This is probably our last time at a fire lookout this season. Delilah shuts down at the end of the month and the calendar is full.
Oct 20, 2023
Even today will be a partial day. Terry has taken the morning until 1530. We will try to make it up there before he leaves.
I get up at 0600, do my lightning report-none and then get ready to go up. Packing is pretty easy. Standard stuff, a bit cooler weather. Sherri is coming up with me today. We agreed to eat out and then go up. So that means I only need to pack for two lunches and one breakfast. After our stent at Delilah, we will have Steven grab a pizza.
We follow a red Toyota SR5 into Delilah. This makes my normal entry to park a bit of an issue. So I backed up the slope, parking in back of Terry’s Highlander. As it turns out, we made good time, making it to Delilah by 1515. Terry is a first year lookout whom we have not met before, at least I do not think so. But he knows a little bit about us. Such as we go to First Presbyterian Church. He also goes there with his wife. It turns out he knows our pastor, Jeremy, and had dinner with him and his wife. During the conversation, Jeremy asked Terry if he knew us. No, but now he does. We compare notes and when he finds out that we worked for FUSD before retirement, he asks if we knew a friend of his, Kurt-yes I reported directly to him. After talking for a few more minutes, he left the lookout at 1535.
We settle down into the normal lookout routine. At 1600 Sierra does their lookout check in-Delilah is not called. We are a bit puzzled by this. A short time later, Lori at Buck Rock tells us that when Terry did not respond, they marked Delilah out of service-Terry had visitors and did not respond to the call. Later in an email conversion, Terry said that he tried to reach out to Sierra, but did not get a good response.
We are seeing smoke from the Big Stump burn, but only dispersed smoke from the Rabbit. By 1700, both Buck Rock and Delilah goes out of service. We wait a little while, reading and chatting before having dinner. Sherri has her Red Robin burger and I have a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. By the time we finish, it is dark, but too early to go to bed. So more reading and chatting. The sky has gotten dark and we admire the stars. By 2030, we are taking out our sleeping bags and crawling in.
October 22, 2023
I saw that the Orionid
meteor shower
reached its peak yesterday morning. So we should still have a pretty
good shower this morning. So I set my alarm for 0100. I was awoken up
from a deep slumber by the alarm and went outside to see if there
were any meteors to be spotted. When I stepped outside I noticed a
slight smell of smoke-probably from the various prescribed burns
around: Dinkey, Rabbit and Big Stump. Also there is a line of clouds
to the west. Overheard? It is clear, beautiful, and dark.
Orion
The stars are shining ever so brightly. Orion is hanging there to the east of the lookout. I settle down to watch for shooting stars. I wait and look-I am a lookout so I do know how to look and wait. I might have seen a couple very faint streaks of light or I may have been hallucinating. After 40 minutes of watching, I decide that I am getting sleepy again. So back inside I go and slither into my sleeping bag.
I woke up a few minutes before 0700, feeling refreshed. Even with the break in the middle, I sleeped long and well. Still no lightning-I was not expecting any. I make a trip downstairs, but do not go for a walk-we are at the end of hunting season and I did not bring anything red with me. After Sherri comes back up from the outhouse, we have our breakfast-oatmeal and granola.
By the time I finish washing dishes, it is 0900 and the new day of being a lookout is set to start. That means taking the weather readings. It is pretty obvious just by looking out the window-cool, no wind and we are mostly socked in with clouds. At 0931 we go in service with a visibility of 0 to 2 miles.
That last phrase is the key
for the day. Every 15 minutes or so we do a detailed scan of our
surroundings. Usually this takes 5-7 minutes. But if we cannot see,
we can look very quickly as we can only see what is close by. In some
cases just to the trees around the road circling the lookout.
The radio chatter throughout the day is also pretty light. There are reports about the various prescribed burns-Rabbit and Big Stump in the Sequoia National Forest and a private burn at Dinkey Creek in the Sierra National Forest. Of course there is the weather and staffing from Porterville and the 1100 lookout check in from Sierra. That later is a pretty lonely affair as Buck Rock has not come in yet and few of Sierra’s lookouts are still in service.
So the day is spent talking, reading and scanning. At 1304 Buck Rock calls over and asks a few questions about the water situation. But that is the extent of our excitement for the day. Close to 1600, the clouds lift a bit, particularly to the west and we can see the Central Valley pretty nicely. As the time nears 1700, we clean up the cab area. I did not clean the windows like I usually do. Too cool and moist to do much good. But Sherri cleans the floors and we tidy up. We cheat by a few minutes and go out of service at 1655.
The drive home is pretty tame. Lots of hunters still out during these last few hours of deer season. We got back home at 1845. Steven has gotten pizza and we are ready to eat. This is followed up by being on our family’s Sunday evening Zoom call. A good way to end the day. Well actually a good way to end the evening was taking a nice hot shower.
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| Sunset |
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| Panorama view to the north |
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| Looking east at dusk |
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| Sherri hugging the flag pole-or getting a shot |
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| Gary taking a sunset shot |
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| Evening stars |
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| Delilah |
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| Late afternoon sun |
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| Sun burst rays from a cloud |
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| Clouds on Pine Ridge |
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| Looking east |
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| Looking towards the Central Valley |
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| Looking towards the northwest |
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| Top of Delilah |
Animals
