A Barefoot Summer in AZ

stjohnthegambler

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Jun 28, 2010
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www.johnyohe.com
Hey all-

I am soon to have the pleasure of being barefoot almost all summer. I've accepted a job as a fire lookout on the Tonto NF, where I'll be up in a tower six days a week. I plan to be barefoot the whole time, and just put on huaraches, maybe, when I zip down into Globe for groceries and other civilized things.

I'll keep you updated and maybe even post pics (if I can figure out how to do so on this site....grr).

I'm excited to do this. I've always wanted to. I wonder if I'll go stark raving crazy, or if this is indeed my dream job!

John
 
does that mean you're moving?
 
Is that one of those jobs where you're up in the tower by yourself all day? Sounds great if I don't think too hard about it. Do you plan on wearing pants? :)

I always wondered what it would be like to be a lighthouse keeper, but there aren't any manned lighthouses these days.
 
Hey all-

I am soon to have the pleasure of being barefoot almost all summer. I've accepted a job as a fire lookout on the Tonto NF, where I'll be up in a tower six days a week. I plan to be barefoot the whole time, and just put on huaraches, maybe, when I zip down into Globe for groceries and other civilized things.

I'll keep you updated and maybe even post pics (if I can figure out how to do so on this site....grr).

I'm excited to do this. I've always wanted to. I wonder if I'll go stark raving crazy, or if this is indeed my dream job!

John

The spouse and I have frequently talked about camping in a fire lookout, except...they are usually only for rent in the winter. But the big question is...do they have bathrooms? And where does the "waste" go? Lol!
 
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Make sure you enjoy some of the AZ trail and the Mogollon Rim when you are out there. Where exacty are you gonna be? Just a warning it's very rocky there.
 
That's pretty awesome John. Looks like I may have landed myself a dream job too! Good luck and I hope it's everything you hope it is. I would love a job like that too.
 
Not sure on the bathroom, but I am familiar with AZ. I worked there many years. The Mogollon Rim is my favorite part. Maybe, except for all the other parts.

Yes, I'm moving. I'll be back to PDX in the Fall.

And yes I'll be up in a tower by myself all day.

It's Aztec Peak, Ed Abbey'l old tower. Which rocks.
 
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Update: I am barefoot six days a week, and most of the seventh, which is today, my day off, where I'm wearing huaraches in Glob.

I actually put on huaraches for my nightly, or eveningly, run, because the road is pretty rocky, and the trails have thorns! Yikes!

But yeah, pretty f-ing awesome to be barefoot all the time.

As an aside, I'm reading a bio of Hemingway, and it says that when was a kid and summered up in Michigan (where I'm from) he went barefoot all summer. Everyone did. It was actually normal back then.

But anyway, when I take walks I go barefoot, mostly. If I'm paying attention and going slow, it's not bad. I don't mind the rocks, you get used to them, and since I'm up on a mountain, the cacti are minimal.

The biggest problem I've had is how dry it is here. My feet got super dry, with cracks in the skin and stuff. Put on some Burt's Bees hand salve, but then bees start showing up and stinging my toes!

Not running as long as I'd perhaps like, with long days, long hours. But running every day, mostly. I'm hoping I can catch that 50K up on the Hopi Reservation at the end of the summer, if that's when it happens. But I'm probably not in the best long-distance shape.

Anyway, this may be a thing for me. Now if only people would stop coming up to visit the tower.

And Jen, there is/was a bathroom, with some kind of chemical that supposedly dissolves everything, but it, like everything else in the tower, doesn't work, so they're renting a blue lagoon/honey bucket for me for the summer. All for me, moo ha ha, no tourists allowed.

John