#1 - First Time Back

Summer 2017

First time back since the investigation.

I follow the two-track jeep trail. Push hard to the top. All the way up. Crest the ridge and the whole world spreads out below. Look south and miles of flat desert reach out to Congress, then Phoenix, then the horizon.

When the Granite Mountain Hotshots arrived on the fire, they came here first. That was 30 June 2013. Their superintendent said at briefing that morning they’d go secure the anchor. And that’s what they did.

A few days after that, I was hiking here with the lone survivor.

“Where did you anchor in?” I asked him.

He pointed at a rock in the dirt, not far from us.

“And then?” I asked.

“Followed the edge,” he said and nodded to the north.

Not sure if he knew this at the time, but the origin was near here too—where midnight lightning started the fire a couple days earlier.

So, this spot at the top of the ridge—this is where it all began. That’s why I wanted to come here first.

Turn and face north. Spread out below is the entire valley where the fire ripped through. I know where Yarnell is. And the Ranch. The Shrine. The box canyon where the fire overran the crew. The point of no return where they dove into that box canyon. The two-track road they followed when they left the black.

I can pinpoint each key location of the accident. Except the one I’m looking for.

I hike down from the ridgetop, following the road. Retracing the path of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Step by step.

After a few minutes, I dive into the brush west of the road. Their handline was near here somewhere … I think.