My hunger sated, it was now time for some more waiting. Around 2:00 (that's 14:00 Forest Service time), a big farm truck pulled into the parking and I helped Ray, the farmer and truck owner, load up the axes, shovels, polaskis (a tool that is sort of a combination of both a hoe and an axe), pumps, fuel, tents, lanterns, cooking equipment, utensils, pots, pans, food. sleeping rolls, toilet paper, and chainsaws. You need a lot of stuff to set up a camp to fight a forest fire.
When we had all of the equipment and supplies loaded, we did some more waiting until we were told it was finally time to actually get the truckload of supplies moving down the road. I grabbed my pack containing my gear and the brown envelope with all of the Timekeeper’s pads and papers, climbed into the passenger seat of the farm truck, and we rolled out of the Forest Service parking lot and headed down Highway 16 toward Dome Creek and the helicopter pickup site.
It took about an hour to get to the drop-off point. I helped Ray, the farmer, unload all of the tools, equipment, and food from the farm truck and onto a nice pile on the grassy field at Dome Creek. Ray got into the truck and drove away and I did some more waiting, all alone, with the mountain of firefighting supplies.
Forty-five minutes later, Alastair arrived in a green Forest Service pickup to drop off JJ, (who I was happy to see) and Bob, along with more supplies. JJ was the hippie/jack-of-all-trades friend and neighbor, and Bob was a farmer, who would be the First Aid Attendant. I was happy to learn that JJ was going to be the cook. It was reassuring to have someone I knew along on this adventure.
We unloaded more supplies from the back of Alastair's truck and he drove away, leaving us to continue with our waiting along a bigger pile of fire fighting equipment.
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