7/12.
Well, this one was a doozy.
I just wrapped up a 14-day fire assignment on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park for the Dragon Bravo Fire.
Monsoons are here (kinda), which means I no longer have to spend every single second of every single day glued to my work phone in case something catches fire and I have to unexpectedly head into work.
Which means I can now use my weekends as intended: Finding and exploring all the places in Arizona that don’t have cellphone service.
This past weekend, it was the Mormon Mountain area, including a dispersed campsite along a forest road and a day hike to the summit of the mountain overlooking Arizona’s largest natural lake — Mormon Lake.
6/12.
Despite two fire assignments this month, I did find time to finish a handful of books.
After a late start to fire season, things are finally getting going here in northern Arizona.
I spent a big chunk of last week and this past weekend out in the northeast corner of the state for the Bridge Creek Fire, a lightning-caused wildfire that was burning on one side of Navajo Mountain out near Tonalea, Ariz., along the Arizona-Utah border.
My Incident Management Team got an order for the fire Tuesday, and were out there Wednesday morning to take command of the fire.
5/12.
May was a bit of an unexpectedly slow month work-wise.
I took a quick (but incredible!) day trip to the Fossil Creek dam last weekend, and while I was writing up that quick lil recap (and daydreaming over the electric blue water as I prepare for another week of work), I realized it’s actually been kind of a long time since I took a longer day hike with friends.
Here’s another one for the bucket list.
I spent this past weekend hiking to a portion of Fossil Creek: Along Bob Bear Trail to Fossil Springs to see the old Fossil Creek dam (and Toilet Bowl), float through some pretty strong creek currents and check out an electric glowing blue cave.
It was a sweaty hike back up out of the falls, but absolutely worth it!
