Tennesee and still running...

I'll be in North Carolina tomorrow, maybe I can get over to the coast and make the journey a true beach to beach.

East of the Rio Grande

A short stay in New Mexico and then it's onward East back home before getting on to the job in North Carolina.

4600 Miles to go

So, I'm heading back to North Carolina for the winter, working for the TNC should be an interesting change of pace.

But before North Carolina is the whole continental US in a small pick-up truck. I'm heading west first, because there's a break in the rain and I like staring at the ocean on the Oregon coast. Then it's down south through California, with a stop at Meryll's ( I'm not sure it this is a good idea. ) and then on Las Vegas, Zion NP, and finish out the western US; Ruidoso NM.

After Ruidoso is the big hop back to Chicago land and between New Mexico and Illinois I have a problem. I have a week and some change to get to there, but it's not going to take more then 2 days to get back and I can't think of much that I want to do in between the two places.

What's new?

Well the season's over, september was a bust. Only one fire and we walked to it. With the plane gone I'm sticking around for project work and 'cause I didn't make any money ( so I can't go road tripping, yet). Most of the other jumpers are gone for the winter, it's just me and another rookie working on the district projects and some various overhead at the base.

I still had good time this year, jumping is cool and I got to do something wanted to do for some time now. Being a jumper is not at all what I expected, but it's not like it was on the other crews I 've been on. You get a lot of personal freedom but no one really abuses it, everyone has their own little projects and interests and works towards completing them. You're a jumper at a base but everyone recognizes your independence and capacity as an individual. It's hard to explain but it feels right.

For next year? I'd like to be a jumper during a good season but if I can get a professional series job this might be the end of my fire career.

This isn't the end of the blog though.

Sometimes your up......And sometimes your down.

3 weeks of fires and then rain, fires then rain. But I got to jump some fires and make some overtime. It's the end of August and thus the best chance for jumping fires in Idaho are fading away.
What can you do?
If I could control the weather I would be doing something besides firefighting.

Since I can't predict the future and jumping out of airplanes is ridiculously awesome I'm still grinning and hopeful that the rest of the season will be exciting.

Well, that’s more like it.

You guessed it.

Can't say it's going to be a real interesting blog if we don't have fires to go to. Things are slow and at the base learning all the various jumper duties, like sewing (which I am not good at.).

But, the weather's been nice and the weekends have been fun with rodeos, rafting, and tubing on the river.

I wish July would last for 60 days.

Slow

Still no fires, the weather has been getting more conducive the past couple of weeks but everything is still pretty green around northern Idaho. Hopefully this coming week will bring some smokes and first fire jumps for me and the other rookies at Grangeville.

Out of the Fire and into the......fridge.

Well, after rookie training regular station duty is pretty dull. It's nice to be able to workout on my own and choose what I want to do, but 5 weeks of stress and training left me wound up and ready for jumping fires.
It's not a huge surprise that there are no fires, it's been cold and rainy for weeks. Hopefully things will dry out in the coming weeks or we can go south where there are fires.

DID IT.

A Good Week

We’ve focused a lot on our jumps now, they still run the shit out of us in the mornings and throw in some suffering throughout the day, but we’re in the meat parachute flying and land skills. On Friday we did our 10th and 11th jumps, and each time I’m getting better at estimating my flight path and what the winds are doing to my parachute. I still need the streamers on the ground so I can tell which direction to turn to but a landing panel isn’t really necessary anymore. On my 10th jump, I treed up and while I’m not happy about missing the spot, I handled it well and I knew that I was not going to make the spot with enough time to look for where I was going and what to do.
I felt upbeat about the week and about successfully completing rookie training until Friday afternoon when they let a fellow rookie go because of his parachute manipulation skills. I’m not and I don’t think anyone of the rookies in training with me are so dialed with parachute skills that we still couldn’t wash. To be honest I pretty mad at the trainers for failing the guy. He’s a good guy and would’ve made a great smokejumper.

1st jump

Today we did our first training jump, which went pretty well considering I've never done it before and the first 3 seconds out the door are a total blank to me. I was nervous and afraid, but I don't know what I was scared of. It wasn't the chute not opening or injuring myself on the landing, I was just scared in the general sense.

I also got air sick in the plane and again on the ground.

I must really want to do this.

Week 2

Almost through week 2, we've moved on to the 'units'. Now were focused on learning all the skills we need to safely complete timber parachute jumps. So far everything been broken up into smaller pieces (like landings, or exiting the plane) but were starting to integrate things in to larger more complex units.

The completing the skills in each unit has not been difficult but there are some with time limits which also throws me off because I want to double and triple check everything I do.

While not as physically demanding, this week has been hard on the body. I pulled something in my ribcage and my forearm, and it's not like we haven't laid off the push ups. We're running tomorrow morning and I'm nervous that the rib pain will slow me down.

The other rookies are good group of people, everyone is looking out for each other and I think we all want everyone to make it through.

The 1st week

I've finished the first week. The last 5 days have pretty much non-stop exercising, drills, and more exercising. We've stopped to eat and sleep, that's it. Each time we switch activities we're running and carrying somekind of load.

I was pretty miserable at times but I haven't wanted to quit. I'm not the fastest or best but I'm not slowest or worst either. Part of me wants to be in 1st place in everything but I what I really want is to do more than I thought I could and excel as smokejumper.

I took a scenic route and stopped at the Oregon dunes. It rained most of the way north but not the whole time.

The long way down

I've decided to journal my progress through rookie smokejumper training and my first season as a smokejumper. I have wanted to be a smokejumper for the past 5 years and I have applied 3 times in the past. Getting the accepted into the rookie program is a not the same as getting the job, I have pass the 6 week training program.

Tomorrow I'm leaving California for northern Idaho