All posts by Scott

USA 2010, Work

Incline Village, North Lake Tahoe …

April 1, 2010 Scott 1 Comment

Today was the final day for the Wildland Urban Interface Conference and the morning had some interesting sessions:

Fatigue Management on Wildland Fires by Pete Lawrence from Oceanside FD
Urban / Wildland Firefighters and Heat Injury by Vaughan Miller from Ventura County FD;
The Station Fire by John Tripp from LA County FD

In the afternoon we headed on a field trip to Incline Village on North Lake Tahoe. Incline Village is home to the Ponderosa Ranch of Bonanza fame.

It had been snowing for the last 3 days with an additional 45cm of snow on the ground – all the best for the skiing on the weekend. 🙂

We visited North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District as they staff three 20-person fire crews. When not on assignment, crews implement fuels treatments within the District. Government agencies contract with the District to implement fuels treatments on their property. On private land the District assists property owners with laying out projects and securing funding.

Hand-thinning and pile-burning is implemented to reduce heavy fuel loading that contributes to the risk of a catastrophic wildfire, and to reduce stand density to a level that promotes a healthy and resilient ecosystem. The district has treated 656 acres with under story fire since the program’s inception.

Chief Mike Brown and Captain Steve Alcorn took me on a visit of their Station which ran an Engine, Truck, 2 Brush Trucks, Heavy Rescue, 2 EMS Rescues, 4 Crew Buggies, snow vehicles and water craft. During the tour, they received a call for smoke in a Realtor’s Office so I got to go on the run which didnt end up being anything.

Chief Brown gave us a ride back to town via the Mt Rose Ski Resort. He just happens to be working at the resort on Saturday as Ski Patrol so will catch up again then.

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Geocaching, USA 2010

Downtown Reno …

March 29, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Another day down on the Strike Team Leaders course and I decided to go for walk into downtown. There was a storm on the way but it looked clear so should be OK.

I didn’t take a jumper and it was warm, but by the time I got to downtown it started to get cool – around 10 degrees and light rain.

I walked along the southern bank of the Truckee River, taking in some geocaches on the way. At one of the caches I came across a couple of cachers, Foreverchaos and HRKneese, found the old Reno arch and into the Main Street to check out the new Reno Arch (the one my Reno pathtag is based on). Downtown was deserted, probably due to the cold, wind and impending storm.

Also checked out the Bowling Centre and Reno Fire Department Station #1 which is similar design to Station @#21.

The round trip today was 12.2km, grabbing 10 caches and getting back to the hotel just as the rain / sleet started with 8.8 degrees and falling.

Caches found:

GCZRKG – “Imagine”

GC1TYDB – Be Patient

GC1R70B – Ye Old Pipeline

GCHREY – Souvenir Penny Cache

GCT7T8 – SHM #210 Depot

GC1RZP8 – Bakers DZ.9 – Bavarian Creme

GCRZPF – Bakers DZ.0 Pan Dulce

GCT7TA – SHM #220 Fight

GCPKKF – SHM #240 Coney Island

GC19ZYG – What a Rush

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USA 2010, Work Life

Lets start the Strike Team class work …

March 28, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

I think my head hit the pillow and the alarm went off straight away – well it seemed like it. Up at 7:00am, showered then headed downstairs to grab a coffee and muffin then to the Registration Desk and off to Day 1 of the S-330 Strike Team Leaders course.

The course is being run by Chief Michael Brown, Captain Steve Alcorn and Isaac Powning all from North Lake Tahoe Fire District. The mix of the class is a lot of Nevada and Californian personnel with some from other States and myself and another from Australia.

The course is a lot different from the S-215 I did a couple of years ago. This is more on the administrative role of a Strike Team Leader rather than operational firefighting role. It certainly shows the different approach to wildfires between the US and Australia.

Once the day had finished it was time to explore the local area, to find a store for supplies and of course some caches.

At the southern end of the hotel carpark is Reno Fire Department Station #21 which has a interesting engine room design to allow for the snow to fall off.

Headed south finding one store which ended up being an Indian store (of the sub continent variety) so they didn’t have the usual staples, so kept walking and found a Sak n’ Save which is similar to a supermarket back home.

A couple of bags of stuff later and it was the long walk back, when a woman stopped and asked directions to the Grand Sierra, which was lucky as it was about the only place I knew so I got a ride back to the hotel.

Managed to grab 7 caches today including a couple of the LPC’s (Lamp Post Caches) and find number 2400. Total distance for the walk was 6 km today.

Caches found:

GC1X93A – light it up

GC12DN4 – Movie Title Series #5

GC1Y40R – Cache Challenge

GC12Y5E – Let’s all Learn to Geocache

GC17DDDX – Airport Square

GC1QM09 – WWJEat6

GC18TDK – Another Fast Find

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USA 2010, Work Life

Flying to the US again ….

March 27, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

I have been given the opportunity to get back to the US to attend the 2010 Wildland Urban Interface Conference in Reno Nevada.

The trip from home to hotel was to be 31 hours with 17.5 hours of that in the air. The biggest wait was to be in LAX for around 6 hours.

Friday night and I got a call from Qantas saying that my Sydney leg was delayed and that I had been placed on a domestic flight at a later time. This suited me as I got to have an extra hours sleep. 🙂 I later found out that the flight had been cancelled and not delayed.

The leg to Sydney was uneventful and it was off the plane, through Customs and Immigration and nearly straight on the plane for the LA leg. We were delayed from takeoff as they were still refuelling. No problems with that – dont want to run out of fuel over the Pacific anywhere.

The flight was like riding a train in the A380 until 4 hours in when we started flying over tropical storms and it was roller coaster for about 45 minutes.

Needless to say it was hard to get any sleep after that with a few more bumps along the way. I probably got about 2 hours in total. And besides I was travelling cattle class this time. 🙁

Even though leaving late, we managed to get in early to LAX – not really what I wanted because of the wait I had before my next flight. The plane had a skycam on the TV which brought in images from a camera on the tail. I took photos of the takeoff, landing and sunrise – Cool.

The Customs and Immigration queue only took about 1/2 an hour and both my bags were there. I then rechecked my bags for the Reno leg wondering if I would see them again.

It was out into the real world to kill some time. First stop was Radioshack to get a pre-paid phone and datacard. No nasty data surprises this trip. 😉

Some lunch at Starbucks and then time for some caches in the local area before heading back to the airport.

Caches found were:

GCGDTF – Pushing Tin LAX

GC1DJJR – One Hour Pancakes

While waiting for the plane, I tried the datacard but was having no luck – thats OK the netbook was going flat anyway, I will sort it in Reno.

We were late getting away from LAX due to them trying to fill the small plane then putting too many on then taking people off. As long as my luggage made it on.

The flight was spectactular with flying over large mountains of snow – cant wait to have a chance on them.

Arrived in Reno to find my luggage there – what a surprise.

A shuttle ride to the Grand Sierra Resort, got my room , settled in and headed to bed – I was feeling a little tired by now and I had a 7:00 am start ing the morning.

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Family Life

Northern Lights …

March 21, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

As part of the Adelaide Festival, the city’s historic architectural icons on North Terrace are painted with light and coloured with life. The light installation – the largest of its type ever displayed in Australia – incorporates the State Library of South Australia, the South Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Elder Hall, the Mitchell Building and Bonython Hall, plus the rear wall of Parliament House, facing the iconic Adelaide Festival Centre.

This is called the Northern Lights and we picked a warm night to head down into the city and have a look with about 10000 other people. It is spectactular and well worth checking out next time it is on.

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12 of 12, Motorsport

March 12 of 12 – Clipsal 500 V8 Supercars

March 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

March is known in Adelaide and South Australia as “Mad March”, because of all the events that are held during the month such as the Adelaide Festival of Arts, The Fringe, Womadelaide and the biggest event of the all the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar Race.

My involvement in all these events is the position of “Emergency Coordinator” at the Clipsal 500. This involves the coordination of all the fire trucks, tow trucks, recovery vehicles and equipment vehicles on track.

The day started at 6:00 am with sign-on at the “Turn 3 Marquee” where all of the 800 volunteer Officials meet in the morning to collect lunches, drinking water and hold briefings on the days proceedings.

From here the Officials, disperse to around 50 points around the street circuit, in various roles such as fire, flags, track and spectator.

My home for the day is in Race Control which sits on the top floor of the new $20 million Pit Building overlooking the start line. It must be the best seat in the place and has air-conditioning as well.

The morning started with Radio Checks and then various practice, qualifying and race sessions.

The day got off to a bang with a rollover in the Mini Challenge, 3 crashes in the GT Championship and this was all before 9:00 am.

It got quieter through the day with an impressive crash in the Aussie Racing Cars but when the Touring Car Masters and V8 Utes came out in the afternoon, the manure hit the fan.

The Touring Car Masters were mainly breakdowns – after all the cars are getting old. But the V8 Utes had fires and crashes to keep the crowd and our firies and towies, not to mention my team in Race Control on our toes.

I have included some photos up to the Fujitsu V8 race – not sure what is going to happen in that – hopefully a little quieter.

Enjoy.

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Geocaching

Morgan Caching

March 7, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

After spending 5 hours on the SeaDoo yesterday and a bit of a session last night, Sunday was a rest day, at least in the morning.

Some of the families wanted to head up to Morgan to the off road quarry areas to try their prowess, especially after last nights rain. I had the Camry so that meant being a passenger.

It also meant that I could get some Geocaching in as well. 🙂

We headed up to Morgan but found that there wasn’t the mud that was expected, but everyone still had fun and some challenges in the quarry area.

After spending an hour in the quarry area, the other families headed back to Roonka and Team Hurtle and me went caching around the Morgan area returning back to Roonka on the eastern side of the River Murray.

Caches found were:

GCHJM6 – Morgan DTU

GC1CAM3 – Harvey

GC1D30V – No. 52

GCZKPN – Hibercacheon

GCZKP9 – Flowcacheon

GCY67X – River Habitat

GC1AMY2 – APC

GC20YEV – Murkbo Bank

GC1D3YK – G.R. Aldridge, Esquire

GC20YEW – Lock One

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Family Life, Scouts

Roonka Family Camp

March 6, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

The March Long Weekend is the normal weekend for the Blackwood Scout Family Camp at the Roonka Water Activity Centre north of Blanchetown. We missed last year because of some other group booking the site before we could but not this year.

This year brought a record number of families with 140 people camping the weekend. Most made it in on Friday although we nearly didnt.

We borrowed my brothers SeaDoo and the last time it was used was when we borrowed it for the Family Camp two years ago so some maintenance was required with a new battery and oil. This took longer than expected so we didnt get on the road until 6:30 pm.

This year the weather was a lot cooler than a couple of years ago with mid to high 20’s instead of the low to mid 40’s.

The first day (Saturday) was perfect river weather – not too hot or cold and only a light wind. The kids spent most of their time in canoes and on blow up matresses and I spent 5 hours taking kids for rides on the SeaDoo.

The weather soon changed once we had finished for the day with strong winds, heavy rain, lightning and thunder. All the better to sit back and enjoy the company of good friends and new acquaintances.

Family Life, Geocaching

Geogaine 2010

February 27, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

We took part in a world first event? The South Australian Rogaining Association put together the idea of a Rogaine with the use of a GPS, with the result of a new event type, the GEOGAINE! In the pleasant surrounds of Victor Harbor the task was be to find as many temporary geocaches in 3 hours on foot.

Our story started in the afternoon when we picked up our Japanese homestay student from the High School around 2:30 pm. Out of the 20 students thee was one that had been sick from the airport to the school and yes it was ours.

We got him home and settled briefly, then it was time to load everyone in the car to go to Victor. It wasnt long and our Japanese friend was ill again. Turn around and drop him and Jenny at home and we were on our way again. The team had now dropped from 5 to 3 and it was now 4:30 pm. We were going to be late.

The drive was going well until about 5km out of Victor when someone decided it was fun to drive at 60kph in a 100 km zone all the way to Victor with the biggest train of cars behind him and no opportunities to pass.

We arrived at the scout hall just in time to hear 5-4-3-2-1 and this crowd of Geogainers heading out the gate. Headed in and grabbed the maps and stuff and headed out still not knowing the rules of engagement.

We decided to grab the very easy ones close then the kids wanted to go to Granite Island so it was then off to do the hard ones. On the southern side of the island, the wind was so strong it was difficult to keep your feet. After picking up all the hard ones we headed south along the coast to make a start on the next series.

Of course in all this the 13 year old daughter was properly kitted up with thongs even though she was told to wear sneakers. But you cant tell a teenager.

It was getting close to 8:00 pm so it was time to grab what we could and head back to the scout hall. It was getting dark and the GPS was telling us that it would take 18 minutes to get back and we had 15 minutes left so time to pick up the pace.

With a little gallop at the end, we made it with 10 seconds to spare to the 8:30 deadline.