Room with a view; a FS Lookout in the Pacific Northwest.

Elevation: 4300 ft.

13 miles east of the Pacific Ocean; overlooking the Pistol River watershed, and the Gardner Ranch, which was settled in 1885 by my great grandmother Rebecca and her husband Ben. They had two children; Harley and Ina..

Ina was my grandmother; she was married to Jeff Forkner and had 4 children with him. They built a house on her 1/2 of the ranch; purchasing lumber from the mill on Carpenterville Road.

Later, she was married to Keith Dunning, and had 3 children with him. It was he who talked her into selling her 1/2 of the Gardner Ranch and moving south to the land of opportunity: was it Fortuna, CA? In any case, he left her there with the three chiildren and the 4 older children. I heard it said that the older boys ran him off.

Back in my own childhood, my parents would spend a couple of weeks each summer at the ranch, with all us 6 children in tow. They helped with shearing the sheep; we children played.... there was a very steep slope where we used to climp up to the top with pieces of cardboard and sliding down... someone invariably got hurt, but we loved it! Memories, memories.

We began going to SnowCamp LO in 1995; it was no longer "manned" or "staffed", but had been turned into a vaacation rental by the FS. It became one of our "go to" spots.

Later when the 2003 Biscuit Fire ran amuck, and burned the structure, we were among the group that volunteered to rebuild the structure. Since that time, Frankster and I have volunteered to "open and close" the lookout each season.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! Sunny, warm and no wind! Yay!

Often we are there when the winds are 40 mph, gusting to 80 mph. It made the job of putting up the shutters so much easier not to worry that one would be blown out of your hands and over the mountain! Our good friends, Stephen and Cris, were there to help us, so the job went quickly and smoothly!

Can't wait till opening next season!