Even though we had thunder and lightning early this morning, it didn't stop Kirsten and I from following through with our plan to hike the Alpine Lookout trail. We were surrounded by clouds most of the trip with warm, scattered showers that kept us comfortable and discouraged the mosquitoes. Sometimes the sun attempted to come out. Even though we didn't get the great views, the color of the flowers and the rocks seemed enhanced by the light reflecting on the clouds and there were many more fragrances. The lookout tower was manned and we got a tour of the inside of the tower. It had a propane refrigerator and stove and it looked pretty comfortable. The Lookout had "pet" goats that liked to hang out near the tower. He told us there are sometimes up to ten goats there. There was a fire somewhere between the Chumstick and Wenatchee river he had spotted that morning from the lightning storm. He called it "his fire." He was very disappointed that we couldn't see the repellers being dropped off by the helicopters to fight the fire. He apologized that the tower was not cleaner and that the goats had dirtied themselves before we came. :-) "What in the world are you guys doing hiking on a day like today? I would have cleaned up if I had known you were coming. You should have seen the goats yesterday. They were so clean and white." I think he enjoys getting a little company. :-)
The location of the old Round Mountain fire that occurred a couple days before the Rat Creek fire in 1994. The contrast of the grey aspen and the lush green undergrowth is very striking. This was started by lightning strikes.
We found a snow patch still up on the ridge. You can see how Kirsten is starting to look like a drowned rat by this time, but we never got cold. It was quite comfortable the whole time. In fact, the mosquitoes would have been so much worse if it hadn't been for the rain.
Raindrop-covered Lupine
Brilliantly Colored Sedum
Asters
Indian Paintbrush against some of the most interesting colored rock.
Pancake-stacked Rock
Our friendly goat at the lookout tower. I think he was waiting for us to pee. :-)
Inside of the Lookout Tower
This Alidade Compass is a combination map and compass used to locate the azimuth of a wildfire based on the tower's known location. This allows others to locate the fire on a map. The tower's location is exactly in the center of the map. He spins the compass around until the "pointer" known as the alidade lines up with where he has determined the fire is located and that gives him the azimuth. I had to look up azimuth to understand what he was giving them:
horizontal direction expressed as the angular distance between the direction of a fixed point (as the observer's heading) and the direction of the object
He has marked up the map where he has previously located landmarks that help him determine where he believes the fire is located.
