It was sort of annoying, hearing the constant noise of a helicopter coming and going all morning as I was headed out on my hike — but I was actually more annoyed at the fact that all the trees around me were shielding my view, even when the chopper sounded as if it was right on top of me! Things finally quieted down around midday… but as I was returning to my car, I heard it again. And finally I not only got a look at the big Chinook, I managed to shoot a few photos.

Once I’d confirmed that the powerful Chinook — which is housed at McClellan Air Field and operates under contract to the US Forest Service — was actually doing practice runs in preparation for our upcoming fire season, somehow the noise became a lot less irritating.