The high wind advisory was really scary. We didn’t sleep at all two nights. The dogs and ourselves had major anxiety and thought the windows were gonna break. There is a mouse problem, they got into food we left out briefly during the day. I think I lost a vitamin case up there (black that says “SAT” on the side), if you find it please let me know, I’ll pay you to ship it to me! (Insta: @itsnicholemarie).

This was my and my husband's 4th trip up to Hager since 2018 and had our friends join us. We had never seen mice or as much of their feces as there was on this visit. It was pretty gross, all over the stove, table/counter tops, window sills, mattresses. We flipped the mattresses to use them and flipped them back when we left. According to the log up there the occupants before us caught 3 mice. We didn't see any mouse activity until our last night and ended up catching 2 of them. The Osborn mounting table in the middle seemed to be a safe island for food, as well as hanging food/garbage. Really tough snow-shoe hike up breaking trail the entire way, took my husband and I a little over 5 hours to get to cabin with arctic-like conditions at the top. We lost the trail about .25-.3 mile in (right at the cutout between the logs and before you cross FS road) because the new trail marker they put up indicating a right turn was gone. Tree markers in the last .25 mile are almost impossible to see and you rely mainly on the orange poles which aren't placed very frequently and are often covered in snow/ice. No problems with propane or firewood availability, bring your own TP. The previous reviewer mentioned they had trouble with the oven's pilot light; when following the directions to push the knob in for 10 seconds then light, we had the same issue - what worked was pushing the knob in for 30 seconds, pilot light stayed lit and oven worked. Also had to a replace a lantern mantel. Snow had also blown into the lookout through the south window, there were towels stuffed in the window frame and snow piled up and on the table. Bring your own TP as there was none left. I highly recommend someone bringing disinfectant wipes, I would had I known how bad the mouse poop was. Someone may want to pack up a couple extra replacement mantels as well. Love this lookout but it needs more care, this is the worst condition we've seen it in since before they fixed the leaking windows in 2019.