Life in the cab atop South Mt Hawkins tends to be calm and quiet most of the time. Just a few visitors pass by while we lookouts prowl the catwalk, listen to the wind rustle the pine needles, watch the antics of the birds and squirrels, inhale all that fresh air — and simultaneously hope there won’t be any smokes but that, if there are, we will be the first to spot them.

Tranquility is the norm; excitement is rare... but then on July 28, 2002 there was "THE OPALKA INCIDENT".

Ric and I were up on South Mt. Hawkins on a warm and lazy Friday afternoon. We had finished recording the afternoon weather. I was at the map table studying the topo map trying to memorize some of the various ground features around us, and Ric was standing on the catwalk just outside the cab door.

I glanced out through the door just in time to see Ric suddenly hunker over and then begin to methodically spin his entire body around clockwise, all the while peering intently at his hand held out flat just in front of his chest. He rotated completely around two times, then stopped, swaying a bit, but still looking down at his hand.

I stood up, map forgotten, trying to decode this mysterious and heretofore undocumented lookout behavior.  Pam and George had not told me about this. Then Ric blinked a couple of times and immediately began spinning around again, wobbling even more on his vertical axis this second time.

I headed towards the door hoping to grab his belt before he tottered right on over the rail and down three stories. But just before I reached him, Ric abruptly halted his rotation and grabbed the door jamb and guard rail for support, then looked up at me a little cross-eyed and announced in a somewhat faint voice, “Hey, it worked!”

Turned out he had been calibrating the electronic compass inside his little multi-function GMRS hand-held radio. Later, as we read the radio’s directions a second time, we learned that one can “Rotate the radio on the palm of your hand through 720 degrees” rather than rotating one’s entire self through a couple of circles. Ah, but that would not be nearly so entertaining!

An eyewitness account by Harry Heflin

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