Jeremie Forman, I
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This is our 40th segment since this little project started last year. This week, I talked with of Francis, Utah. Francis, population around 1,800, is 50 miles east of Salt Lake City and sits near the foot of the Uinta Mountains. The Uintas are unusual because they run east-west while most mountain ranges in the US run north-south. In fact, the Uintas are the highest east-west range in the lower 48, with peaks between 11,000 and 13,000 feet. Jeremie is a busy guy who’s managed to combine and juggle police...
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Mini-Awe-Polis 6
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Welcome to !, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. My name is Maddy Butcher, I’m the creator and producer of awenice and it’s time for another segment that I call, Mini-Awe-Polis, a collection of observations, like hay in my jacket pockets. If you’ve been listening to lately, you know that we have dedicated several segments to wildland fire fighting, specifically some moments as told by members of Interagency Hot Shot crews, who are elite wildland fire fighters charged with some of the most risky assignments. I think it would be a safe summation to...
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Steve Nicholson, II
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Welcome to where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I’m airing another moment recounted by Steve Nicholson, a division supervisor on the Stoner Mesa fire, here in southwestern Colorado. Steve was able to get away from fire work for a while and was spending time back home in Montana. It was a hot fall, with temperatures approaching 90, and the woods, he said, were really loud because everything was dry and crackly as you moved through. Steve was archery hunting and it made things challenging. Often it’s difficult to squeeze Awe, Nice recollections...
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Jamie Carpenter
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Welcome to where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we have another interview with a wildland fire fighter. I met Jamie Carpenter on the Stoner Mesa fire this summer. Jamie was on the Cal-Wood fire five years ago, during another history-making fire season, this time complicated by the pandemic. Ten million acres burned across the western US. Thousands of homes were lost and dozens of people died. The Cal-Wood fire was towards the end of a vveerry long season. It was relatively small, eventually contained at about 10,000 acres, but it was right in...
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Doug Falconi, Part II
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Welcome to Awe, Nice! where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we return to a moment recalled by Doug Falconi. It’s part of a bigger focus on recollections from wildland fire fighters. In the first segment, Doug describes a moment as part of the Bitterroot Hotshot crew, on the Ash Creek Fire in 2012. On the day they arrived, it literally blew up. Each day, he said, it burned 40,000 acres. Temps were in the 90’s. Winds gusted over 30 miles per hour and the relative humidity was low. When we pick up here, the fire is converging, burning up three draw to a...
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Steve Nicholson, I
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. I’ve been turning my attention to wildland firefighters, several of whom I met this summer on the Stoner Mesa fire, which burned over 10,000 acres north of Dolores. I work as a hand up there on a grazing allotment. One of the people I met was Steve Nicholson. Here, Steve shares an anecdote from the 2012 fire season, which as listeners may know, was the 3rd worst in US history. Though he wasn’t positive, he thinks it unfolded on the Wenachtee Complex, multiple fires which burned 56,000 acres in central...
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Doug Falconi, Part I
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. Sometimes I think I should call this show, Oh, No! For many, the moments they recall have excitement and wonder, but also scary predicaments. Over the next few weeks, I’m turning attention to wildland firefighters. This is partly because they deserve attention and partly because I met several this summer on the Stoner Mesa fire, which burned over 10,000 acres north of Dolores. I work cows on one of the Forest Service allotments that was right on Stoner Mesa. For weeks, my boss and I were pretty busy tending to the cows...
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Nina Hance, II
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Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, we return to a conversation with Nina Hance, the backcountry guide from Montana. Nina and her husband have had several encounters with grizzlies. Once they were mountain biking and were bluff-charged. She estimates the sow, who had cubs with her, was 500 pounds or so. While the incident was short, it had a lasting impact on her psyche, including regular nightmares. Another time, she and Alex were hunting and were chased off while field dressing a deer. Because of these events and others, she tends...
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Nina Hance, I
Awe, Nice!
Welcome to Awe Nice, where we highlight moments of wonder while working outdoors. This week, I talked with Nina Hance. Nina is a backcountry guide certified by the American Mountain Guides Association. In the winter, she works for Beartooth Powder Guides as a lead guide. Nina shared two events. Her first moment was during a guiding trip outside of Cook City. Cook City (population about 70) is near the entrance to Yellowstone National Park and not far from the Wyoming border. She takes us to Woody Creek Cabin, a 20 x 24 foot, single room cabin which served as the group’s base camp. ...
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Jon Tanguay, II
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We’re featuring another moment with Maine lobsterman Jon Tanguay. It occurred around this time of year, early winter-late fall, when his traps were all dozens of miles offshore, taking several hours to get to them and to get back home. Some shorthand for a few things he mentions: At the time of this event, the strings laid down between two buoys consisted of 20 traps. Four strings would be 80 traps and it would take about an hour and 20 minutes to get through those 80 traps. Also, when he mentions hauling out, that is to say to bring his boat out of the water for maintenance. ...
info_outlineThis week, I interviewed Vicki Taussig. Vicki lives in Kremmling, Colorado. She narrated A Brutal, Beautiful Life, which is a short documentary directed by Beau Gaughran. I served as writer and a producer. We just learned it will be part of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour next year, which is pretty exciting.
Vicki ranches with her daughter, Caitlyn, who was my first interviewee for Awe Nice.
Here, Vicki shares a moment with her draft horse team of Push and Pull, two big beautiful Percherons. The pair spent their whole lives together and helped the Taussigs haul hay out to their livestock every day in the winter, when the cattle were on various pastures within a few miles from the house. Temps regularly get down to 30 below in the winter and Vicki laughed in recollecting that the mares were more reliable than their tractor.
Vicki is not quite five feet tall, so imagine those gentle giants lowering their heads as she harnessed them each morning.
She said Push was the smaller of the two and the brains of the team. When they were ready to give that first effort, to get the sled going, Push would make all the motions of going but she’d wait until Pull, bigger and stronger, would take that first step.
It’s moments like these that give me such joy for this project, even if it means grabbing a Kleenex from time to time.
Awe, Nice! welcomes interviewees. If you have a moment you experienced while working outside and would like to share it, contact us at awenice.com.
Our music is by my friend, Forrest Van Tuyl. You can find a link to his music and a donate button on our about page.
I want to thank the folks who have rated and reviewed Awe, Nice! on podcast platforms. It’s great that the word is getting out about it. Thanks so much!
Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Until next time.