KatieTheKat

I got back from bootcamp yesterday afternoon.  Definitely one of the toughest things I've ever done - way more intense than I was expecting.  A typical day looked something like this:

Repeat.

On the first day, which included the initial fitness test, I drove out to chilliwack with deb, andre and ilan.  We had some brunch and awesome pie at the chilliwack airport then went for a little hike/walk to teapot hill near cultus lake.  They stayed to watch me complete the fitness test.  It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  Partway through, I was thoroughly convinced I wasn't going to be able to complete it in the 14.5min time limit and was resigning myself to the idea I'd probably be heading straight home and having to sort out a new plan for the summer.  Somehow, however, I managed to complete it in 14mins and 10 seconds.

Now I am done and certified and I have submitted my preferences for a job placement and am hoping I will be offered something.  I'm pretty confident, though it's not certain anything will come of this until I actually get an invitation to join a crew.  That will likely happen on Wednesday, and my start date will probably be next Monday.

In the end, the preferences I put were as follows:

Crew Type: Initial Attack (this is a small team of 3 people that responds to an initial report of a fire, so I'll get more helicopter time and will mostly be dealing with smaller fires, but could still end up being deployed on larger ones from time to time too)

1st location preference: Sechelt

2nd location preference: Campbell River

3rd: Anywhere in the Coastal or Southeast BC fire regions

I think that based on my performance and what I've heard about available positions, chances are pretty good I'll end up in Sechelt or Campbell River, but there is still a perfectly good possibility I'll be either somewhere entirely different or not get a job at all.

Now that I'm back in Vancouver in beautiful sunny, summery weather, it almost feels like none of it even happened.  My muscles were so sore most of the week that things like standing up, sitting down, walking, putting on shoes, etc. sometimes seemed almost impossible.  Yet by the end of the week, my body had adapted and right now I just have some lingering scrapes and bruises, a little stiffness in the shoulder area, and tight hamstrings.  On Tuesday, I was nearly ready to give up and call it quits!  Wednesday, I was doing burpees in a dirty trench blinking through tears and just wishing I could stop to eat my lunch. Yesterday as we waited for our written test results, by 9am my classmates and I felt like it should be lunch time as we sat around lazing in the sun, playing frisbee and hackeysack for the first time in a week.  

Although the people, instructors and classmates alike, were all fantastic, I can't say that I really enjoyed the experience overall, at least.. I didn't through most of the week.  It was at camp that I started to understand the question people had been asking me leading up to it: "WHY would you want to be a wildfire fighter?" - before camp, my first thought was always "Why would I NOT want to be a wildfire fighter?"  But if someone had asked me during camp, I don't know that I would have had any good answer to give.  And yet... if I ask myself now whether I would do bootcamp again, it amazes me to realize that the answer is yes.