A look back at some of my biggest outdoor adventures of 2018, mostly to remote Washington State fire lookouts, and some funny fire lookout bagging stats along the way. What were your big 2018 accomplishments?
Fire Lookouts
A day spent at the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center working on the Badger Mountain fire lookout and learning valuable skills in the art of lookout restoration, especially window glazing!
The Blue Mountains of southeast Washington span 4,000 square miles of land and contain open ridges, big mesas, deep canyons, natural springs, loads of wildlife and surprising solitude. This wilderness is one of Washington’s best surprises!
Two dozen or more of our remaining historical lookouts in Washington State are still staffed by during fire season. Here is a list of staffed lookouts as well as some etiquette tips for visiting a lookout on active duty.
An incredible 30+ mile ultralight overnight to Miner's Ridge Lookout, deep in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. This was lookout #46 for me and I enjoyed not only surprising solitude, but one of the most fantastic mountain sunrises I've ever seen!
Triple digit temps, thunderstorms, fires, and horseflies.... the reason I oftentimes have a Plan E when heading out for a weekend lookout bagging adventure!
A 5-day Altai Hok ski trip to historic guard stations in the gorgeous Blue Mountains of southeast Washington provided solitude, wildlife, and the perfect kind of quiet year-end reflection.
Sometimes the most memorable adventures are the biggest disasters, aren't they? The story of kayak camping in a Mad Max-like apocalypse of wildfire smoke...
A trip report from a few days of fall fire lookout bagging in the beautiful Okanogan County, including a visit to one of my favorite Washington State fire lookouts.
Okanogan County in Washington State has incredible history and the highest concentration of remaining Washington State Lookouts, which makes it a spectacular destination for geeks like me! Here's a trip report from a recent October larches and lookouts road trip.
It's not every day a visit to a fire lookout could be considered subject matter for a horror movie, but thanks to an abandoned hearse at the summit, Lookout Point earned a spot on my top 20 fire lookout adventures simply because it was so weird and creepy!
Tales of surviving a remote hike in near triple digit temps and finally checking off a summit that has evaded me for four years!