storms

Sitting (that is what we called it) on a lookout could be boring.

One guy on a mountain over from me spent part of the summer watching the clock, until they took him off the tower.

You had to be able to entertain yourself. The Forest Service radios rain off batteries which were replaced each year. Under each bunk was a battery box of considerable size. But the batteries from last year could be used for whatever the occupant wanted. I had a small tube radio that ran off batteries and I had jury rigged it so I could get the volts I needed from a batter two or three times bigger than my radio!

But it was the storms that I looked forward to.

I decided that I was in as safe a place as they could provide, so I accepted that and forgot about danger.

The real close storms were the real joy. It will raise your blood pressure to see the lightning and hear the loud thunder at the same time.

(Light goes very fast, but sound lumbers along at about 600 miles an hour and we were taught that figured out to about a mile a second. So, if you saw lightening and you counted slowly it would tell you how close the lightening had been. The kicker is that you could only hear the sound for about 20 miles).

In the three years I was on a tower I only got hit by lightening once. It was a powerful experience. It was night, the wind was howling. Everything that was not secured went away. (We were to be ready for a storm always!). And, BOOM.

Mountain thunder storms go away as fast as they arrive, and in a few minutes it was over.

The first night on my first tower, I was a couple weeks past 18, I was frightened. Then i began thinking. I will trust my big God to look after me and I will trust the Forest Service people, and I will enjoy my time.

And, that is exactly what i did.