Annual Trek to a Lookout

As part of my plan to do something special with just Holly once a week, her and I made our annual trek to one of the Lookouts on the National Forest rental system. This is the Webb Mountain fire Lookout on the Kootenai National Forest. The lookout is perched at 5,988 feet atop its namesake mountain. Built in 1959 it was used as an observation point for fighting forest fires for over 40 years. Now many of these Lookouts have been decommissioned and are available to rent by anyone who can get there. You can drive to this one if you have a high clearance vehicle, but several others are hike in only.

I have been trying to rent this particular lookout for several years, but you have to book very, very early and I kept missing that window. I finally got lucky this year and got the last open day that was available for the entire summer.

I was a little wary on how much fun we would have because June weather had been Arizona-like...disgustingly hot (high 90's) and incredibly dry. But it ended up only in the high 80's, and by the time we got to the top of the mountain the temperature had dropped a whole 20 degrees.

It was cloudy, hazy and the air was filled with smoke from forest fires in Canada, but the view was pretty none-the-less.

Holly and I explored the mountainside...she hunted for ground squirrels while I hunted for huckleberries. Neither of us were particularly successful.

 The night got cool enough that I decided a fire in the stove was needed. It stormed in the distance all night and finally brought us some much needed rain by the morning. It was a lovely night and I am looking forward to our visit to different tower later this summer.