Camp Life at the Aggie Creek Fire - My Great Alaskan Adventure

When I was dispatched to the Aggie Creek Fire north of Fairbanks, Alaska, I had little idea of the new friends and experiences I was soon to encounter. My nephew, Zack, and I drove the truck and hand-wash trailer from Fairbanks 27 miles north on the Elliot Highway to the base camp. Zack had his trailer down at the mess hall tent and I was asked to put mine up the hill by the camp crew and the North to Alaska camp manager tent. They were all super excited to have me there since the trailer is equipped with plug-ins and people can charge their cell phones when I have the generator running. I think the electrical aspect was almost more popular than the hot running water, although people were very grateful to have that, too.

Zack eats his sack lunch by a river on our way back to camp

Parked next to the camp crew on the right

The camp crew are the crew that keep the base camp running smoothly. They unload and load supplies, make coffee in the morning, get fire wood for the campfire to help warm people (this is Alaska, after all!) do garbage runs and pretty much any other odd jobs that need to be done around camp. In base camp everyone sleeps in their tents (except me, who slept inside my hand-wash trailer on a cot) and we use porta-potties for our bathrooms. Hand-wash trailers, while common in the lower 48 states, are virtually unknown in Alaska.

Most wildfires in Alaska are allowed to burn until they go out by themselves. This year over 300 fires are burning in Alaska and only 22 of those fires are being actively fought. Most fire is started by lightening and there are few if any roads to access the burn areas. The frequent burns keep the Alaskan tundra healthy.

smoke from Aggie Creek Fire obscures the ridge line

The Aggie Creek Fire was fought because it threatened the economic livelihood of the state of Alaska, the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline which runs 800 miles down the center of Alaska from Prudhoe Bay in the north to Valdez in the south. There are a series of 12 pump stations along the pipeline and the Aggie Creek Fire at one point got within 100 feet of pump station #7.  Parts of the pipeline are buried and parts are above ground. We were camped literally right on top of the buried pipeline.

I am at mile 427 on the 800 mile pipeline

The pipeline was built during the oil crisis of the 1970s and it was completed by 1977. I remember hearing about it as a child, but I never realized what an engineering marvel it was. The oil is over 100 degrees and so to keep the permafrost from melting and destabilizing the soil, the pipeline is insulated and even refrigerated in places, and in other places it is above the ground. Over 85% of the Alaskan government revenue comes from the oil industry. There is no sales or income tax in Alaska, so it is heavily dependent on the oil industry. The lower oil prices recently are bad news for Alaskans.

Firefighter tents on top of the pipeline

selfie at a section of raised pipeline 

I was fortunate to be welcomed by the camp crew of mostly Athabascan natives. All one ever hears about are the Eskimos in Alaska, but the Athabascans are the natives of the interior of Alaska. They are a warm, friendly, generous people. I am not an expert in Athabascan culture, but I learned a lot living with them for three weeks. A key value is the sharing of food. The shooting of a youth's first moose is an important rite of passage and they are required to give the meat away to teach the importance of sharing. I also learned about Potlatches, which are usually a memorial service where gifts (blankets, guns, food, beadwork, etc.)  are given in memory of the family member who has passed. It can take up to a year or longer for a family to gather the items given at a Potlatch.

The day I arrived at camp, Mickey, the grey water truck driver had donated a large hunk of moose meat to the camp crew and they were preparing to cook it up for themselves. They wanted carrots, celery and onions to put in the moose stew so I texted my brother Donald, who was running an errand in Fairbanks, and asked him to pick up those items. Although I didn't know it at the time, this opened a door because we were participating in their cultural value of sharing.

moose meat stew being cooked over the open campfire

I'm eating moose stew in Alaska!

As the weeks passed I got to experience Yukon River salmon, moose and caribou cooked by the camp crew. This is all traditional Alaskan food.

Half dried Yukon River salmon donated by Joe and his son

cleaning the pot with a rock before starting salmon stew

The salmon is cooked over the fire

Boiled, fried and cooked on a stick, the Yukon River salmon drips with omega rich oil.

Caribou

even better with onions and green peppers

Connie showed me the blueberries to pick

There was also a caterer who provided breakfast, a sack lunch, and dinner for the firefighters and the camp. Camp quiet hours were from midnight to 0600. It was very strange to have 24 hour sunlight. The sun would kind of set around midnight and it would be rather twilightish until about 3 am.

I'm holding the sun!

Midnight at base camp. The smoke from the fire makes for a nice sunset.

Lined up to go through the catering line

The caterer decorated for Independence Day and served BBQ. There was a flag raising ceremony and patriotic music.

Zack's hand-wash trailer is decorated for the 4th of July

the trailer with the sack lunches and ice

Old Glory on July 4th

A typical day for me started at 0550 when my alarm would go off. I would get up, get dressed and then go outside and start the generator. Then I would clean and disinfect the sinks and counters and clean the mirrors. After that, I would go next door for some of Carol's famous camp coffee, which was percolated over the fire. This rich, dark java was soon a favorite for everyone in camp, and even the commanders from the Incident Command Post (ICP) would line up for her coffee at the 0800 morning briefings.

Carol's camp coffee, cooked over the fire on the tripod

I'd eat breakfast around 0700, pick up my sack lunch and be back by 0800 to turn off the generator before the morning briefing. (Although the last week they got a sound system and used my generator to run it so then I didn't have to worry about the noise) After the briefing was over I would fill out my equipment time card and have it signed by the camp boss. Then I would clean the sinks again and find a book to read. A friend gave me a huge box of books to take with me to Alaska and I started a book exchange reading box on the front tongue of the trailer for people to exchange books. The rest of the day would usually include a mid afternoon nap, a walk around camp, sitting around the campfire and talking to Carol and Connie from the camp crew or chatting with the bus drivers.

The firefighters are taken by bus (usually school bus) to drop points and then the bus driver sits on the bus and waits all day for them to return. They can not leave in case the crew has to be evacuated rapidly from the fire. An exception to this is if the bus driver's crew is "spiked out". That means that the fire crew hikes in (often 3 or more miles) and sets up a camp and stays camped out at the fire line for several days. Helicopters drop their food, gear and supplies to them. Then the bus driver waits at base camp with the rest of us until the crew hikes out to be picked up. Ryan, Colleen and Hannah were bus drivers who had crews spiked out so I got to know them around the campfire.

A helicopter takes a load of supplies from the heliopad to firefighters

Late afternoon I would usually clean the sinks again and then walk down to dinner when it started at 1630 (8:30pm). After walking back up from dinner I'd hang out at the trailer spot cleaning as needed since the firefighters were coming back in and using the trailer to shave, wash, brush their teeth and charge their cell phones. At midnight I would turn off the generator and go to bed.

Drivers Becca and Jason look at a donated fish that Connie holds

In addition to the camp crew, camp managers and the bus drivers the other people around camp were the pick-up truck drivers. They were hired to drive their pick-up trucks and do errands around camp, like take supplies places and haul garbage, firewood and people. Becca and I would usually eat breakfast together in the mornings. Another important person was Chip the potable water man. He owned a potable water truck and kept our hand-wash trailers full of water. He was a very nice and helpful man and even backed my trailer up for me (since I pretty much suck at backing up trailers).

I decided to try my hand at campfire cooking and I filled apples with brown sugar, oatmeal, cranberries and raisins, wrapped them in two layers of aluminum foil and buried them in the fire for an hour. It was a total experiment but turned out well.

The finished baked apple was quite delicious

We bought a cake for Connie's birthday. She is an amazing artist who made me a beautiful birch wood dragonfly painting.

My final week at camp, Zack returned home and an older gentleman named Jerry replaced him at his hand-wash trailer. Jerry is a very nice retired man who recently lost his wife to cancer. It was his first trip to Alaska and we got to play tourist a couple times and went on a hike to Wickersham Dome, toured the Morris Thompson Cultural Museum (I HIGHLY recommend this free museum and cultural art center in Fairbanks) and visited North Pole, Alaska. North Pole is a a town a few miles outside of Fairbanks and does a raging business at Christmas. All the light poles look like candy canes and the streets have Christmas theme names.

Jerry

I'm at the North Pole!

All good things must come to an end, and for me that happened after about three days of cold and rain. The rain began to quench the fire and it changed from a type 2 fire to a type 3 fire (less resources). The base camp moved to the Incident Command Post down the road and downsized dramatically and I was demobilized, although Jerry moved with his trailer to the ICP and will probably be there for several more days.

MUD!!

Cold and wet

Packing up and moving Jerry to the ICP

Fire Camp at Aggie Creek has been the experience of a lifetime for me. I have enjoyed authentic Alaskan cuisine and culture and met some absolutely amazingly wonderful people. I felt like I was blessed each day I was there.

If you would like to see more actual "fire" pictures, you can like the Aggie Creek Fire page on Facebook. There are some awesome pictures on that site.
You can also listen or read the story about Alaska fires and Aggie Creek Fire on NPR at http://www.npr.org/2015/07/23/425654442/across-wild-alaskan-terrain-firefighters-pick-their-battles