August 12, 2026 - Delilah

 

 

 Title: August 12, 2026 - Delilah

Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

When I woke up this morning, there were clouds to the west and north. When I did my lightning report.I was shocked to see all of the strikes over Jesse Morrow Mtn, Tivy, and around Trimmer-I did not hear a thing. These places are between 12-15 miles away from me. I was thinking about the discussion about how secure is the lookout if it is struck? I made sure I had my lightning stool ready and all of the things I would need during a thunderstorm. Still there is a bit of apprehension. By the way, the shock mentioned above was figuratively, not literally.

Clouds over Jesse Morrow Mtn and Tivy

 

I tracked what these clouds were doing and did not see them moving closer, so I relaxed a bit, but not much. When I looked a bit further on where the strikes were, I saw a string up highway 99 from Visaila to Kingsburg, going over to Reedley and then to the areas already noted. When I turn on the radio, I hear patrols trying to track down if there were strikes in the northern part of the Sierra National Forest.

 

I do not have time to do too much more than have breakfast, wash up, take down the stuff I do not need today, as I will be going home tonight. I get enough walk time to walk for a couple of minutes, before heading back up into the cab. When I get up there, I take the weather and get ready. The weather still looks the same as it did when I got up.

A few minutes before 0930, both Park Ridge and Delilah go in-service. Then it goes on to the normal routine of listening to the radio, doing scans and practicing locations. I am also keeping an eye on where the clouds are, which leads to lightning. So far nothing to be concerned about. I hear Porterville reporting the weather and staffing. Then at 1100, I responded to Sierra’s lookout check in.

Richard and I talk some more about lightning and what the plan is. I am still comfortable with the lightning stool/ So I will stay in the tower for the rest of the day.

About noon, I am doing my scan, when I see some discoloration through the haze beyond Sacate Ridge. What am I seeing? I looked at it for a while. Then I see some of the whiteness in the area rising. I look a minute more to confirm, then radio in what I see. The azimuth is at 338 with an approximate distance of 12 miles. I cannot see the base as it is beyond Sacate. I confirm it is in the direction of Haslett Basin-I cannot see into the basin. Sierra radios me back after a while to confirm what I saw and the azimuth. I also talked with Judy who will come in after me about what she will be coming into.

The slight discoloration in the center behind Sacate

 

Same photo filtered so you can see more of the discoloration

 

Sierra is throwing the whole army at this, including an air attack and a tanker. Several units are sent as well. Battalion Chief 42 radio’s me about 20 minutes later and asks what I am seeing now. The haze has cleared, and the column which I was seeing before has almost completely disappeared. Both air attack and unit 430 say they cannot see any smoke. The units and the air are called off. One of the units, Fresno4, is left to observe. After two hours, they still do not see any smoke, so they are relieved and allowed to do their other duties. I will go into my speculation in the Background.

Same shot half an hour afterwards

 

After this, I talked with Wendy, our lookout wise woman,both me calling in the smoke and about lightning or as I said to her, I needed a sanity check. But before I talked about that, I recapped my smoke report and the outcome. She notes that it looks like I went through the proper procedures. Which I think I did, still it sits with me wrong to radio in a bad smoke call. Wendy says not to beat myself up.

Air Attack

As far as the lightning is concerned, we talked over what the notes said as well as the inspection. I also went over what I was thinking that we have been OK for so many years, at least 20 years of staffing this lookout. With the lightning stool, there is the added protection. So I feel comfortable. She thought that my reasoning made sense. So until someone says something different, that is what I will be doing. She asked me to send her the notes and the signs. I sent it to her and to Greg.

The rest of the day, is uneventful. The normal stuff. I was hoping that I would not be faced with another situation where it was a call which would look questionable later. But there is nothing even close. I did talk with Buck Rock about the status of our hours. We are off of extended hours.

Greg calls and we discuss the inspection. There is no change of plans on my part. Greg will be talking with those in charge of our area about direction and meaning of the report. This sounds like it will be taken seriously and may not have resolution for a little while. Later on there is a directive which said, if there is lightning in the area, get out of the tower.

Hume Lake Region District will not be on extended houses, but Sierra will. What this means is that I will be leaving at 1800. After the 1600 Sierra checkin, I start cleaning up so I will leave the cab presentable for Judy. Yesterday and today I cleaned the windows. I also heat up my hamburger dinner. By 1800, I went out of service with both Sierra and Porteville. By the time I lock up, get down the stairs and put everything in its place, it is 1820. I am able to get home a few minutes after 2000. The first order of business is to take a shower-which feels so good. Then talk with Sherri for awhile

Background

A few days later, after getting home, I was processing my photos from today. I noticed that I had taken a picture of Sacate Ridge about 40 minutes before the rising white stuff which I thought was smoke. The image shows a very dark area right where I saw my smoke. It looked like a very intense spot of rain. My hypothesis is that what I was seeing and reporting was left over from this downpour. That the white going up may have been due to an updraft pushing up some of the leftover mist. I think there may be other plausible explanations. I really hope it is not that Gary is fading as a useful lookout.Below are the images I took of the area before and after what I saw:

Picture where the discoloration was 40 minutes before

Discoloration as I saw it

Lightly filtered from above

Heavily Filtered

Same area about half an hour later

 

 Extra Photo's

Afternoon clouds to the east

Outhouse view

Virga to the southeast

Morning cloud over Dude Ridge

Morning skies

 

 

 

 

August 11, 2026 - Delilah

 

Title: August 11, 2026 - Delilah
Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

I woke up and it was still pretty dark with only a sliver of light above the tops of the mountains in the east. It is a 0520. But even though I am awake, I do not get up. I just look out the windows. And what do I see? To the west, I see bats swarming outside of the windows. I am glad I closed that window. To the east, there are also bats, but not nearly as many. Once they calmed down, I got up. I had checked to see if there had been lightning in the area and there was none

My feet touched the floor around 6:20. I read a bit and then have my breakfast. Then I get up-it was warm yesterday and I am a bit smelly. To live with myself, I wash up, lookout style, a spit bath. By the time this is done, I go down the stairs and get some water for the day. I had time to go for a short walk before heading back up.

Pine Ridge

At 0900 I start with my lookout duty at Delilah. Things like setting up my logs and taking the weather. At 0930 I went in service with Portville, along with Park Ridge Lookout. I think Buck Rock went in earlier. Then it is into the routine of scanning and listening to the radio. At 1000 the weather and staffing was broadcast. I did not get the weather. Since Porterville does two readings, I was able to catch the staffing on the second go around.

The mornings at Delilah are warm. Today it is hot. Since nobody is around, I take off my shirt and enjoy a bit of cooling on my skin. I still sweat though.

Lookout!

Sometimes on the radio, you hear something which is out of place from reporting the normal patrol location changes. On R5, our chatty channel, I hear what sounds like a researcher and her assistant. Not sure what they are looking for. But apparently she spooked some cattle and thought she was going to be trampled. It can be a bit intimidating being around those big animals. From the radio, it does not sound like her partner is bothered.

PG&E Tower

At 1100, I responded to the Sierra Lookout Check-in. Then it continues on the normal day. A feature of Delilah is that after 1100, a breeze comes up and cools down the lookout. I put back on my shirt.

I have my lunch. After that, I did the weather. If I am at home, I would have an hour rest period. But up here, I just lay down, turn up the radio and set a 15 minute timer for my two short times of relaxation. Then it is back to full time looking for smoke.

 

 

Goat Saddle

It is a normal afternoon. The 1600 indices and weather from Porterville is noted. I responded to Sierra’s afternoon lookout check in. About 1730 I had a dinner of quesadillas. Then continue looking for smoke, at least on the Sequoia side. On Sierra, I go out of service at 1800. Because of the heat, we are on extended hours so I go until the shadows make finding anything feasible. At 2000, I went out of service with Porterville.

 

 

 

Then it is time to get the cab ready for bedtime. I go down to the ground to take a few things I will not need tomorrow to the car and bring up some more water. At 2030, Sherri and I talk about the events of the day. By the time 2130 hits, I am ready to turn in. After reading, I close by eyes about 2215

August 10, 2026 - Delilah

  

Title: August 10, 2026 - Delilah
Hike Info : Description 

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I did the lightning report last night so that I could get an earlier start this morning. I got up around 0530. I must have not been as ready as I thought I was as it was almost 0700 before I left. The sky looked like there was some possibility of rain or lightning activity. But there is a beautiful rising of the sun.

 

Inspection tag

I made it to Delilah about 0830. I got my first load ready to take to the cab, including a full backpack. As I started to climb the stairs, I got the first reason to pause. There is a tag which says that the tower has been inspected by the FAA and has been found wanting. This was in two areas. First the inspection noted there was some rust and corrosion on the tower. But the more serious deficiency was that the grounding system for the tower was inadequate. This last was accompanied by a sign warning people not to go up into the tower because of the risk of an electrical lethal shock in case of lightning.

Even though it gives me pause, I decided to go up into the tower and find out if there are any notes in our logs. I do make another trip down to bring up the rest of my supplies, as well as opening up the cab and letting some cooler air in.

There are notes in the log which indicate a few more things. The issue with the grounding sounds like they wanted a ground on each of the four posts. There are also missing bolts as well. As I ponder this, I think that with our lightning stools, I should be able to stay safe during a thunderstorm. So I will stay.

 

 

At 0929 I go into service. Over the weekend there was a fire near Converse Basin. Park Ridge got the first report on this, Turns out it was caused by an unattended fire. The fire is pretty much taken care of at 3-4 acres and in what is called patrol status, meaning that the Incident Commander thinks it is substantially out, but it periodically needs checking on. The hoses are still on the ground in case they are needed.

Richard, one of the Delilah leads, calls me. This is a courteous call to make sure everything is OK. I tell him about the inspection-he has not heard about it. So I text him the tag and Lori’s notes. Later on he calls me and we discuss staying there, particularly during a storm. I tell him my thoughts with the lightning stool. While he reiterates about getting out if there is lightning in the area, he is OK with my rational of staying in the cab on the stool.

I realized that the weather and staffing was not broadcast, so I went on R5 to ask Buck Rock who the Duty Officer is-it is a Battalion 11. He is from out of the district. 

 

 

The rest of the day is pretty uneventful. I do the scans and listen to the radio and do the tasks of a lookout. At 1800, I go out of service with Sierra. I have a hamburger dinner-Steven had fixed some for me and I just fried one. Tasted pretty good. The Hume Lake Ranger District is on extended hours. I continued to scan for smoke as the shadows deepen. At 2000 I went out of service.

After going down to lookout and take care of things, I get back up around 2030. Sherri calls me and we talk for about an hour or more. After talking, I take a few star shots-not shooting stars-and then go to bed.

July 20, 2026 - Eureka

Title: July 20, 2026 -  Eureka
Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking 

Trail head: McKay Tract Parking area

Trail: Perimeter Trail, Bob Hill Trail

Destination: Loop

Distance:  1.15 miles ¹

Elevation Rise: 289 '

Descent: 269‘

Maximum Elevation: 334'

Minimum Elevation: 256'

 ¹Route was plotted on Google Earth, not with an actual GPS.

Description:

David&Sherri walking to skyway

I got up at 6:15. David is just finishing his morning limbering up time. I see that there is nothing to report as far as lightning is concerned. So I have my breakfast. Sherri did not sleep well last night, so she will be sleeping in.

David is working on providing a redwood worktop for his neighbor. A couple of years ago, there was a couple of redwoods in his backyard which needed to come down-they had become dangerous. He has kept the wood and has been making things such as benches out of the slabs. Much more talented in that regard than I am. Anyway, I provided a little bit of help this morning for him. He still has a ways to go before he installs the finished product.

Before we left Fresno, my cousin Susie had sent a video asking if I had been there. It was on the skywalk at the Sequoia Zoo. We had been to the Zoo several years back, but not the Skywalk. We decided to go to the zoo this morning and walk around. Then walked the Skywalk. These are permanent walkways among the redwoods. They certainly give you a different perspective being up there. While we are not at the top of the trees, more mid-way or at the bottom third mark, you see things differently.

Seems like I have done some skywalks recently. There were the urban skywalks in Minneapolis, and these among the redwoods. Sherri reminded me that there was one in Atlanta as well at their botanical gardens. Upon reflection, I think I like walking among the redwoods the best. Each has their redeeming factors.

Forest View from Skywalk

We came home and had lunch. I took a nap-the body needed it. Sherri watched a movie, The Seven Dials, an Agatha Christie mystery. David and I decided to go for a walk at McKay Tract. When I looked for Sherri, she was asleep.

So David and I went by ourselves to McKay. We got to the parking lot about 3:15. To start with, we walked the Perimeter Trail. We did this in reverse from before. David and I talked about things-you know how brothers talk. Kevin, David’s good friend, called him, describing how he got injured. David and Kevin talked for a while. A good thing is that David slowed down while talking with him, so I did not get into my huff and puff mode. Once the conversation ended, David and I resumed talking. I noted that my left knee has arthritis and at times can have pain when ascending, such as going up stairs. He suggested a knee brace, such as what Rachel suggested a couple of weeks ago in Minnesota.

Gary playing wingspan

Sherri  in the Park's Garden

We made it home by 4:15. Sherri is now up. By 5, David has dinner on the table-a repeat of last night. Sherri says that this is not left overs. All which I know is that I am content. We talked for a while. While David is showering, Sherri and I watch our TV addiction: Jeopardy! Don, David’s friend, and mine, comes over and we talk about an incident which happened to his family involving a bat.

After Don leaves, we sit around, mostly in silence. I take a shower. David goes to bed before I get out. I follow him to my own bed by 10.

July 19, 2026 - Eureka

 Title: July 19, 2026 -  Eureka

Roadside Flowers

Hike Info : Description 

Hike Info:

Type:Walking

Description:

When I went to bed last night, I knew there was some lightning to report on. I thought I saw about 15-20 strikes, but they must have been old, because this morning there were only three. Two of them on the upper part of the Middle Fort of the Kings River and one of them just south of Trail Crest. It still took me until 7:30 to finish the report. I think it is mostly a slow lap top.

At 7:30, I had my breakfast. By that time David had come in from this walk. I lounged around for a while. Sherri got up at 8:00. David thinks he will be doing security duty at his church. Sherri and I decided to do YouTube with our church at 10:00. But first, Sherri wants to make a Dutch Brother’s run for some white mocha coffee.

Big Foot Roams the Neighborhood

At 10:05 we start watching the service on First Presbyterian Church. We have been going through Revelation. But this month the various pastors are giving sermons called By the Spirit. Today it is Jon Jo’s turn. I must be tired as I pretty much slept through about 40 minutes of the 60 minutes of church.

Even after church Sherri and I are not active. Finally around 11;55 we went out for a walk. Sherri and I just walked the neighborhood, about 45 minutes worth. When we were almost home, Don and Denise, who live right down the street from David, passed us. They stopped and talked for a while.

When Sherri and I got back, David already had the TV on and was watching the World Cup Finals of Spain vs Argentina. Some people might call this a boring game after all it was scoreless until the early second overtime when Spain scored. Being a former goalie, both David and I appreciated all of the saves the Argentina goalie had. The score against him, he did not have a chance to defend against.

After awhile, David and I went to Safeway and picked up some Tillamook ice cream. After that I laid down for about 45 minutes until dinner. David fixed jambalaya for dinner, then we have our ice cream.

At 6:30, Andrea came on Zoom. Steven was busy with Rachel. We talked for about an hour before Andrea signed off. Then David, Sherri and I read and talked about our 9:30 bed time.