9/28/09 - I was able to take a helicopter flight above the fire today. This is the helicopter we took, an Alouette A-Star.


Taking off from the Hood River airport. There are several types of helicopters working the fire and one fixed wing aircraft.

Here we are approaching the Northern slopes of Mt Hood above the fire.

This is Cloud Cap Inn which is a famous building on the mountain that has been there for over a hundred year. The fire burned all around it but the fire fighers were able to save all the buildings.

There are a few smoldering hot spots up on the mountain but for the most part there is no active fire at this time.

Here are some burned areas on the Northeast side of the mountain.

...and on the North side of the mountain.

This is the road up to Cloud Cap Inn. There are huge machines that are taking down dangerous trees, or snags, so it is safe to travel up to the Inn.

This is the Parkdale lava flow between the fire and fire camp. It is a 7,700 year old lava flow from Mt Hood.

9/27/08 - Fire Camp tour. Here is an aerial photo I took of the Incident Command Post (ICP) or Fire Camp at the Hood River County Fairgrounds. It becomes a pretty self sufficient city suppling almost everything one needs.




One of the first things you notice when you get into camp are all the tents. It doesn't seem like there are 500 tents in camp but the food trailer makes meals for 500 people.

Here is the heartbeat of camp, all the section trailers. All the operations and admin take place in these trailers. I work the the closest trailer on the right with the Fire Behavior Analyst and the GIS team.

Here is where the crew briefings take place. I have to give briefings to the crew at 6 am and 5pm. I also give briefings to remote Spike camps via radio at 7 am and to the aviation crew at 7:30 am at the helispot a few miles away. There are also planning meetings where I brief the sections chiefs at Noon and 7 pm.

Here is the dining area. The trailer in the back is where breakfast and dinner is prepared and we eat in the tents.

This building is part of the fairgrounds but it is used for the communications section and medical section for the fire camp.

Here is supply where just about anything from fire gear and clothes to office supplies can be picked up. The trailer to the right is where bag lunches are handed out.

There are even portable showers in a trailer. You can see the potable water truck filling up the huge bladders for the showers. I haven't actually showered in this trailer yet. There are permanent restroom facilities with showers as part of the fairgrounds.

9/24/08 - Air Operations has set up a cargo spot at the Cooper Spur Inn.


Once they were finished we launched a pilot balloon (Pibal) to see the winds up to about 8000 ft AGL. We manually track the balloon using a theodolite which is to my right.

We took a quick detour to the South side of the mountain to Timberline lodge. There is a ski area there as well and they have skiing on a glacier year round. You can see the groomed area in the middle of the picture.

9/23/2008 A view of Mt Hood and the Gnarl Ridge fire from the east.

Some cool lenticular clouds atop Mt Adams and to its east. Mt Adams is to the north of the Incident Command Post (ICP) in Odell, OR. Odell is about 10 miles north of the fire.

Here is where I am sleeping. My tent is the small orange and grey one on the left. The ICP is at the Hood Valley County fairgrounds. There are several hundred tents and other support equipment at the camp. I will try to add more pictures from around camp in the next few days.

9/22/08 My first full day at the Gnarl Ridge Fire on Mt Hood, OR. The Fire Behavior Analyst (FBAN) took us up toward an area called Cloud Cap. This Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) is located at Inspiration Point. Here is a link to the observations.


Here is a picture along the fire lines. Complete fire information can be found at the Inciweb website.

Here is a peak of the Mt. Hood summit taken from the top of the lift at the Cooper Spur Ski Area.

I have created a Picasa website to share photos with friends. Here is the link: www.picasaweb.google.com/cadavehead

So far I have added a number of albums of Nugget. Most of the pictures are taken at Atlantic Beach. Nugget loves to run after birds and is very fast, but he never gets close to getting them.

I love this picture. It looks like he is flying.

By the way, I have fixed the pictures in my first blog to be larger by clicking on it. You can see more detail in the picture if you want, but it is much larger than the monitor now. I have to find a happy medium at some point.

January Day in Eastern NC

How does one spend an unseasonably warm January day in Eastern NC? How about Kayaking, Clamming and Camping!

My buddy Brian and I have come up with the great idea of kayaking from my house in Newport, NC to his house in Portsmouth, VA this summer. That is a 250 mi, 10+ day trip along the Outer Banks; ouch, we better start training now.

Brian just bought his kayak this weekend, MLK Jr. weekend, and with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s we decided to take a camping trip to Shackleford Banks and the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

We started out at Shell Point, at the Cape Lookout National Seashore Visitors Center on Harker's Island, and kayaked out to Shackleford Banks. The 2 1/2 mi trip took about 45 min.

This was the maiden voyage for Brian's kayak. An Old Town Cayuga 146. I have an Old Town Dirigo 140.

After setting up camp on Shackleford we kayaked over to Cape Lookout Lighthouse on South Core Banks.

We then went across to Cape Lookout Bight hoping to find some clams. I bought a clam rake a couple days prior and was hoping to find enough for a nice appetizer. You can see the lighthouse in the background.

We were successful and found 26 clams in about 45 min.

We then decided to kayak into the Atlantic for a more direct approach to our camp. The lighthouse is in the background and the bight is off the picture on the right. We kayaked about 10 miles the first day.

I brought along some butter and garlic and steamed some clams on the beach. It was a terrific appetizer after a great day of kayaking in January.

The next morning we basically back tracked, clammed some more on the bight and returned to the camp via the sound and broke camp. The Shackleford Ponies were around were we pulled ashore. We actually saw a lot of the ponies both days.

We raked in 6 dozen clams at the bight and took them home for steaming and to make some chowder. This was an amazing trip for January. Unfortunately the cold weather is on its way and it will probably be a couple months before we get weather like this again.