Margaret Flora spent her summer of 1964 working as a lookout for the Department of Natural Resources' Clearwater station located on the western slope of the Olympic Mountains. The lookout station did not have running water so all water had to be hauled up from a creek using a sturdy milk can. This made washing her hair a difficult task so she ended up making weekly five-mile trips to the logging camp for a shower and hair washing session. Flora was then a junior-to-be majoring in geography at the University of Washington. She had doggedly applied to each of the 17 districts maintained by the Department of Natural Resources before being selected for the job. The Forest Service was not an option as they did not generally accept women employees (with rare exception).
