Strawberry Delight - Old Fire Lookout Traditional Geocache
Strawberry Delight - Old Fire Lookout
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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approx. 900' elevation gain from Trail Head to Cache Location. Hike is about 1.6 miles (one way) on very good and well marked trail.
This cache is placed on top of Strawberry Mountain, just above Lost Lake, deep in the Okanogan Highlands.
There once was a Fire lookout up here. Most of the information I can find on this Lookout comes form the "Fire Lookouts of the Northwest" by Ray Kresek. The Lookout was used for training in the 50's and earlier...in the 60's the Lookout burned and then in 1973, the mountain burned.
My family has lived and grown up in this area...and they know some of the verbal history of the Lookout, but only names of people who worked long ago. I do have a very close friend who was on the mountain fighting the fire in '73. Him and 3 other Staff Members from Bonaparte Scout Camp were up there fighting the fire. A rescue helicopter put 1 skid of the Helio on the deck (that was the only place to land and the most room he had), they grabbed the 4 scouts and pulled them into the the Helio and evacuated them before it got too hairy. He tells the story well, and it was very colorful to listen to the Helio pilots.
I was able to find 1 of the Footings for the original Lookout still in place...and 2 others had been moved and busted up. There were still some of the Guy-Wire blocks just pushed over the edge also.
It is a great view up there....and in the distance...Mt. Bonaparte is teasing you to find that cache:)
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)