If you think of it as a step up from Recco rather than a step down from a traditional beacon I think it makes more sense.

As Maine’s neighboring state is NH where you can drive and take a train all the way to the top of their tallest mountain, people come to Baxter expecting that visiting the peak Katahdin will be just as easy as driving up near the peak and then walking up for their photo opportunity with their McDonalds bag before heading to claim their sticker. In Baxter it is not this way. It’s a minimum of a 6 mile hike from Roaring Brook. The first 3 miles up to Chimney Pond are relatively easy and it’s quite a view from there, so many people will head that way whether or not they will head to the peak or not.

This included the families with their McDonalds bags and large sodas. Despite prompting from the rangers at Roaring Brook and Chimney Pond these people have no intent of carrying their trash out, and often will toss it in the Chimney Pond outhouses.

Well one of the brown furry locals caught wind of that people were tossing their trash into the pit and decided to dig himself a tunnel into the pit for some easy snacking. He was discovered when a larger woman who had been dragged up the trail visited the outhouse. She sat down and started to do her business when she heard some rumbling. Apparently she though to herself ‘I just finished my lunch, my stomach shouldn’t be making that noise right now’ and continued. As she finished up she heard some rumbling again and as she was tossing her TP saw a pair of eyes looking up at her from the pit. Unsurprisingly this sent her shrieking (and possibly also streaking) away from the outhouse.

One of the rangers heard the commotion and came over to investigate and took a look down the pit. Looking up at him was a bear with a shit-eating grin. So the ranger grabbed a tranquilizer gun, and tried to get that bear in the mussel with the tranq. A: There isn’t a lot of soft tissue in which to get the tranq into near the pointy side of a bear, and B: the bear didn’t appreciate the attempt. So, the bear took off and instead of using his tunnel he took a shortcut and knocked the outhouse off it’s foundations.

Now black bears are notorious for being repeat offenders anytime that they think they can find an easier way to get food and this one was no exception. The rangers found him in the pit several times before they were finally were able to get a bead on him and get him deported.

So if you ever find a shit covered bear running through the woods, you might want to just dig a cat-hole rather than using the outhouses. Oh, and carry your trash out.

That said, the fire watches are part of our history and were influences to great authors in some instances, such as Kerouac. I disagree with taking them down.