Hike Info:
Type: Lookout
Description:
Today is the first of three days up at Delilah
Lookout. We were up there once
this year, for a day, so we have a mixture of excitement to be back
up there and the question of, are we really ready to spend three days
up there. We leave Fresno about 0725, a bit later than expected, so
when we get to Delilah, we will be rushing a bit. We get to the
lookout a bit late-0910, so rush to get set up for our 0930 check in
with both Sequoia (Porterville) and Sierra National Forests(SNF).
We take our weather readings, checked the various logs
and see in general, what the state of the lookout was. Normal stuff.
1000 comes and Porterville gives their weather and staffing. I have a
page
where I get to what they read for their report, but we need to take
the staffing over the air. Such a hard life.
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| Delilah Springs Road closed due to falling logs |
There are some fires in SNF land, but well outside of
our visual. But one fire which is affecting is is the Lions
Point fire in SNF near Mammoth,
about 55 miles away. We could see the area last
week when we backpacked to
Vanderberg
Lake, but did not see any smoke
there. But today there has been a pretty good haze, limiting
visibility. At one point, there was a big smoke cloud coming down
both the Middle and South Forks of the Kings. I called over to Buck
Rock to see if there was something
happening up their way. no-she sees the cloud, but thinks it is from
the Lions Point fire.
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| Delilah View of Dunlap Fire |
There was a sound from Porterville which got our hearts
beating-three beeps. This means that a fire is being called out. Then
we heard where it was-just six to eight miles from us! We hear P31
report that he saw a fire on his way in. We cannot see it, not even
the smoke from it. Pine Ridge is between us and the fire. But Park
Ridge Lookout calls in a
confirmation. Pretty soon we hear the area fire crews responding to
the incident. There is a plane-not sure what plane I am seeing in the
area, so I phone Porterville dispatch and tell them. They are pretty
sure it is one of theirs. The plane is right at ridge line, so we
cannot see the insignia’s. After an hour, or maybe more, they get
the fire out. Back to the routine of being a lookout, not that we
were involved, nor did we stop observing our area.
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| Can you see the smoke? Look above the dead tree in center right. View from Park Ridge Lookout, Courtesy of Wendy Garton |
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| Spotter Plane from Delilah Lookout |
At 1100 we do the SNF lookout check-in. No problems with
the radio battery. In past years we have had a lot of issues where
SNF could not hear us because the battery would go dead when we
checked in. This is a good sign for this year.
A little while later, we see a truck come up the road.
Looks like it is ready to do business, since there is a ladder and
other maintenance gear in it. It is Mike-we meet him last year. He is
here to check on a couple of things. First, one
of the camera’s has gone out.We
talk about about the solar panel situations and the
charging/discharging patterns. He particularly wants to know what is
plugged in at night. Really not much. Since no one was here last
night, maybe a clock was on, the web cameras (which he says are
automatically powered off at night), and the wifi. This puzzles
him-he thinks that maybe a battery is going out. During the day the
panels are charging up OK, but at night, the voltages drop
considerably. We also talk about the phone situation. He thinks that
since the phones are VOIP, the phones dropping or having poor
connection maybe due to traffic on the network connection. By the
time we get done talking, it is approaching 1400. Mike’s next stop?
Mammoth to put in some cameras to monitor the Lions Point fire. I
have learned a great deal about how the network Delilah is set up
with.
Around 1300 two vehicles come up the road and park below
the tower. A couple guys get out and they ask how to get to the Kings
River? You have to go around Pine
Flat Dam as Davis Road and other
roads in the area is closed. They are not satisfied. They say their
friend has a gold mine close to Davis Flat and trying to get there.
But it has been many years since they were there and not sure of its
exact location. I told them all roads into the area are closed and
they really should check with the Hume Lake Ranger District about how
to access their mine. They mumble and go off. I am assuming that if
there is an active mine in the area, it is not a gold mine. According
to some notes I have about Sampson
and Davis
Flats, there was some quartz and
placer (gold) mines in the area. But they are all closed down.
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| Cloud watching |
By the way, while I have been goofing off, Sherri has
done the routine stuff like doing scan’s, taking weather readings
and listening the the radio. Also there was a report of some missing
personal keys, so I went down to look for them with no success.
Then Kathy comes up. She is the head of Buck
Rock Foundation and we have been
expecting her. The word of warning: beware of head of foundations
bearing gifts, they may be wanting something, or could be a genuinely
nice person. In this case it is the later. Kathy stayed with us
pretty much all afternoon. I went over some of the the things on my
Delilah useful links page. Also we talked about various things
affecting the lookout. She also went through some of the refresher
material to make sure we were familiar with them.
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| Lowering the flag |
One of the things which we do in the lookout is observe
changes in weather. Being mostly a cloud free day, when a cloud pop’s
over Park Ridge, we take notice. In this case, the cloud was of
unusual shape and we try to imagine what it is-I think it is a cow
with horns. When I posted it on Facebook, I got lots of answers, such
as a CareBear, a genie, The Hulk, and many others. A friend posted
that it looked like the final cloud from the space shuttle Columbia
disaster-it does, and that really sobers things up here.
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| Dinner with a view |
A little after 1700, Kathy left. We did a few more scans
and then. It was time to go out of service with both SNF and
Porterville at 1800. It has been a busy day, But there is some
compensation for the hard working volunteers up in the tower: there
is no place in Fresno to eat which has a better ambience for eating
than we have up in the lookout. Just spectacular as the sun sets,
turning the skies red, watching the lights come on. Wonderful. We get
to bed around 2030 and turn off our devices around 2115-Sherri in
bed, looking out across the Mill
Flat Creek drainage at the rising
moon and I on the floor. What a good life.
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| Western Taneger |
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| Western Taneger |
Flowers and Plants
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| Butterfly Mariposa Lily |
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