September 6, 2017 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 6, 2017 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type:  Lookout

Description:

Our pseudo tick

Rose thought about coming with us, but at the last moment she had to take care of some things. So it is Sherri and myself going to Delilah. We leave before 7:15 and make it to Delilah about 8:50. Nice to be here early and not having to rush.  Our predecessors left things real nice and organized. So we just get things going. 

And then we were looking at the fire finder, there is a bug crawling across it. Is it a tick? We squash anyway. But when we got home, I decided it was a spider. Both has 8 legs, but a tick has a wider body end. 

Our morning view of smoke

There is an inversion layer of smoke at about 6-6,500’. Our visibility changes back and forth, beginning at 8-9 miles, dropping to 5-6 and then back up to 10 in the south. We go into service at 9:25 with Sequoia NF. Once again, I hear it over on Sierra’s channel. I ponder for a few and call Sierra NF to make sure I did  not go into service with them-I did not, but when I talked with them I went into service. Then it struck me, look and see what channels are being scanned on the handheld. Bingo! That’s the secret.

Gary huffing and puffing up the stairs

 After this it is just hear weather and staffing. Then do our 3-4 scans an hour and listen to the radio. The good news is that Sierra is starting to get a handle on some of the fires in their forest. The Tennessee Fire (37o20.1’x-119o6.3’) has been put into patrol status. Then the River Fire which started Friday is out; they will be coming back occasionally to make there is no smoke.

Sherri goes for a  walk around the lookout. Then we have lunch. At one point I need to stare long and hard up towards Wishon to  convince myself there is not smoke up there. But I think it is just an optical illusion with all of the cloudy, smokiness against what looks like a granite face.

Rain Clouds over Kings Canyon

By early afternoon there is a cloud build up. A tropical storm called Lidia is spewing moisture into the Sierra’s and this is part of it. The question is how much goodness (rain) and how much destruction (lighting) will this bring?  Around 1515, Buck Rock calls into Sequoia NF that he is hearing thunder to his northeast. I ask Buck Rock about the locations and conclude that the clouds I am seeing are part of the same complex. An hour later I hear thunder in the direction of Spanish Mountain and Kings Canyon. So I radio that into Sierra NF. The rest of the afternoon, we hear some thunder about 15-20 minutes apart, but do not see strikes.

Six comes around and we go out of service. Sierra NF has people staying until seven. But Buck Rock went out of service so we decided to follow suit. There is not much happening with our side of the world today-that is a good thing. We stop at Bear Mountain Pizza on the way home. We thought about stopping at Snowline Lodge, but decided on pizza instead.

Extra Photo's

Clouds

More Clouds

Smoky skies

Animals

Hummingbird on an antenna

Quail on the road