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| no partners | | i decided to take the scenic way home, via three fire lookout structures. the first two were easy enough, o'haco and promontory lookout towers (didn't go up either - both are fenced off), right off (o'haco is about four miles off) the rim road. after that, i headed down 512 to 288, and veered off at the road to mcfadden peak.
i noticed a large plume of smoke to the southwest, and asked ray, the lookout, about it. i wondered what they were calling the fire, to which he replied "mistake." he said it was lightening caused, and if i had been there just 15 minutes sooner, i would have seen flame, too. i asked if they were going to let it burn and he mused that they should, since there are no structures in the fire's path, and that's what the forest needs to survive - a few little fires. i asked him about rain and he said he had only measured one and a half inches of rain this season.
ray is an elderly widower who wheels his oxygen behind him and keeps his cigarettes within reach. he doesn't sleep in the tower since he has pets down at his home just outside of young.
since i was planning on heading to aztec peak afterwards, i asked him if red was up at his post at aztec peak and he said no - the forest service had decided to make some cutbacks, and although the post is periodically occupied, red is not the permanent structure he had been in years past. i decided not to head to that peak, then. i was also cutting it close with my gas to miles ratio to get me to globe.
ray went on about the people in washington being out of touch, not understanding anything about the wildfires of the west. talking about how much money it costs to fight these fires vs. keeping the lookout towers staffed.
i think that is one of the reasons to visit fire lookout structures and the people who staff them: they won't be around forever. |
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| There are just two switchbacks left. And another half-mile to the destination... |
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