We were camped on the banks of the Salmon River. The location was great, but in the evening the mosquitos were horrible.
Our days started at sunrise with morning briefing and ended after sunset.
This is a good view of camp from the nearby hill. Supply is on the right side, the three big tents are the dining area the collection of tents are the different units and the trailer with tent is the shower unit. The GIS unit is located in the Situation tent, where we spent most of out time. They have a couple window ac units with generators for power and there's a satellite truck that supplies internet and phones. It's an entire mobile office. There's another trailer with printers.
Most all the food starts out frozen, but the fried eggs were fresh. There was way to much to eat for the sedentary life we were leading.
Most days are spent in the tent editing data to be used on maps that are printed that night to be distributed the next morning. One day I got to take a trip to the fire line to do some GPSing.
Another day I drove down the river to the end of the road and the start of the Frank Church Wilderness and the River of No Return. There were lots of big horn sheep grazing next to the road like they were domestic. There were tons of rafters out as well, and I was jealous.
One of our GIS people got to fly the perimeter of the fire in a helicopter. She took my camera and got some great views of the river valley.
Another day I made a drive up to the border with Montana. There was a quaint little ski hill up there and a trailhead for the CDT.
One day I was leaving the dining tent with some coffee and ran into a college friend of mine, Dylan. He had just showed up the day before with one of the chipping crews doing rehab work. I didn't even know he was in fire this summer. It was completely random. He was my neighbor my senior year of college.
The last couple of days we were there a couple of storms came through. The clouds were real pretty and on the last night we had a cell sit on top of us dumping hail. That fire was done...
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