Fire Lookout Towers

[BriTer]

Very seldom do we run into anyone, most of the time we go on weekdays and see no one, except Birds, Moose, Deer,Voles, Mice, Bear, and sometimes a Cougar.
But......Don't forget to pack your Deet! Lots of Bugs to drive you mad sometimes, and horse flies are crazy!

Thanks for posting the pics! Very nice. Where does your interest in those sites come from?

[Struts 'N' Stuff Auto]

Here's the Link for the Book
http://www.mapamia.com/fire-lookout-hik ... p-348.html

The one I have anyway!

[Struts 'N' Stuff Auto]

Very seldom do we run into anyone, most of the time we go on weekdays and see no one, except Birds, Moose, Deer,Voles, Mice, Bear, and sometimes a Cougar.
But......Don't forget to pack your Deet! Lots of Bugs to drive you mad sometimes, and horse flies are crazy!

Thanks for posting the pics! Very nice. Where does your interest in those sites come from?

BriTer, I have spent the last 30 years of my life Quadding, hiking, and photographing places all over Alberta and B.C.
I love the Mountains and Outdoors, I can't get enough of the hiking and exploring part,
and I have also climbed(scrambled) to many mountain tops in the Alberta Rockies, and have just spent 6 summers exploring the backroads around the Okanagan, but have only found one remaining Lookout Tower around the Okanagan, and thats the Sugar Mtn Tower, but it can really, only be visited in Early to mid August when the snow is gone and weather is ideal for the hike.

[BriTer]

http://www.cooltrails.com/mtbonaparte.htm
ferri mentioned she had visited one in Washington. It was the Bonaparte Mountain lookout. Her Grandad 'blazed' the trail to it in the '50s

[BriTer]

The Sugar Lake Tower is a Beautiful setting, and a rustic appearance, it is scheduled for destruction either this fall or next year, in fear of vandals burning it down.
We are hoping to get up there before it gets destroyed.
There is a book that you can buy at Local Bookstores, called Fire Lookouts , and it is a good book, I have it, but cant find it, and it is a fairly recent, so it will have all the details on which towers are still accessible, and how long the drive and hike is.

Found these three Struts:
Brent Mountain Park, Goat Mountain and Mt Kobau
Brent Mountain, scroll down for a pic:

http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/Penticto ... index.html

[Struts 'N' Stuff Auto]

The Mt Kobau area looks very nice, first choice out of the 3.
Looks like a very popular stargazing area!
Gonna have to go for a drive there one weekday in July.
The nice part is that one can drive up to the top and spend more time exploring and picture taking!

Goat Mtn is near Sugar Mtn Tower, so those can both be visited on the same day, which is cool.

Brent Mtn is in a Protected area, so you might have to watch that you don't break wind and disturb the soil, or you might get into big trouble. Brent Mtn would be my last choice, only because of location and lack of pictures to see what it looks like.

[BriTer]

I added a link in my previous post for Brent.

[Struts 'N' Stuff Auto]

Brent looks pretty good as well!
Is it summer yet?

[BriTer]

Almost, Struts

[trapp]

The last operational lookout I was at was Warren Lookout at Likely (Quesnel Lake) 1970's, it came under the jurisdiction of the Horsefly Ranger District at that time. I have been to both Little White and Black Mnt lookout sites here in the last five years.

I did in the late 70's make trips to both Lime and Jesmond lookouts at Clinton for nostalgia purposes. Jesmond was one of those sites converted to a portable site, if needed.

I will have to search though some old slides to see if I can find any lookout pictures, I'm sure I must have some. That will have to be a "time permitting" project.

[BriTer]

Found an old pic of Jesmond on the 'net. This is the portable I believe? What model portable units are popular with Forestry now? The ones used for incidents or high fire risk times.

Jesmond.jpg

[trapp]

The Jesmond lookout is a "new" construction since I was last there, but prob 30 years ago. last i was there there was a shack for the lookout man and a slot where they could set the portable station. I can see I will have to make another pilgrimage to some of these places.

[BriTer]

When you first mentioned portable I thought you were referring to the building itself. More like a storage container.
ferri and I will have to get a look at some of the existing ones.

[redwine]

Isn't Goat Mountian by Beverdell? I hiked up to that one, it was beautiful! The drive up to where you start to hike was full of old rundown shacks and underground "hideout" looking places. Lots of critters I had never seen before too! The fire lookout building was still used, and in good shape.

[ferri]

that sounds cool. the drive there would be as much fun as the hike!