Life as a Fire Lookout | Emily Kachorek | E46

Recorded at 7,250 feet elevation atop Mount Hough near Quincy, California, in Episode 46 the boys talk to Emily Kachorek about her first summer as a fire lookout for the Plumas National Forest. Sitting in the three-story tower for 10 hours a day, 10 days in a row, Emily talks about spending time alone and the inspiration for creativity that comes from solitude. She also talks about her background in biology and conservation and her new gig spotting fires. Prior to being a lookout, Emily raced bikes professionally, was a co-founder of Squid Bikes and her love of cycling, art and creativity blended with a punk rock vibe fostered the vibrant cyclocross scene in Sacramento, along with some of the raddest paint jobs ever rattle-canned onto a bicycle. The boys also do a few listener shout outs and answer questions related to encountering bears on the trail and whether or not you should listen to music while riding.

3:00 – Recording from Mountains to Meadows at Plumas Sierra County Fairgrounds in Quincy.

6:10 – Recording up on Mount Hough with Emily Kachorek as a fire lookout.

7:10 – What are the biggest solo adventures Trail Whisperer and PowBot have ever done?

10:10 – The importance of solitude and being introverted.

11:10 – Listener shout outs. How do you handle a close bear encounter? Is it socially acceptable to listen to music with earbuds while riding?

26:00 – Fires going off all around Tahoe over the last few weeks – Davis Fire, Bear Fire, Verdi Fire.

28:30 – Emily Kachorek interview in the Mount Hough fire lookout at 7,250 feet elevation.

31:50 – How did Emily end up becoming a fire lookout?

37:30 – Mount Hough lookout – a three-story lookout with control room level, kitchen level, lookout level, complete with an Osborne Fire Finder

41:03 – Living in a metal box on top of a mountain during a lightning storm and standing on the lightning stool.

44:30 – Sunsets in the fire tower are much like sunsets on the ocean, you’re watching it set over the horizon. The pod was recorded on the cardinal sunset day, September 21.

48:00 – Emily’s youth growing up in San Diego and finding bikes in Davis during college.

53:10 – Emily’s daily routine as a fire lookout – 8 hour day, 10 days on, 4 days off.

1:00:30 – What do you do when you see smoke in the forest?

1:08:45 – The history of fire lookout towers in the United States, the Lost Sierra is known as “the land of the lookouts”.

1:12:15 – Emily’s introduction to cycling while attending UC Davis as an undergrad studying Environmental Biology and Management, then later a Graduate degree from Sacramento State in Conservation Biology, then spent a summer in Guyana in the Amazon studying conservation and native populations.

1:18:00 – Started racing road bikes right after grad school, then got a contract to race professionally, and was on the national team racing in Europe.

1:23:30 – Transitioning from road racing to racing cyclocross, and fostering a culture of bikes in Sacramento with GHETO and Squid Bikes.

1:29:50 – Tom sees a shooting star, and the angled glass panels of the Mount Hough tower.

1:33:00 – Emily’s creativity and artistry channeled through the birth of Squid Bikes.

1:41:00 – Trail Whisperer’s experience with spray painting his own Falconer bike using Spray.Bike paint.

1:46:30 – Painting bikes as a blank canvas and a creative outlet, and finding a new outlet after leaving Squid, working on print making and carving.

1:49:10 – The Southern Arizona landscape in Patagonia, Arizona and its inspiration for Emily’s art and the process for creativity through working at it every day.

1:58:00 – Hiking the Arizona Trail and stewarding for the Arizona Trail Association.

2:04:30 – Is Emily going to be a fire lookout again next year?

2:08:00 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?