August 12, 2018 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 12, 2018 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background :  Extra Photo's : Animals

Rancheria Falls

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

What a glorious night. Last night I spent the night on the catwalk in my sleeping bag-not because Sherri kicked me out of the cab or anything like that. But the Pleiades Meteor Shower should have been in prime viewing mode. Unfortunately, I do not think they showed. Or at least they were not shooting when my eyes were open.

But what my eyes did see were stars and stars and more stars filling my vision. It was wonderful waking up to see them. I did not try to constellation connect or collect, but just tried to take them in. One can understand why we will never understand God. As large as the universe is, my God is infinite. The stars are glorious, He is the Glory. May I never ever forget that, or if I do, may you send your stars to remind me.

Around 0530 the sky started to get a tinge of orange, not pink like a normal morning. This begins the third and last day in the lookout on this trip. I suspect the orange is the amount of smoke in the air. When looking for the stars last night, they were obscured lower down. Maybe that is why we could not see them?

I get up at 0615 and get my stuff together off of the catwalk. Even Sherri is waking up now. Now it is the normal stuff-getting cleaned up, eating oatmeal for breakfast and the like. Today is our last day at lookout, so we send down stuff we do not need for the day such as sleeping bags, mats and the pee can. Sherri gets the task of taking that down now. At 0926 we go in service for our day.

Sherri looking over the country side

Most of the day is pretty mundane-scans, taking weather, checking in, … But the smoke is clearing so we start to see a lot more territory.

We have some visitors on motorcycles. But they do not come up. All which they want to know is how to get to the Kings River. We tell them via Pine Flat which to them is a highly unsatisfactory answer. They want to go down Davis Road or some other way. But both the Delilah Springs Road-which meets up with the Davis Road and the Davis Road are closed. We are told because of both falling trees or the potential for it. They are not happy and it looks like they are trying to figure out another way around. After that we keep a look on Davis Road to see if there is any movement on it. It so happens after they left, we hear the sound of a couple trees falling.

We hear Mich of Buck Rock talking to Patrol 33 on the R5 Project channel. I have been looking through the road closures and see that the Davis Road closure expired on August 1st. Looking online, I cannot see any updated or revised closure. After they are done, I ask Buck Rock about this, if there is an updated closure notice. Unknown. She talks with Patrol 31 who does not know either, but will check Monday with the office.

Looking north with clearer air

Later on, Patrol 33 says that the Boole Tree Road is open. I ask about the Converse Basin Road. Yes, but only a small distance, looks like to the Chicago Stump. The Verplank and Hoist Roads are closed.I fumble the radio response. Instead of “Copying” that I heard the response from Patrol 33, I respond with something which means the same thing, but not as expected nor as concise. At least when Buck Rock calls me on it, I can answer affirmative.

Patrol 33 is pretty active today. We hear her over at Stony Creek. She is reporting that the Stony Fire is being declared out and she is returning to Big Meadows. Later on we hear her again asking for an incident number for an abandoned campfire. Sounds like the same place as yesterday. She is being busy today.

In between the trees falling, we start to hear gunshots. We cannot pinpoint where they are shooting. I think someplace over on Pine Ridge, but we never see them, so not sure of the actual location. This sound carries on all afternoon. Probably target practice as hunting season has not started yet.

Tombstone on a ridge

A while later a van comes up the road. A family with three children have come to visit Delilah-not on accident, but because the father had been up here in his youth and had wanted to share it with his wife and children. So good.

Division 3 checks in. Later on we hear that he is having vehicle issues on Belmont and will be delayed.

Yipee, we are starting to be able to see distances this afternoon. Mt Goddard is hazy, but seeable behind Mt Reinstein. But this is the furthest out we can see. Other places are hazy, just further out hazy than this morning, or definitely yesterday morning.

By the time 1800 comes along, we are ready to go home. So we checkout with SNF and PV and start down the road to home. We stop in at Bear Mountain for Pizza. Then get home after 2000. Time for a shower and unpack. A good three days.

Background

Clear Text on Radio. Also called Plain Language. This is a standard vocabulary meant to be efficient, concise and understandable. An example is instead of saying “Yes”, it is better to say “affirmative” because Yes can be slurred and misunderstood. Or instead of being drawn out like my response was, “I heard it”, “Copy” lets everybody know that you heard what was spoken. One of these days I will be fluent in this.

Animals

Our hummers

August 11, 2018 - Delilah Lookout

 Title: August 11, 2018 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Sunrise

Type: Lookout

Description:

The early, morning glow has started in earnest before I have opened my eyes. By the time I pop my head over the desk, the sun has just started to peak its face over the crest. Evidently it does not like what it is seeing as Apollo keeps his fiery face masked behind a layer of smoke.

And that is how today is. Everything in sight is veiled with smoke, not that we are smelling it. Once again our visibility will be limited. Patterson Bluffs is just barely visible while neither of the Bear Mountains can be seen.

Sherri taking the weather

Breakfast is oatmeal-easy to fix. Then cleaning up and putting stuff away. Now for the most delicate operation which we can do at the lookout: taking the pee can-a Folger’s coffee plastic container from some friends of ours-down the 80’ to the outhouse without splattering it over myself. Successful!

We start to get into lookout mode by taking the weather and then doing the first scan of the day. Not that we have been blind for the previous three ours, just have not been systematic nor looked with the binoculars. Then we go into service with both Porterville (PV) and Sierra (SNF).

On of the interesting.radio calls is about a log burning in SNF land. We felt pretty good being able to pinpoint the location on the map with the lat/lon. Of course, I have a spreadsheet which given to coordinates, I am able tell the azimuth and distance. It puts it at the Bass Lake Overlook.

We also hear Patrol 33 giving coordinates of an out of control campfire. Turns out it is at Stony Creek campground. She says the fire has gotten about 10’ outside of the firepit. But she can handle putting it out. Sure enough about half an hour later, we hear that Patrol 33 is returning back to Big Meadows.

Another morning visitor

We have a visitor! This a rarity. The man comes up to have a look around, but his wife is a bit taken back by the height we are above the ground. They have a new truck and are wondering about going down Davis Road-closed due to potential tree fall. He takes a look around and then returns back the way he came. Later on this evening, we have another truck which comes up the road, but they only go around the lookout and return up the road.

We hear some of numbers, 336 and 332 which we are not familiar with. I think from a conversation with Kathy she indicated that these numbered folks are more recreational people. But it also sounds like they do a lot of the grunt work like emptying garbage cans and cleaning restrooms. One of them is coming over to our neck of the woods, over to Millwood. But we do not see him.

Just to show how much people do not leave their natures back in the city when they come out to public lands, we get a radio report of a Patrol 46-way out of our area-who needs to respond to a campground host at Camp 9. This sets us to scrambling to figure out where Camp 9 is-Lake Isabella far to the south of us. As the story unfolds, law enforcement is called in for backup as well. Turns out a camper had taken a shovel out of the campground hosts cart and taken a swing with it at the host. Wow! Get real! I do not hear what happens next, but about an hour later Patrol 46 calls in clear.

Then Patrol 33 comes on the radio again. You know the unattended campfire from Friday? Same spot, same people. Sounds like they will be getting something serious as there is a request for their license information. They are from Fresno of all places.

Looking over the edge

We start to see a cloud buildup, but it will not affect us today. There is a radio report from SNF which advices there may be some lighting strikes in the Dinkey area. We load up Weather Bug to see if there is anything closer to us. Nope-that is about as close as it gets to us-35 miles away.

Gary wandering

Now, it is time for folks to go out of service. So we start hearing the various Forest Service units going back to their quarters and out of service. And pretty soon it is our turn, along with the rest of the lookouts. At 1800 we go out of service. Quiet day on our part, particular when you have limited visibility and considering what happens out there. Dinner is Costco spinach/cheese ravioli along with nan for bread. After washing dishes, it is off to go for a walk.

Early today, I had looked down a slope close to Delilah and realized there was a log which looked sort of hanging over an edge. I was wondering if there was an edge really that close to Delilah. The first thing I noticed is that the slope from the road around Delilah to this log has about a 20-30% grade, but appears somewhat flat from above. But then the slope at the log is a really steep drop off. Gives me a new appreciation of how Delilah stands. The other thing which this little jaunt gave me was socks and shoes full of thistles. Exploration is not to be painless.

Smoke towards Bald and Bear Mountains

Setting Sun

We walk along the Delilah Road to the junction with road 12S19B. This is where we saw the truck in June go up and it goes right under Delilah towards the west of us. We walk about a third of a mile down the road and then decide we will need to come back up up. But the scenes towards Squaw Valley is pretty nice. The smoke is starting to lift and we are able to see some of the Valley lights.

Delilah at Dusk

When we get back, it is time to get ready for bed. I decide I will try sleeping out on the catwalk tonight. Hopefully the Pleiades meteor shower will show it-it should be a good show if it does as there is only a sliver of a moon showing. But in the meantime, Mars is glowing red to the south east and Saturn with its golden color is to the west-later on when I check the sky charts, it probably was Venus in the west. I think Jupiter is to the south of us. Looks like a nice night to look at stars.

Background
Weather.For those of you who might be interested, Sherri is reading the relative humidity using a sling psychometer. This device measures the  the temperature of the air dry and wet. The relative humidity is then determined from a chart for our elevation. The relative humidity is important as a low reading, typically less than 20%, will allow for easier ignition and spread of a fire.


Extra Photo's

There are cows in Sampson Flat

Bear and Bald Mountains.through the smoke

Gateway into Delilah

Sunset from Road 12S19B

Sun about to set

Orange skies

Animals

Did a coyote mate with a deer?

Bear Scat

August 10, 2018 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 10, 2018 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout
Description:

Bovine version of an evil eye

I awoke at 0500 and went back and forth to sleep before giving up and getting up at 0540. Normal morning routine of getting ready for lookout-truck packed, making sure we have last minute stuff… Finally around 0725 we leave Fresno and make our way up to Delilah.

Definitely a less exciting drive in than my trip last month. Saw one cow by the road and three in the Sequoia Highlands camp. That one cow definitely has an attitude problem and gives us the evil eye as we pass by. Also several quail scampered along the way. The elderberries are starting to come out, along with a few holly berries-at least they looked like them. Just after Sequoia Highland Camp, we come across a pickup off to the side of the road and dutifully take pictured of it.

We arrive around 0910. And then we start getting ourselves set up at the lookout-unlocking doors, climbing up the stairs, checking water levels and stuff. By the time I get into the cab, it is 0920. So I take our weather-79 degrees with no wind. Sort of explains why the cab is close to 90 degrees in the interior. So I get the fan going to get it cleared out. And now our day really begins.

Looking East

• 0920 - I take the weather. 79 degrees, 26% relative humidity, no wind, and pretty bad visibility-about 5 miles, or an area of 78 square miles. Usually we have 20 miles of visibility or having to look at around 1250 square miles. Our scans will be a lot faster today. As a note: a lot of the area we cannot see because it is hidden behind ridges and mountains.
• 0926 - Buck Rock goes into service with both Porterville (PV) and Sierra National Forest (SNF)
• 0928 - Park Ridge goes into service as well with PV, and we presume SEKI.
• 0929 - We call up Buck Rock to make sure there is no restrictions on what channels we can use. Such as last time I was up here, the Ferguson Fire took over SNF’s command channel 4. We just do not want to be walking over anything like that. No channel restrictions.
• 0931 - Delilah, us, go inservice with both PV and SNF
• 0940 - Time for our first scan of the day. I have talked about what a scan is elsewhere, but basically, we look over all which we can see. We are trying to see signs of smoke. The examination is both with the naked eye, gazing over the territory. But also with binoculars, particularly on parts which are a ways away. When we have good visibility, a scan can take up to 15 minutes, Today, we are pretty much done in five. We try to do about 3-4 scans an hour. Sometimes we even succeed in doing this.
• 1000 - PV gives the weather and staffing. Radio is a bit muffled. But we have gotten both through an Internet connection.
• 1018 - Buck Rock calls and asks if we heard the staffing. He wants to know who the duty officer is-BC31.
• 1100 - SNF does the lookout check-in. So far no trouble communicating on the handheld this year. Yippee!
• 1237 - H520 out of Trimmer Springs is heading to the Donnell fire around Sonora Pass with 7 souls on board
• 1250 - AA15 is heading to the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite
• Several of our folks going in service to patrol areas around the Hume Lake Ranger District.
• 1343 - There was a message on the radio saying that an aircraft-I do not think I got the ID correct is available with seven jumpers. Turns out it is J52. When I first heard this term I my warped mind goes to a plane with folks going to commit suicide. I know better-these are elite firefighters who will jump into rugged terrain which you cannot get to on foot or vehicle.
• 1557 - P33 calls in an incident of an unattended campfire. How can people be that way when there is so much burning in California now?
• 1600 - SNF does the afternoon lookout check in
• 1705 - Kathy calls to check in on us and make sure we are doing good. Little visibility throughout the day. She thinks that tomorrow will be better. Talked about maps and stuff, as well as where to find the spare insulators if we need them.
• 1755 - SNF with evening staffing where we and Buck Rock go out of service
• 1759 - We go out of service, along with Park Ridge and Buck Rock, with PV

Delilah Doe and Fawns

So ends our day. Nothing exciting. Well, we have been visited by Delilah Doe and her two new fawns. Also Sherri saw a couple raptors soaring at least a half mile away. After consulting with some friends on Facebook, we decide it is a juvenile Golden Eagle.

We settle down for a few minutes, then have our dinner of garlic chicken, along with spinach and cheese ravioli. We sort of lounge around and read. I am reading The Accidental President for our OSHER group at the end of the month.

Sunset

Catwalk Sleeper

Sunset is not very spectacular. Smoke is too dense lower down. I test out could I sleep on the catwalk? If tomorrow night is at all clear, I will try sleeping out there to see the Pleiades meteor shower. I talk with my brother for awhile and then go off to bed, inside the cab, hoping that tomorrow will bring a bit better visibility.

Extra Photo's

One of Delilah's fawns

Delilah Doe and her two fawns

Bear and Bald Mountains of Fresno

Animals

Juvenile Golden Eagle

Delilah Doe and a fawn