On the Bike Trail

Fall is falling! The kids enjoyed a recent trip to a nearby wooded bike trail in Huntington, while Mark and I got a much-needed workout chasing after them. At a lookout in the park, Evan took this picture of the bridge by himself! We were very impressed. This weekend we are going camping with the families in our church and Mark has promised the weather will be lovely - cold enough that we'll even have to bundle up and cuddle in the tent tommorrow night! We might have a picture or two to put on the blog in a few days...

A beautiful weekend!

We celebrated the cooler, beautiful weather by playing at the park, and later on Saturday Mark took Evan to the Marshall game! They had a blast. Autumn and I had a mommy-daughter date which involved grocery shopping (which she loves) and out to dinner. Things have been good lately except for some major Evan temper tantrums. Last night after swimming at the pool he stood in the parking lot and screamed for over five (very long) minutes for someone to carry him twenty feet to the car because his legs were tired. We're beginning to take away priviledges now, such as last night when he had to go to bed without bedtime stories. I thought we were done with the tantrums after they were two!

First MOPS meeting a success!

On Tuesday, after much preparation of the MOPS Steering Team, we had a wonderful first meeting with nearly 30 moms in attendance. This year's theme is The Home Factor, and we encorporated the theme by making our first meeting a housewarming party! I really love this great team of women I'm working with, and looking forward to this year. I'm also very thankful that I'm able to work and still have Tuesdays off to do MOPS. All the kids go to MOPPETS while the Moms get their time together. For more info on MOPS, there is a link at the right to the International website. I'm not going to convention this year, with work and all, but five women from our group are going to Orlando next week. Have fun girls!

Daddy's Home

I made it back home yesterday evening, to gather my long-anticipated and sorely-missed hugs and kisses. Marisa and the kids met me at the airport, even though I had my car parked there. Why? Well, it took Daddy all of two seconds upon arrival for my brain to shut off... I put some of my bags into the trunk WITH MY KEYS. My mind woke up a fraction of a second after my arms pushed down to say "No, wait you idiot!" (perhaps some four letter words were mixed in) but it was too late. So there I was on the cell phone, "Honey, I made it home!... now come to the airport cuz I locked my keys in the trunk."

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I encountered an interesting phenomonom while visiting the few very small towns that are threatened by the wildfire. Many weeks ago, the fire fighters wrapped up a lot of the buildings and houses in fire-resistant foil. They looked like Christmas presents. Most of the residents are grateful for all of the protection, but a few our starting to get eager (and LOUD) to take the wrapping off pre-emptively. It's been like that for more than 50 days. One of the challenges of managing and incident, is managing to locals! There always seems to be that voiceful few, that no matter how much is done for them, it's never enough and they are never happy. But the vast majority are wonderful to work with.

On my last full day in Idaho, my new trainer Dave and I drove to Mammoth Mountain to the fireline. We had a couple days of cooler weather after a little bit of rain, so the fire was tame enough to get close. It was creeping and smoldering slowly in the direction of the wind.

We also went up to Lemon Saddle, for a good view. Recent rain and cooler temperatures brought some real clarity the air, so you could see more detail of the fire area... with little plumes of smoke rising throughout (waiting for the next critical fire weather day).

The next morning, right before I left, was breathtakingly beautiful. A heavy frost covered the ground around camp, and fog filled much of the valley while rising from the Red River.

Finally, after going through the demobilization process, I took the long but scenic 6 hour drive out of the Nez Perce National Forest, to Boise where I would spend the night before flying back. And on the way out of the forest is this piece of mountain, overhanging the road. Very cool.

An incredible couple of weeks, but I'm glad to finally be home!

Important thanks to my co-workers, who covered my shifts while I was gone, to my trainers, who taught me so much... and of course to Marisa for taking care of EVERYTHING on the homefront. Today, we're both lazy and totally out of energy, just hanging around the house.

-Mark

Update from Idaho: Overwhelmed from my experience... coming home soon

Not much time - gotta sleep!

In short, one of the most challenging things I have ever done.

Top photo: Just stepped out after familiarizing myself with the Rattle- snake Fire via Llama (a kind of helicopter), during my first full day here. Second photo: The rough location of our fire is circled in red on this visible satellite picture (click for larger photo). YES, that's all wildfire smoke in Idaho! On September 3rd a couple days ago, what would have been an explosive day with extreme fire conditions was muted a bit - only because the explosive development to fires immediately to our south in Payette National Forest. Those southern fires sent an incredible amount of smoke over us, preventing full mixing of high winds and keeping temperatures from reaching their full potential. The western edge of our fire still took off a bit, because it was just outside the other fires' smoke plumes and received sunshine.

Sunset picture: Sunset that active evening, with heavy smoke overhead. We had ashfall here at camp... a light dusting on vehicles.

River photo: After almost two hours of driving a winding road, including 6 miles of hairpin turns down the Salmon River Canyon, we reached the "The River of No Return Wilderness." Someone today came across 5 bears there. As for me, I've seen a moose (on Moose Butte of all places), coyote, and muledeer.

Flying over the Rattlesnake Fire. You may have to click for the larger version if you want to see any actual flames on the lower right corner. This was on a day of fairly light activity.
Here's camp as seen before landing with the helicopter.

My trainer Jim and I digest the forecast from our office in Red River Forest Station.

Giving a weather briefing to residents of Orogrande, population 24-ish.

Tracking a "pibal" balloon. Elevation and Azimuth readings are written every minute, and we enter it into a computer program to get a profile of winds from the surface to (if we can follow the balloon long enough) 10,000 feet or so off the ground.

That's it for now. Expecting 20s for lows the next several nights! Lucky for me, I come home Saturday.

Marisa, Autumn, and Evan: Daddy can't wait to see you! -Mark

And to help Daddy...

...get through his last week in Idaho! We miss you and love you!

A Weekend Outing

The kids and I headed up to the Cleveland area this weekend to visit Grandpa Berry. The weather was beautiful! Nice to get away from our endless humidity here. The kids had a blast! Highlights included fishing (Evan actually caught a sunfish, which unfortunately I didn't get a picture of), swimming in the pool, and going to the fire station for a tour! We had a nice time.

Update from Idaho: Exhausted

Hi y'all. Just briefly: Working this other fire, buried very deep into the near-wilderness mountains and forests of central Idaho, has been very challenging and exhausting. Yesterday I was in a helicopter flying over the fire and very steep terrain. Today we did a public briefing for the threatened town of Orogrande, population roughly 20 (and about 80% of the them showed!). Expecting critical fire conditions Monday (very low humidity, very warm temp, gusts to 35 mph) but it will be followed by a dramatic cool down and possible significant rain Tuesday/Wednesday. Expecting to be able to come back home late this week. All I want to do is sit on the couch with Marisa and the kids, and watch Winnie the Pooh.

It's 11:10 p.m. Pacific Time. Gotta go to bed. I literally have no time to post anything else, I'll try again soon (including pics). My usual work hours here have been 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Google "Rattlesnake Fire" if you want to read up on what's going on!
-Mark