FRT certification and various amounts of temporality

Well then. It certainly has been a while since I was on here. My sincere apologies, I’m having a hard time getting a solid schedule down. Although, to tell the truth, spotty bloggings may be the case with my Ameriyear. My next project is up north in Cali, where there is no phone service, let alone wifi. We’re going to do maintenance stuff at a boys and girls camp, such as demolishing bathrooms and burning brush piles (which is apparently what qualifies this project as FRT necessary).
On the fire note, all us FRTers got out official certifications Friday. Last week mon-thurs was spent in classrooms learning about fire behavior, safety protocols, and general fire-fighting know-how. Seeing as I am incapable of remaining awake when set in a chair and talked at (unless I have food: I utilized tortilla chips to give me brief periods of attentiveness), the class was pretty ho-hum. But, on Friday, we did field training.
We drove north to the Tahoe Hotshots’ headquarters (Hotshot groups are the professional wildland firefighters, they’re pretty badass), and splintered off to do simulated fire-fighting activities. Hotshot instructors hiked us out into the middle of the woods where we cut line for most of the day. Cutting line is the primary method of fighting wildfires. You remove fuel along one of the fire’s fronts, theoretically stopping all fire movement in that direction. Given Pulaskis, shovels, Mcleods, and a variety of other diversely named tools, we cleared a 5’ wide swath of woods down to mineral soil. It’s relatively backbreaking. Towards the end of the day, if I bent an arm, every muscle seized up, and I would have to use the other arm to unbend it. I look forward to applying this work in the field.
Another cool thing is our fire shelters, the aluminum foil sleeping bags we get issued to keep us alive in the event of extreme heat exposure. They function by reflecting radiant heat and giving you a pocket of breathable air inside the shelter. They’re relatively useless against direct fire exposure, so its advised that you not use them. Another theory is that the shiny exterior of the shelters makes it easier for the helicopters to find your bodies after the fire’s come through. Whatever.
But back to the cool part, during the field day we simulated a fire breaking out of control. In full gear (with our tools and packs), we ran out of the valley we had been digging line in, dumped our packs, and sprinted to a clearing with a practice (plastic) fire shelter. We then deployed and hung out, and were told who survived and who died. I think the asthmatics were the ones that died, cause they couldn’t make it up the hill fast enough. It was fun though, sprinting uphill in giant boots and fire-resistant clothing.
Yeah, all the fire crews were issued special fire-retardant clothes. They’re great, because instead of the usual, exciting, AmeriCorps grey-and-beige, FRT’s get forest-green pants and big-bird yellow shirts.
Lessee. What else interesting? Oh, TAHOE!
So this weekend two friends and I headed to lake Tahoe for a weekend of snowsports. We got in later-ish on Saturday, and spent the rest of the day wandering around the town. Tahoe is a pretty cool place, what with its huge tourist revenues and all that. But Sunday we got up early and headed to Homewood ski area, which was cheap and perfectly sized for our one day. Also, their “teen” distinction is 13-18, soooo I got to ride for $35.
Since we were renting, two of us got snowboards for the day. In a few words, a blast. It started snowing pretty heavily in the afternoon, so the last half of the day was filled with excellent runs with great cover, and I even managed to do some glades on a board, of which I am immensely proud.
The only issue to the snow was that California has some nasty laws regarding snowy conditions, and the road to Tahoe is probably one of the curviest and cliffiest I’ve been on besides the Mt. Washington Autoroad. Once it started snowing, we discovered that Caltrans has the authority to require tire chains on all vehicles. Being good tourists, we financed the booming chain industry in Tahoe (conveniently provided for all those stuck without them), and outfitted our dinky little rental car with them.
Tire chains are easy to put on if you know what you’re doing. We learned fast, but that is not to say that putting chains on tires on a 20-degree, snowy Tahoe night is a fun process. I remember very clearly thinking “Wow, my hands are so cold. It would be really easy to slice them without knowing while wrestling with this darn tire chain” (darn probably was not the word used). Then I looked at my hands and tried to figure out where all the blood was from. We got back fine, and my hands are healing just dandy. It was an “experience.”
I still have loads more Catalina stuff, but I wanted to actually talk about what we’ve been doing recently. Which is Boys and Girls club of greater Sacramento, but I’m tired and sick and on the edge of sleep deprivation so excuse me. Tomorrow or some time in the future.
Time? What the heck is that? All I know is that I’ve already spent ¼ of a year here in Cali. It’s crayzeh.