Signal Peak

 

Sunrise, Pinos Altos

We were up at dawn to tackle our steepest trail of the trip: Signal Peak, a 4.7 mile trail with elevation change of 1700 feet. At the top is a manned lookout tower during fire season. 

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. 

View from the Top

Callie impatiently waiting at the bottom

I’m pretty sure we were at 9000’ from the tower platform.