In the spring of 1987 our business in Spokane failed after several years of struggle. This left me totally exhausted, broke, in debt and down in the dumps. I was ready to call it quits on life itself and just take off for parts unknown. After just vegetating for several days I realized I was not going to do that, I still had a great wife and son at home so I started to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life but certainly not the same thing.
I needed something simple to just put food on the table. Both my Wife & Son worked to help out.
I don’t remember just how it came about but I heard about this Fire Lookout position that was open. I contacted the Idaho Dept. of Lands and got an interview with Arlo Slack, the District Ranger & his assistant, I don’t remember his name. At that meeting it seems the most important issue was if I was emotionally capable of spending so much time alone. After my tale of woe I guess they decided I was a prime candidate as they hired me on the spot.
At the appointed time I met them at the station in St. Maries where we loaded a service truck with the basic equipment and we traveled to the Bald Mountain lookout. That structure was wood timbers with a 12′ X 12′ hip roofed cabin with windows and a 3 or 4′ cat walk on all four sides, I believe about 40′ off the ground. There was a stairway from the bottom with a small storage shed half way up. This contained the batteries for the communication radio.
The furnishings inside the cabin were sparse to say the least, a small bed in the south west corner, the fire finder in the middle, a propane stove on the north wall along with a small table and 2 wooden chairs.
One thing I thought odd at the time was the chair next to the fire finder had glass electrical insulators on the bottom of the legs. I was told that in a lightning storm I was to sit in that chair as far away from anything metal as I could get. They didn’t realize I had already been on a snipe hunt so I just smiled to myself. I hadn’t just fallen off the turnup truck.
Later on I came to realize that was no snipe hunt.
The only place to relieve oneself was the outhouse on the ground about 20 yards from the stairs. After a short stay at the tower, the outhouse was used ONLY for number two. One just needed to be aware of which way the wind was blowing and the wind blew almost constantly, downslope in the morning, upslope in the evening and often quite briskly.
The only duties were to watch for smoke 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, they paid minimum wage and NO OVERTIME. They got MANY free hours of watch out of me, I got bored easily. We could do some maintenance if so inclined but the tools and material were almost non-existent. There were no propane or electrical lights so I went through a plethora of batteries as I was a voracious reader. I read over 100 books in the 5 months on the tower, mostly Louis l’ Amour.
All of our supplies, food, water, whatever, had to be carried by hand up those stairs. 10 gallons of water weighs approximately 83.3 pounds plus the weight of two metal “jerry cans.” One learns to conserve water in a hurry. Fortunately the propane for the heating / cooking stove was piped to the cabin and one could drive a regular vehicle to the base of the tower. We had to drive into St Maries for supplies.
The very most exciting times in the tower were during the lightning storms. Seeing lightning from above, rolling in from Lewiston, over Moscow and through Deary & Emida was a treat. It was never frightening, the storms seemed to split and go around the peak. There were a few close calls though, always when my Wife came up for a visit, scaring the bejeebers out of her. Then there was the fog or actually clouds. Talk about feeling isolated. One couldn’t see anything past the cat walk railings. It didn’t really bother me, I just read, and they occasionally told me to go home, to Coeur d’ Alene, if it was going to last.
Another scary thing happened, a couple of times. I would be sound asleep in pitch black to be awakened by very loud thumping from below. I would sit up in bed quickly and palm my .357 magnum and listen until my ears hurt. Man,,,, can a humans imagination play tricks on them. I’m pretty sure it was just the Mountain Goats on the lower deck, perhaps deer.
Speaking of deer, there were a lot of resident deer in the neighborhood and many elk. At night if one were to shine a light into the timber around, one could see the reflection of pairs of eyes looking in. Another thing I found interesting was that deer do not look up when they hear noise, Their predators are all ground based so they have no need. At times I would show this to visitors. While at the top we would see deer come in and the visitors always wanted to be quiet. I would talk, even louder and even shout, the deer just looked around, very puzzled.
About mid-summer I noticed that there were a lot of hummingbirds flying around the deck. As I was about to go into town for supplies I decided to get a hummingbird feeder. Upon installing it, almost immediately, there was an entire swarm of various types attacking the feeder and putting on a magnificent ariel display. They were so intent on their mischief that my presence was totally ignored. For over an hour I was entertained with an unforgettable show, so close I could literally reach out & touch them.
And then on another occasion, not too long after this one I experienced something that was at the same time thrilling and terrifying. As I was on the deck, mid morning, looking intently for smoke, just at the level of my eyesight a Golden Eagle soared by maybe 200 yards out. I turned my head to watch him as he circled the tower way out then went back to my job.
Shortly, the eagle came back around but a little higher. This continued for some time and then as I was looking directly North that rascal came directly at the tower, at ME again at eye level. I was mesmerized as I had long admired birds of prey and could not take my eyes from this creature as it barreled closer and closer. As it got closer and closer I began to fill with unfamiliar, genuine fear but unable to even flinch. At about what I’m pretty sure was about 20 feet out that gigantic bird did a pull up and I hit the deck floor. .
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