July 28, 2023 - Huckleberry Meadow

 

Title: July 28, 2023 - Huckleberry Meadow

Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking 

Trail head: Highway 180 and Road 13S52

Trail:   Road 13S52 and 13S02

Destination: Top of Park Ridge

Actual Destination:  Huckleberry Meadow

Distance:  5.62 miles

Start Time: 7:54

End Time:   11:54

Travel Time:  3:59 (1.41 mph)

Moving Time: 3:15 (1.73 mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,124'

Descent: 1,167‘

Maximum Elevation: 7,242'

GPS Tracks

Description:

Today is another solo hike. There are two things I hope to achieve today. The first is obvious. I am to continue to get into shape and enjoy being out hiking. The second is to verify what I thought I saw last Summer from Delilah: that would be Buck Rock. When I was looking over Park Ridge, I thought I saw Buck Rock. I was able to semi-verify this with one of the Buck Rock lookouts, but not another. This will be the first time I have been up this road, either driving or walking.

Meadow at top of Park Ridge

Lush ravine

I got up earlier than I wanted to. That is a little before 5am. But this gives me time to finish getting ready, such as eating breakfast, looking for yesterday’s lightning, or just taking care of personal items. So I ended up leaving the house at 6am, getting the truck loaded and out. But as I am about to take off, I realize I don;t have a bottle of water in the car. So my official leaving time is 6:15.

The drive towards the rising sun is uneventful. I get to the Park-not that the hike is in the park-at 7:25. But I get stopped by the Wye because of construction. So I do not park my truck until 7:45. There is another truck dispersed camping right by Highway 180.

Looking into the Middle Fork of the Kings

I get on my boots and start walking up road 13S52. Right away, there appears a reason to walk this road: wildflowers. There are flowers along the road and I start taking pictures. Not sure if that is to give me a rest or to capture the beauty of what I am seeing. 

 When I stopped to take some pictures, I noticed that some things fell out of my pack. I could have sworn I zipped everything up. I gather several items, including my GPS and put it away, making sure everything is zipped up. Apparently the Zoleo which is attached to the pocket is pulling it open as there is another time this happens during the hike.

 

The road up is pretty steep. The flowers continue to give a reason to interrupt the climb to ponder and record their beauty. I got to the top of the ridge quicker than I thought I would and wandered along the east side before I realized I was beyond the point which I wanted to check out if I could see both lookouts from the ridge. I still have time to go on, so I do.

The saddle where road 13S52 runs through

I come across this ravine with water still running through it. This is the result of our heavy snowpack this year. I think it would have been dry and starting to turn brown by now, but there is green with ferns flourishing and the purples of lupine thrown in. A little while later, I see a PG&E weather station, #1950.

When I go to a point to look out over the area, a black truck goes by on the road. It is a good reminder that this is a road and I need to be alert for vehicles. The truck did not see me as I was behind some brush. It was not particularly menacing.

Huckleberry Meadow

Now the road takes a downhill tilt. I decide I have plenty of time to get back up, even at a slow pace. I am certainly glad I am tackling this road in the morning. There are stretches where the road is shaded and tree covered, sometimes crossing a creek or a little meadow. But there are many places where there is the road with nothing to protect me from the sun. And I am going downhill now. Wonder about how it will be going back up?

After a mile, the downhill starts to flatten out. I come to a major junction. Looking at the map, this must be road 13S02. I take a left and walk down it for a ways. There is a gentle rollingness to this road. I can tell I am getting close to Huckleberry Meadow, not only because I can read a map, but also there is a shallow bowl. And there it is. I come to a wide place. Looks like cows have preceded me here, but probably last year. I walk to the edge of the meadow and enjoy the view. A few mosquitos make their presence known, but I would expect a lot worse.

I rested for about 15 minutes before starting back up the road. I then heard a noise. There is something in yellow making its way slowly towards where I am. But it stops every once in a while and looks up. It is a person. I greet him. He says that the company he works for is under contract with PG&E to look at trees to make sure they will not interfere with power lines. I notice it is a Fresno company, Mario Tree Service-I have seen their trucks around.

Natural ice?

And now I am off. I quickly make my way back to road 13S52. There are a few bugs and bees which seem to want to go along for the ride. I do not need any freeloaders riding on me. And now I am on my way back up. The heat is there, but not as bad as I feared. I put my head down and trudge on up the slope. Every so often I take a breathing break. But the breaks are usually kept short. My friends the bees seem to find me quickly. 

 

 

 

Map of where the line of sight is

I am climbing quicker than I expect, but I am also drenched with sweat. I came to one dispersed camp spot on the way up and noticed a pile of ice somebody, maybe the black truck I saw earlier, left. I put some of the ice under my hat. For a few moments my head cools down. But then I start getting brain freeze.

I realize how quickly I have been climbing when I reach a stretch of road almost to the top of Park Ridge. This is my cue to try to get to the top, where I think I can see both Delilah and Buck Rock Lookouts. When I get to the top, I realize that I am probably not seeing Buck Rock from Delilah. First, there is a pretty solid screen of trees blocking my view in both directions. Second, I am realizing that Buck Rock is not up high enough for Delilah to see it over the ridge-the vertical angles are wrong. Then lastly, when I get home and plot out my path with where the line of sight would be, I am a hundred yards to the north of where the line of sight catches the ridge. I am now speculating that what I saw was a vehicle or something on Park ridge which made it look like the lookout.

 

 

Dispersed camping at top of Park Ridge

From the top of the ridge back to the truck, it was only a 15-20 minute walk-a lot easier than the hour walking up the ridge. I made it back to the truck about 11:30. This was a bit quicker than I thought. I then had my lunch before heading back home. I think I must have been more tired than I thought I was since I managed to stretch my lunch break into 40 minutes. I ended up waiting for construction again. Also the air was a lot warmer going down into the Valley than it was going to the Valley. I drank a whole liter of water. I got back to Fresno safely at 1:30.

Extra Photo's

Hume Lake and Middle Fork of Kings

Mt Goddard

Spanish Mountain

Buck Rock Lookout

Delilah Lookout

Animals

 

Fliterary

 
Flowers and Plants

Western Wallflower

Stickey Cinquefeil?

Corn Lily

Sticky Stickseed

Sticky Stickseed

Mountain Strawberry

Indian Paintbrush

July 23, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout

Title: July 23, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background :Animals

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

 

Sherri talking with a visitor

 Description:

I woke up early, real early and could not get back to sleep. Evidently, Sherri was awake even before I.But we stayed in bed. I until 5:30; Sherri more like 6. Since we are just going up for the day, there is not much to put into the car. We are loaded up and ready to go. The car leaves at 0710. We are taking Steven’s car as ours is still in the shop. With Fresno projected to be at 107 degrees, his air conditioning will serve us well.

The trip up is uneventful. Sherri is able to sleep some on the way up. We stop at the Visitor Center to use their bathrooms. Then up to Panoramic Point and the service road into Park Ridge Lookout. We get in about 0905. I make a couple of trips up to the lookout cab and get us situated.

Gary mingling with the Hot Shots

I take the weather and then we go into service at 0929 with both Porterville and Ash Mountain Fire. It looks like it will be a warm day-75 degrees in the morning, but pretty good humidity. We are the first in service among the three lookouts in our District. I even got the "new" call sequence right.

We fall into the rhythm of doing our scans and making sure all is right in the lookout. We hear the weather and staffing. And then again. And again. We find out that the reason why they repeat it is that Sequoia National Forest has three Districts, each with their own repeater tones. With the radio issues Porterville has been having, they do the general announcements once for each District. We are just high enough we hear everything,

 

 

While today we will not spot any smoke, we kept busy. Shortly after 1000, we start getting visitors. And then more visitors. 26 of them in all. We get visitors from all over: from Columbia, Spain, Germany and the Czechia. Always interesting seeing them and hearing their experiences and why they would spend three hours walking to our lookout. This is a great gig.

 

 But there were two groups of particularly interesting people. The second group was a couple of couples. The men were all excited about coming up-this was their seventh lookout. They had come from Buck Rock and were thinking about going to Delilah. We talked until the women came up the road. They all enjoyed being up here.

The other group was two women and two children from Germany. This was their first time in a fire lookout and were all questions about what they were seeing. Particularly a large ground animal below us. It was our first spotting of a marmot this season. We spent about 20 minutes with them. They left content.

 

Later on I started hearing voices. The usual direction is from the north, coming up the road. I kept looking and seeing nothing. The strange thing was these voices were coming from the west, not the north. Pretty soon there were two men who came into view, charging up the steep slope. One of them carrying a pulaski, sort of like a firefighters pickaxe. When they came into the tower, we found out they are from the Arrowhead Hotshots. The two of them had been deployed to Canada to fight their fires and had returned a few days ago. They felt that they needed some to get them back into firefighting shape. So instead of coming up a trail, they started going up the Azalea Trail, like I did Friday, but then when they met up with the powerline, following it straight up the side of the ridge. Wow! That is amazing. I had thought a time or two of going down this, but to go up it takes a lot of body strength. I guess that is what it takes to be a HotShot! They are interested in what a fire lookout does. We explain things like the Osborne FireFinder and how we use it and how we look out for smokes and lightning. We hear on the radio that there is a medical emergency down at Big Stump, the Mark Twain Stump specifically. So our Arrowhead friends hurry off to see if they can help.

There were many more visitors.. Some as late as 1730. We greeted all of them and enjoyed their company. We are on until 1900 with Porterville, but go out of service with Ash Mountain Fire at 1800. In between, we get on our family’s Zoom meeting. We continue that for a while, even as we start driving away. But we end the time as we start losing signal. It was for the most part an uneventful day. But I am glad we have been up there. We made it home a little before 2100.

Background

Call Sequence. This has been a year of change for us. In respect, they are small changes. But change always leads to anxiety. Each of our radio channels are assigned certain frequencies. When we normally talk to Porterville, we use channel 3. This year we got changed to channel 4. No big deal. But because we have a wide area, full of valleys and canyons, there is equipment which relay our signal on. Each of these repeaters have its own “signal” or tone which it recognizes. So now we say to get Sequoia National Forests attention is to say Porterville Park Ridge Channel 4 Tone 12. Like I said, not a biggie, just a change to get used to.

 Animals

July 21. 2023 Azalea Trail

 

Title: July 21. 2023 Azalea Trail
Hike Info : Description :  Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail head: Highway 180

Trail: Azalea Trail, Park Ridge Trail

Destination:  Park Ridge Lookout

Actual Destination: Top of Park Ridge 

Distance:  3.92 miles

Start Time:  8:15

End Time:  12:00

Travel Time: 3:45  (1.04 mph)

Moving Time:  2:51  (1.37 mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,149'

Descent: 1,169‘

Maximum Elevation: 7,537'

GPS Tracks

Description:

Trail over Sequoia Creek

Today I will be confirming if last Sunday was just a fluke with the heat and that I can do mountains without breathing hard. For this, I will be setting off by myself. Sherri likes to sleep a bit later than me. I get up at 5:30, do my lightning report-no lightning. Then I am out of the door by 6:40-I was hoping for more like a 6:00am exit time. Still this is pretty good.

There are a few cars going my way. One a little slower, but not too bad. I get into the park and stop at Big Stump at 7:50. The park is doing construction-fixing worn spots and pot holes before the Wye. So we are held up there, but not too badly. I get to the entrance of the Needle Dump, which is across the highway from the Azalea trailhead.

It does not take me long to get ready-just put on boots, get the hiking poles set up, and throw on my pack. The intention is to hike two hours up and an hour back. If I am really good, I will make the lookout. I leave my Ford Ranger at 8:10.

The trail starts climbing almost immediately. And this answers the question of the day: it was not just the heat nor the altitude, it is the lungs and conditioning. But it is still a wonderful day to hike and this trail is a good one to be on.

Buck Rock

Why you might ask? About a quarter mile up, there is a little meadow. There is a bit of freshness of green with some flowers and a bit of water in it. Afterwards, I start running into some rather pretty wild flowers. This includes mountain strawberries, leopard lilies, manzanita blossoms and then, of course, azaleas. These are not only pretty to look at but are also very fragrant. They line Sequoia Creek and I walk right through them as they line the trail on both sides. Most of the blossoms are in full bloom, but there are those which have had their time in the sin and are now fading.

I stop and rest-this huffing and puffing really gets to me. I see there has been a Facebook post from Park Ridge Lookout. So I responded with a picture of an azalea. A few minutes later there is a text conversation with Jeff, who is at Park Ridge Lookout, and Wendy trying to make sense out of a situation. I add confusion with greetings from the Azalea Trail.

There is a good climb up to a saddle on Park Ridge. I take the opportunity to rest and call Sherri. It is 10:15 and I am debating about going on. I phone up Sherri more to let her know that I am not sticking to the two hours, but adding in a bit more. She is encouraging.

Spanish Mountain

After resting a few more minutes, I start up the trail. I see both Delilah and Buck Rock. I walk on for about 15-20 minutes to 10:45. This is going to be my real turn around place. I am thinking that I will be back at the pickup by noon. I also set off my Zoleo, checking in. I had let my family know I was going to do that at my turn around place.

Returning back, going down this trail is a lot easier. I met a couple of women walking towards the lookout. We talked for a few minutes before continuing on. I enjoy thishike, even though there is one small rise towards the end which my legs decided they have had enough. Theu get a little rubbery.

Trail back to road

With the Ranger in sight, I get a call. It is from Caliber Collision. Our Highlander has been in the shop for a month after we got rear ended. Francisco says that they found an issue and need to keep it until probably Tuesday. Disappointing, but I would rather have it fixed right than get it back sooner. I tell Sherri the news.

As I get to the Ranger, a dump truck is coming out of the Needle Dump area. We exchange greetings. I then get my lunch out and enjoy it there. I also do a Zoleo check-in to let people know I made it back to the car.

By 12:30, I am gone. The drive back is warm-my Ranger does not have air conditioning. But it has not reached 100^o yet, so I am counting my blessings. I get home before 2. It has been a pretty satisfying morning, except for the disappointment that my body is not in better shape.

Animals

Common Buckeye

Tiger Swallowtail

 
Flowers and Plants

 

Pine Drops

Manzanita Blossoms

Leopard Lilly

Leopard Lilly

Leopard Lilly

Azalea

Mountain Strawberry