My New Job!

Well it's official, I'm moving up to Yreka to join the Klamath Hotshots. Many of you are probably asking: where the heck is Yreka, and what is a hotshot? Yreka should not be confused with Eureka, as is commonly done. Both in Northern California, two very different places.

Yreka is a town near the Oregon border that currently houses over 7,000 people (3 times that of Frazier Park). Here's a Wikipedia link to info on Yreka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yreka,_California

Some interesting notes about Yreka: Like most California towns, it started during the Gold Rush era. It is also the proposed capital of the State of Jefferson, a secession movement that is still alive today. Proponents are trying to get Southern Oregon and Northern California to seceed from the Nation or at least form their own independent state. I plan to stay absolutely impartial on that situation so that I may remain safe regardless of whether or not the new state forms.

Yreka is close to Mt. Shasta and the Klamath River (my station is actually further west along the river valley out of Klamath River, CA. You can mapquest that too and see where it is. The average lows in the winter are in the low 30's and the average highs in the summer are in the 80's. Not too bad.

Unfortunately, for every 100 females over the age of 18, there are only 83.9 males. If you subtract from that number the guys on my crew, there's probably now only 70 males per 100 females. The stats are not in my favor.

Yreka is mentioned in Ann Rule's true crime novel: "The I-5 Killer". Great. I'll have to look that one up. There have been 2 documented lynchings in Yreka as well.

As for what a Hotshot is and does: no we do not jump out of airplanes. Those are smokejumpers, and they're crazy. Why anyone would jump out of a perfectly good airplane is beyond me. Here's some links: http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/people/hotshots/IHC_hist.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotshot_crew

You can also search for "Hotshots and Fire" on Youtube.com They've got some pretty cool videos.

So a hotshot crew is a crew of 20 people that are highly trained to deal with wildfires and other natural disasters. They hike in or get flown in to places that other crews (such as engines) can't get into.

My official start date is March 29th, and I'll be moving up there the week before it looks like, as long as all my paperwork goes through ok.