Location: Lake George, CO
Well, the past two weeks have been absolutely crazy! We have been living in a classroom for 8 hours a day... I have not missed being in a class at all. We finished our S-130, S-190, and S-212 classes. Meaning, we now have our Red Cards for Wildland firefighters!!! We can work for the US Forest Service as Type 2 Hand Crews during fire season. We also received our A Sawyer certification. Meaning we can operate chain saws as long as there is a B Sawyer supervising. It is hard to believe that the first time I have ever touched a chain saw was on Thursday, and now I am certified to use them all the time for the next 3 years if I so choose. Though my body tells another story! Lifting those things for 8 hours a day is crazy. They way about 25-30 lbs and you are basically supporting them off of one arm.
For our certification, we had to successfully "fell" (or cut down) two trees, as well as limb them and buck them. Which is harder than it sounds. :) The way they teach you is to do a face cut (aka a horizontal cut into the tree the way you want it to fall) and then a 45 degree sloping cut to meet that (a diagonal cut that meets with the other side) that way you have something that looks like a mouth on the tree to help lay it where you want it to go. Then you have to put a back cut in there about 2 inches above your face cut. ... Let's just say it is a lot to think about under pressure.. as well as making sure that the tree doesn't fall early, nor will it land on anyone.
Ren, Megan, Jeremy and I went to explore the Garden of the Gods last weekend.... It was so beautiful. I have never seen anything close to it... well maybe Red Rocks in Denver, but this was everywhere. We had fun climbing up rocks and exploring around. Meg and I had an even better time watching all the puppies go exploring the Garden too. The views were so beautiful. It amazes me that places like that really exist. I could probably go back every weekend and not get sick of it.
That is about all for now... I will try to update soon about my first week of real work!
I miss you all..
<3
Kris
Lake George, CO
Greetings from Lake George, CO! For those of you who don't know, Lake George is a small little town a little South (?) of Colorado Springs. It is located in Pikes Peak National Forest. This is where We will be spending the next 2 months of our lives doing fire training and fire mitigation work.
The last I talked to you, it was prior to my pack test... well... I passed!!! 43.25. 3 minutes under the required amount. It was so much harder than anticipated, and I was left with some pretty awesome blisters. But I passed. And I never planning on doing it again. Once was enough for me. The walking was fine, but you throw in 45 lbs of sand in a pack on your back and it creates major problems.... But it's finally over.
When we pulled into Lake George, it appeared to be something out of a postcard. Snow capped foothills with mountains in the background, and little wood cabins where we will be living. We have 7 people living in one house and then 3 living in the other. Meg and I are roommates! YAY! We got one of the biggest rooms in the house, which is really nice, but we have no curtains... which poses problems for people who have modesty issues. Luckily I do not. But none the less we didn't want people staring into our windows at night and watching us sleep, so we created some using duct tape and towels/ scraps of fabric.
It took getting here to realize how much I have truly missed my team. They have become my family over the past few months and I have missed being around them, playing games, and working with them. We are all so different in so many ways but some how we work. I am very thankful to have them. They have been especially wonderful the past week when I have been going through some personal issues... But no fear! I am getting better.. thanks to my team and for being away in Pikes. Hopefully the next two months will not only be challenging, but healing.
We started classes today, with our S-190 (intro to Wildland Fire Behavior/ intro to fire), and we will proceed to take classes and training for the next two weeks. It was very interesting, until after lunch when our teacher went off on tangents about weather and wind. The day ended with a test.. which I really hope I passed... wish me luck! :) After these two weeks, we will hopefully have our Red Card and be Type Two Wildfire fighters! Which.. let's be honest... is pretty awesome.
Well, that is all for now... I hope you all are doing well!
Love,
Kris
Denver, CO
Back on campus and half way through our first transition week. Spirits are off all around the corps, including my own. Some of the members didn't return after the break which has been a sad event for all. The transition week has been busy as always. We all thought that we were going to get to spend time with people that we will not get to see for the next months, which turns out not the be the case. After spending ours with our team on Monday working on the Debrief, presenting the Debrief Tuesday, starting the Brief Tuesday, as well as Wed, pack test Wed, Brief presentation Thursday then packing on Thursday and Friday with final prep... and leave Saturday for our next Spike. Throw some meetings in there, and you don't have a whole lot of time to spend with other people. It is really sad, especially for me not to be able to spend time with my "AmeriFamily".
Though I love having my team back together, I'm really not enjoying the reminder of the type of environment that AmeriCorps is. You make really close friends during CTI and then you have to leave them for months at a time. While each of you is having an amazing adventure, you still feel a slight awkwardness and distance when you return. Don't get me wrong, it is still an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything, it's just enough to put you in a funk.
I leave for Pikes Peak on Saturday for my second round project. I will be there from Jan 10th-March 4th. I am not sure about internet access, it seems the only type of computer that we have will be far away. But I will try to update when possible, and let you know how everything is going. Hopefully by then spirits will be raised, and we will all be excited and enthusiastic about our Fire training and project!
I should probably get back to working on the Brief, but I just wanted to update you all with how it is going!
I love you all and miss you,
Kris
