Looking for Smoke: Adventures of an Aerial Observer
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•Published by Xlibris in February, 2006 Available at:
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Looking For Smoke: Adventures of an Aerial Observer
After working almost 20 summers for the US Forest Service, mostly as a wildland firefighter, Bob became an Aerial Observer on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. This is like a book of short stories. Each story is an account of an incident that happened during the years he was an Observer.
Using almost 100 photographs Bob illustrates some of his memories from a job in which he looked for wildfire smoke during the late 1980s.
There are photographs of lookouts, small fires, and aircraft. There are photographs of large fires with awesome flame lengths. There are beautiful pictures of mountains, lakes and forest. Fire lookout structures are captured from many angles. One could enjoy this book by only looking at pictures.
Bob’s oldest son, John, joined him as an Aerial Observer in 1987. Two years later John, who worked year around for the USFS, became the Lead Observer. Bob was transferred to Eugene to be a radio dispatcher during the summer months.
The scenery they flew over is spectacular, from majestic peaks like 10,495 foot Mt. Jefferson in the north to the Calapooya Mountains over 100 miles to the south. In between are the Three Sisters and many smaller but appealing peaks.
There are almost 400 lakes, including spectacular Waldo Lake. Waldo is the second deepest natural lake in Oregon at 410 feet, behind Crater Lake. It is one of the most pure lakes in the world, with water sometimes compared to that which is distilled. The clarity of the water is renowned. Waldo Lake covers almost ten square miles.
Included on the Willamette are almost two million acres of forestland, thousands of which are untouched by man, not visible to most folks because there are no roads and few trails at the higher elevations. Flying over this forest is an optical pleasure.
The Willamette has over 1,500 miles of streams and rivers, including the headwaters of the Willamette, Santiam and McKenzie. It has a diverse variety of more than a dozen conifer tree species, including large stands of Douglas Fir, which is Oregon’s official State tree. One can find giants of this species as big as eight feet in diameter.
The Willamette is rich in fish and wildlife, including Steelhead, bass, Chinook and Kokanee salmon and many kinds of trout. Blacktail deer are common and one may also spot Roosevelt Elk, cougar, black bear and even Mule deer near the crest. The wolverine is believed to be making a comeback after disappearing from the Cascade Range for many years.
Even though the scenery is spectacular, the Detection flights often consisted of long periods of no action. Mixed in were frantic times of lightning started fires all around. A few times Bob was a close-up witness to awe-inspiring demonstrations of Mother Nature’s power in lightning storms and fires that had gone beyond the point of big.
Bob and his pilots often used their flight route to bring newspapers and C.A.R.E. packages to lookouts far from civilization and creature comforts.
Bob had the privilege of teaching in an outstanding school, Pleasant Hill Junior High. The Administration was superior, the Staff spectacular, the students striking and the parents especially supportive.
Bob’s summer job was the same; wonderful people for whom and with whom to work. Not many men are so fortunate!
Bob retired after 28 years of teaching and from dispatching at the end of the 1997 season. At that time he began a wonderful period of about six years raising two little boys, unrelated to him. Squeek and Boca were with Papa 24/7. He loves them as if they were his own. He is also very proud of them. This book is dedicated to Jacob and Andrew Thompson.
His first book is dedicated to his four sons, John, Tim, Mark and Dan. The next book will be dedicated to his grandchildren, Jordan, Kaley, Andrew, Jeremy, Stephen and Annika. (So far.) They are all people for which their parents and grandparents can be proud!
