OK, so I'm up in the woods riding my bike and a thunderstorm develops overhead. Now this wasn't a big surprise, the weather forecast called for thunderstorms so I totally expected them. Before the clouds started building it was quite nice, sunny and warm. It never cooled off much so it stayed warm but when the storm developed there were some brief showers. I found a tree down low to get under and waited for the shower to pass. While I was waiting there I saw some down strikes and thought to myself how ironic and cool it would be to come across a lightning fire. Once the shower passed, I headed down the road. Right away I smelled smoke. About 400 feet above the road was the fire on a little rocky ridge. I walked up and looked at it and scratched a little line to keep it from getting any bigger before the fire crew got there, then left to go down to the junction of the next road to wait for some crew to come along looking for it. Soon an old friend showed up and I told him about where it was and gave him a little size up and he told me my old engine crew was on another fire over by Camp 14.
I decided to ride back to my truck and drive over to that one to say Hi to my friends. Sure enough one of the first people I see is Alec. He was in the process of showing me his middle finger when I took this picture. This fire was much larger but still less than an acre. I found a tool that wasn't being used and scratched a little line there too... ah, the old memories! Since I was there on a fire with no safety gear I didn't want to stay long so after a short time I left to come home... Ya gotta love it!!! And I did!!
