So did Mike say whether the switch actually fixed the burnout or just traded one kind of stress for another? I've heard that from a few people who left agencies for internal roles and then realized they just traded client drama for office politics and red tape. The Sunday night dread thing is real though, I know a lot of people who have that exact same story. Did he end up happier with the slower pace even if the work was less exciting? I guess I'm wondering if the trade off was worth it long term or if he eventually got bored.

You just reminded me of something I read about how game companies actually count on people forgetting what they already bought. It's crazy how much stuff we end up with that we don't even use, @lane.joel. I guess the shelf is just a monument to all our bad decisions now.

Yeah the Forest Service basically pulled the plug on them years ago, which is classic government efficiency right there. I tried finding a list of remaining towers last summer and found like three different outdated PDFs that all contradicted each other. So basically just get out there and hope they're still standing until the day they're not, I guess. Kinda feels like we're losing part of the trail's history one rotten beam at a time.