Lightning Strike Above - Day 2.

   I went out this morning first thing and looked up the mountain behind to see how that lightning strike caused fire had fared overnight. There was some smoke way up there and it wasn't too much longer before I heard a helicopter coming. A larger crew and more specialized machine arrived this morning than had come out yesterday.

The response team had arrived early, they all piled into the helicopter and through the binoculars I watched as they all repelled down an 80 foot line into the trees up on the distant ridge.

The machine came back for a sling-load of fire-fighting gear and dropped it up there for the guys, and gals.

First chance I had I went down to check out the helicopter and bother the flight-crew, Jeff and Andrew while they had a little down-time. Wildcat Helicopters operates a fleet of these Bell 212 twin-engine machines all set-up for fire-fighting and search and rescue, and she was a pretty neat bird.

They can lower the flexible intake and dangle it in a water source and fill the belly tank in 30 seconds. They can dump or spray the load, and also drop a hose down to re-fill the portable water tanks the ground crew use up there. They picked up an initial load from the river to take up, then use some small lake up in the alpine the pilot yesterday located.

This winch comes in pretty handy I bet.

At the end of the day they began to bring equipment down off the mountain so I knew they had a handle on things up there.

No more smoke.
The ground crew walked down part way to a tight landing area where the helicopter picked them up.

A few of the guys stopped in on the way out to thank me for the use of the staging area. I didn't get their names, I'm so bad with names, but thanks guys, and girls too, that were up there in the heat and smoke and dirt and grime to get it put out.

I didn't tell them I spent the whole day relaxing on the bench by a cool creek enjoying the air-show.

There has been several times over the years the area has been used for a fire staging area.
Heres a major one from 2005.
http://hotspringlodge.blogspot.ca/2012/02/2005-fire.html

Lightning Strike Above.

    There was a pretty serious thunder and lightning storm roll through here yesterday. Socked the valley in and we were treated to about 45 minutes worth of nature's fury. 

Several sounded really close, and I wondered about the possibility of a local strike.

Turns out my hunch was right. A forestry fire-fighting crew arrived in the yard this morning, informing me of a fire going up on the high ridge above me here at about the 1200m level that had turned up on the strike radar, and I gave them the ok to use the area out front in their efforts to put it out.

Pretty soon a helicopter arrived on scene.

 I went down and chatted briefly with the pilot, Kevin was hooking up his long-line to sling a couple portable water tanks up near the fire for the ground crew that was hiking their way up to the strike site.

 He came back for his monsoon-bucket and hopped over to the river for a load.

 He dropped the load then disappeared behind the ridge where he had found some small water-hole up there in the alpine to bucket from, saving himself coming all the way back down to the river-level. 

He came back and landed when he was done to stow away his long-line, monsoon-bucket and stuff. He told me the fire was history, and went on his way back to base.

While I was sitting here writing this post this evening, someone drove in the yard to let me know they had been driving in from up-valley and had seen smoke up on the high ridge above, so it looks like the fire has flared-up once more, and there will probably be some more helicopter activity around here tomorrow.

Vintage Bike Show, Adventure Ride Included.

     I had been afflicted with the vintage motorcycle bug decades ago, but have since sold my collection off over the years in small lots here and there and moved onto other things, for the most part anyways, but I still love old motorcycles. A few years back a group of enthusiasts began to organize an event called Vintage In The Valley, a swap-meet, auction, and motorcycle show that has attracted much interest in the vintage community. The event is held at Chilliwack in BC's Fraser Valley area several mountain ranges away to the south of here.  The shortest route from here is down the Harrison West Road that snakes along the rocky outcrops on the west side of Harrison Lake.This sounded like a pretty good excuse to gas up the adventure bike and I talked my buddy Josh into coming along.

Josh and I got an early start, before the sun came up, and it was going to be a long day in the saddle
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An hour down the road we stopped at the log-sort yard at the head of Harrison Lake, the water was like glass.

Reaching civilization 3 hours later we pulled into an eatery for breakfast, or brunch as it turned out, then it was out on the freeway and into the Fraser Valley.

The event was held at the Chilliwack Heritage Park.

There were enough vintage motorcycles enough to fill two large buildings.

There were several there that I use to own, like this 1968 Honda CL-450.

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On the way back we stopped at the 20 Mile Bay Recreation Site partway up Harrison Lake.

It was hot and nice, and a bit tropical.

We stopped at the log-sort yard again for a break on the way back just as the sun was going down.

Arriving back at the Lodge at dark 372 hard kilometers later, considerably more wore-out than we were when we rode out that morning.