The Chronicles of Captin T. Morgan

As some of you know, I have a geocache somewhere up the Rocky Peak trail.  Well, last week I got a dispatch for a brush fire at… ROCKY PEAK!  Oh no!  Luckily, the brusher was started on the south side of the 118 freeway.  And by the time we got there, fire authorities had made fast work of the flames.  My geocache is safe… until the next fire!  Here is a view from 3500′ MSL (mean sea level) of the 118 freeway at the Rocky Peak off ramp looking northeast with Rocky Peak trail heading north.

We had fantastic sunsets lass week.  Here was the view from 6000′ MSL around 7:00pm on Friday evening.

Somewhat hazy, but that is Catalina Island poking up from the marine layer on the left.  Downtown Los Angeles in the distance at dusk:

These sunset pics were taken on our way back from a fire around Lake Elsinore.  So sick of fires already.  Glad to see clouds!

Hi all!  I’ve taken a hiatus from the blogs… quite busy with the first episode and all the fires and chaos in Los Angeles!  It has been interesting to say the least.  So let’s start with the Station Fire:

This fire was completely out of control and took up two weeks of my life.  Ash rained down on my house like nuclear winter.  Those of you who live in Los Angeles know how horrible the air quality was.  Frankly, it’s a wonder that we didn’t lose more structures to this massive fire.  Unfortunately, we lost two firefighters…

Here is what we saw from the air at night:

Impressive, isn’t it?  As we gained altitude to take live shots from the helicopter, you could see ash flying by the camera lens so thick it looked like snow.  I had to take eye drops to soothe the stinging.  Everyday I was brushing a layer of soot from the monitors, DVR and microwave equipment in the helo… futile.  At it’s worst, I have an awesome and exciting job!  Last Thursday, I covered the Station Fire at 9500 feet, then a fire in Palos Verdes, then Michael Jackson’s funeral in Glendale, THEN a pursuit which took us to Palmdale and then back to Michael Jackson’s funeral reception in Pasadena.  THAT was a busy day!

Thanks to Kevin Takumi for allowing me to use his pictures for this blog.  Kevin, as always, your pictures are awesome!

The pilot episode.  Well, since this is the first one, efficiency is too much to expect.  Good news is, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  For you geocachers out there, listen up.  I will be leaving a geocache by helicopter.  AND there will be a big ticket item for the first time find (FTF).  That means an appearance for you on the next episode!  Keep checking back.