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A hike to visit a Forest Service lookout post in the San Bernardino mountains outside Big Bear city. Many of the posts had been abandoned over the years with aircraft and satellites taking the place of manned outlooks to spot forest fires in remote area. Recently some have been opened, rehabbed and turned over to volunteers who man them in shifts to spot fires before they get big.


The access road up to the lookout

The high altitude was causing us to grind up the hill in low gear. We needed lots of stops to catch our breath!



The outhouse is below the main building. Watch your step if you need to use it in the middle of the night!

Another visitor to the lookout!




Some views from the tower with Big Bear lake visible in some of them. The road up to the lookout was closed due to a recent fire in the area but the couple manning the post said that since we were there they'd let us stay and rest up. What a view! They said being up there in a thunderstorm with lots of lightning strikes was pretty sporty.

An abandoned fire lookout post near Frazier Park, one of my favorite off roading places. This one may be too far gone to rehab to return to service.

I wonder why there has been a shift in the attitude towards manning the posts?

Stunning landscape!

Those are really terrific pictures. You are fortunate to have countryside like this 'on your doorstep'!

Keep the pics coming please - it's as good as going on holiday!

Thanks

JohnG :cornwall:

PS. you can feed in the odd gun porn PLEASE, I brace myself when I see you have posted :lol:

Wow, great pics as always!

That third pic looks mad! How long are the shifts?

What a view [sigh] perchance to dream.

Right that's it. I'm joinging the US Navy, getting citizenship and living out there.

I always wanted to be a lighthouse keeper, sadly they stopped manning them about the same time as I was old enough to apply. Manning one of these places would more than make up for that. It is simply stunning scenery.

The walk is about 5 miles each way from the closed gate to the top and back. Lots of switchbacks going up the hill! My understanding is that the posts were cut due to budget costs going back 30 years as the staff was Forest Service with all of the benefits, pensions, and pay of a Federal employee. Turns out eyes on the landscape is the best way to spot a fire when it starts and get it reported and also the FS realized that not only can they get volunteers to do this job but in some cases people pay to spend a week at an isolated lookout pulling duty!

As I kid I remember watching a Disney TV documentary show about a watcher at a fire lookout. He said that he could feel a lightning strike coming by the electical charge building up in the air. His hair would start to lift up before the strike came.

Rufdr....more great pictures......I am thinking I need to get back to California and explore the countryside some more...

targetman wrote:Rufdr....more great pictures......I am thinking I need to get back to California and explore the countryside some more...

Come on over and let me know when you do if you want to do some shooting and off roading!