Fire Season

For nearly a decade, Philip Connors has spent half of each year in a 7'x7' fire lookout tower, 10,000-feet above the ground in one of the remotest territories of New Mexico. One of the least developed parts of the country, the first region designated as an official wilderness area in the world, the section he tends is also one of the most fire-prone, suffering more than 30,000 lightning strikes each year. Written with gusto, charm, and sense of history, "Fire Season" captures the wonder and grandeur of this most unusual job and place: the eerie pleasure of solitude; the strange dance of communion and mistrust with its animal inhabitants; and the majesty, might, and beauty of untamed fire at its wildest. Connors' time up on the peak is filled with drama-there are fires large and small; spectacular midnight lightning storms and silent mornings awakening above the clouds; surprise encounters with long-distance hikers, smokejumpers, bobcats, black bears, and an abandoned, dying fawn. Filled with Connors' heartfelt reflections on our place in the wild, on other writers who have worked as lookouts-Jack Kerouac, Edward Abbey, Norman Maclean, Gary Snyder-and on the ongoing debate over whether fires should be supressed or left to burn, "Fire Season" is a remarkable homage to the beauty of nature, the blessings of solitude, and the freedom of the independent spirit.

(Bookdata)