On the Road to Being a Fire Lookout

30 June, Day 2 at the LO.

There was one lick closer so this became known as Salt Lick #2

So it was the battery, I am still fogging a mirror.  Got up at 0700, have to be up in the Cab by 0900.  Called in on handheld as off duty for maintenance.  They use "Out of Service" if you are actually leaving the tower area for any reason and won't have the radio available.  "Off duty" means you are off the clock, but the radio is still on in case they need to call you to come on shift. So worked on cleaning up the Cab, worked on scrubbing up the FF (Fire Finder) and polishing the brass.  That took several applications after a winter of corroding.  But it looks respectable.  I'm probably more fussy than most having had to "polish brass" in the Navy for so many years. My first visitors up in the tower for the season were two gents who flew into Memaloose air strip, then walked the mile to get to the LO (Look Out).  As they arrived I spotted 12 Rocky Mountain Goats (RMG) including two kids on the next point over from the LO.  What a great way to start the season.  It's pretty inspirational to see this kind of big game in any quantity.  Later in the day a couple from Pomeroy, Washington were visiting and spotted a small band of five further over in a dirt area under a large evergreen tree.  Am thinking there must be some minerals leaching up in these two spots because there wasn't any grass where they appeared to be licking the ground.

Looking down to the Cabin - my home.

  Stayed in the tower cleaning until around 1500 then had run out of cleaning supplies, and my bag for trash was full so decided to go down and do some repairs and cleaning around the Cabin.  Since there are no facilities up there, we carry the trash out and down to the Cabin, then take it out in the car on our days off.  It's a lot nicer going back to the Cabin than coming up to the tower in the morning.

Daily lunch is carried up to the Cab along with all the day's liquid requirements and snacks.  I brought a little fresh fruit and veggies but can see it's not going to last long.  Need to get that refrigerator working.
Since the one deck board where you step up in the front was sticking up, and the one immediately in front of the back door of the cabin broke through on first step there that has become my priority to fix. There is a small closet in the Cabin with some old rusty nails in a paper bowl.  So managed to scrounge enough of them to nail down the boards.  Once I started found there were about ten of them which needed repairs.

Then it was inside and swept and mopped the floors -- three times.  First shot I boiled up water and flooded the place basically, then mopped it up and tossed out the grungy mud in the bucket.  The second round I'd brought clorox and a little spray bottle and mixed it about two-thirds clorox to one-third water and sprayed the floor until it was saturated.  Let that set and then mopped it up.  Finally just decided to do one more as a rinse.  The clorox fumes were terrible, but I had the door and windows open for a good cross ventilation so got most of the smell out prior to bed time.

Osbourne Fire Finder

Decided to wait until the next day to clean the frig and do the cupboards.  Found a map in the Cabin which I can use to study the geography surrounding the tower.  Although dispatch has a map of our area and azimuths on it from each tower when we call in smoke they want us to give the azimuth and estimated range, and then a legal and the physical name of the smoke.  The legal is the term used to identify the fire by Township, Range, Section and then the location with in the quarter of section.  The name which usually ends up being the fire name is like a peak, or drainage, or slope off a ridge by name.  There was supposed to be a panoramic set of photos for 360 degrees around the tower with the names of the prominent peaks, ridges, and drainages already named but it is missing.  So, my goal over the next few days will be to identify these by looking at the map and the geography and figure out which one is which.  Finally I assembled the weather station, but there was no pipe for it, so had to put that on the list for the crew to bring up and install.

The other item which is missing is the azimuth sync log.  It's a chart with lines from my tower to easily identifiable points around the tower (i.e. another LO, a relay tower, a sharp peak) and they have been plotted by a surveyor so they are accurate to degree and minute of arc.  We set this every morning first thing to make sure it is on the mark.  After I did the house got the manual out and studied the procedures, radio groups and frequencies, procedures to be used when there are thunder/lightning storms in the area, and how to identify the various clouds (clouds are not an issue for a former Navy pilot).  Found an error in one of the sections on lat/long for our air strip.  Kudos for Shaw on his first day. Outside to catch a shot of the sun going down.

My every night sunset.  Am thinking after fire season starts they will be even more brillant.

The lamps are so dim you can't do much with them.  Good thing Deb bought me a Kindle and I'm not trying to read a book by the thing.  I'd be blind by the end of the second week.  Anyway, sundown is about 2045, so that pretty much drives when I go to bed.  I can read the Kindle until I get sleepy. Brought the battery from the LO Smoke Detector down (there wasn't one in the CO Detector up there), but usually have the door open all day so not a factor, and still no propane bottles so not using a heater.  Of course tomorrow is the first of July.

2330 -- CO Detector decides to go off.  Not sure why it doesn't happen in the afternoon, but must have some kind of electric eye facing the bed and then a time delay to go off about an hour after it senses last movement over there. Woke about 0315 needing to go out and use the porta-potty.  My son gave me an LED head lamp and I can see it is going to be a boon.  Opened the door, started to walk out on the deck and there was a cow elk feeding in the back yard.  Eased back into the house to grab the camera, but she bolted when I recracked the storm door to get the picture. Back to bed, but Dispatch comes on the radio in the morning at 0700 with a lengthy checkin, weather etc so that's pretty much my wake-up call.  It gives me an hour and a half to eat, make my lunch, pack my bag and be out the door at 0830.  Takes me about 15 minutes to walk up the hill and climb the LO.

1 July

So up in the tower by 0900, called in off duty for maintenance again.  Cleaning windows (I brought windex and a roll of towels).  Wow, what a nice view with clean glass.  Polished the FF again a couple times.  It's beginning to look much better.  Just need a decent map to go on it.

Looking NW to Washington State

South to Eagle Cap Wilderness -- Cabin in fore ground left

About 1000 started feeling nauseous, eyesight fading in and out, light headed.  Little pain the left arm, but chest okay.  Went and sat down on the shady side by the trap door where we get a nice breeze.  It began to disapate after a couple of hours.  I'd had breakfast and a pint of water before coming up to the tower.  But went ahead and ate one of my PB&Js when the symptoms started.  Kept drinking my water.  We had a fire drill on the far side of the valley about noon. Without binoculars I was SOL for trying to spot it.  The spotting scope goes to 36 power max and at the range is really grainy and the FOV is like micro sized, so trying to hold it and see anything meaningful is virtually impossible.  That's what happens when you buy cheap.  (Found out later the gent across the river from me who has been doing this several years bought his own pair of 20X50 Swarovskis for $3000.)  My boss's boss the FMO called to see if I'd been able to pick up the test fire.  Told him I had no binoculars and the "cheap" spotting scope was worthless.  A little blunt but have to call it like it is. Figure if I sugar coat it the arrival of the binoculars would only take a little longer since they would have no sense of urgency.  Anyway, the action kind of distracted me from my malady and I started feeling better.  Am thinking it's a little altitude sickness after a couple of days at 7000+ft.

No matter where you are, whether you have ESPN or not a Packer is always a Packer.
This is looking North towards Warnock Corral just over far ridgeline.

When I got down the FS cell needed charging, so went out and cranked up the car.  Thought I'd drive down to see the airstrip and surrounding territory while I charged the phone.  Joy oh joy, the alternator isn't showing charging.  Got out, popped the hood and bad news: the alternator belt is not on; good news: the belt didn't break.  I can loosen the bracket and slide it back on.  Thinking it was that last cattle guard which caught me by surprise and had a good bump to it.  Fortunately, I threw in my tool bag just before I left.  Well, the engine compartment is built for little oriental hands, not ham fists like I have with big fat thumbs.  However, after an hour of working on it, got it on and it squeaked initially until I reved it up after starting, but it was charging.  So off to the airfield, and cautiously approached that last cattle guard.  AND our work around for charging the FS cell is in place.

Two families were camped off to the side of the airfield landing area.  One had pulled a 28ft airstream up that one lane 16% grade road.  Wow, I'm impressed. Remembered I'd brought my little 7X25 binocs, and found them in the car.  Put them on the seat so I could take them up to the LO tomorrow.  Not much, but better than the naked eye.  AND, I'd let the FMO know I needed binocs so it should be short term. Fire crew is supposed to come-up tomorrow too and get the solar panel hooked up and the base radio hooked up, bring up the propane bottles, hook-up the solar panel on the Cabin, take the board off the front door and tell me the plan for the deck off the back door.  The AFMO told me they plan to completely redeck it.  I told him if they would bring up a saw, the lumber and new nails and a cats claw or crow bar I'd do it on my days off.

Well, today was just a little easier going up the hill to the tower than the first day, so hoping I'll keep improving.  Miss my lady, she flew off to Chicago to do her birthday with her sis.  I didn't even get her anything before I left town.  What a lousy hubby.  I'm thinking this is really inspiring and beautiful up here, and to have seen RMGs on the first day, and an elk in the back yard the second morning is incredible.  But 30 June to 15 October is three and a half months and 30 years ago I told myself no more "cruises".

One last view to share.  Looking to the NE I have a view of the Snake River from Sheep Creek where it runs into the Snake from the Seven Devils Mountain Range, back up river to Waterspout Rapids just below the confluence with Saddle Creek.  It's a little over a mile drop from my LO at Hat Point down to the Snake River.  A trail runs from the LO down to the river.

The Snake River in Hells Canyon from Hat Point Lookout