hotshot crews had already been working for several days. They were in the middle of a burnout and Gila was the odd man out. My squad staged in our trucks for spot fires off a road while the other squad IA's some 20 spot fires that had just started. This picture is from the buggy as we patrolled the line.

June 24. Mop-up on the Diablo Fire. Ended up 80 acres. Found out today in the news that a guy got eaten by a mountain lion in Silver City a mile from were we had been snagging the road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. First reported kill in NM 37 years.

June 23 Diablo Fire. In route to the fire we got a mention on a local Ruidoso radio station. Something about Gila Hotshots going to protect homes. On the way our buggy broke down with about a mile to get to the fire. The serpentine belt stripped off and cut the wire to the fan clutch. The buggy kept over heating but Brian our squad leader was able to limp into the fire by coasting down the mountain with the engine off. This picture is a long expose of our mop-up that went till around midnight.

June 22. Jesse working with the diggers. I think he's trying to trade his Pulaski for my saw. Not going to happen.

June 22. Dropping slurry.

June 22. Another slop over. Picked up by air tankers we moved in and finished it off. Some of the drops were so low to the ground that they tore brush out with the slurry. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that.

June 22. Close up of our Charlie Brown Christmas cactus of coffee mugs.

June 22. Hotshots love their coffee. Morning cowboy coffee made on my camp stove.

June 21. Alex ran the squad as a fire fighter 1 trainee. Rich is burning out with a fuse while the holding crew stomps out the grass and swats it out with branches. A much faster technique then putting in hand line.

June 21. Bonnie Fire. Located on BLM land near the Lincoln some 27000 acres burned. Today we burned out some line and a road to stop a slop over from the day before. I took this picture as we hiked in.

June 20. Andy and Brian showing off some elk sheads they found shortly before we few out.