Where in the Wild is Chris

Fire Lookout Friday: Slate Peak Losing a landmark, and what fire lookouts leave behind For five summers at Goat Peak, Slate Peak has been a familiar silhouette on my northwest horizon. Fifteen miles away, but always there. This past winter, the 70-year-old tower collapsed, and the ridgeline has been empty ever since. This week's story is about what it feels like to lose a place you didn't realize...

Fire Lookout Friday:  Four days at Lookout Mountain Bringing an old lookout back to life By the summer of 2022, Lookout Mountain had spent several years sitting quietly above the Methow Valley. Shutters closed. Doors locked. This week's story is about what happens when an old fire lookout wakes up again. Four unforgettable days over the Fourth of July weekend filled with old logbooks, northern lig...

Fire Lookout Friday:  Lookouts Take a Village How fire lookouts inspire community A few weeks ago, vandals severely damaged the historic High Rock fire lookout just as a decade-long restoration project was nearing completion. But this week's story isn't really about the vandalism. It's about what happened next. This week, I'm sharing stories of High Rock, Lookout Mountain, Columbia Breaks, and the...

Fire Lookout Friday: Goodman Hill Washington's lowest elevation fire lookout, artillery fields, and a military escort. Washington's lowest elevation standing fire lookout sits hidden on one of the largest military installations in the world. The problem? Almost nobody on base seems to know it’s there. This week's story is about a fire lookout that took me two attempts, three trips to Range Control...

Fire Lookout Friday: North Twentymile Why do I keep going back? North Twentymile is the Washington fire lookout that took me more failed attempts to reach than any other. Fire. Smoke. Heat. Snow. All caused four years of failure before I finally stood on the summit. And now, I keep returning.  This week’s story is about one of Washington’s most unique fire lookout sites, it’s rare D-6 cupola, a yo...

Fire Lookout Friday: Horses, Fire Lookouts, and Potato Chips You can't have just one. A cattle dog who grew up on a mountain. A one-eyed Mustang from Oregon. A Quarab mare who doesn't have time for your produce aisle. And a five-year-old South Steens Mustang who could pass for his big brother's mini-me. Eight episodes in, it's time to properly introduce the herd—and the story of how horses and fir...

Fire Lookout Friday: Green Mountain A Lookout and Wilderness on Trial A Montana-based watchdog group. A federal judge. An 80-year-old fire lookout listed on the National Register of Historic Places, restored and then ordered removed. This is the story of Green Mountain, the lawsuit that nearly took it down, and the larger question underneath all of it: what does wilderness actually mean? And who g...

Fire Lookout Friday: Monument 83, Part 2 A starry night, midnight surprise, and mysterious gravestone The conclusion of a three-attempt journey to what might just be Washington State's most remote fire lookout. After two failed attempts in Part 1, this is the episode where I finally make it to the summit of Holdover Peak. 300 downed trees, some of the largest animal tracks I've ever seen, a specta...

Fire Lookout Friday: Monument 83, Part 1 One of Washington's most remote fire lookouts has a blowdowns-per-mile problem Monument 83 sits on the US-Canada border on a summit called Holdover Peak, and it might just be the most remote fire lookout in Washington State. Getting there requires navigating miles of beetle-killed blowdown so legendary it has spawned its own trail metric: blowdowns per mile...

Fire Lookout Friday: Buck Mountain The history of the lookout that was almost lost Buck Mountain is where this whole journey started. A low-snow January, a map, and a phone call with my dad. But what I didn't know was how much history was packed into that one small DNR tower above Loup Loup Pass. Or how close it came to being lost forever. Fire Lookout Friday is a weekly podcast and newsletter abo...

Fire Lookout Friday: Goat Peak Nobody staffs this fire lookout to read books Most people imagine staffing a fire lookout as a quiet summer spent reading books and watching sunsets. Goat Peak is not that lookout. This is the story of one of Washington’s busiest remaining staffed fire lookouts, and what it’s actually like to spend a summer alone on a mountaintop with a radio, endless visitors, light...

Fire Lookout Friday: The Toughest Physical Climb There's a fire lookout there? After visiting all 93 of Washington State's remaining historic fire lookouts, the question I get asked most is: which one was the hardest to reach? This is the story of the most physically demanding day I've ever had in the mountains, and the century-old fire lookout waiting at the top. Fire Lookout Friday is a weekly p...

Fire Lookout Friday: The Beginning The journey to visit Washington’s last standing fire lookouts In January 2014, a low-snow winter, a map, and a phone call with my dad set off a chain of events I never could have predicted. This is where it all started. The story of how I ended up visiting all 93 of Washington State’s remaining historic fire lookouts and some of what happened along the way. Fire...