On a One-Lane, Dirt Mountain Road with a "few" pullouts!

One of the advantages of going fifty-six miles into the mountains is there is no internet.  In fact, when I arrived, there was no electricity, no wi-fi, no facebook, no blogspot, no ATT cell service, nada!  The advantage of that?  Well I have to believe my stress level went waaaay down, my understanding of what new crisis was occurring in the present administration was zero -- yay.  One does not realize how the world can go on, survive, and all without me sitting during the news shouting at the TV, writing comments on my social media and upsetting my loving wife.  (I think she still missed me though.)

The Seven Devils -- Across Hells Canyon in Idaho.  No Wi-Fi Here!

So here we are starting with Week 2, Day 1 of officially being a USDA, Forest Service Fire Lookout employee.  Why start here?  Because I want to set the stage for the good part of this event, understanding the great parts of this position, my daily blessings.  I want to tell you, and remind myself this first item on my bucket list really and truly was a great experience in spite of a few stumbling steps--it was a joy, it was worth every issue that cropped up.  The key is to plan in advance and try to understand and be prepared for possible areas which won't be all roses, but will be more than tolerable.  I approached it as if it was just another U.S. Navy cruise.

I'd submitted my paperwork the previous week and attended training in New Meadows with the Payette Forest Fire Lookouts.  There were about a dozen of them.  The training, while short (Tuesday-Thursday) was excellent and the Payette staff did an outstanding job of prepping us for what was ahead.  Originally, I was told I'd come home on Thursday evening and then head out to Oregon on Friday.  On Tuesday, found out my schedule would be Sunday through Thursday 0900-1800 with an hour lunch each day, and then have Friday and Saturday off.  So, I was told to take those days, then head for Joseph, Oregon on Sunday morning, prepared to stay through the middle of October.

Sunday morning started clear, visibility about sixty miles, humidity only 15% and a clock showing 0530 as the dog stirred to go outside.  Finally got up at 0600, and was out the driveway by 0705.  It was a beautiful drive, had breakfast burritos at McD's in Baker and rolled into Joseph at 1030 PDT -- 4hrs 25 mins on the road for the easy part. My boss Tyko an AFMO (Asst Fire Management Officer) arrived right behind me, but had forgotten to bring the keys to the building.  While he got someone to come from close by (Tyko lives in LaGrande) with a key, I ran down to the one gas station in town and filled up at $4.25/gal.  It was actually three cents a gallon cheaper than in Enterprise.

Joseph Methodist Church

The town of Joseph is beautiful, nestled at the base of the Eagle Gap Wilderness Area, on the north side of the Wallowa (Wa-lau-wa) Lake.  It is very much maintained in the vintage style, large flower baskets hang from the lamp posts in town. This church was just one block South of the Forest Service building.  I suddenly wished I had more time just to take pictures of the buildings in town.

But, back to the admin building, then we grabbed an armload of stuff (folder, notebooks, maps, radio, cell phone and infamous "Yale" key).  It opens everything in the forest.  Next question, "Ready to go up to the tower?"

We headed East of the town of Joseph and after about eight miles began the drop down into the canyon eventually leading to the "town" of Imnaha, Oregon.  Imnaha is at the confluence of the Big Sheep Creek and the Imnaha River.  It sets at 1978 ft above msl.  So we dropped down 2222 ft from the elevation of Joseph to Imnaha, to then climb back up to the elevation of 6982 ft msl where the Hat Point Fire Lookout stands.  In 26 miles one climbs back up 5004 ft.  the first six miles out of Imnaha is a 16% grade of dirt, one-lane road with a few pull-outs.

Imnaha is unincorporated, consists of a handful of home owners, a church, the Imnaha Store and Tavern and the Post Office which was opened 4 Jan 1885.  Have mail or package coming in?  PO is open until 1530.  Won't be back in time?  Just tell Bonnie to take it over to the Store and Tavern, and you can pick it up on your way back up the hill.  And, maybe, just maybe you can grab a burger and the coldest beer in the county on the way back up the hill.  Only one beer though before driving up that road!

Just crossed the bridge, straight ahead is the road to Hat Point -- PO on the left, Store and Tavern on the right!

My boss stopped at the Store and Tavern no store to grab a snack, and I headed on up the hill.  The olde 4Runner did okay until mile 4 when the A/T Oil Hot light came on.  Rode the rest of the way with the window down, the heater on, the fan on high and checking the transmission housing by touch.  Light stayed on the whole way up, but the transmission never showed signs of any slipping.  

About three miles before the tower I passed Memaloose Air Strip.  It's a 3500 ft long grass field which runs uphill to the south and is at 6700 ft msl.  To the north it runs downhill but ends just before a stand of tall evergreen trees.  As Joe Spence of Spence Aviation told me, "I've been flying around here for thirty years and I can count on one hand the number of times I've taken off to the North."  From the air strip you travel up a hill and crest it about a mile and a half from the tower.  

Cresting the hill, I see my office for the next three and a half months.

The Tower was built in 1948, updated with the observation platform about 1969, and then had routine maintenance since then.  Hat Point is the tallest fire lookout structure in the state of Oregon.  It's 84 ft to the catwalk, 92 ft to the top of the roof.  It sits on the highest lookout peak in Oregon at 6982 ft above sea level and is thus the tallest/highest lookout in existence in Oregon.  I rolled on in to my home away from home which is a humble little cabin down the hill from the lookout.  It's basically a one room cabin, which with a closet and utility room in the center, divides the cabin into a kitchen, breakfast area, "living room/office" area which due to a large sliding curtain is separated from the "bedroom". When I arrived it had propane which powered the refrigerator, stove and three wall mounted propane lights which operate at an equivalency of about a 15watt bulb.  It isn't something you sit under and read a book by.

Subsequently, that means like two to three weeks after arrival, the Fire Crew which supported my tower got the solar panel hooked up to the cabin, and I was able through an inverter to get enough power to charge up the laptop, kindle and cell phones.  As stated, there was no ATT service, but my Samsung III takes good pictures, and was often easier to use than my Canon Power Shot 590 which I carry on the road with me.  I opened the door to the cabin off the deck which faced East, and then began removing the plywood panels from the windows.  The plywood over the front door was screwed in so it remained on.  The deck had several boards in sore need of replacement, and one in front of the door actually broke in half shortly after my arrival necessitating care when entering the cabin.  My first guests pulled in while I was taking the plywood down, a couple from Portland.  Tyko then rolled in and we unloaded 70 gallons of water in 5 gallon bottles.  The stand for the bottles didn't make it in the truck, so for the first few days it was tilt the bottles over on the countertop and pour into the pans.

As I said, wanted to stay positive, but have to call it like it is, and while I expected some rodent droppings and a winter's worth of dust accumulation, did not expect hundreds of dead flies everywhere, a refrigerator door propped open, spills from last season now "hardened" on the shelves, a stove that didn't look like it had seen a hot soapy wash cloth all of last season, fly "skid marks" on windows where someone had a hayday killing them with the swatter, and a live 12ga shotgun shell under the stove along with more flies.

Entrance road and Cabin from LO

I then grabbed that "armload of stuff" we picked up in town, and we headed up the hill towards the lookout (LO).  Let's see, believe I stopped at least five times before getting to the base of the LO just to catch my breath.  Boise is at 2600 feet, but this was just short of a mile higher in elevation.  It was 116 steps up to the Observation Platform (at least three more stops for air) and then 30 more steps up to the Catwalk.  The famous Yale key which opened the cabin, also opened the gate at the O-platform, and the padlock on the trapdoor that goes through the catwalk.  The catwalk is about three feet wide and circles the Cab which is a 7ft by 7ft room on the top of the LO.  Within the Cab in the very center is a three ft square "cabinet" which has storage below and supports the Osbourne Fire Finder (FF) on the top.  The FF was invented and designed in 1934 and is today essentially as it was when designed.

Osbourne Fire Finder - map water damaged from winter.

On one side is a verticle viewer (rear sight) with a slider for also taking declination/elevation angles as well as the azimuth to a smoke/fire.  The front sight is a block with three horse hairs on it. In 1934 thread wasn't easy to get, but your horse was always tied at the bottom of the LO.  The primary one is a vertical hair upon which the azimuth is shot.  Then there are two horizontal horse hairs one at the top and one at the bottom for the elevation/declinations.

During lightning strikes we record an azimuth and either a declination or elevation angle.  Since lightning strikes may have "holdovers" (smoulder for up to a week in time) we go back and sight these daily after the strike to see if there is any development.  Each morning we check the azimuth against a known geological point and verify it is still accurate.  The top of the FF has a laminated map on it with a radius of 20 miles from the LO.  We can determine fire locations using township/range and section.

Finally I'm in the office.  Surprising, I experience no BB's.  The door was warped, and hangs, so it doesn't close all the way and appears to have been that way most of the winter.  The map on the FF is damaged from the moisture.  There is trash galore, a large rubbermaid bin with inverters, scope (not binoculars), a small weather station to be assembled and added to the LO.  The FF is corroded, the solar power isn't hooked up, so there is no base radio station (but I have a hand-held and there are repeaters in the area).  Propane bottles haven't been brought up for the Cab heater, but that's okay, it's the next to the last day of June (more on this later). TTG the fire conditions are green right now so we have a few days to get this all fixed.

We head back down, reversing the process of standing on a steep ladder pulling a 30lb trapdoor down on top of your head, relocking the padlock ensuring NOT to drop the keys.  So, communicaiton is going to be the handheld (do have six cases of batteries), my cell phone (no coverage), the Forest Service cell (coverage but not charged and only an AC Adapter for the USB charger cord), and I guess there are always "smoke signals" ;-).

Parting comments, "Make me a list of the discrepancies Mags. Bye."

Fortunately I'd carried a combination AC/12V adapter with me to charge my phone, so was able to get a charge in the FS Cell -- It only took the car running for about an hour to get a charge on it.  Last thing I was going to do was just connect it to the battery and hope it didn't cause me to need a jump start to get the car running in case I had to leave. Of course I'd left the FS Cell cord in the LO, so took three acetominaphen and then started the hike back up the hill and up the tower to get it so it could be used with my adapter.  Lesson ONE -- ensure before leaving tower for the day you have everything you are going to want for that day.

I carried my four bins and clothes duffel into the cabin before starting back up to the top.  Figured if I was going up I'd do some cleanup on the FF.  There was supposed to be an Orientation Alignment Log in the Cab for checking the azimuth on the FF and setting it up.  Could not find it.  So just did cleaning.  On way back down realized I'd not called Deb to let her know I was on site.  A lady had a Verizon Cell phone and was kind enough to let me borrow it to call Deb.

Had to smile, no actually had to laugh.  The FS Cell is essentially an antique flip phone like we had fifteen years ago.  To type a text and get say the letter "C" you hit the #2 button three times, i.e. a, b, C.  OMG!  We really used to do this and thought it was great!  YGBSM!  Once charged I called Deb and gave her a little more detail on some of the difficulties we'd be experiencing WRT communication.

Started off with cleaning the kitchen so I could get the food put away, and the perishables into the refrigerator.  

Kitchen tile with black grout - not sure it was always black! 

 Finally managed to get the first layer of crud off as we approached bedtime.  Ah, was looking forward to my bath after cleaning all afternoon.  Bath, defined as wipe down with several huggie baby wipes, followed by two cups of hot water with body soap and a wash cloth to get that "fresh washed" feeling, followed by two cups of hot water for a rinse and get the soap off, followed by two cups of hot water to rinse out the wash cloth.  Opened the sleeping bag, put it on the bed, got the Kindle out to read a little, and gently fall asleep to the chirping of -- the CO Detector.  I look around for the 9V batteries which are on the inventory list -- Nada!  Checked the Smoke Detector (only propane burning is the frig and one wall lantern so figure the cabin is not going up in smoke tonight).  The Smoke Detector has a battery, probably the same age as one in the CO Detector.  Put it in -- samo, samo.  Great, two hours from the world.  Open a window and head for bed.  Did debate with myself as to whether to sleep in the 4Runner.  Oh well, if this is the only blog you read about my life as a Fire Lookout, you'll know that would have been a prudent decision.

Hold it!  Think there may be a spare 9V up in the Cab I saw this afternoon.  No, I'm not dumb enough to climb to the Cab in the dark on the first day, AND no way will I climb that LO three times on the first day.  Been up since 0430 this time zone, and it's now 2300.  Gnite sweet Lady!