The most interesting thing that happened on my way to the lookout as I opened and closed gates (some locked) with combinations was that it was getting dark and I got into my car and it was hit with something I thought a bull had hit the corner of my 1976 Rabbit then. So, it knocked my vehicle into a dirt ditch alongside the dirt road and I kept driving because I wasn't allowed a weapon to protect myself. So, no matter what it was if I couldn't keep driving I knew I might die without a gun. So, I just kept driving all the way up to the lookout and because it was dark I couldn't even see what it was for sure that hit my car. I just wanted to live through whatever had happened to me out of the blue.
After 4 days on duty at my California Department of Forestry Fire Lookout I drove back down all the gated roads to various cattle ranches on the way to to an actual paved public road which was about 5 to 10 miles of dirt roads to the fire lookout I found the carcass of a huge 1000 pound Wild mama bore and I saw why she tried to kill be nearby which was her several 300 pound partly grown Babies.
I think what had happened 4 days before is that she tried to bite my front fender and it ripped off her lower jaw so she couldn't eat or drink water so she died in those 4 days not being able to eat or drink anything but her babies were still nearby about a block away wondering what had happened to mama.
I realized Wild Boars in the wilds now were really huge even the babies. I guess only the biggest boars had been able to breed for some time out in the wildernes far away from where the public is allowed to go.
When there was rain I didn't take my VW Rabbit 1976 and instead drove my International harvester 1974 Scout II which likely is the best off road vehicle I have ever owned that could go literally anywhere through almost anything including up to 3 feet of unplowed snow on a dirt road.
But after two summers as a fire lookout I was ready to do something else because I have a family and being away from them 3 or 4 days each week wasn't really working for me or for my family very well. However, the medical insurance for 3 kids in their teens was really wonderful through he state of California. But, we also owned several businesses too so except for the medical insurance I didn't really need to work there anymore.
However, since then I think in the early 1990s they retired all the California state lookouts and used advanced Satellite technology to spot fire from then on I believe.
However, being there on top of a 4000 foot mountain in ranching country was pretty interesting trying to not die by Boars and the like. So, every time I climbed down out of the 40 foot high Lookout Tower I had to be careful not to be killed by Boars or anything else. So, you had to always sort of be looking over your shoulder for wild animals of every kind because we weren't allowed to have guns there likely because the ranchers whose lands we crossed to get there had insisted upon this.
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