I feel very fortunate my hunting partners can be depend on when the chips are down and things may get serious. A common thread in our off-season e-mails is equipment that will make our hunting and camping experience safer. You can be hunting a local farm not far from town or a distant mountain and things can get serious fast. In our small party we carry portable radios in our packs. In addition we are equipped to spend the night on the mountain. Over the years I have stopped and put a band-aid on a blister. Or cleaned up a cut after gutting a deer.
When hunting an area we discuss the road system because there might be somebody that has not been in the area or has not been in the area for many years.
In many areas the fall deer season comes together with the period of most critical fire danger. The forest fuels have been drying all summer and it does not take a lot to get a fire rolling up a slope. In the case of a fire on steep ground it moves very fast up hill, and many times downhill because of the burning pinecones rolling down slope. Once a fire gets moving I recommend that you get out of the area. Watch out for fire equipment.
In the case of this fire we spotted three lightning fires in the distance early in the morning while out on a remote ridge hunting. The fires were a long ways away so they were not a major concern, but our awareness level was higher and we maintained a lookout for danger. A few hours later we were back at our vehicle. We drove out on a high point to get a better look at the fire. It was cooking and a number of airtankers were working the fire. We knew this fire was going to last a week or so. The road that we had come into the area was the best route for fire equipment. The road is a real cliffhanger so we decided if we needed to leave to take a back way out of the area. It might add another 30 or 40 miles to our trip out, but we would not interfere with fire equipment and it would be a safer trip. In steep country all kinds of debris breaks lose from the burnt slopes and fills in the roads. Fire fighters have been killed or injured by rolling rocks.
A few years ago two campers ended up in a fire shelter with a fire fighter as they were over run by a fire. The shelter is designed for one person. The fire killed other fire fighters.
We decided that if the fire crossed to our side of the drainage we would go out the backside and not waste time trying to save our camping gear. There was nothing in camp that we could not replace. We spent day one clustered on the peak watching the fire. We kept checking the weather on our weather radio; predicted wind direction was a concern. In the past we had scattered out to hunt large areas but we kept closer together in case we had to leave.
We discussed our options, one of which if the fire movement came down the drainage was to move to another location about fifty miles away. We knew that things were bad on the fire, with two or three fire fighters going down with heat exhaustion. We monitored their radio traffic on a scanner.
Many times hunting parties go into the woods and members have no clue where they are. Remember that hunting partner maybe your way out if things go bad. Set down with them with a map and explained the road system. Remember your camping gear can be replaced; the half hour it takes to pickup camp, can cost you your life. And you can always return to pick it up if the move was a false alarm. When in remote areas live on the top half your fuel tank. I will top my tank off with extra fuel from my jerry cans. I do not want to be filling a gas tank in front of a moving fire. When headed for camp in this remote location we will stop at the last gas station and fill up. Gas cost an extra fifty cents a gallon, but it is worth the cost. Auto Club will not come out to this location.
This fire moved both up and down canyon and around the point of the distant mountain between the fire and the camera.
