Spiked out. We had some bad food during our spike that got half the crew sick. Signs of food poising probably from our lunches sandwiches. Alex pictured here got hit first. Beware of Porta Pit Catering...

Spike out. We stayed on the hill for two nights. Long days in some tough country. The saws ran non stop till dark. The sawyers spent a fair amount of time sharpening rocked saws and the swampers grew tired from moving 12ft brush. Good early season warm up. As for fire behavior we saw little smoke and the fire was completly out after the first day. The reason they often will keep us on longer in Cali is often political. The fire "Team" that has been assigned to fight the fire can't give the fire back to the local district untill the district is confident enough that the fire is out. This can take a few days for the districts confidence to be built up. Also in Cali they like to have line completly around a fire even if it isn't moving.

So Cal. More of the fires edge.

May 2nd. Apache Fire - 700 acres. We got flown into the fire via a 205 chopper. The fires edge sat along a ridge and the Pacific Coast Trail. The country is steep and mostly cats claw and other brush 6 to 12 feet high. I was running a saw as one of the 4 saw teams.

May 1st. Dispatched to Southern California's San Bernardino N.F. Spent two days traveling staying over night in Globe AZ.

De-mobe. On the third day of the Bee Hive we got sent back to Negrito. SWICC is under the impression we are more needed in NM, home we go. Short of our 14 days needed to get R&R.

Moth. Erin found a nice moth specimen. So, after examining it in true hotshot nature we pooled together 50 bucks and got one of the guys to eat it. Great video clip...

"Big" Matt. We have two Matts as rookies on the crew. Matt in this picture stands 6 feet 8 inches tall earning him the nickname Big Matt.

Slurry line. In this snap shot you can see the red slurry line that mainly stopped the fire. It extended almost perfectly around all 300 acres. Note this fire is on the boarder with Mexico and most likely got started by a UDA's (undocumented alien) distress or camp fire maybe even from drug running.

Landing spot. We spent one night on the hill and headed home the next afternoon. I stayed back at the heli spot the second day to learn how to bundle sling loads. It turned out to be incredibly simple. Sling loads are nets that we drop and pickup stuff with the helicopters.

Heli ride home. The ship is a 212 incase you are wondering.

Helicopter ride. Snapshot out the heli window. We tend to get more air rides in the desert. I think mostly due to the remoteness and hiking dehydration factor.

April 24th - Bee Hive Fire. 300 acres. After leaving the Rocky Fire on the afternoon of day 3 we spent a night at our base Negrito. Early on the 24th we got dispatched to the Coronado N.F. in AZ. When we arrived the fire had been lined by air tankers and was well towards being under control.

Day 2 - Rocky Fire. Time for mop-up. We finished off several small spot fires that had been lined the night before. Gridded for potential undiscovered spot fires and secured the main fire line.

Keeping warm. Cold night operations on the Gila.

13. On a hillside where rolling material can ignite fuel below. One of our 18 Watch Out Situations (thanks Jesse). Heavies like this burning log tend to roll as they burn. Our biggest worry was rocks being sent down by diggers or logs rolling over our line.

Holding. Sometimes we wait for the saws to get a head start on us diggers. This is one of those instances.

Some pictures I post just because they show an aspect of wildland firefighting. Some because they are to me good pictures. Others I think the composition is neat. Not sure were this one falls in...

Rocky Fire - April 21. 22 acres. Exactly one month earlier than last season we arrive on our first fire of 2008. To get to the fire we traveled some Gila N.F. back roads I'd never experienced. To sum it up it was 4 hours and a rough ride to the SW of the Gila. When we arrived the fire was 2/3rds lined by engine crews. Our assignment was to take the east flank up some fairly step terrain to complete the line. We arrived at dusk and worked well into the night. The experience was good for the new folks and to get the kinks worked out.

Andy. Another one of Gila's rookies.

Rich. One of our rookies this year. He came from a season with the Blue Ridge Hotshots. Entertaining the camera.

Sawyer. Everyone got re-certified on the chainsaws today. During the down time we did refreshers on GPS, spinning weather and compasses. A graduate student is doing a study to determine the accuracy of fire weather forecasts. So this year our fire weather records are a little more in depth.

Also, I retained my B cert from last year.

Fishing. Hit up a small fishing hole near Negrito. Money got a 12inch trout out of it.

Disclaimer. I added more to the heading on this blog. Aparrently some other IHCs have been reading my blog since it comes up on google when you type in Gila Hotshots. A guess they didn't like some entries. Oh well.

Burn canceled. Our first weekend was supposed to be spent earning overtime on a prescribed fire on the Gila NF. Since the forest has been in Red Flag warnings all week they canceled the burn.

The good news "for me" is fires are already starting in the south west. All the available Hotshot crews in region are dispatched to fires in NM. We should become available when our foremen returns from a training assignment in about 4 days. Then with any luck we will be on the road to overtime, hazard pay and free food.

Pack test. Every year all wildland firefighters for the Forest Service have to carry 45 pounds for 3 miles in 45 minutes. Gila IHC crosses the line at the sametime as close to the 45 minutes as possible.

Dove. Giving one of the rookies, Andy, a cut.

Jesse.

Ian. Getting buzzed.

Mohawks. Its that time again. Only got five people to get trimmed up this year. Down five from last season. I didn't participate so I can't complain.

The first week as a Gila Hotshot is always the same. Day one - refresher training. Day two - Pack test then 7 miles of power hiking. Rest of the week is more refresher training.

On a side note I hiked a chain saw on the power hike this year. I'm not on the saw team but they did open a firefighter type 1 task book.

Season 2. Back to Negrito after a two and a half week vacation. Its great to see all the returning firefighter as well as meet the rookies. I missed the Gila Forest a lot this winter. I'm glad its just how I left it.

Webster Pass pano. Didn't come out to good need to start using a tripod...

This is were I broke through the snow into a creek on my way up. Scared the heck out of me! Only got my legs soaked up to the knee before I crawled out. I'm not sure how deep it really was and you couldn't tell it was there. I took this picture on my way back trying to avoid it through deeeeep snow. The guys at work knew about the creek and said it runs deep in the summer.

This is were I ditched my weighted pack for a while. Enabling me to bounce around up top a little more.

I can only imagine how much fun hiking you can do in the summer here!

Other side of Webster Pass.

Summit Webster pass. A rough road follows the peaks so a road sign and some restrictions are placed on top. I think the elevation is over 12,000ft here but thats a guess.

Webster Pass...

Webster Pass. Cool looking bowl. If you watch the movies "The Bucket List" some areal scenes are shot in this area and i hear it looks like the alps in the movie...

Webster Pass. Turns out this cloudy day was a great chance to take some B&W pictures. I left a few in color so that one can get the idea of the earth tones up above tree line (11,500).

Webster Pass. Another PT/fun hike. This pass is off the same road as Montezuma mt, Deer Creek and Peru Creek that I've posted pictures of.

Loveland Pass. elevation 11,990 ft. Closes often in the winter for avalanche basting and is the only alternative to the Eisenhower tunnel. Also its a back country ski favorite.

Loveland Pass. Heading to the Denver airport with Tara sister I took a few shots sight seeing from the road.

This is as far as I got. Didn't bring any water with me only 35 pounds of sand. being thirsty I called it a day.

Nice clouds huh?

This is one of the many places that snowmobilers stage while towing skiers up the surrounding mountains. While I was hanging out here for a few minutes some guy broke his snowmobile and had to leave it and hike out with no snowshoes. Made me laugh a little.

Little more up the hill. Looking back.

Looking back a little ways down the trail. I think that is Montezuma Mt.

Took a hike up Deer Creek. Great sunny day, warm and windy.

Tara waiting for the bus after riding some fresh snow before work. Its been great living a short bus ride from the hill. We've been spending some of our days off at a friends place at Vail resort about 30 miles west on I-70. Vail tends to get twice as much now as Keystone.

An old mining camp slowly getting buried snow.

This season has been plagued with avalanches. Many skiers and snowboards have been caught in slides in the area close to Keystone. This pictures is of a full snow depth slide on the way up the pass. Last year I didn't even see one slide up here. Not a good sign for backcountry skiers.

Took a snowshoe hike up Argentine Pass. One of my favorite winter hikes near Keystone Resort. Its been a great year for snow fall. The mining camps along the hike are getting slowly buried by snow.