How did Jack Kerouac describe his time on Desolation Peak in Desolation Angels?

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Portrait of Jack Kerouac, American novelist and poet, looking over his shoulder in a collared shirt, circa 1965. — Jack Kerouac American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, c. 1965.

In his 1965 novel Desolation Angels, Jack Kerouac recounted his 63-day experience as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak in Washington state. He undertook this solitary retreat in an attempt to replicate the lifestyle of the reclusive Tang dynasty poet Han Shan.1

To structure his narrative of this period, Kerouac utilized haiku as connective bridges—likened to the role of connectives in jazz—between sections of his signature "spontaneous prose".1