It’s been a really interesting week, complete with a near death experience.   Josh is my OHV boss and riding partner.   He is a really cool guy, prior (forest) firefighter and a little bit crazy.     We get along well and have a great time.   Together we patrol the ATV trails and campgrounds.   Most of the time we’re on the ATV’s but one day we patrolled in the Forest Service F350 truck.   I’ll start with that little adventure.   One of the things we are responsible for is making sure the trails are well marked and maintained.   Our mission on this day was to check some signs and to follow up on a report that someone had driven across a meadow. There are hundreds of miles of trails in this forest, but for some reason, the public seems determined to break down gates on closed roads and to ride where they aren’t supposed, like a beautiful meadow.   Sure enough, a week after they had gone through, their tracks were still there, spoiling the...

We had an all forest work day to kick off the beginning of the season.   We didn’t get started until late because while we were all together, management took the opportunity to get in some mandatory training.   The admin section was responsible for the food and the rest of us were split up into two teams.   My team consisted of Recreation (where I work), one of the fire teams and the California Conservation Corp or C’s.   If you will recall, the C’s are the kids who tent camped next to me for a few weeks and bathed in the river.   They have moved further upcountry and this is the first time I’ve seen them.   Our job was to move some fire rings in a campground, rebuild a wooden fence, paint the bathroom and cut down some hazard trees.     We didn’t get there till about 10:30.   It took about an hour to move all the logs and equipment a mile down the trail.   We had to use a chain saw to cut each log from the old fence, then replace them w...

I haven’t been blogging much because there just hasn’t been much to write about.   On my days off, I’ve been doing   a lot of biking instead of hiking because I’m trying to stay off my foot.   There is something very wrong with the bottom of my left foot and the podiatrist has no idea what it is.   I got an MRI last week, but I don’t see him for another 2 weeks.   It’s not Planter Fasciitis or fallen arches, since I already have both.   This is a new issue, lucky me.   There is a band that runs down the outside of the foot, that’s most likely where the problem is.   What’s throwing my doctor off is that the pain reduces when I walk 10-15 steps.   The MRI results say there is a ganglion cyst, among other things.   I didn’t understand the rest of the findings, but I’m sure Dr. Google will help me out until I get to the real Dr.   Anyway, the point is that I haven’t been able to hike and I’m not happy about it!   This is not a bik...