Volunteers close Big Hole lookout for season

Another summer has gone by and the Forest Service’s Big Hole Lookout rental cabin is closed up for the winter, thanks to volunteers from the Wild Plains Back Country Horsemen.

John Errecart and Cheryl Burt took their horses and mules up the two-and three-quarter mile Trail #368 to the lookout at the 6,922-foot level last Tuesday to secure the lookout for the winter. It will reopen next June, also by members of the horsemen club, which adopted the lookout when it became a rental cabin in 2021. They have opened and closed it each year.

It took the two club members, Errecart with his mules “Rosie,” “Ladybug”and “Bullet,” and Burt with her mule “Josie” and horse “Slider,” just over an hour to get to the lookout. They utilized the stock to carry work equipment and supplies for the 2025 reopening of the lookout, such as toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and one-pound propane canisters for the stove. They removed items that would freeze over the winter, such as paint, along with remaining restoration materials and any garbage left behind. They also wrapped the mattress in a tarp and put out mouse and rat traps and conducted an inventory of the furnishings, said Errecart, one of two directors of the Wild Plains Back Country Horsemen.

Work at the lookout included removing the struts from the shutters and securing the shutters, and installing the storm door. They also poured water they had packed to the lookout into the outhouse vault. It took the two of them about five hours to secure the cabin.

Errecart served in the Forest Service for 35 years, retiring in 2014. He was one of the dozens of volunteers to refurbish the historic cabin from 2013-2017 by the Forest Service and Passport in Time volunteers. Errecart said the Forest Service takes the lookout off the rental program for three or four days in the summer for the club to conduct maintenance on it. This year, they touched up the interior and painted portions of the exterior.

“We, Wild Horse Plains Back Country Horsemen, feel great that folks are able to enjoy the lookout,” said Errecart. “Judging by the entries in the logbook at the lookout, everyone loves the facility and are thankful to those that restored it and do the maintenance,” he added. He said that Big Hole Lookout is typically reserved every night that it’s available.

The 14x14-foot lookout is located about 10 miles northwest of Plains. It was built in 1930 and was in operation until its closure in 1972. As a rental cabin, it can accommodate four people with a twin bed, cots, a table, chairs, and a wood stove. “We also purchased, donated and packed in about $1,000 in furnishings — a propane two-burner stove, sleeping cots, folding chairs, fire place tools, splitting maul, hatchet, highline for tying up stock, coffee pots, frying pans, pots, pans, paper plates and bowls, lanterns, and wash basins,” said Errecart.

The cost to rent it is $45 a night. Errecart said that the 2025 rental season is currently posted as June 13 to October 14.