AWESOME
Yesterday we had some family visiting and we decided to take them with us to try out a new hiking trail we'd recently heard about. It was in the Pike National Forest, less than an hour away, and once again we were reminded of how lucky we are to live in Colorado. It was absolutely gorgeous. The day was cool and breezy with a cold front on the way. We hiked the mile and a half to the top of the mountain and found a stairway with about 200 steps that led up to a look-out tower. The tower was built in 1951 and it took 72 pack-mules to bring up the supplies to build it. Before 1951 there was a make-shift look-out station there that was only accessible by a series of ladders. It had been created by a woman who took it upon herself to guard the forest against fires.
We regret our oldest son wasn't with us because he was in school, but we plan to take him there soon.
Once we reached the top, we met a man who works for the forest service whose only job is to keep look-out over the forest and report any fires. He'd reported about 13 so far this year, most caused by lightening. He stays in a cute little log cabin with his wife at the bottom of the look-out tower when he's off duty and goes to town about once a week to get supplies. It seemed like the coolest job for a retiree, which he was. You could tell he really enjoyed it. He had little notes all over the inside of the tower with factoids about the forest and even had little signs with the names and ages of the smallest children to have climbed up there. He also had a board with a bunch of insects hot-glued onto it for the kid's enjoyment. Apparently it can get a little lonely up there.
The panoramic views were amazing. You could see for hundreds of miles.
As a souvenir, we were all given a card that certified that we had "Climbed the Devil's Head Lookout Station guarding the Pike National Forest against fire" and are "therefore recognized as members of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Squirrels." Sounds pretty important.
To those of you still living in Texas, it is about 60 degrees here right now and we haven't had our air-conditioning on for a couple of weeks. But don't be jealous! Just move on up!
We regret our oldest son wasn't with us because he was in school, but we plan to take him there soon.
Once we reached the top, we met a man who works for the forest service whose only job is to keep look-out over the forest and report any fires. He'd reported about 13 so far this year, most caused by lightening. He stays in a cute little log cabin with his wife at the bottom of the look-out tower when he's off duty and goes to town about once a week to get supplies. It seemed like the coolest job for a retiree, which he was. You could tell he really enjoyed it. He had little notes all over the inside of the tower with factoids about the forest and even had little signs with the names and ages of the smallest children to have climbed up there. He also had a board with a bunch of insects hot-glued onto it for the kid's enjoyment. Apparently it can get a little lonely up there.
The panoramic views were amazing. You could see for hundreds of miles.
As a souvenir, we were all given a card that certified that we had "Climbed the Devil's Head Lookout Station guarding the Pike National Forest against fire" and are "therefore recognized as members of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Squirrels." Sounds pretty important.
To those of you still living in Texas, it is about 60 degrees here right now and we haven't had our air-conditioning on for a couple of weeks. But don't be jealous! Just move on up!
posted by Nicole | 10:13 AM
2 Comments:
wow, have you heard of the book "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver? Your Forest Service dude sounds just like one of the characters in the book... except it's set in the Appalachian Mountains and the ranger is a woman. Anyway, I loved the story and highly recommend it!
You live in a beautiful place! What a wonderful day. You and your family are so cute!
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