Heading out Monday for Fire Season 2026 in the Pacific Northwest .. a 2400 mile, 6-day drive [View all]

I’m 98% packed and ready for a Monday morning departure from my Upstate South Carolina home for fire lookout duty in the Bitterroot Mountains of the Idaho Panhandle. My preferred driving route, while not the shortest, misses all major metropolitan areas.

This year I have pretty much containerized my packing to facilitate transfer to USFS vehicles at the remote ranger station for the drive up to, and move into, the fire lookout tower.

The big additions to my storage space situation in my 4-Runner are two large Pelican cases (the black boxes) and two big YOOSHURE waterproof bags (yellow). The Pelican cases are locked and chained to multiple points in the vehicle (no more carrying camera gear into hotel rooms for nightly stops!). The waterproof bags can be shifted to the roof rack for the trip home in September/October, if necessary.

No trailer-hitch basket this year either, and nothing on the roof rack. I hate parasitic drag!

I have done this so many times now that the packing and loading process should be easy. Right? Wrong .. it gets harder every year.

Bo Zarts
Saturday 6/20/2026