Some of the Best Days of Our Lives
October 2019
From the Big Horn Mountains, Ten Sleep, Wyoming By Patty Derner
From traveling to Alaska, to lighting fires, to seeing moose for the first time, our crew keeps saying one thing that has really stood out to me “This is the best day of my life!”
It’s easy to find yourself or even your crew in a lull, especially this late in the season or after doing something particularly exciting. Lately, our crew has been embracing the simple things, like showing up to a gas station and eating a donut or having a hot cup of coffee after being in the field for a while. However, for the first time since being in Alaska, I’ve started to hear my favorite sentence being said again… “This is the best day of my life!”
It was said multiple times this past week. The first time was when we found out our crew could take part in a prescribed burn near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. We drove into town from our project site on Rattlesnake Mountain and excitedly got pizza before heading to Worland to once again get fitted with yellows and greens (Nomex). We weren’t sure what to expect as there were only 5 of us that were able to make it out to the prescribed burn.
It was exciting going out to the prescribed burn site, getting a briefing and seeing some familiar faces from various times of our season. This prescribed burn was made possible by a variety of crews including engines from the BLM in Buffalo and Worland, the Black Tooth Fire Module members and others. During our briefing, we found out that the MCC women would be on ignition, in combination with some overhead from BLM or the Forest Service! We were not only excited, but some of us thought once again… “This is the best day of my life!”
Running around a field of sage with a drip torch, working with people who once trained us, eating smoke, holding the line, and watching for spot fires aren’t the only things that can make us say… “This is the best day of my life!”
The day after the prescribed burn, we were going out into the Big Horns to our burn site, where we were to clean up all the hoses and any other equipment that may have been left behind. It started snowing! Not only was it snowing, but as we started driving higher into the mountains, we turned a corner to see two moose! A male and a female moose! I was in disbelief; I’d never once seen a moose!
As we continued on our way, the snow was really dumping and completely blanketing the ground and trees. So we stopped to radio our supervisor about the snow and our supervisor dismissed us from continuing up the mountain to the burn site because the weather had become an issue. After that radio conversation, we decided to get out of the trucks to stretch our legs before the trip back down the mountain, but as soon as we got out of the truck and got our bearings, a huge moose crossed the road, just in front of our truck. The moose was so large and so close to us in the snow! This moment was undeniably my turn to say… “This is the best day of my life!”
I wrote this
