Rent Me!!!!! Only $30 grand per hour

This is the worlds biggest helicopter. It uses 1L of fuel per second and costs an arm and a leg to hire. Pretty cool, eh? It has not been in North America for very long and it is the only one here. It is based out of Whitecourt, AB for use in the oil patch.

This thing made an apperance, with a thunderous entrance (I have heard, since I was not there) at the FSJ base/Airport. They guys that were eating lunch at the base that day got to go on a tour of this thing and take some pretty rad pictures of it. Kinda sucks that old Charlie Squad was sent out the day before and did not get a chance to see it.

Williston Lake, BC

The last fire of my 2006 fire season was probably one of the best of the year. There was lots of fire activity, air operations and beautiful scenery.

Kicking Horse Lodge, Golden, BC

We were lucky to stay at this awesome lodge/hostel for the 2 weeks that we were in Golden. They had really nice rooms and just a cool building all round.

Worth $100?

During the tour down in Golden, BC, the question came up asking how much it would cost to sit in a bladder full of water and fire foam for 4 minutes. After working with the stuff for a few days there were some outrageous numbers thrown out there like 500 or 1000 dollars. There is no doubt that it would not be pleasant to sit in this stuff due to the fact that it irritates the skin and dries it out substantially.

So one morning the question was thrown out there again. I figured that since it wasn't affecting my skin that much, up until that point anyway, that $50 bucks would be a fair deal. That was if I could take my boots off and do it at the end of the day. It came about that 9 people would pay me $100 bucks to do it first thing in the morning, right then and there. So I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to do it.

However, it did not occur to me that the water in this bladder was being shipped from a semi-glacier lake half way up a mountain to the top of a mountain, cooled off over night with no time to warm up, as it was probably 9 or 10 in the morning. This did quickly occur to me as I hit the water, with the goggles Matt gave me before I jumped in, thank god. So I proceeded to hyperventilated, suck in fire foam, which was being agitated with a Mark III pump, and splash around for close to 4 minutes. The pictures pretty much say the rest. (If you click on them they get bigger)

Should this be happening?

Fire normally does not burn like this at 10 o'clock at night.

Crazy nights near Tumbler

Some crazy plumes of smoke around Tumbler Ridge. There were 4 or 5 different ones at the same time.

Here are some nice scenery pictures from around Tumbler Ridge that were taken before the big fires got moving.

The Water Canon

This is what happens when you don't use all of the water in the water tender at the end of the day.

Well, another summer and fire season has gone by with nothing left but fond memories and awesome pictures. Here is a picture of the first fire I was on in 2006.