Gary-Summer: October 10-11, 2016

Monday, October 10, 2016

October 10-11, 2016 - Delilah Lookout

Title: October 10-11, 2016 - Delilah Lookout

Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

October 10, 2016

Tonight we stay overnight at Delilah. It is something I did not think we were going to be able to do this year. But a couple dates opened up and we were able to arrange Mom Care while we are gone. This should be fun. Also the 11^th is Sherri's birthday. A good way to celebrate-at least in my mind.

Smoke? No Contrail

We leave around when I think we should and get to Delilah about the same, around 9am. Sherri gets her birthday coffee from Starbucks on the way. Besides traveling right into the sun, we do not encounter any problems going in. We do see one white truck on the way in. But not a problem-probably a hunter. We do the normal stuff: weather, scan the area, looking at the log and white board for fires already spotted.

After checking in, we go searching for the Dorst Prescribed Burn. But we do not see any sign of smoke over Big Baldy-the direction Dorst is from us. But over Grant Grove, that is another thing. We see a column of white towering perpendicular to Park Ridge. But it does not look like smoke. With binoculars on, it looks like a cloud, but all the other clouds are parallel to the ridge. I call Buck Rock and Mich answers. She sees it also, off in the distance, on the other side of the Great Western Divide. She says it is a contrail. That explains the strangeness. But that tail must have been gigantic. Also Mich does not think that the Dorst Fire has started yet.

Delilah

Sierra has sent up a helicopter with four passengers to examine the Crown Fire. We can heard the blades, but do not see him. Nor do we see any smoke from this fire. They are around for about 45-60 minutes and then leave. This is a fire which has been slowly burning for several weeks in a remote area, through an already burnt area. Sierra is letting it burn.

Delilah at dusk

Evidently they lit the prescribed burn over by Dorst. We see the smoke, not in back of Big Baldy, but a bit east of there. We hear on the radio that the General's Highway is being impacted by smoke. Then we hear there are some spot fires. The Incident Commander for the fire puts a halt to the firing operations for today so they can take care of some of the things which are not working out today.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We did the regular stuff of looking for smokes and responding to status checks with both Sequoia and Serria National Forest.

Sunset from the road

Then at 5pm, we closed down. Normally we would go home, but since we are also up here tomorrow, we get to stay overnight. This is a pleasure. We go for a little walk-which includes going down and coming back up into the tower, plus Delilah is built on a hill, so we do get our exercise in. Sunset is nice. We see some tracks and wonder what they are-turns out to be fox tracks. Then when we get up to the top, we notice a vehicle is coming down the road. So we go down and close the gate-it is too late for visitors. The sunsets can be spectacular, not to mention the night sky. But then the city lights of Fresno and Clovis come on and we get to try to guess where everything is. Pleasant is the quiet, and the darkness. Almost time for bed.

October 11, 2016

It is Sherri's birthday today! Happy Birthday wifey!

Mill Flat Creek Haze

But also when I look out, I see Mill Flat Creek filled with haze, maybe smoke. Also there is a solid layer of smoke beyond Big Bald. Maybe this is all part of the prescribed burn at Dorst. At least I cannot find a separate source for the smoke.

Before going in-service, I go for a little walk where I meet a woman gathering wood. She gives me a hair net to cover my face from the little gnats circling around me. Sherri and I have our oatmeal breakfast and get ready for the new day. We take down our sleeping bags, extra clothing, and pee can. Then we take weather and do another scan. At 9:30, we go in-service with both Sierra and Sequoia. Still no idea where the Mill Falt Creek smoke is coming from.

Dorst Fire Haze

Dorst Fire Smoke

A little while later, Fence Meadow Lookout calls and we talk about the smoke in Mill Flat Creek. He is wondering if there was something in the Converse Basin or Grant Grove area. We are not seeing anything-no smoke from those sources. Wondering if this is coming from Dorst. He also said he was seeing puffs of smoke from the McKinley Grove area. What he is seeing may be behind a ridge where we can see.

I talk with Park Ridge to see if they can see where the smoke is coming from. They do not think it is coming in from the Dorst Fire, but they do not see a source. Maybe it is some illegal campfires from hunters? They suggest talking to Division 3 from Hume Lake District. Which I do. After we locate where the smoke is, Division 3 says that he will send a patrol over to the top of Happy Gap and have them see something. We do not hear anything more. Also the smoke in Mill Flat Creek is dissipating. So that is a bit less of a concern.

After doing a couple of more scans, it is time for lunch. Its the usual, peanut butter and Nutella. Both Brent and Kathy have encouraged us that it is good to take lunch breaks outside of the cab, down stairs at the picnic bench, both of us feel comfortable with eating and cleaning up in the cab. By the time I finish my sandwich, it is 12:50 and time for another scan. Nothing but the smokey haze which we have been seeing all morning.

But at 12:59pm, our usually serene lookout life changes. We hear Fence Meadow calling into Sierra. He says he sees smoke at 241 degrees from him, and about 3 miles away. We immediately figure out where that is-close to Big Creek by Pine Flat Reservoir. We should be able to see it. But Oat Mountain is in the way, still we should see something coming over the top. Nothing! Are we blind? Racing through my mind, Wendy will never believe me. So I grab my camera to take a picture of what we are seeing. Between the time I step out the door and round the cab corner to face northwest-about 8 seconds, there is a large column of smoke. This is at 1:03pm.

Smoke I say! And there really is a good puff of smoke right where we have been looking! So click goes the camera and then we rush to the firefinder. The idea here is to figure out where the fire is in relationship to Delilah. Then Sierra dispatch can use our bearing with what Fence Meadow says and come up with a pretty good idea of the location of the fire. Of course, Fence Meadow did a good job of pinpointing the location. Ours is more of a confirmation. We radio in the confirmation with the bearing and then sit back and listen to the radio chatter. Our call went in at 1:04, five minutes after the original call went in.

And there is a bunch of chatter! It is both exciting, entertaining-in a perverse way- and instructional. Those folks get onto the fire quickly. The first report says that the fire is 20 acres. But it is expanding quickly. Within a few minutes of the initial report, we heard the first response to the fire. Sirens over the radio and the reports of the seriousness of this fire started to filter in. In an hour, there was a report of the fire being 60-75 acres, then two hours later it had grown to 100. By this time, there was four aircraft in the air. We would hear the chatter and chart the progress of the fire.

About this time two things happened, Sierra said that all personnel associated with Prevention, Detection and Suppression will be on duty till 7pm instead of the Fall quitting time of 5pm. The other call is from Marty who will will be volunteering at the lookout tomorrow. He said he will be staying overnight tonight and be at the tower at 5:30pm. So our time will be shorter-as volunteers we could go home at 5pm, but some how we would feel guilty if we did not stay unless we have relief.

So we taker off after briefing Marty on what we knew. Then we leave. By the time we get down to Fresno it is 7:30. With the excitement of today, we are feeling hungry. So we decide to stop at Casa Quintero before going home.

Background

Our friends in the Forest Service do not go by names when talking on the radio-they use titles. Such as the person who is Division 3 today is on duty. Monday it was Battalion Chief 31. This way, if a person's duty change, you do not need to figure out who it is you are talking to-only the position.

The fire is called the Sacata Fire. It is between Eagle Peak and Big Creek, just west of Sacata Ridge. The northern boundary is Deep Creek. By the time it is contained, it will have grown to 2,100 acres.

Extra Photo's