to the end and back again

Brian popped his head up from his computer on Tuesday afternoon while we were sitting in the kitchen and asked me, "What do you think about going to shoot some fires?" A few hours later, Brian, Steve and I we were driving down I-5, struggling to keep our eyes open as we drifted into LA around 4am.

Smoke was everywhere and the sun looked like something out of an Apocalyptic novel. I passed out somewhere between West Hollywood and Camp Pendleton. A wildfire was raging on the base but it was going to be at least an hour before we could get a PIO to take us on to check it out. We opted for a trip to downtown San Diego to get our yellows and then took a nap at Ocean Beach. Total exhaustion had set in from the all night drive down the awful rigidity that is I-5.

From there the rest of the week is a haze of smoke, fire, MREs, too little sleep, and a view from the passenger seat of my car constantly blocked by the word PRESS in duct tape.

Sleeping out on the line at Palomar Mountain, with the firefighters containing the head of the fire, is by far one of the most amazing experiences I've had while working. Waking up and then going to breakfast at the CDF/Forest Service staging area with our entire CDF crew coming off their 24 hour shift (after we had shot 24 hours on our own shift), wrapped up our week on the line before finally ending the trip at Rancho Bernardo.