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| Sunrise, Pinos Altos |
The first mile followed a rutted forest road before turning off on to a dirt path which quickly became a series of switchbacks.
Signal Peak is just shy of 9000 feet in elevation. We were wandering around on top around the base of the fire tower when we heard a loud voice from the heavens. “Hey there, how’s it going?”
It was the guy on the lookout tower and he asked us if we wanted to come up! After tying Callie off at the bottom, we joined him on the high platform. He works 11 days on and 3 days off. I asked him how he slept up there. He said the tower doesn’t sway but it groans and makes other noises. But otherwise, he sleeps just fine.
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| View from the Top |
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| Callie impatiently waiting at the bottom |
I’m pretty sure we were at 9000’ from the tower platform.
4 comments:
Alright! Another pin in my map.
Let's see, pretty much 24 hours a day, 11 on, 3 off, half a day to get out, another half to get back, 2 days free out of 14. Sounds like pre Henry Ford working conditions!
And I didn’t get the idea that it was a high-paying gig. Nice guy though.
Tré cool! Where is this?
Wasn't it Edward Abbey or John Nichols who romanticized that job?
About 7 miles north of Pinos Altos.
I haven’t read all of the works of Abbey or Nichols, but it didn’t look that romantic to me. This guy was tied to his radio/walkie talkie, and there was radio activity about every 30 seconds. Constantly scanning the horizon. Last summer mice did $3000 damage to his truck. He had the hood open with baited traps all over the engine compartment this year.
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