I suppose forest fires are an annual occurrence here in Montana. Being from Georgia, I have never experienced, nor fully understood the sheer power of wildfires and the vast amount of acreage they consume. To tell the truth, I used to know nothing about the characteristics of wildfires; i.e., how fast they spread, how many acres burn per day, the conditions that need to be present for them to ignite. Unfortunately, out of this ignorance was born a fear that nearly ruined my enjoyment on a hitch in beautiful Spotted Bear.
Two days into an eight day hitch, our crew was informed that there was a forest fire nearby, I think approximately 30 miles. Thirty miles sounds fairly close to me, however I suppose in Forest Service lingo it is not, really. On day three, the smell of burning wood began to fill the air, and by day four the sky was grey from all the smoke. I began to wonder when the ranger district was going to radio for us to hike out, and when they did not radio I could only assume that they had forgotten about us. Although plenty of hikers and pack strings passed us on the trail going toward the fire, and my crew members did not seem to be worried in the slightest, I just knew that we were going to burn up in that fire.
Needless to say, we made it out of Spotted Bear alive. I do not know why I let my imagination carry me away so far into thinking that that one fire out of the thousands that have burned in the history of Montana was going to be the one that killed the forgotten MCC trail crew. I learned a lesson, though: as it turns out, ignorance is not bliss. Since the “fire hitch”, as I like to call it, I have made it a point to edify myself on those things that have a tendency to worry me. As Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”... no pun intended.
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