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Bo Zarts

(25,705 posts)
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 05:02 PM 15 hrs ago

Fire Lookout Life: Basic Essentials



Pinyon Peak Lookout - Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness
Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho
©2024 Bo Zarts Studio
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Fire Lookout Life: Basic Essentials (Original Post) Bo Zarts 15 hrs ago OP
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music 14 hrs ago #1
Coffee and bacon are certainly the basics, my dear Bo! CaliforniaPeggy 14 hrs ago #2
It's truly the whole thing right there. 2naSalit 14 hrs ago #3
Looks like all anyone needs, really. Mr.Bill 13 hrs ago #4
I really like your stove..... GeoWilliam750 13 hrs ago #5
Jack Kerouac would be happy to know a kindred spirit was keeping watch. Bozvotros 13 hrs ago #6
When I am in need of a serenity infusion... ChazInAz 13 hrs ago #8
I will have to read that again. Bozvotros 11 hrs ago #12
When I started working this particular lookout there was a poem by Gary Snyder thumb-tacked to a window post .. Bo Zarts 12 hrs ago #10
Wow, I didn't realize there were 3 beat poets on fire lookouts. Bozvotros 11 hrs ago #11
No eggs? No bread? malthaussen 13 hrs ago #7
don't forget chilli! justaprogressive 13 hrs ago #9

Response to Bo Zarts (Original post)

CaliforniaPeggy

(152,442 posts)
2. Coffee and bacon are certainly the basics, my dear Bo!
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 05:24 PM
14 hrs ago

This B&W photo really brings home just how basic these elements are.

2naSalit

(93,420 posts)
3. It's truly the whole thing right there.
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 05:31 PM
14 hrs ago

It's what I have most mornings, I add pancakes or toast and a piece of fruit just to spice things up.

Great photo. Merry Christmas!

Bozvotros

(845 posts)
6. Jack Kerouac would be happy to know a kindred spirit was keeping watch.
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 06:27 PM
13 hrs ago

You just need an old underwood typewriter and a roll of shelf paper.

ChazInAz

(2,805 posts)
8. When I am in need of a serenity infusion...
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 06:42 PM
13 hrs ago

I just read the closing of "Dharma Bums".
Kerouac's best writing!

Bozvotros

(845 posts)
12. I will have to read that again.
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 08:39 PM
11 hrs ago

It's been a very long time. Kerouac inspired me to hitchhike twice from Indiana to California and the Pacific Northwest. Not to mention the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and Florida (the worst trip I ever had.)

Bo Zarts

(25,705 posts)
10. When I started working this particular lookout there was a poem by Gary Snyder thumb-tacked to a window post ..
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 07:56 PM
12 hrs ago

Someone had written it out by hand on pale blue paper. Snyder worked Sourdough Peak lookout while Kerouac was in Desolation Peak. Philip Whalen was in a third lookout in the same ranger district. That fire season there were three "Beat Poets" working fire lookouts on three of the most majestic peaks in the Upper Skagit region of the North Cascades.

But Gary Snyder only worked one season because the US Forest Service found out about his previos affiliation with the "Wobblies," and he was blackballed from any future work with the USFS. But his boss loved him: "That's one calm son-of-a-bitch." The mule skinner that packed Gary in on mules at the first of the season said that all Snyder took to eat was a fifty pound bag of rice and a gallon of soy sauce. Snyder melted snow for water to cook the rice.

At age 94, Snyder is one of the few Beat Poets who is still alive. He is the only one alive of the three (Kerouac, Whalen, and Snyder) who worked fire lookouts that season in the early 1950s.

Bozvotros

(845 posts)
11. Wow, I didn't realize there were 3 beat poets on fire lookouts.
Tue Dec 24, 2024, 08:34 PM
11 hrs ago

I think Edward Abbey took some turns up there too. You are in some fine rarefied artistic air up there.

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