'Bout Time!

It has been a while since our last post... Crew training is done! We went through Cargo Let Down recurrency, no issues. We have hosted our first group of detailers, and although we did not get any fires we spent a lot of time training... the two detailers who left this last week felt that the time spent on the crew was beneficial even though there wasn't any fires.

We accomplished a two day repeater project. Flying radio techs and equipment to the top of West Temple and Timber Top mountains. West Temple has a beautiful view of the main canyon in Zion, and is one of the highest points in Zion National Park. It is an isolated platuea on top of another platuea. It is possible to climb... however, few have the skill or time to do so. We choose to utilize the helicopter as an elevator to the top. Timber Top is one of the highest points overlooking Kolob. It is rather remote also... again, the helicopter makes sense!

Tomorrow, some of the crew will leave with the boss for Monticello Utah. The Manti-Lasal N.F. has a Prescribed Burn that will require Helitorch as the lighting method. We will be sure to update the blog next week upon the crews return... they have been instructed to take lots of pictures. This particular burn requires two helicopters, and a lot of Torch qualified people to make it all happen... our fingers are crossed that things will go well. Stay tuned for updates on this.

Outside of that... we have began a project cutting on a control line for the Pocket Mesa RX that we will do later this fall. The main canyon is providing most of the labor for the 3-4 miles of line that must be cut, however we have chipped in by sending 2-4 people each day for the past 2 or 3 days. It gets crew off of the base and helps with keeping sane...

speaking of sanity... it is slow! The season that is... the season is slow to begin! We have received a fair amount of moisture, but more than that the tempuratures have been cool and most days are overcast. There have been several small single tree fires on the district, but nothing they require our help to control. So it has been many long days at the yard for the helitack crew. Most projects are complete and finding things to keep us occupied and out of trouble are becoming harder and harder to find. We have instigated the 1600 ice cream social... all are welcome to join. I am not sure this is totally working... as Thea took on a challenge the other day at the social that tells us all we still have too much time on our hands. She deserves massive props for getting down 20 ice cream sandwiches in 20 minutes and keeping them down for another 10 minutes... she obtained a fair amount of cash, dinner, and a bottle of her choice for torturing herself like that. Mad Props!!!

The following picture sums up our days... we are hoping that the rainbow over the base is a sign of good things to come! Everyone should keep there fingers crossed for a little more fire activity. If not here in Color Country, than somewhere in the Nation that might call for some help.

"Have helicopter... will travel!"