Sorry my last post was such a downer. It was the truth, but a sort of depressing truth. I went to see ERT over Columbus Day weekend and that has made me considerably happier! Hopefully this post has the same effect on you :)
Anyway, I took the LSAT Saturday morning (accompanied with a not-insignificant amount of stress when I realized, 45 minutes before the test was to start, that I was completely unprepared... had to drive to the office with my hair still wet to get the admission ticket I had left there, take a photo of my[not attractive]self with my phone, print it, and steal everyone's pencils...) and I guess it went fine. Whatever.
That evening, I drove out to Butte/Fleecer to see the team. We had a great time Saturday night and hung around Butte on Sunday. Will and I went to see Taken 2. It was less than inspiring; much cheesier than the cinematic masterpiece of Taken. Anyway.
Since I had Monday off for Columbus Day (I wasn't supposed to, but the MLSA office where I work was closed for the day, so what's a girl to do? Yippee!), I decided to go out on project with Will's team. A number of things collided perfectly to allow this to happen:
- Will's team was hauling firewood, so they were driving 2 trucks instead of one, meaning that the entire team didn't have to cram into one truck, meaning that there was room for me.
- One of the new leaders of ERT, Tom, was driving back to Fleecer that night for a flight the next morning, so I had a ride back to my car.
- Angie from last year had given Sara, a second year her fire boots to see if they fit. Since they were extra, Sara let me borrow them for the day since we were on federal land, and regulations require 8-inch leather boots in order to cut... something I don't just have in my closet.
We headed off to Canyon Creek - one of the more breathtaking places we visit - to deliver the wood. There are two ways into Canyon Creek: via the highway, or the shorter, albeit terrifying back road along mountain ledges. Since a first year was driving the other truck, and she was from New Jersey, we opted for the highway route. However, we chose the wrong exit, not having entered Canyon Creek that way before. The resulting ride was much more stressful and fun than the mountain-ledge-route would ever have been.
There were two water crossings of the creek, a section so rocky we feared we'd bottom out and tear the brake lines or something, and steep descents and ascents galore. Plus the map was somewhat confusing. Will and I were at the head of the convoy and when we finally made it to the Charcoal Kilns, which, if you'll remember, are just up the road from Canyon Creek Canyon (or maybe not since I didn't actually tell you that in my earlier post), we decided to entertain ourselves and pretend to be hopelessly lost. We opened the map up all the way and presented it to the four first years with us ("Are you guys any good with maps? I have no idea where we are..."). Tom, who is probably the nicest person ever, even pretended to be mad at Will for getting us lost ("What were you thinking!?") and asked if the first years remembered where we were going ("What is it called...? Crystal something...?"). Will voiced the opinion that we should just give up ("Let's call it a day and just dump the wood somewhere. We can come back later for it..."). It was somewhat discouraging that the first years, even when given the map and told that we had started out going south on I-15 (which I pointed out) couldn't find where we were, even though the Charcoal Kilns (not to mention Canyon Creek Cabin) were marked in bright red on the map....
Anyway, after that bit of fun, we "stumbled upon" the Cabin, unloaded the wood, and were just finishing up when we started hearing lots of radio traffic about a fire.
Then we heard Bruce get on the radio.
If I haven't mentioned it before, Bruce, the founder of ERT loves fire. We suspected last year that he started them himself just so he could fight them. It's at that level. Suddenly, we hear ourselves being volunteered to fight the fire, and Bruce radioed us, asking if we were prepared.
We were not. I don't even own Nomex (fire-retardant clothing) anymore, having given it back to ERT at the end of my year. Will and Tom didn't have theirs with them (the last time ERT was on a fire out west was 5 years ago, it doesn't happen often!), and none of the first years have had any fire training, so they were automatically out. Still, we said we'd be there, and began the drive to the Fourth of July Campground near Wise River.
After a bit of confusion (and the arrival of one of the other ERT leaders and a second year from Fleecer, bearing Nomex for Tom and Will), we were sent out on various tasks. I helped Bruce with some hose (which mainly entailed me following him around and jumping in his truck as quickly as I could while he took off on tasks that went unexplained to me), then followed Will around while he dropped hazard trees at the perimeter of the fire. Some of them he cut down while the bases were on fire, a dangerous task since his fire boots are wearing very thin. Two helicopters were flown in from Helena to drop retardant on the flames, which was exciting, since I've never been on a fire with helicopters before.
 |
| A pretty neat truck; the operator could control where the hose sprayed from the driver's seat (prompting Will to say [jokingly], "We could have used that at Occupy St Louis...") |
In all, the blaze was contained pretty quickly - what we had heard was a 20-40 acre wildfire as we were driving there turned out to be only 12.5 acres. Good thing they got it early, though, as it was right next to a mountain that it would have raced up, trying to climb. It could have been a lot worse. Still a pretty exciting end to what was supposed to be a relaxed, fun day with ERT.
After about five hours at the fire, we finally left around 9pm and all went back to Fleecer. Will and I ate jalapeno cheddar hot dogs (delicious) and I took off for Helena, sore and tired and happy.
I had a great time running a saw and driving around and fighting fire with ERT. It was an awesome day, much better than whatever else I would have wasted my time with on my day off (with no studying left to do, whoop whoop!).
But it's not my place anymore. It's not where I belong. A new group of people are here to experience all the things that ERT will bring them. I'm thankful for my experiences, but they're not what I want to do forever. (It would, however, be awesome if I could just moonlight as a sawyer/firefighter/ERT-er from time to time). As awesome my Columbus Day was, it really just affirmed that it's not what I want to do every day, and I probably wouldn't have been totally happy with the choice to stay with ERT for another year. This doesn't mean I won't miss it, but my Columbus Day was a sort of restorative; it put me back into a good frame of mind and gave me some perspective and basis for comparison.
If I made the right choice in coming to LSNTAP and Helena, I don't know. But that's at least one question answered, which is pretty good if you ask me for a holiday that no one ever remembers anyway.
xoxo Liz.
P.S. I said I wanted to brighten up your day, so if that didn't do it, how about this?
No comments:
Post a Comment