July 28, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: July 28, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Background : Menu 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

What a great night! I slept on the Delilah catwalk. A bit narrow, particularly with a person of my girth. But the stars were shining so bright against a black canopy. One can imagine what the ancients saw in the night sky. The stories, the meaning, the beauty. Being blind, I kept my glasses on and fell asleep that way. At 0430, I woke up to another light. What could it be? A sliver of a moon arising in the east. I can understand why people would seek after Luna. That blast of light kept me awake for awhile. But still I fell asleep some more, only to be woken up by the greater light: the dawn of the morning sun.

At Delilah, the morning sun is not the spectacular event which the evening sunset is. Looking at where the sun will rise, it is only bright. But looking south, I see clouds getting a rosy tint. Just worth waking up for that. By 0600 I am ready to get up. Sherri is slumbering peacefully in the lookout’s bed. I just read for a little while.

Just before sunrise

By 0730, we are getting the lookout cab cleaned up and cooking breakfast. Breakfast is standard-oatmeal and stuff. We are here for one night so everything we hauled up yesterday needs to come down today. Unlike yesterday, this does allow us a more relaxed pace.

We take the weather-humidity is still up there pretty nicely-around 45-50%. Of course, it is 77 degrees pretty early. Yesterday we got interested in hearing the “Air to Ground” radio traffic, so we included that on our scan. So this morning, I took it off. We go into service with Sierra at 0930. Then try to go into service with Porterville. They do not respond. I wait and try again. No response. I go to Park Ridge on another channel (R5 Project). They respond, but they were out of the cab so they did not hear me. I then asked Buck Rock if they heard me. No. In the meantime, I use the handheld radio to go into service with Porterville-they heard me loud and clear. A mystery about what happened.

Whiteboard

As it turns out we only need to listen to the base radio the rest of the day, not actually transmit on it, that is until we go out of service. But in the meantime we do our normal routine of doing scans, listening to the weather and staffing and the like. We even have six visitors. The first five came up from Sequoia Highlands Camp, just down the road. Their relatives own the camp and they came over upon their recommendation.

The last person is a motorcyclist who is interested in going down Davis Road or one of the other roads in the area. But almost everything is closed in our area. He is at Lake Sequoia for a few days and would like to explore some of the areas. But a couple of our roads-White Deer and Delilah Springs are all closed permanently. Davis Road is closed until they can get it repaired. We had heard informally that it would be in July, but the end of July is closing in fast. He goes on looking for new areas to enjoy-we recommend the Buck Rock area.

Our duty officer for the Hume Lake Ranger District gives us a call to check up on us. I tell him about the radio incident. He asks did I hear the tone* feedback. I plead ignorance (I now know what he was talking about.) He will have the radio man from the Forest take a look Monday.

Sherri the Lookout

Then Kathy calls and I go over some things with her. Such as updating the white board with current fires. But the main point of interest is the radio. She has been change off of channel 3 and on to channel 4. She then walks be through changing the tones-to 12. This will cause us to bounce off of Park Ridge’s repeater. I then do a radio check with Porterville and they hear us. So we are now left in a quandary about why they cannot hear us on channel 3 without a repeater involved. Sounds like somebody above my pay grade’s problem to figure out.

Back to the normal day’s events. For the most part it like what was said above. Sherri takes a short nap. When she gets up, it is my turn. I sleep for about an hour, waking up at our 1600 weather and lookout check-in. From here on out, we start working on cleaning up the lookout for the next person. Mopping the floor, cleaning the windows, washing dishes and tidying up. Then it is ferrying down the stuff-both with the pulley system and sherpa style. 


 

Gathering of the Black Eagles

We also heard on the radio that down south there is a smoke spotted by Jordan Lookout called the Solo Fire. Lots of excitement. Way to far south for us to even be looking there-just for the record, azimuth 152^o 44’, 54.4 miles away. Also we had been hearing that a crew called Black Eagle 6 was heading towards the Hume Lake Ranger District. Then on R5 Project Black Eagle 6 was trying to figure out where to congregate. Sherri spotted several trucks where Davis Road joins the Delilah Road. Maybe they are here to work on Davis Road?

So at last it was time to go out of service. We went out of service with Sierra a bit early, in case we needed the handheld to go out of service with Porterville. This time, I got the brilliant-well maybe at least a half of a watt light bulb-idea. Go to channel 3 and set the tone to 8, like it should be. I called out “Porterville - Delilah - Channel 3, Tone 8 - Out of Service.” Miracle of miracles. I got a response from Portereville! Whether resetting the tone did it or the repeater decided to work, I do not know.

I take one last look around to make sure everything is OK and we have all of our stuff out. Then down the hill we go. We order a pizza from Bear Mountain Pizza. While there, I hear sort of whisper sa… Gary Duran…. But you know old mean can hallucinate. Then a hiking friend of ours gives Sherri a hug-guess no hallucination. They had taken a day hike up to Pear Lake (14 miles, 3,000’ gain).

After we ate our pizza, we left, but not before I lost my lookout pin. I discovered that about a mile down the road. Went back and saw it in the parking lot-no worse for wear. We got back to Fresno around 2100. Tired. We unpacked and went to bed. You know how I looked around at the lookout for anything left behind? I did not see Sherri’s pillow. So we might be doing another trip back up there soon.

Trail Lesson:    No matter how much you think you have checked everything off of a list, you will have missed something.

Background

*Between the lessons Kathy gave me, reading the manual on the base radio, and Brent’s guide called Tones and Repeaters: An unofficial tutorial I gained a lot more understanding of what the tone does for us. The idea is that a repeater allows for a radio signal’s range to be extended. But there is overlapping ranges involved. Such as Park Ridge and Delilah can share some of its same territory. So if a repeater repeats all messages it hears, it will walk over other messages. So a tone is added to the message. It is a frequency which may be heard as a low level hum. When the repeater hears the hum it has identified as its own, it will repeat a message. So a tone selects which repeaer to use. Most of the time, the lookouts do not have to worry about a tone since we almost always have a direct line of sight on our traffic.

Menu
 

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter, Nutella Sandwich, Chips	Pizza at Bear Mountain	String cheese and smoked almonds

July 27, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

 Title: July 27, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

You know what Delilah needs? A swimming pool! No I do not mean something to dive off 80’ into a little toddler pool, but something which when it gets hot, someone can just take a dip and cool off with. Sounds like a fantasy doesn’t it? And then I wake up at 0530 to the sound of my rooster alarm on my phone.

Sherri and her coffee

I get ready and have my breakfast. At 0630 I take Lydia, a friend of ours, to work. But right before I go, we discover Sherri’s backpack is wet-probably her water bladder has sprung a leak. So she dries as much as she can, but this puts us a few minutes late leaving.

At 0720 we bid the house adeu. But as a compensation to Sherri’s start of the day, we stop in Dunlap for her coffee fix. She loves that Clingans Junction’s coffee. Then we check to see the status of Davis Road-gate is closed like it should be.

Delilah's White Board when we came in

We make it to Delilah without incident or meeting a bovine-much to Sherri’s disappointment. We are a few minutes late in getting to the lookout-we try to make it by 0900. But we are still able to get the weather check in before going into service at 0930. We still are getting organized though-the white board is full of small fires and lightning strikes in the area. I know about the strikes from checking a NIFC page. But the fires we need to scan around for.

It was a quiet morning. We did the usual stuff-scans, listen to the radio, respond to Sierra’s lookout check in. I am feeling tired, so I laid down and before I knew it, I was asleep. Sherri kept the lookout standing straight while I slept-the advantage of having both of us here.

But the afternoon was a different story. It was mostly quiet on the Delilah front. But Buck Rock and Big Meadow was having lots of fun. First, there was a report of a mule which had been wandering the camp area for the past couple of days. Patrol 33 eventually found it and Buck Rock found out that it did not belong to any of the packers in the area. Then there was a report that a creek by Big Meadow had been dammed up and people where using a net to haul out the fish. Another citation. Then Buck Rock saw some off-road activity which one of the Forest Service staff needed to look out. All of this time, we were hearing one end of the conversation or the other end, but not both. You throw Law Enforcement in there and it was a regular busy time for that Buck Rock.

A few clouds towards the Middle Fork of the Kings

Bovine are the little black spots in Sampson Flat

Our turn came along, but not in as much of a dramatic way. Around 1500 we heard about a fire being spotted in the Dinkey Creek around, just outside of the road loading into Camp Chawanakee. We might see it, depending on where it was and how much smoke is being put out.But as much as we looked, nothing. Buck Rock talked with us and told us that even if we do not see smoke, let Sierra know as it can give them information about what is visible and what is not. So we did-our excitement for the day. Later on we heard it had been put out.

Looking towards Wishon and Mt Henry

Table for Two-Dinner at Delilah

At 1800, we went out of service with both Porterville and Sierra. We both seemed to need to relax a bit as neither one of us was too aggressive on getting dinner together. But when Sherri did, it was good. A cheese gnocchi with red sauce and vegetables. Now we will have something to have Judy eat when she is up here-payback for her good spaghetti dinner last month.

The rest of the evening, we just lounged around, reading-I a book by Arthur C Brooks called Love Your Enemies. It is about the political climate we are in and a better way to achieve discourse about the issues facing our nation.

By 2130 we were ready for bed. I slept out on the catwalk, hoping to catch a few stars.

Trail Lesson: Even sighting nothing can be good information.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Breakfast at home	Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwich, chips, water	Cheese Gnocchi, carrots and cucumbers, croissant	String Cheese, Smoked Almonds, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Sherri Cleaning the Hummingbird Feeder

Classic Pine Flat at Sunset

Pine Flat through the Delilah structure

Animals

 
Flowers and Plants

July 9, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout

(Picture is from May 2019)

Title: July 9, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background :  Extra Photo's

Trail head: Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout


Description:

In some ways, this was a non-eventful day. In other ways, we kept busy enough to be tired by the time 1800 rolled around.

It has been two years since we have staffed Park Ridge Lookout. While familiar with it, we will need to get reacquainted. To that end, Wendy was going to come up and refresh us on the lookout. But she may or may not be able to make it because of car issues. While I think we will do OK, it would be good to have that little bit extra in seeing how to operate this lookout again.

Afternoon view towards Eshom Point

We leave at 0700 and make good progress up the hill. There is a stop at the Grant Grove Visitor Center both for personal relief and just to let them know Park Ridge will be staffed today. Then up the Panorama Point road we go. Not a bad drive in. One place where there is a spring was at all questionable, and there was no problem with that.

We parked in front of the lookout at 0845. I wanted to get up a bit early to familiarize ourselves before going into service. So we were able to take things in a relaxed manner. Also Park Ridge sits only 20’ off of the ground, versus the 80’ of Delilah. So it is a lot easier making multiple trips back to our truck to get stuff. Also since we are only staying today, there is not as much to lug up. So we get settled in pretty quickly.

Mill Flat Creek and the Kings River area

The morning weather is taken and we go in-service to both Porterville (Sequoia NF) and Ash Mountain Fire (SEKI). Our first adventure of the day. When we go in-service with Porterville, we do not hear a response. So I call up dispatch and find out that they heard us and responded. They do a radio check which we hear-I screw up the standard response of “Loud and Clear.” But they understand we are amateurs. 




 

Mt Silliman

Now to get an Internet connection. Why you might ask? There are certain things on the Internet, besides Facebook, which makes life a bit easier, particularly since the radio seems a bit problematic today. Such as we can pull down what is known as Fire Weather for the area. Also the staffing both for Sequoia NF and SEKI. We listen so we can confirm they are reading the same thing as what we pull down. But so far our success rate is in the high 90’s-once I pulled down the wrong day’s staffing.

Southeast towards Shell Mountain

The rest of the day was mostly spent doing regular lookout “stuff”. Scanning our area’s for smoke, listening to the radio, re-familiarizing ourselves with the territory. The last is where we missed not having Wendy up here. She is able to name area’s off the top of her head and then give us the background on what we are seeing. Knowing the background makes for the area more interesting.

Another difference between Delilah and Park Ridge. Today we got a total of seven visitors-this includes one baby. At Delilah, that would be an abundance of people. Two of the visitors were associated with the Park. The Dad works in law enforcement, but not on duty. We had a good chat about the different places he has been.

But along the interesting lines, at least in the tower it was, but probably not reading on this blog page, that static and unreadable condition coming out of Porterville? We heard a discussion between Delilah and Buck Rock about how unreadable was Porterville. We, as in Park Ridge Lookout, joined in this one and agreed that none of us was reliably hearing Porterville, but each other was coming in Loud and Clear. Also to add to Buck Rock’s woes, its phone was not functioning. So we agreed that Park Ridge could act as a relay if needed.

Do you see the smoke?

 There was a prescribed burn around Giant Forest called the Sherman Rx. It is behind Big Baldy. So we are not expecting to see it or at least nothing of significance. Big Baldy is a major part of our area, particularly since it has Redwood Canyon and Redwood Mountain in front of it. So we had been looking in that direction pretty well anyway. So far nothing. At 1115, Wendy texts me and asks if we are seeing anything from the Sherman Rx. Nothing of note. There was a bit of smoke up the Topakah area as well as drifting into the Valley when we got in this morning. But nothing to report. I texted back to Wendy to say that. Then took another look. Just to the right of the radio tower on top of Big Baldy is a little patch of smoke, hardly noticeable-probably some of the better lookouts would notice it right away. About 20 minutes later, we see a small smoke cloud to the left of the radio tower. After telling Wendy about it, she had me tell Delilah. He was at first not seeing it, then, like myself, saw the dirty cloud.

Smoke from the Sherman RX around the Big Baldy radio tower

When you listen to the radio, you hear all sorts of things. Such as Hume Lake reached its capacity and water needed to be let out-these Forest Service patrols do everything. Or at Lodgepole/Topakah area, there was a possible need for a swift-water rescue team. The report was that a female had fallen over the falls (I don’t think Topakah) and had managed to climb up on a rock in the middle of the river. Turned out that she was able to get to safety before SAR was able to get there.

Needle Dump Smoke

Then our little bit of excitement happened. Sherri spots a column of smoke west of us. First thought is that it was from the Needle Dump area. This is a spot which Sherri and I hiked last year, so we were familiar with it. After confirming the distance and direction as being the Needle Dump, we called in Ash Mountain Fire to report the smoke there. They just want to know rather than calling in a fire. Still excitement for us.

At 1650, we went out of service with Ash Mountain Fire-they now have a normal 1700 ending time. We get one more visitor before we close up at 1800 with Porterville. We think we have left everything the way it should be-we shall find out when the next volunteer comes up and staff’s the place. Even though Wendy was not able to come up to Park Ridge, we were in communication with her-our own personal safety net. When we leave, the mud from the spring? There has been trucks coming in today to work on the Park’s telecomm next to us all day. What was easy to get through before is now a bit more interesting. Seems like the mud was sucking the tires in a bit. Our truck got through it OK. But I wonder about the next person.

The next order of business is what and where to eat. Neither of us are overpoweringly hungry, so we decided to go down the hill to the Clovis Red Robin-we have a coupon. Then it is home we go. Tired, but felt like we would like to go back up to Park Ridge again.

Background

Readable. A term used to say we are able to hear and understand the radio communications. When a check is done to see if the end point is hearing, the response is Loud and Clear. Or if there is static or the message cannot be understood, then it is Unreadable. Usually one end or another will change their communications such as which repeater they are using or which channel.

Relay. Exactly how it sounds. Sometimes there are reasons why a lookout can hear a unit, but the end unit cannot. This can happen because of range or a physical barrier such as a mountain. The lookout might be asked to take a message and relay the text to the end person. A whole conversation can be set up this way.

Extra Photo's

Needle Dump Smoke

Needle Dump Smoke

July 7, 2019 - Alder Falls

Title: July 7, 2019 - Alder Falls
Hike Info : Description : Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Campsite above Alder Falls

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail: Alder Creek

Destination: Mosquito Creek/Alder Creek Trailhead

Distance:  4.5 miles ¹

Start Time: 9:00

End Time:    11:30

Elevation Rise:  914'

From yesterday's blog-reverse for our trip[ today

Descent: 2,164‘

Maximum Elevation: 6,082'

 ¹I forgot my GPS. So this is based upon estimates from previous hikes and from plotting route on Google Earth. The elevation rise descent/rise seems off.

Description:

I woke up around 6am. But was too comfortable to get up until I saw Rachel wandering around the campsite. So I thought I would get up as well. By the time I got dressed Rachel was back in her tent. I love mornings alone. So I walked a little ways down the trail, just admiring the greenery. Also breathing in the smell of fresh azalea. This whole area seems like a garden of Eden. I try to bring to mind the gospel song, In the Garden:

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses [so no roses here, but many other flowers]

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

Breakfast is ready

Times like these make it seem like all eternity is just waiting for me to step through and enjoy the life given to me. But eternity did not beckon me this morning, so I returned back to camp. More people are up now and tents are being emptied. We have the standard fare for breakfast-oatmeal.

Steven and Andrea Streching

By the time we get all packed up, it is 9am. Of course, there is some things we need to do before we get started, such as our stretches. We start down the trail, retracing our steps from yesterday. We past through the lush forested area one last time. The azalea are still refreshing, along with the rest of the flowers. Then we salute the Falls which have provided us with so much enjoyment.

Alder Falls

Today I set the pace, and I will say that I feel like my stride is good and the cadence is comfortable. I suspect that along the railroad bed, I am going about 3mph. Of course I need to temper my feelings of I can do this by two factors: 1) this is flat and 2) my pack is light by my standards-probably around 25lbs. Still I am glad to be able to stretch out my legs.

Trail by the Falls

Then we hit the end of the railroad bed-actually only the part which the trail is on-the bed goes into some pretty wicked manzanita and buck brush for the part I have seen. It is mostly downhill from here. But even though it is morning, it is getting hot and we have more exposure. But it is down, for the most part. But the part going up, I have to stop for a few minutes to rest under the guise of waiting for Sherri. Still it is a retracing yesterday’s steps until we hit the car.

Back at the car

Everything is in its place there. So we pack up and leave pretty quickly. Lawrence and the two Andrea’s will be going directly back to the Bay Area, with a stop for food with us in Oakhurst. At Wawona we stop to take care of the necessities of life, and to call Southgate Brewery to inquire about wait times. They said no problem. So down we go-should only be a 45 minute drive from here, or less. Should be, but at Tenaya Lodge, a whole herd of cattle was crossing Highway 41*. That slowed us down a bit, by the tune of a half an hour or more. By the time we get to Oakhurst, the Brewery’s parking lot is full and there is an hour wait for a table. So we go over to Plazuelas Mexican Restaurant. But it is closed on Sunday. But a Me-n-Ed’s right beside it is open. So pizza it is. We are either really hungry or just in the mood for pizza, but it tasted real good. We depart from there, with our car heading back to Fresno

Background

*Ironically, there is a melodrama theater in Oakhurst, the Golden Chain Theater. What is the production going on at this time? Here Comes the Cows

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	pizza at Me-n-Ed’s in Oakhurst	Home	Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Can we go without our power fix?

Rocks across from the falls

Alder Falls in the morning

Andrea and Lawrence trying to avoid the mud

 
Flowers and Plants

Azalea

Columbine

A berry of some type

Maybe a Branching Phaelia????

Maybe a Timberline Phacelia???