Ranger

When you see smoke, you radio it in.

The rest of the time you read, you cook, you sleep, you do crossword puzzles.

You watch weather roll up the valleys below you.

Some people can't do the job.

Most people can't.

I've always been fine with it.

My mom says that's because I'm stubborn and unsociable, and she's right about both.

But it turns out those are the two qualifications that matter.

I got into lookout work because I trained as a wildland firefighter in my 20s and blew out my knee on a fire in Oregon.

Couldn't do hotshot work anymore.

A friend of mine at my agency mentioned lookouts.

I applied.

I got assigned to a remote peak in my district my first summer, and I stayed at the same peak for three summers in a row.

Once you've learned a peak, nobody else wants to learn it.

The district is happy to keep you there as long as you'll come back.

The peak is 10 miles from the nearest road, as the crow flies.

The nearest trailhead is 22 miles by trail.

There are three other trailheads within about 20 miles in other directions.

None of them are easy.

You gain 4,000 to 5,000 feet of elevation from any of them.