Hello everybody,

The 2011 Fire Season is over and Ive decided to treat myself to a backpacking trip in thailand.
Im posting this blog as a way to keep in touch with everyone while Im traveling this winter.
 Hopefully I can drag myself off the beach long enough to update it on a regular basis.
I know that after a hard, dirty summer, camping in the woods, most people would want to sit in front of the tube all winter relaxing, but I guess I just have itchy feet...

I had a great summer traveling the west fighting forest fires. 

I started my fire season in march, when I spent 14 days freezing my butt off in a sleeping bag at various locations along the Rocky Mt front range near Boulder and Golden Colorado.

There were these 500-1000 acre fires happening between snowfalls, so they sent us up and down some steep, cold, terrain to chase fires that were starting much earlier than normal...

By the way, It was on this fire trip to Colorado that I decided to buy a ticket to thailand. 

The story goes like this:

I was sitting on Bear Peak above Boulder Co, talking with the crew about how we were gonna spend our checks when we got back, and I mentioned that I wanted to travel. 

Kat and Rick, One of the couples Ive worked with off and on probably ten years, started telling me about thailand beaches, Thai food, jungles with old ruins, and how cheap it was. 

They stayed 8 weeks and wished they could have stayed longer. 

Well, working in steep, cold conditions, for long hours with crappy food and no sleep makes a guy start to daydream just to keep from going crazy. 

 

I started picturing beaches all that day, and then, every time I woke up freezing at 3 AM with my tent flapping in the wind, I just thought of drinking beer on sunny Thai beaches and then I could fall asleep for another hour.

 Every morning when we started the sweaty, breathless, hour long hike to the top in my stinky, heavy gear, I thought of jungles and oceans, and warm weather.

I made it through a hard tour, in some fairly extreme weather by dreaming about that place.

 So naturally, when I made it back home, I bought a ticket as soon as I got paid....

Anyway, thats the story about how I decided to pick thailand and how I got into whatever craziness im about to get tangled up in this winter.... 

Stay tuned, Im pretty sure there will be some fairly entertaining pics on here very soon.....

"Don't mean to brag, 

Don't mean to boast.

But Im intercontinental when I eat French Toast.."

The Beastie Boys