Slight Detour

Take a retired forester who spent some years working in Boundary County and who also headed logistics teams on forest fires.

Add a longtime journalist who likes to take pictures and who spent some summers driving back roads for the U.S. Forest Service.

Round it out with a couple of dogs and a pickup, and soon the team is on the road ready observe a forest fire or two.

And, once they arrive in safe areas for viewing, they find out they're not alone in the curiosity.

That was Bill and me yesterday.

Yesterday we actually started a forest-fire viewing gallery along HWY 95 north of Bonners Ferry.

It was an open spot with plenty of room for parking and a good view of the smoke from the Turner Hill fire, which had started the night before in the midst of farm country and had quickly grown into a fast-spreading wildfire.

We stopped because we saw big planes and helicopters flying through the smoke put up by the fire, which, according the Spokesman-Review newspaper, had burned around 300 acres by last night, prompting numerous evacuations.

I was happy to see that the temperamental shutter on my camera was once again working, so I wasted no time once we were parked to leave the pickup and start snapping photos.

I knew they would not be great but still much better than I could capture with my cell phone.

It wasn't long before almost half a dozen other vehicles had pulled off the highway to the open area where we were watching the air activity.

Unfortunately, we were not high enough in elevation to see the retardant dropping from the big tanker planes, but the aerial presence was enough to keep our eyes occupied.

One second the sky would be clear; the next a plane would suddenly appear out of seemingly nowhere.

Bill pointed out the spotter plane which was leading the bigger planes toward drop spots.

The aerial barrage on the fire and its precision were both impressive.

While we watched, a couple of men got out of a pickup and one hollered over to "Bill Love," noting that he'd known Bill for about 35 years and that he also knew our son Willie.

Turned out he was Ed Moe who will soon retire from John Hancock land holdings and who referees basketball games for younger kids. Bill sez he's also an ardent WSU Cougs fan.

Eventually, the gallery had seen enough, so one by one, the rigs went on their way.

Bill also wanted to see what he could see of the Smith Creek fire, which burning on a steep hillside and, so far, has scorched around 600 acres.

Smith Creek drainage is one of Bill's favorite places because he spent much of the summer of 1974 there, camped out and working for the U.S. Forest Service.

We drove on toward Port Hill and eventually started seeing smoke from the fire.

The best view came in the area around Port Hill itself, which also has a nice groomed area with picnic tables and outdoor john right next to the Kootenai River and Boundary Creek.

So, we stopped at the store and then let the dogs out for some walking, water and recreation.

Next we drove south along the east edge of the Kootenai Valley through hops fields and soon started seeing smoke from the Turner Hill fire.

We stopped at the Copeland Bridge, and once again saw other spectators with cameras.

It was there that we enjoyed the highlight of the day.

The Kootenai River had been closed to boat traffic to allow two Single Engine Airtankers (SEATs) an area for zooming in toward the water and scooping up a load of about 800 gallons of water.

To say it was amazing to watch would be an understatement. I took photos from the Copeland Bridge not far from Charles Biles, who had a camera with a giant lens along with another camera.

Charles is a retired Navy linguist and a photojournalist who most recently worked out of Mount Vernon, Wash., with the Skagit Valley Herald.

https://charlesbiles.com/about

Like Bill, he had followed the early progress of the fire via the online 9B News.

In between "SEAT" runs and camera clicking, we got acquainted and swapped a few photographic and journalism stories.

And, yes, meeting Charles was great fun for me.

I met my journalist and Bill connected with a forestry friend.

Not a bad day for two old codgers who loved what they learned and did through their respective careers.

All fascinating and a fun distraction from life at the Lovestead.

Hope you enjoy the photos, and I can say one thing for sure: the assault that we witnessed on that Turner Hill fire was impressive.

Let's hope it's under control soon.

Happy Friday.

Charles Biles, photographer

Impressive tanker flying right over us after making its retardant drop on the Turner Hill fire north of Bonners Ferry.

Bill and his forestry friend Ed Moe.

Smith Creek Fire

I had a nice but brief visit with the owner of the Porthill store and couldn't resist giving these limited edition patriotic Oreos a try.

Not bad!

This is a beautiful area for dogs and peeps not far from the Porthill Store at the Canadian Border.

Well, this morning, we've got smoke.

I started smelling it around 10:30 last evening, and the smell hung on overnight.

The view outdoors early this morning was pretty eerie, even more eerie when I saw a runner in the semi darkness out for his morning jog at 4:45 a.m.

Bill spent the night off and on monitoring 9B News on his Kindle, after seeing a quick blurb on TV that a fire had broken out north of Bonners Ferry.

The news highlights kept coming every few minutes as the fast moving fire grew and families from more and more roads were told to evacuate.

We don't know this morning how much the fire has grown but can only imagine what a scary situation it is for all the people who live and have animals in the Turner Hill area.

Safe to say that our smoky haze around here is minor compared to what those folks are experiencing.

We have been fairly lucky with forest fires around this area during the last two or three years.

That could change if the wind that's been blowing overnight continues and with no appreciable rain in the forecast.

Fingers crossed for all involved and hoping the situation doesn't get worse.

Along with the smoke has come the heat. We pretty much hit our heat wall yesterday and spent more time in the cool house than outside in the sun or even shade.

We even watched the last rather exciting semifinal in World Cup soccer.

We'll be pulling for Spain to win the cup.

Anyway, here in the height of summer, and these weather conditions are expected, but it's never really too thrilling to have the body and mind sapped of energy and the desire to do much work.

In other news, I see that the downtown parking fiasco continues to rile up the locals and local businesses. Last night's news featured a report that one business has lost 75 percent of its usual income since the parking system was implemented.

This seems like something that could have been a lot easier if the old simple system of parking meters that took coins had been reinstated.

I know that in the past I never minded the parking meters and always happily and easily paid for my parking spaces.

Now, though, I'm not exaggerating when I say that in the past few days I've wanted to do some things in town but have totally bypassed the idea, knowing that parking would be confusing at best.

I wonder how many others from out of the city limits have taken the same approach.

Hope they come up with some ideas cuz I sure do want to get down there and check out Sawyer's Bakery.