My last blog was October 2020. For a few years I was pretty faithful in trying to keep up with our adventures and document our journeys…but then time got away from me and before you know it..3 years passed… Just…Like… That….

My mom is the inspiration for me to get this little blog site back up and running.  My parents have been on some pretty amazing adventures the last few years and she has been documenting it on her blog.  After reading and enjoying her posts…I decided it was time to get back on the horse.

It’s a little overwhelming thinking of where I should even begin, so I will resort to my pictures on my iPhone and try to fill in the blanks over the past 3 years and remember as much as I can.  You would think that 2 years of it would be pretty blank with the whole world shutting down for Covid…but our line of work kept us on as “essential workers” and logistics only became our worst nightmare…more on that a little later.  So for now, let’s go back to October 2020….where we last left off.  

After years of paperwork, Aaron was finally successful in getting all the required documentation and bids in for the USFS, ODF, and CalFire.  We wrote off that summer as it was late in the season and no call came in for us to be used…but one late evening around September 4th, a call came in from the desk of ODF (Oregon Department of Forestry) looking for an S61 for a fire on the coast of Oregon.  Our helicopter was in Quebec at the time and Aaron said it was available but that it was in Quebec, Canada.  The dispatcher asked where is that…Aaron replied “basically Maine”…the reply was “we will call you back.”  We figured that was the end of that conversation when the phone rang back about 4 minutes later and said…great we will take it!  

With no fuel truck, no service trailer, no second engineer, no co-pilot…really nothing in place….we said yes to ODF…and off we went. The crew had 2 days to get the helicopter to Oregon, while we tried to source a fuel trailer and the rest of the logistics.  Aaron never ceases to amaze me and within a day…was able to pull off the unimaginable.  The call came in on a Monday evening and by Wednesday evening the helicopter flew across the country and was in place for a Thursday morning start.  Now this is where the story gets crazy.  The morning we were supposed to go to the fire…they said to hold our current position and wait for a call.  About 2 hours later, they called and said we were released.  For those of you not in this industry…let me break it down for you…20 hour ferry flight from Quebec to Oregon, all paid for by ODF… overnight in Oregon…released before we even put one bucket on a fire…20 hour ferry flight back to Quebec..paid for by ODF.  

Aaron couldn’t believe it and really didn’t take no for an answer, so within an hour, ODF came to their senses and hired us for a fire out of Ashland, OR. The next 3 weeks we were hired and the devastation in the pictures below show you how cruel wildfires can be in urban interface.  These are of downtown Talent, Oregon and I5.  

After working for ODF for 3 weeks…fire season wasn’t over but our time for ODF was, so the only thing left to do was try and get the helicopter and fuel trailer carded for the USFS.  Aaron’s quick thinking and Aaron being Aaron…got us hired within 2 days after getting released from ODF and for the next few weeks we stayed in California finishing up our season in Weaverville, CA after an amazing first season ever working for USFS and ODF with our USA side of the helicopter company!