Friday, August 14, 2009

A Marketable Skill

Well, if you think I've been AWOL for a little bit, it's for a good reason -- I was on another fire. This one was a lot different from the first. Let me show you why.

First fire (Railbelt complex):


Second fire (North Fork Complex, in Eastern Oregon):



Again, for those of you who didn't get it the first time:

Railbelt:
North Fork:
I showed up in Ukiah, Oregon (look it up, it's way the heck out there) and had about an hour to set up my tent and get my stuff in before the rain hit. We got a total of 1.9" on the fire. Game over, folks.

The good news is that in spite of that, my trainer felt confident enough in my skills to recommend me for certification! Guess I snowed her (ha). Seriously, I'm pretty excited about being certified, but slightly nervous. What if I screw up? What if I get some weird weather thing and I have to deal with it?

As I told Ethan though, even if the decision was to send me on more fires before certification there's still no guarantee the next fire would be the "weird" one. I could be in training forever, and get rained out every time. So it's up to me to be on my "A" game, prepared for anything.

We're still having celebratory beers tonight.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

HOORAYYYY!!!! Nice work girl! I was just up the road from you at the Discovery Fire near Yakima, WA. Yeah, the fire was going out when I arrived and didn't really do much. I saw you were with Coleen - I bet she's a great trainer....lucky! :) Congrats again!

L said...

Thanks, Lisa! You're so supportive -- I really appreciate that! How about you? Are you finally certified?