Gary-Summer: June 14, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Friday, June 14, 2019

June 14, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: June 14, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

West Looking with Coastal Range just above the haze

I got up at 0555^*. But we did not get out of the house until 0725, about 10 minutes later than I wanted to. We drove to Delilah without incident, stopping at Davis Road and see that it is open now^**. The road to Delilah seems to be more rutted than it was last month when we drove to the gate. But within the forest, it looks like the road has been recently graded. White Deer Road is now blocked off^***. I wonder what our escape route would be if there is a fire?

North with Mt Nelson and the Three Sisters

Almost all of the time when we get to the lookout, it is pretty clean. But today our initial impression is that everything is in its place and there is a place for everything. This gives the perception of “I had better not touch anything because anything we do will not be at this level of standard.” But we have three days to live in it, so I am sure Mich will have some work to do when she returns Sunday afternoon.

Afternoon Clouds above Spanish Mountain

We go into service at 0930. There is a fire which it seems like everybody has responded to called the Landslide fire. It is over by the Burton Road, 14S02, close to Landslide. It was discovered Wednesday and caused by a lightning strike. Looks like it is 5-10 acres. There was another fire report on Burton road, near Weston Meadow. Wondering if it is the same thing. (Turns out there was also a prescribed burn going on as well). This would keep people occupied all day to varying degrees.

And then we got to listen to P33 try to work out what happened to the gate at Big Meadows. Apparently someone had damaged the lock and it was now hard locking back up again. Then she found vehicles where there should not be. The road had been plowed back to a summer camp at the end of the road. Sounds like P33 had a full day.

Sherri with the meal she fixed

But how about Sherri and I? Did we free-load all day? The bottom line-no smokes sighted. But we did work at getting ourselves re-acquainted with being in a lookout after eight months of being out of it. We worked through a bunch of things. How to use the radio--without too much stumbling around. Can we name the areas around us? Where is Lone Pine Canyon near here? (And not the one next to Whitney either. Mich had it in her logs that the FAA had notified Porterville that they thought there was smoke in the canyon.) Or which Blue Canyon should we be interested in (the one near Pine Flat.) This kept us busy, except when one of us was taking a nap.

Delilah

Oh yeah, we also did the regular stuff like taking the weather and scanning for smoke.

When 1800 came along, we had our one little faux pas. I got us out of service to Porterville. But when I started checking to see about Sierra, the radio had gone dead. We quickly swapped batteries and turned on the radio. We then heard Lookouts … Delilah. Right on cue we answered Delilah “Out of Service”. Not too many days end that way.

Gary on evening walk

Sherri had prepared burritos for our meal, with carrots and cucumber. We have a sight which people would pay good money to eat in front of. We are sort of feeling like a king and queen, looking down on the world-literally. The one thing which you would not have to do in a fine restaurant is to wash dishes, but that is what we did.

Afterwards we went down for a short walk and back up to Delilah and got ready for bed. Another thing about this Bed and Breakfast, is the scenic view situated just right for sunsets. Spectacular-sorry no pictures. By 2045, it is time for bed. It is warm enough and only a little wind, so I go out to the catwalk to sleep. Sherri gets the bed. Stars are out and the moon looks splendid.

Background

^*When we are in the lookout, military time is used. Also the speech is in something called “clear text”. Both are to avoid unnecessary radio transmission, removing jargon from speech, and providing clarity of communications.

^**It turns out the gate should be closed. Unknown why it is open. But we were told that another gate about a mile further down was still closed.

^***When I asked about White Deer Saddle Road, I was told that the road was officially decommissioned. Also there is a gate when it reached private property . Unknown if we have a key to go through. Also there are currently trees across the road.