Out of the wilderness, by the thinnest skin of my teeth .. Pinyon Peak Fire Lookout
Yesterday - Labor Day 2020 - three members of my USFS fire battalion came up to help me shut down the lookout and get out before the storm. We raced the clock as the wind increased, and the temperature dropped.
Then they led, clearing blowdown, through the incredibly rough roads and miles of standing dead snags, as we snaked out of old fire scars in the River of No Return Wilderness.
Today - a day after the epic winds - our fire crews are clearing the thousands of blowdowns to free stranded campers and hunters. Thank goodness we did not get the fires like the Pacific NW and California did.
I am the lucky-est ducky ever. I was literally 30 minutes from possibly getting totally stranded on the FS-172 road between about Feldham Creek Peak and the Seafoam Road. Had I been that late leaving the lookout behind the fire crew, their road clearing would have been for naught, and trees could have blocked my return to the lookout. But, no doubt, they would have waited on me, communicated by radio, and doubled back to check on my welfare. That's the way we swing as a fire team.
Tonight is my last night in Challis. Tomorrow I head back to SC.
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What an odyssey!
And glad you have completed another summer and safely out of the wilderness. I miss that area.
Travel safely home and thank you for your service! 
I can’t stand the idea of losing you after all these years! I’m so glad you’re OK!
Like this:
That is Orleans Mountain Lookout on Six Rivers National Forest. It has not been manned for over 30 years but has been maintained. It is being threated by fire now. Looks very similar in layout to Pinyon Peak. There are very few manned lookouts locally now, several of the old CCC constructed ones were demolished or otherwise removed years ago.
Back in 1977 there was the Hog Fire that burned to the lookout. I was a USFS employee at the time (69-85; timber guy) but was a firefighter (as was everyone able bodied with a red card) on Hog Fire. There is an old CCC track down the backside of the mountain that was widened by Cat and about a 2 mile hose lay with porta tanks to get water to the lookout. We ended up driving up the fire line throwing fusees out at dusk to start a back fire. I hosed down the lookout when the fire line was lit at the lookout.
Glad you made it out!
