Thunder City, my latest assignment.

I got to sit at home for a few days, before I was tasked with supplying water to a fire just south of McCall, Idaho. My boss brought the truck to me here at the house, so the next morning I started for McCall. It is back in the mountains along a twisty narrow road that borders the Payette River.

The "IC", Incident Command, was located just off the Hwy at a little crossroads called Lake Port. After arriving, I was tasked with dust abatement within the camp. The only problem was that no one knew where to get this water. I was told to pull it from a nearby creek. I chose an irrigation ditch instead for safety reasons.

There were 284 people assigned to the fire. Their task, from the Forest Service, was to contain the fire within the Frank Church wilderness area. Since the designation of Wilderness does not allow any interference with natural occurrence's. Therefore once contained it would be allowed to burn out.

These camps are small cities that have just about everything needed by the people who are either fighting or supporting the crews that do the actual fighting. Since this was in the Wilderness area the "Hotshot Crews" rappelled from the heli's to their assigned areas. Food, water and all other supplies were brought in by these helicopters.

http://vimeo.com/71534333    password-  owyheeflyer

The next morning after arriving, my truck's starter would not engage. I had been complaining about this problem at the other two fires I had gone to, but no one could seem to find the problem. I have to admit that I do not accept those kind of failures very well. After all I am the one that is required to explain "my truck won't start" to those who are depending on me to preform the job that I was contracted to preform. After all, a truck that will not start is merely a pile of "used parts".

One of the locals gave me the number of a Mobile Mechanic, and I managed to get him to come out to camp and check it out. After some checks on the electrical system, it was decided that the starter was at fault. He got me started, and agreed to go to Boise, pick up a new starter and meet me after work to install it.

I kept the truck running all day long, and he showed up at 2000 hours ( 8 PM) to install the part. After a long and lengthy ordeal, due to the location of this part, we finished at 2400. The next morning the truck started, but I again kept it running all day long due to distrust on my part.

I went into McCall, which I would classify as a "tourist destination", with a "redneck" permanent population. I was in a NAPA parts store buying a hose clamp to stop a leak, and a guy comes walking into the store. ( Now having been a cop at one time, you learn to evaluate anyone entering your immediate area for possible threats.  I am no longer in any sort of a position to be a target, but it is ingrained, whether it is needed or not. ) What I saw was a man in great condition, dressed in shorts, sport shirt, and "Roman Style" rope sandals,---- with Aquamarine painted toenails! I guess no where is safe any more.

The entire camp began to relocate to a site nearer to the fire. The new site was a 75 mile drive to a new site just south of Yellow Pine, Idaho, on a mostly single lane dirt road that had down grades of 12 degrees.  There was 8 water tenders and we were tasked with dust abatement on this road. In eight days I put 148000 gallons of water on a four mile stretch of that road.

The weather was a lot better than it was in Vegas, and on at least two of those mornings I had to wear clothes to bed to keep warm. The only problem that I had was the many many horseflies that were waiting for only moments of inattention.

The new camp was in a meadow just south of the Johnson Creek airstrip.

 This is the Lake Port site.

 This is the new site on Johnson Creek at the Cox Ranch.

 Camp, looking south.

supply lift.

 Johnson Creek behind camp

The meadow behind camp,looking North.

One of the more interesting surprises about this trip was one of the other tender operators assigned to this job. Look close at his name tag.

I inquired about is ancestry and found that he was a fifth generation resident of Utah. The likely hood of him being in any way related is pretty remote.

  

I spent 8 days on this one, returning home yesterday. One of my first things to do is mow the yard as soon as I can. I am sure that this is not the last trip of the year for me.