Gary-Summer: August 12, 2016

Friday, August 12, 2016

August 12, 2016 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 12, 2016 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Extra Photo's : Animals

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:
Wednesday we were hiking the John Muir Trail. Then we were not. While Sherri and I do not regret coming off the Trail, I was getting introspective about the whole thing, just trying to figure out why stopping a journey which I love seemed so right. I cannot say I have resolution, this day gave me space between the action and the current.

White Deer Saddle

When we got off the Trail, I saw that there was an opening to be at Delilah Lookout. After calling up Wendy, we found that we could work the lookout the day after we got back from Lee Vining. Perfect! We had Mom care all lined up anyway and there was a need. Besides we had been up in the lookout only once this year. So we signed up to work it on this Friday.

It takes an hour and half to drive to Delilah, half of it is quick, the other half is down a dirt road where a leisure pace is all which can be mustered. We were a bit slow on leaving the house so we arrive a few minutes later than the 9am time we like to get to a lookout. On the way up, I come up with a title for a book, if I ever write it: Life in the Buck Brush. We go in-service at 9:30 and there are things which we need to do such as opening up the place, raising the flag, checking the weather, turning on the radios and doing our initial scan of the area for fires. But we were able to check in with both Sierra (National Forest) and Porterville (Sequoia National Forest) by 9:26.

East looking towards Hoist and Verplank Ridges

Dead Pine

Last year's Rough Fire came within a hundred yards of Delilah to the east. As you look up the Kings River and Mill Creek, it is brown with black trees, not much of the green. But around the base of Delilah, there is a swath of green, broad-leaf trees. But beyond that, the pine beetles are taking their toll.

Sherri

Today was a normal day at a lookout. You hear the weather forecast and what the forest's staffing will be around 10am. About every 20 minutes, you take a full scan around the lookout-viewing both the close places and those at the edge of visibility. Today's visibility was only about 15 miles at best with a lot of haze from a couple of fires. When you do these cans, you use the binoculars to examine things, looking for tell-tale gray smoke which indicates a fire. Around 11, Sierra checks in to make sure we are OK. Then at 1pm, we take weather again-humidity, temperature, wind, clouds, and visibility. In this case our visibility where even the Fresno County Bear Mountain is pretty hazy. Around 4 Sierra does another check in and Porterville gives us the afternoon fire indices. These indices help everybody know what the opportunity for fire is. Today's is very high; tomorrow is extreme. Finally at 6 we go out of service, clean up and go on home, or if we stay overnight, the cabin magically becomes our home and we can shut down everything.

Having both Sherri and I is a luxury. It is good to have two sets of eyes to look over the landscape. Also it gives us time where we can rest, read, or take a nap while the other carries out the lookout duties. Today I think about what do we need to do-both around the house, in our care for my mother, and a shorter version of a backpack trip this Summer. It is good to have this time.

Delilah Hummingbird

I do think a bit of why we came off the trail-more as an introspection than trying to find blame or having panic. More for understanding about why it was a good idea to.

Scanning the landscape for smoke is full of pleasant distractions also. First, there are several hummingbirds which flutter around the lookout-80' above the ground. A few bees also make there way up as well. Even more so is the trails I see. I have a tendency to follow them around, wonder where they go, until I realize I need to get back to looking for smokes. Today we have an additional distraction as a cattleman came by looking for his 20 cows. We had not seen them, but now I look for four legged creatures with a blue ear tags on our side of the river.

After our time ends, we clean up, lock up and leave. Dinner will be pizza in Squaw Valley at Bear Mountain Pizza. We get home around 8:30, content and happy. But I am no closer to resolution, but maybe more content with not having resolution.