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The view from above
By JOEL CONNELLY 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
Remote fire lookouts, high in the Cascade Range and throughout the West, once were the pretty exclusive summertime domain of loners, lovers and poets.
Perched atop Sourdough Mountain, a vertical mile above Diablo Lake, beat-era poet Gary Snyder penned some of his earliest verse about the surrounding sea of peaks, the tiny cabin that was his home for eight weeks and the joy of talking all night with a friend who trekked up to see him.
In the 1950s, before the era of aerial surveillance, lookouts had few visitors to break the monotony and loneliness, or to share in stupendous visual experiences.
Beat-generation writer Jack Kerouac spent the summer of '56 atop 6,000-foot Desolation Peak east of Ross Lake. Near to the north loomed the dark twin spires of Hozomeen. A love-hate relationship developed between author and peak.
Hozomeen symbolized what Kerouac called "the Void," so he wrote at a desk turned away from the mountain. But he also wrote of waking up to "the Northern Lights behind it reflecting all the ice of the North Pole from the other side of the world."
"Those guys were freeloading off the government!" U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt joked recently, referring to prose, such as Kerouac's "Desolation Angels," produced by former lookouts.
Once, as attorney general of Arizona, Babbitt hiked to a lonely lookout on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. He found it manned by author-environmentalist Edward Abbey ("Desert Solitaire," "The Monkey Wrench Gang"). Babbitt and Abbey sat up till dawn, drinking whiskey and arguing.
Desolation Peak is one of the few lookouts still staffed in the summer. Another is Copper Ridge, deep in North Cascades National Park just south of the Canadian border.
A few years ago, this writer spent a night on Copper Ridge, looking north down the valley of Silesia Creek at an awesome panorama of the dark fang of Mount Slesse outlined against a green backdrop of Northern Lights. The early morning light turned glaciers pink on the dramatic north face of Mount Shuksan.
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Now, on a summer weekend, as many as 300 people hike the three miles up to 5,400-foot Park Butte Lookout to be rewarded by the in-your-face view of the south side of Mount Baker and dreamy sunset colors behind the Twin Sisters to the west.
Forty years ago, it took a nine-mile trek to reach the lookout. A Mount Vernon physician named Fred Darvill did the hike with a friend, an experience that launched Darvill's 40-year career as a conservationist, author and mountaineering medicine specialist.
"We were camped at a little tarn near Meadow Point when a man with very long hair -- this was before people had very long hair -- walked up to our camp," Darvill recalled. "He told us, 'I am the lookout on Park Butte. I haven't talked to anyone for 37 days. If you come up and talk to me, I will carry your packs."
Park Butte is no longer manned. But it was adopted by the Skagit Alpine Club in a pioneering example of the volunteerism that has rescued, restored and maintained several historic lookouts.
Just as popular as Park Butte is the 5,324-foot summit of Mount Pilchuck. The trailhead is easily accessible from Everett and a couple of hours on the trail offers ample rewards. The front range of the Cascades can be seen from Mount Baker to Mount Rainier and at one's feet are Puget Sound population centers, river estuaries and islands.
Pilchuck is a cliffy little mountain and presents a tricky descent when fog rolls in from the Sound. People have died on the mountain. Consequently, the U.S. Forest Service re-engineered the trail to discourage dangerous shortcuts. On top, the Everett Mountaineers have done a wonderful job restoring the cabin and illustrating its history.
The relentless logging of the Cascade Range has altered the ambience of some lookouts. Visitors can drive almost to the top of 5,361-foot Red Top Mountain north of Cle Elum for views of the Stuart Range from the south.
A second car-accessible lookout is Sugarloaf Peak, above Leavenworth on the divide between the Wenatchee and Entiat river drainages. Its views of the Stuart Range are from the north and vistas extend into the Glacier Peak Wilderness.
It's a good idea to stop at the Cle Elum or Leavenworth ranger stations to pick up a Wenatchee National Forest map and inquire about active logging operations. It is not pleasant for a novice mountain driver to run across a laden truck headed downhill.
Most lookout hikes require the gain of 2,000 to 3,000 vertical feet -- a considerable expenditure of energy.
In one oft-told story, a young Wenatchee man named Steve Ponder longed for company as he spent a summer as lookout atop Poe Mountain near Lake Wenatchee. Two young women found a phone at the road-end campground, called Ponder and asked about the hike. "A piece of cake," he told them. A couple hours later he picked up the phone, to be cussed out by two very tired women.
Several moderate lookout hikes are recommended. Park Butte and Mount Pilchuck are tops on many lists. The trek up 6,500-foot Green Mountain, off the Suiattle River road out of Darrington, gains 3,000 feet in four miles. It is vastly scenic, although the summit lookout is in bad shape and in need of adoption.
The lookout atop Winchester Mountain, north of Mount Baker, also is run down but sits atop a famous 360-degree vantage point of the Cascade Range. A stop at the Forest Service visitor center outside Glacier is advised. Check how far the awful Twin Lakes road can be driven and see if there is a trail report on whether the treacherous snowfield below Winchester's summit has melted out.
The trail to Granite Mountain is a mere 45-minute drive out of Seattle on Interstate 90. But the hike gains 3,800 feet up a south-facing slope that can be blistering on a sunny day.
More remote lookouts can be spectacular, but much effort is required to reach them.
The North Cascades' Hidden Lake lookout sits like a balcony far above the Cascade River, offering an incredible view over into Cascade Pass and south into the jagged peaks of the Ptarmigan Traverse country. The lookout is on the National Register of Historic Places, is lovingly maintained and contains more than 60 books. Once, during a storm, nine people and a collie slept on the premises.
Three Fingers Lookout sits atop one of the summits of Three Fingers, a peak that dominates the Snohomish County skyline east of Marysville. The route requires snow-travel skills, the balance to negotiate three ladders, and an ability to handle exposure. It isn't a place for the faint-hearted.
Unfortunately, the days of talking through the night with a literate lookout may be coming to an end. A trio of remote manned stations -- Copper Ridge, Desolation Peak and Sourdough Mountain (which is being repaired) -- sit within the North Cascades National Park complex.
The park is an uptight, rules-conscious backcountry bureaucracy. "Designated" campsites are situated a mile or so below the lookouts. But the author would confess to once, memorably, thumbing his nose at North Cascades park rules.
A lookout used to sit atop 7,366-foot Boulder Butte, seemingly directly above the waters of Lake Chelan more than 6,000 feet below. We had a camping permit for Lake Juanita some distance down from the summit. Though the cabin was gone, the incredible panorama and ever-changing colors drew us to the summit.
"Resist much, obey little," Walt Whitman once wrote. We brought sleeping bags to the top of Boulder Butte, broke out a fifth of Makers Mark, and toasted the "American Alps."
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