Not inside. About 40 years ago I stumbled onto it. I used to start out at Darrington a lot for back packing. I could tell it was still being used though it wasn’t inhabited at the time. I used my spoon to remove the screws on the lock hasp on the door and went in and checked it out. I buttoned it back up and slept near by. It didn’t really occur to me to sleep in it or make use of what was there. I guess things were a little different then. However, one thing that was part and parcel and always a great find in the back country; a outhouse toilet. Not an outhouse mind you; you were out in the open, but a comfortable seat.

He posted a lot about his adventures. He made a video, too.

I've enjoyed his posts so much.

Five seasons on the east side of the Cascades in Oregon, and three seasons in the Wilderness of Rocks of the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona. It is everything you can imagine, and then some.

In fact, after taking the last three fire seasons off, I am applying for fire lookout duty in the 2020 fire season (the Federal job application period closes tomorrow, 9/30). I specified "Location Negotiable After Selection," and with my experience I should get the assignment I want. Like Russ Dalton in this article (and Jack Kerouac), I want a fire lookout with a short season (two months, or so). That means a lookout at a high elevation in the northern tier (Idaho, Montana, Washington).

On the other hand, a lookout near the Grand Canyon in Arizona or in certain locations in New Mexico might be tempting. Fire season in those places is usually about four months, due to the Southwest Monsoon. But I'm not really wanting to do a six month season (counting travel from the East Coast) like I did in Oregon.



Lemmon Rock Fire Lookout
Wilderness of Rocks - Santa Catalina Mountains
Coronado National Forest, Arizona

Not quite-I think it is something else and that that thing is very much an untold story. It's the story of men who faced death young in the jungles of Vietnam who after they survived decided that yes-after surviving every day for the rest of their life was gravy, but that gravy wasn't enough unless the sacrifice of others was honored by the survivors who lived a full life of service and joy and remembrance. I know this because my brother was one. This week he is at a unit reunion for his battalion that fought at Ripcord-one more place of honor not one in a hundred Americans know. The guys who attend are the guys who never show up in the popular media. Even though they have the same nightmares and demons as the homeless vets no one sees it and no one hears it because it is only ever told to those to a very small circle of loved ones and others who have been there. Whether the learning came down in the dirt with a comrade screaming in pain or in the air where an airplane just doesn't return, these few men knew the capriciousness of death in a way a civilian can not and chose to make themselves better because of it. I believe that you, Tex are one of them, and I know my brother is. This country that still tells tales of the "crazed Vietnam vet" has failed a generation as good as the "Greatest Generation" who have never failed them. I hope you get your choice of fire towers. Thank you from an era vet who knows men like you.

I saw smoke rising from an unpopulated forested area. I wondered how the fire would be spotted.