Smokejumpers Dodge Fast Moving Blaze, or: Fire Chases Old Smokejumpers

Retired smokejumpers find another project to work on after fleeing the Bridge Fire near Powell Ranger Station. They were at work Friday.
Volunteer trail workers dodge fast-moving blaze
By Dean A. Ferguson
Saturday, July 28, 2007
POWELL - Nine old smokejumpers were probably too tough to burn, but they fled the forest fire near Powell Ranger Station anyway.
"They're a pretty amazing crew, let me tell you," said Carol Hennessey, recreation and wilderness manager for the Powell Ranger District in the Clearwater National Forest.
On Wednesday, the retired smokejumpers were among about 30 people who hiked or rode out of trails southeast of the ranger station when lightning sparked the fast-moving Bridge Fire. Accompanied by six packers with the North Central Idaho Back Country Horsemen, the men were afoot deep in Idaho's most rugged terrain.
The members of the National Smokejumper Association had come from as far away as North Carolina as volunteers clearing wilderness trails.
"It was hot," was all Bob Whaley, 72, of Missoula had to say about the trail toward Pack Box Saddle.
Whaley jumped fires in the late 1950s before his career as a U.S. Marine pilot. Smokejumping taught him "military duty and camaraderie," preparation that made Marine training "a piece of cake."
Hennessey bragged about the men, since they were "too modest" to do it themselves. She said the crew had made fast progress clearing the trail - not even taking into account the youngest was 62 years old.
On Tuesday, the men cut at least 100 downed trees, some as big around as truck tires, with cross-cut saws. They pitched camp late and hit it hard the next day.
Maybe old smokejumpers just can't stay away from fire.
"One of the fellows looked down at the creek and said, 'Look at that plume of smoke,'" recalled Jim Renshaw, 75, of Kooskia, a retired outfitter who was packing in supplies. Renshaw turned on his radio and got a call from the rangers. "They called and told us to get out."
Even though the men used to head toward fires, nobody argued about retreating, Whaley said - the operative word in this case being "retired" smokejumpers.
The forced hike out was uneventful, although the men joked about prodding Renshaw's mules to make them go faster. The whole crew made it to safety and comfort at the ranger station around midnight.
It's little surprise the men weren't too excited about the ordeal. They jumped from airplanes during smokejumping's earlier days.
The first fire jumps were made into the Nez Perce National Forest on July 12, 1940, according to the National Smokejumper Association.
Thirty years later Jim Phillips, 64, of Helena was carrying on the tradition.
Phillips paused from skinning the bark off a lodgepole pine log Friday to recall his most memorable jump.
It was the day he jumped a fire with two other men. As he prepared for a soft landing in a grove of 30-foot-tall trees, a sharp snag pierced the armpit of his jumpsuit and ran all the way up to the tip of his glove. He was stranded, helpless, far off the ground.
"I'm impaled," Phillips recalled. "I'm not hurt, not injured, I just can't get out of it."
So, he hollered and help arrived, sort of.
"My two jump partners, they could see I wasn't injured and they saw I wasn't bleeding, so they sat down under the tree and had lunch."
Phillips' story goes a long ways toward explaining why a group of retirees can work like sharecroppers and call that a vacation. They find humor in working up a blister or getting chased off mountains by fire. They're the kind of men who know cold beer tastes best after you work up a thirst. And sore feet make a stump next to a campfire as comfortable as any Lazy-Boy recliner.
The ranger district still has plenty of work to keep the smokejumpers happy.
On Friday, four of them refurbished a cabin near Wendover Campground four miles west of Powell Ranger Station. The other five did maintenance work along the Lolo Motorway.
Although the work is volunteer, the Forest Service is paying for the men's meals and travel expenses. The men will donate that $1,200 to the Selway Bitterroot Foundation, a group dedicated to keeping the back country wild and open.
The smokejumpers will head back to their homes Monday. Maybe they'll relax a little bit. After the vacation they've had, they could use a break.
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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson@lmtribune.com or at (208) 743-9600, ext. 274.

Bloggers Note: Following are comments about the article.

"I love it...we need to bill them as the fleet of foot trail crew and in the future make appropriate assignments in fleet footed terrain. tk

"The guys are really pissed about the article using the word "fleeing". I helped a lot by telling them they are the only trail crew we have ever had that "fled" a fire."
Jon