End of Fire Season! On the road!

With forest fires raging through much of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, but with wet weather arriving in Alberta, many of our crews were sent on export to assist fire fighting efforts in several of those jurisdictions.  Our fire camp was fairly quiet as a result, but my rumours that the camp was closing apparently had no effect.  I was ready to call it a season and move on.  One project underway was the renovation and addition of a second level to one of our nearby mountain-top lookouts.  However, that was delayed several times as we could not get a heavy-lift helicopter that was needed, as they were all employed elsewhere dropping water on fires!  But eventually we prevailed and one became available, and it spent a couple days moving heavy loads to the mountain top.

My trailer is visible in the background.

 

New metal deck on it’s way up to the lookout.

Around the same time, as lookouts were starting to close for the season, we were making sure they all had a plentiful supply of propane for next year, by flying in some new tanks.

Finally, this happened!  I was finally able to convince them that fire season was over.

It did melt by the next day, but I was hooked up and ready to vacate the area.  The rig had been there unmoved since early May if memory serves me correctly.  All power provided during that time by my solar system, and the black tank didn’t get dumped till I was on the way home.

Great feeling to be done work, and headed down the road with rig in tow!

Here are a couple of 360* photo spheres I did in the latter part of the summer.  The first is taken from the cupola in a fire lookout.  Because I was half in and half out the window, Google had difficulty blending the photos together!

Photo Sphere taken on the shore of Abraham Lake, near the David Thompson resort.  This one worked out much better.  Check it out!

It’s a bit early to be headed south, so I think Hailey and I will just have to take another pre-roadtrip roadtrip before that time.  How about the west coast and Vancouver Island?

SEPTEMBER

September is here!

That means work is almost done for another year, and it is almost time to pack up and head south again!

Last time I updated, Hailey and I were still at the fire lookout near Slave Lake, AB.

The flowers were still a-blooming

A family of black bears paid a visit.

And I contemplate my commute down to the ground.

There appeared to be a camera on a nearby communications tower, and another one was topped with spines – perhaps to deter birds, or perhaps as lightning protection?

While there, an exceedingly rare sight!  Hailey actually drinking water out of her own water dish!  She much prefers water out of a sink.  Even if it is her same dish – placed IN the sink!

It had rained a bit, so they opted to fly us out again, rather than risk the muddy road.

Back at home for a few days, the bird feeders created nothing but conflict!

On the other side of the house, a young barn swallow still likes to spend time in the nest.

Several of my friends have turned out to be authors after they retired.  I finally had the time to pick up two of them recently at Chapters.  Randy was a college classmate of mine who spent most of his career with Federal Fisheries, and Rob was born and raised in Jasper National Park, where I worked with him as a Park Warden.

Not to be missed, another recently retired park warden has recently published his first in this series.  George Mercer – Dyed in the Green.  And Dale Portman, another retired park warden and dog handler I worked with in Jasper has several books in print.

And Dale’s wife Kathy Calvert – one of the very first female park wardens in Canada – also has a book  Quest for the Summits, and Guardians of the Peaks, which she co-authored with her husband.

I hope I have not missed any more author friends …!

I think that should do for this post – have to save something for the next one.

Planes, Helicopters, and other Aircraft

After our last tour to a northern Alberta fire tower, Hailey and I made it back to camp, and eventually back home for days off.  The grassland around my house was more like a hayfield, but after boosting the riding mower, the grass was slashed back to a more presentable and manageable level.  This also had the effect of exposing all the gopher mounds that were regularly popping up.  I’ve rarely seen these critters and they seem to be more active at night, but there was one that seemed to be a bit confused.  He therefore caught my attention, and that of my GoPro camera.  A bit later – Hailey also noticed …!

Check out the video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57xrl8Y5qJg

I had some possible plans for the days off, including a music festival, but the weather reports looked bad, so that idea was scrubbed.  At the last minute, the weather looked good enough for an airshow a bit over an hours drive away, so that was the spur of the moment decision.

There were a lot of different acts and performers including sky dive teams, aerobatic planes, a CF-18 painted in Battle of Britain colours.

And, of course the Snowbirds were there.  All Canadians know the Snowbirds, but for those south of the border, they are our version of the Blue Angels.

All too soon, it was back to ‘work’.  But after only a few days, yet another opportunity arose and Hailey and I were only too happy to volunteer for it.  I think we are getting the routine down to an art.  Go home and load up the Rubbermaid containers, cat food, and everything else for a mini road trip!  As usual of late the road trip would end with an airlift, so it takes some care to cut down the mountain of gear to a manageable load.  Once again, it was a rental vehicle, this time a GMC suv.  The timing was good because I got to leave the big GMC at the GM spa and garage, where they were to install the new updated communications gear that will give me an on-board hot spot, just like the brand new vehicles!

Came across this out in a pasture one day as I was out to troubleshoot a lightning detector that forms part of the provincial system.  This is not the lightning detector!

Prior to departure I had an opportunity to swing by our tanker base at the local airport – where there had also been an airshow that week that I had been unable to attend.  It seems that the Snowbirds were expected to perform at that show as well, but some of their craft got damaged in a hail storm and the their show did not go on .   But I saw three of the aircraft close-up as they rolled out to depart to the next airshow down in Lethbridge.

I forgot to get any photos on the road trip portion, but as usual we stopped by an airport to arrange the last leg of the trip.  First time in this type of helicopter for both of us; and both of us got to sit in the front seat.

The runway ends in the lake, so a beach fly-by was mandatory.

After a fairly short flight this time, we got to see our latest cabin in the woods, and office in the sky!

Unlike many towers in the boreal forest where there is no view unless you are up in the tower, this one boasts amazing views from the ground of nearby lakes, and even back to town.

I had thought that the flying part of the day was over, but that evening I got my own personal airshow as the birddog and a tanker came by to dispose of an unused load.

That’s it – till we get back to civilization …