Hike Info:
Type:
Lookout
Description:
In Deuteronomy, there is a
verse which as a fire lookout you really hope to never see:
the mountain burned with
fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick
darkness.
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| Oat Mountain and Beyond |
I woke up early, around 0500
having gotten at least 8 hours of sleep. But the sky was still dark,
so eventually went back to sleep. At 0645 I heard Sherri rustling
about, so I decided to get up. Clouds are all overhead blocking the
sunlight. But not as cool as I thought it would be-48 degrees
outside. I slept warm in my cocoon. We clean up a bit, read some, and
then fix our oatmeal breakfast. I make a trip down the stairs to open
up and take care of business.
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| Whose copter is this? |
While down there a jeep makes
a lap around Delilah
Loop and then exits. Then on the way back up the stairs, I hear
helicopter noise coming from the Davis/Sampson
Flat area. As I climb the stairs I look for it and finally find the
helicopter as it exits out of our bowl over Sontag
Point.
But a few minutes later, it reappears coming in to the west of us,
going down into the Kings,
making a left towards Trimmer, where we lose him.Then before we have
a chance to settle in, we notice a black truck down at a road
junction, about a third of a mile from us. He just sits there.
But that is not the end of our
pre-check in. E32 and Scorpion 6 are having a discussion about
lighting some stacks, we think near the Marvin
Pass
trailhead. P33 asks Buck
Rock
about weather and wind. But we also have had a peek at the weather.
So after they are done, we call in to P33 to tell her what we saw.
But P33 is delayed at Quail
Flat
because of cattle going to Big
Meadow
and she gets to herd cars as the cattle cross.
We go in service both to
Sierra and Porterville now that we can catch a few moments. We do
scans of the area while we have visibility. All of those lighting
strikes I recorded on the fire finder yesterday, I visit and make
sure that there is no smokes from there. Well, at least those not
lost in the clouds.
Around 1100, Sierra does their
lookout check in. But we are not included, so I radio in and verify
that they have us in service-they do. Now we are surrounded in
clouds, so our visibility is zero, or rather we go in and out of
visibility. Some of these are scenes are really nice for the beauty
of it, but really rotten for seeing if there is anything which we
should be aware of. But the clouds keeps us playing hide-and-seek
with the land. So we take whatever opportunities we can to view our
area. Because we can occasionally see areas of our territory, we do
not report our lack of visibility.
 |
| Getting close to zero visibility |
Others in our area are not so
fortunate. Buck Rock later on in the day says that they have thunder
and lightning with no visibility. Later on we hear a single sound of
thunder. We find out that it was someplace around Patterson
Mountain.
But that is about as close as we get to interesting weather. Even
though we were experiencing winds over 20mph. Our tower shakes a bit,
just enough to makes us a bit apprehensive, but not really concerned.
Late in the afternoon, we see verga (rain) coming down over Verplank
Ridge.
The clouds up towards Kings Canyon look very black-I would hate to be
up there. Across the Kings also has its share of darkness.
Around 1400, we hear P33 going
to return to quarters. But shortly afterwards, we hear P33 and Buck
Rock talking about a dead doe in the middle of Burton Pass Road near
Heart Meadow. P33 also sees a fawn waiting for its mother. Then P33
and Buck Rock loses communications so we act as a relay between the
two. A relay is exactly what it sounds like Since the two cannot
talk, a middle person takes the message and gives it to the other
person. Felt good that we were able to do this successfully.
We have a successful lookout
check in at 1600 and then go out of service at 1700. The wind makes
it so we do not want to spend a lot of time outside. But then inside
we get reflections from the clouds behind us. Those reflects makes
it looks like there is a smoke where we are looking. We did not call
in anything, but it did make our hearts jump a bit when we saw them.
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| Rainbow closes out our day |
Towards the end of our shift,
the west and south opens up. We can see things we normally do not
see. Such as to the west, we were seeing Table
Mountain,
close to Millerton
Lake.
Also the four line highway 168 to Shaver
was very evident. To the south, we could see Case
Mountain
and Homer’s
Nose.
Some of the reasons why we are lookouts.
After we go out of service, we
have dinner-spinach and cheese ravioli. Hits the spot. We then have
some quiet reading time before going down and getting ready for the
night. On the way down, we see some hunters roaming the area, but
they don't come to Delilah, just to the base of the loop before
retreating. We also see a rainbow. Looks glorious with the setting
sun casting gold onto the clouds. On our way back up into the tower,
we hear the sound of thunder-maybe from the Converse
Mtn
area. Then it starts to rain. More strikes, could be in the Eshom
Valley-we
think, but cannot tell where they are striking. The rain comes down
hard for about half an hour and then stops. It will be a good night
sleep. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?
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| Yellow-faced Bumblebee |
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| One of the few hummers left around us |
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