Hike Info:
Type:
Lookout
I woke up a bit later this morning, but the sun was
still behind the mountains, showing light through the filter of dust
and smoke in the air. Not much of either, but the light was growing
with power. The first thing I look for is the truck we were concerned
with last night. It has moved a bit. Now, partially hidden behind
some bushes and small trees, but still there. Then I read an e-mail
saying that the road is open and the truck has a right to be there.
So far there is no sign of life in that direction.
But in our direction, we start getting ready for the new
day. Judy will be coming up around 1000. The three of us will refresh
ourselves on being a lookout. Sort of a strange thing. Sherri and I
have already been in the lookout for three days and Judy was up here
last week. And now we are getting refreshed. But there is something
which makes sense. The three of us are familiar with the basics-use
of the radio, taking the status of the weather, understanding the
landmarks around us and the like. But if you are not training with
someone else, you can gain bad habits or start into patterns which
are not conducive to the effective running of the lookout. Also each
person has their strengths and it gives each of us a chance to learn
from each other. So it is good to refresh from someone other than
Sherri and myself.
Anyway, we have our oatmeal breakfast and tidy up the
lookout cabin. Then take the status of the weather and go into
service with both Porterville and SNF. Our scans do not show anything
abnormal. Even the Anchor
Fire from yesterday is not rising
up smoke.
About 1015 we see Judy drive up and shortly afterwards
she ascends into the tower. We fill her in on what we have seen and
heard during the past two days. See the previous two blog
entries(June
26, 2018 and June
27, 2018) for a summary of those
days.
With three of us in the tower, one can scan and listen
while the other two refresh. The first item which we look at is
radio. We go over setting up scanning and priority along with the
more theoretical of what the groups of channels do. Judy probably has
a better idea on how to talk on the radio than either Sherri or I.
After lunch, we then get on to what Sherri and Judy want
to work on: map reading. So we spot a points and try to find them on
the map. We look at where the Davis
fire happened and work through how
we got the location and access points for it, along with a practice
call in. Then I continue to pick a few points and they find it on the
map. Then Sherri plays “Stump the Chump” and has me walk through
how I found the point.
 |
| Mystery Truck |
Buck
Rock calls us on R5 Project to
ask, can we see smoke from Academy and Highway 180? No. CalFire is
responding to a fire there and she was wondering. There is a level of
haze which obscures the area. Then the fire must have sent up a
little more smoke and there it is.
Judy gives us the biggest challenge of the day. She has
a spot over where the RoughFire started three years ago. On
the map, the terrain looks pretty straight forward. But visually,
there is a lot of features which do not look like they are how they
are on the map. To me the key thing was to find Garlic Meadow towards
the top of the ridge, close to Spanish
Mountain. If you follow the
various ridgelines down, you can find all three of them Garlic
Spur, Rough
Spur and Deer
Ridge. But instead of appearing to
go down the bigger ridge, Garlic Spur looks like it goes diagonal.
This is more of an optical illusion, a confusing illusion. We all
spent time following these features, getting confused and then
sorting things out. Interesting exercise. Probably our best thought
here is to pray that no other fire starts in that area when we are on
duty. By the way, to give you an idea of the difficulty of pegging
where the fire started. It was originally on Garlic Spur. But then it
was decided that the fire was on the Rough Spur-hence the Rough Fire.
But eventually it was on Deer Ridge where the fire started (36.874°N
118.905°W)
Around 1700 we start cleaning up. As the sun comes in
through the northwest window, I see how bad my window washing of
yesterday has been. Oh well. Sherri and I have already taken down
much of our stuff. But there is still a couple of bags to be sent
down with the pulley system. Which generates an oops from me. Why
you might ask? Glad you did, I did not notice that not all of the
rope had been pulled up, so there was about 30’ of rope where the
pulley could fall. I did not notice that until after the pulley left
my hand and was dropping with increasing speed on its descent to the
ground. I held on tight and was able to stop the pulley. The cooler
bag handle held, but our prize Hilo
Hattie bag handle did not.
Fortunately, most of the stuff in that bag was light and did not make
much of an impact when it hit the ground.
We did the normal closing up the lookout and went out of
service a couple of minutes before 1800. We said our goodbyes to Judy
and went down. Dinner was at Bear
Mountain Pizza then back to
Fresno. But while we were eating, I read a text from my brother who
is taking care of my mother. He is running a fever. I know what I am
doing for the next couple of days-on the Mountain View in the
morning. Better get packed once I get home.
Flowers and Plants
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