Bo Zarts
Bo Zarts's Journal50 years ago today (9/30/1970) I arrived in Saigon for my 365-day tour of duty in Vietnam ..
It was 50 years ago today - September 30, 1970 - that I stepped off a military charter United Airlines DC-8-61 at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Air Base, and began my year-long tour of duty as a US Army fixed-wing pilot in Vietnam.
"Desolation Dawn"
Pinyon Peak Fire Lookout
Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness
Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho
©2020 Bo Zarts Studio
Pinyon Peak Road at Sunset
Salmon-Challis National Forest
Idaho - 2020
© 2020 - Bo Zarts Studio
A high-country storm and the morning after ..
One of several storms to hit my area of responsibility in the high-country wilderness of the Salmon Mountains of Idaho, late in the afternoon of July 24, 2020. This storm sat on top of Loening and Cabin Creek Peaks for quite some time, and over the headwaters of the Loon Creek drainage, about 10-15 miles south of my 10,000 foot perch on Pinyon Peak. Quite a lot of lightning ground strikes too, but ..
On the morning after the storms, fog spills over from the Feltham Creek/Beaver Creek drainage into the Trail Creek/Loon Creek side, while the Stanley Valley holds the low clouds and fog between me (on Pinyon Peak) and the Sawtooth Range. This was week two of fire season in the high country, and not a single fire start with all that lightning! The asbestos forest.
Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness
Idaho - Fire Season 2020
Out of the wilderness, by the thinnest skin of my teeth .. Pinyon Peak Fire Lookout
Yesterday - Labor Day 2020 - three members of my USFS fire battalion came up to help me shut down the lookout and get out before the storm. We raced the clock as the wind increased, and the temperature dropped.
Then they led, clearing blowdown, through the incredibly rough roads and miles of standing dead snags, as we snaked out of old fire scars in the River of No Return Wilderness.
Today - a day after the epic winds - our fire crews are clearing the thousands of blowdowns to free stranded campers and hunters. Thank goodness we did not get the fires like the Pacific NW and California did.
I am the lucky-est ducky ever. I was literally 30 minutes from possibly getting totally stranded on the FS-172 road between about Feldham Creek Peak and the Seafoam Road. Had I been that late leaving the lookout behind the fire crew, their road clearing would have been for naught, and trees could have blocked my return to the lookout. But, no doubt, they would have waited on me, communicated by radio, and doubled back to check on my welfare. That's the way we swing as a fire team.
Tonight is my last night in Challis. Tomorrow I head back to SC.
Going down to about 20-degrees on this 10,000' peak tonight.
Lots of snow, wind, and fog today. Perhaps some great photos, too.
Snug in my sleeping bag, next to the wood stove. Life is good.
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