News from Jumpoff Lookout

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News from Jumpoff Lookout

Here are some pictures of our efforts to winterize Jumpoff Lookout.  We have now pretty much closed in the cabin from winter snow and made notes on what else needs to be done in the future to assure building protection.  I'll present photos here with notes. 

East Side: We put in a new plexiglass window in the opening and a new shutter on the end, this side all tight.   

South side: Looks Ok, ( see the cover shot above)  all tight, now lets look at the North side: 

Here you see the new plexiglass window, installed on the shutter and Jo Miles tightening down a shutter that was in place.  These windows gives more light inside and hopefully will discourage visitors from pulling off shutters.  We want to come back with the proper shutters in the spring, but this should keep out 90% of the snow this winter.  Winter snow piles up inside when the shutters are missing, resulting in floor rot.  We want to stop or eliminate this damage to the lookout floor. 

Below is the West side which has  some small holes, behind glass,  but it will also survive another winter.  We'll make this tighter next summer. 

We now plan to cut two narrow shutters for the last two "unshuttered" windows and replace the plexiglass on the west side.  Right now everything is covered and the building is snow tight.  

Inside the cabin are some derelict, but original build-in furniture.  Let's take a look.  This is the fire finder post.  It's solid and ready for a fire finder, but some sanding and a coat of varnish should help it some. 

These pieces of built-in furniture are original but damaged.  My thought would be to remove them, and have a Yakima Cabinet shop do the repairs, then return them to the lookout.  You can here see the floor covering is coming off and the floor littered with broken glass and litter 

and here are two interior pictures showing how much light the plexiglass panels give to the interior, hopefully they will discourage panel removal by visitors. 

We looked it over and think the next project is to clean out all the broken glass, crap and broken-up modern floor covering  from the floor (and remove from the site) to make it appear clean and  cared for.  This heavily damaged modern  "lanoleum" now only serves to hold moisture and damage the old floor.  Once the floor is clean and the litter removed we can start to think about repairing the cabinets (and windows)  and formulating future projects.

This project would not be possible without volunteers.  I first of all want to thank those who replaced the roof a year ago, and for now I want to thank Jo MIles: Driver, photo editor, and repair specialist.  A huge THANKS to you JO! 

6 hours and ready for winter.

And here is our view looking west up the Tieton Basin as we depart for home.  This  view shows why we care about this lonely old lookout station, the last remaining lookout building in Yakima County. 

For now, Please join the National Forest Fire Lookout Association and do what you can to restore the last remaining old lookouts in the Northwest.  More later/mh