My lookout, Diablo firelookout.com , was four miles from Elk Summit (where most of the action in the Fictional story by Norman McClain occurred). I walked to the lookout, gaining about 3000 feet in elevation. There is a helicopter in the picture, but one never landed while I was there.
My grub and supplies were brought up on mules. I got one resupply while I was there (52 days, in 1962). I'm sure mules brought up all the construction materials for my lookout building, which was built in 1926. The modern building was built after I worked there.
My buddy was on Hidden Peak, which was an eleven mile hike. He had a brand new building built in 1961, and had to paint it. It's the one on the right in this picture: firelookout.com
Diablo and Hidden Peak did not have a tower because they were almost above timberline and the trees were very short. Bear Mountain firelookout.com, Jay Point firelookout.com , and Roundtop (no picture) had towers to get the observer high over the tree canopy. These lookouts were all active in 1962 the year I was up.
Legend has it that Bear Mountain was known as Bare Ass Mountain, because when the Ranger went up to inspect the lookout, the observer (called lookout) was running around in the nude.
When I was a teenager and hiked up to Jay Point, the woman would not let us up the stairs until she put her clothes on. I never went nude myself, except to take a bath, which I melted water for on my woodstove from the snowbank outside.
My buddy and I watched the lumber, cement, and cinder blocks for Hidden Peak packed out of Elk Summit on mules in the summers before we were old enough to work for the Forest Service ourselves. It is really quite amazing to see how lumber was packed on a mule. The mule packer was a very colorful man, and would feel quite at home with your Tim Goodale. He hated helicopters because they competed with him for that kind of work. I could write a book about that man. He learned to pack mules on the Burma Road during WWII. |
