Last year I flew up to the Monument 83 weather station with Herb Eliason.
He was training me to take over our Forest's RAWs stations. The rugged terrain of the Pasayten Wilderness was amazing. Both of us have been involved in helicopter crashes in our days working in Fire. I got to thinking if something goes wrong with this helicopter, there isn't even a place to auto rotate it into.
Anyway, as we flew into the Historic site (both countries have lookout structures,the stone 83 monument and the grave marker of Pasayten Pete the horse than died in 1876) we had to fly into Canada for the final landing because the winds were from the south. I noticed that the trail to the site from Canadian side looked more like a road than a trail...it had two tracks. So Herb and I took care
of the RAWs station and hopped back into this machine that costs the tax payers something like $7000 an hour to fly.
So I managed to get the phone number of the B.C. Provincial Park Manager this summer and gave him a call. Turns out the Canadians built a road to the site in the 50's. The weather station itself is actually in Canada. You cannot have mechanized equipment in a Wilderness area in the States. Like all of the Canadian's I've ever worked with Dave was most helpful. So this Friday I met the Manning Park Ranger at the Monument 78 - 83 Trailhead at 09:30.
Kirk has been working in the Park for 10 years. He is responsible for 400 kilometers of trails. After loading up all my gear we ATV'd to the Monument 83 site in 1/2 hour. He was a great help working on the station. The snow from last year had bent the rain gauge bucket almost to the ground. We got it level again and he cut a wood round with his chainsaw that we put under it. It won't bend again.
