The summer of 2018, I was fortunate enough to be stationed at Scalplock Fire Lookout in Glacier National Park. A dream of sorts following in the footsteps of many of my literary heroes including Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Doug Peacock, Edward Abbey, among many others. It was a special summer filled with magic in the air, rainbows arcing skywards, snowstorms, rainstorms, and firestorms. I spotted and called in two fires this summer.
Although, it was not my first summer working in Glacier National Park. I have been working here off and on since 2002. I worked on backcountry trail crews for 10 years in the park, with 13 years total on trail crews, I have helped with numerous wildlife studies including harlequin ducks, lynx, wolverine, mountain goat, pika, fisher and northern hawk owls. I have also volunteered at a remote ranger station for 9 falls being a presence to keep an eye out for poachers and smugglers. I have also helped map out soils in the park for Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS).
This particular lookout is not only a repeater for radio communications for the National Park but also for Montana Department of Transportation and the Forest Service and that is the reason for all of the solar panels. Scalplock Mountain is situated at a very strategic location along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, along highway 2, the railroad tracks and borders Glacier National Park and the Great Bear Wilderness.
The inside of this lookout is 17 ft x 17 ft. The lookout is used as a duty station and is not rented out to the public, although, the public can hike the 4.7 miles and climb 3,000 ft. from Walton Ranger Station to it. The views are spectacular when the haze doesn't block the viewshed.
On my first hitch starting back on June 26, there were many rainstorms and even snow falling. Fire season seemed like it wouldn't even happen with all the greenery around. The morning after precipitation fog vapor rose from the valley floor. It looks like a long slender glacier or ice field in the valley showing and reminding me what it looked like thousands of years ago when valley glaciers were forming these U-shaped valley bottoms.
Cloud vapor like this evaporating into the air can resemble smoke and is called a rain dog. This has fooled many lookouts. Watching it over time it disappears into the ether, but if it is smoke, it will continue putting off grayish color and grow or change in size.
Winter and early spring storms adorned the mountains in a tapestry of white but vanished in the short summer season. Summer temperatures grew warmer as the hours of light waxed towards solstice with longer days. This picture is looking into the Great Bear Wilderness at Grant Peak and the Great Northern mountain. The peak or ridge in the front left of the photo is Paola Ridge which on August 11 had a lightning strike that became a fire.
Meanwhile, back to the lookout life. Everything is about timing; the perfect photo, meeting a woman, working on a book, reading the right book at the right time, watching a lightning strike or looking up from reading and writing and seeing a golden eagle or peregrine falcon soar by the lookout or seeing a cow elk stroll across a meadow a mile away.
The writers Greg Peters and Aaron Teasdale came up to visit me one night. That night after dinner and drinks, we each headed to bed and Greg and Aaron were sleeping outside on the catwalk.
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This photo was taken by looking at my friend Aaron Teasdale's camera. Minutes after falling asleep, Aaron said, "Hey Ben, wake up!" I looked out the window behind me and seconds after a lightning strike and the fire was already expanding up the hillside. This photo was taken later in the night after much spread. The hillsides were ripe and dry after a drought of several weeks. The snow vanished from the slopes even after a big snow year, a decent spring but wind, sun and lack of precip led to this. Many fires including Howe Ridge, Coal Creek, Numa, Heavensake and Paola all started this night.
This is looking again at the Great Northern Mountain with Grant Glacier on the left and trees torching and spotting.
Two days later, my cousins Lindsay King and her husband Hunter Kennedy hiked up to the lookout. I haven't seen Lindsay in 20 years. It was great to see them and share my little sanctuary of solitude with them even though that day the views weren't great but hazy. They came up for lunch and hung out for several hours.
In the middle of the next hitch, I was pulled from my lookout and closed it down for the year not thinking I would return. My boss prematurely ejaculated me from the lookout thinking that the Paola Ridge Fire, which was 4 miles due west could rush across the railroad tracks, Highway 2 and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and blaze up the Scalplock Mountain and threaten my safety. It could have. He is right with the right wind, fuel type and crazy extreme red flag warning, but I was pissed. I didn't want to be put on fire and stand around for days on end and do busy work. I still had 2.7 hitches left which equal 27 days.
My fire duty assignment wasn't a terrible spot though. Matt Kennedy, Jeremy Grizz and Nate were sent on the Howe Ridge Incident. We guarded the water pumps and made sure the sprinklers kept running to protect Lake McDonald Campground. We made sure the water pump continued to run and didn't get clogged up from larch needles in the lake.
We took boat rides each of the three days to get to and from work. Burning snags were falling all around the campground. We heard ones fall every few minutes. We protected the campground, but the whole ridge behind it and north was charred. The strange thing was this area burned during the Roberts Fire in 2003. Open flame was everywhere, but the campground was wet and moist from the sprinklers.
Meanwhile, I spent the remainder of my ten-day hitch working 3 days on Howe Ridge Incident or at the fire cache, which was a joke being on initial attack and acting busy for 3 days. That was hell. Luckily, my boss allowed me to go back up to my station after this 10-day shift. I spent 3 days at the lookout, then 3 days on Howe Ridge, then 2 days at fire cache, then went with Buck, and Katie up to Apgar Lookout to "winterize it," then went out with Scott Lang and Katie to do Burn Plot surveys in the north fork. Then got lucky and was sent up to my lookout for one last 10-day stint.
Here I am with Buck Hasson up at Apgar Lookout. He saved me. I was feeling like a caged animal, sitting around, getting depressed, being of no use at the cache and then we went hiking up to the lookout to "winterize it." Katie from fire effects felt the same way. I was unleashed and motored up to the lookout in a little over an hour and wasn't even moving that fast but it felt so freeing.
Back up at Scaplock Lookout, different insect hatches happen at different temperature gradients. Winged ants hatched whenever the temperature was in the 80s. They hatched, mated and died off. What a life. Where there is beauty there is always hardship, such is life.
Numerous helicopters flew up to the lookout throughout the summer. I still have never ridden on one, but the radio guy Jimmy came up multiple times to work on the Parkwide frequency at the lookout to no luck. He rode up at least 4 times in choppers. Speak about the easy way up instead of hiking like I did each time I came up. I would like to ride in one sometime but would rather hike up for the exercise and the ability to earn my way up to the lookout. Daytime temps were in the 80s at the beginning of the hitch and like summer, the nights were cold and in the 30s like winter and vegetation outside was playing Autumn's Symphony as far as colors. This hitch ended last Thursday on September 13.
Some days, the Paola Ridge put up plumes if it got enough direct sunlight and the right fuels.
My good friend Nate and his six-year-old son Lander hiked up to the mountain for a night. I am really proud of Lander because I don't think I climbed my first mountain until around the age of 19 or 20. This is us enjoying elk biscuits and gravy for breakfast at the picnic table.
Fire in the sky.A tequila sunrise. Looking towards Elk, Little Dog and Summit Mountains near Marias Pass.
Lenticular clouds like sedimentary rock stacked upon each other.
Fire in the sky with fire on the mountain. Open flames with a tree torching.
A plume of smoke swirls with big cottony cumulous clouds.
A ruffed grouse sits perched on a rock overlooking the Autumn Symphony of color.
The final night at the lookout I received a trace of rain and snow above. The snowline was a 7500 ft. The lookout sits at 6919. The dramatic uplift of St. Nicholas stands in the background on the right. The lighting and colors were unbelievable and a grand season finale. Thank you Glacier National Park, Scalplock Mountain, Montana and life itself for another spectacular season of my life.
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