July 31, 2017
The ground crews and helicopter worked on the fire all day, with the ground crews clearing a line all around the fire perimeter, and the helicopter making repeated "bucket drops" of water on the fire's hot spots. The ground crews directed the helicopter to each needed drop location, placing targets on the ground at locations where the water needed to go. The lookouts monitored the weather and wind from above, and I was close enough that I could watch the helicopter work through my binoculars, which was extremely cool. Leif served as the radio relay for the crews, constantly conveying messages back and forth to Kalispell Dispatch.
I stopped seeing visible smoke by lunchtime, and the helicopter wrapped up its work as I was eating dinner. The crews headed down a little before dark, after radioing in that the fire was 95% contained. A smaller crew is heading back in this morning to wrap things up. And for now, that's probably it!
So even though I was mostly just observing, it felt like a busy day. I spent a lot of time on the phone, sending news back and forth to 4 different lookouts ... and at the same time had to play host to a string of hikers who'd come up to visit the lookout. There were 15 of them yesterday, and six the day before -- this in contrast to Baptiste, where I've only had five visitors in 4 weeks of duty! I'm looking forward to getting back there, since I'm apparently not going to get my peace and quiet up here. :)
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Anyhow, enough fire talk ... here are a couple other random photographs from the last day. This was the view towards Glacier form the lookout catwalk last night:
So after all of the effort on Saturday, I figured the firefighting work on my little fire was just about over ... but things picked up a little bit overnight, and when I woke up yesterday morning this was the view of the fire location. It was actually really lovely, with the temperature inversion creating a long smoke trail into the valley above Bowman Lake:
I texted the photo to Leif, my lookout supervisor, but of course the crews were already planning to head back up to the fire location. They reserved helicopter Six Papa Juliet for 10 AM, and ordered a refueling truck for the copter to base at Moran Meadows, so the flights could continue throughout the day. Meanwhile, the crews hiked up to the fire and began cutting down the "hazard trees" -- ones that had already started to burn, and that could potentially fall and injure the firefighters.
The ground crews and helicopter worked on the fire all day, with the ground crews clearing a line all around the fire perimeter, and the helicopter making repeated "bucket drops" of water on the fire's hot spots. The ground crews directed the helicopter to each needed drop location, placing targets on the ground at locations where the water needed to go. The lookouts monitored the weather and wind from above, and I was close enough that I could watch the helicopter work through my binoculars, which was extremely cool. Leif served as the radio relay for the crews, constantly conveying messages back and forth to Kalispell Dispatch.
I stopped seeing visible smoke by lunchtime, and the helicopter wrapped up its work as I was eating dinner. The crews headed down a little before dark, after radioing in that the fire was 95% contained. A smaller crew is heading back in this morning to wrap things up. And for now, that's probably it!
So even though I was mostly just observing, it felt like a busy day. I spent a lot of time on the phone, sending news back and forth to 4 different lookouts ... and at the same time had to play host to a string of hikers who'd come up to visit the lookout. There were 15 of them yesterday, and six the day before -- this in contrast to Baptiste, where I've only had five visitors in 4 weeks of duty! I'm looking forward to getting back there, since I'm apparently not going to get my peace and quiet up here. :)
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Anyhow, enough fire talk ... here are a couple other random photographs from the last day. This was the view towards Glacier form the lookout catwalk last night:
I took this one earlier this morning, walking back from the outhouse:
Finally, here's a shot of the tower itself. The tower is 41 feet high, and it's turning 50 years old this summer. I'm sure the thing is solid, but it feels rickety enough at times to to be slightly unsettling.
P.S. I really appreciate the comments I've gotten, and I'll respond to them all ... but it might not be until I get back down. My only internet up here is a very tenuous data connection on my phone, and using it is really, really painful.