Gary-Summer: June 15, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Saturday, June 15, 2019

June 15, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: June 15, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Hills are alive beside Delilah

Got up around 5:45, but I was awake well before that. I woke up several times last night and just gazed at the stary sky. Of course occasionally needed to turn as well in a confined space. I must have grown a bit larger or the catwalk has shrunk from last year. There are many glorious things about Delilah Lookout. But the sunrise does not match the sunsets. You see a little bit of brightening to the east with the mountains remaining dark. If you are lucky, a bit of pink appears along with a few canyons. Nothing really spectacular though. And then there is the sun. No grand entrance, just “I am here, deal with me.”

When I get up, I go down the 80’ of stairs to the outhouse. Then go for a couple of laps around the lookout. Along the way, flowers are popping out, making the walk slow, but a lesson in praise. One gets reminded what Jesus had to say:

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

Sherri, Tom, Judy and Gary

We eat our oatmeal breakfast and then get cleaned up. We are having company today. Today we have our refresh training where we mutually refresh each other’s knowledge and skills. We will be with Judy and Tom. So we take down excess stuff, so there is room enough for all of us.

Tom come in first around 0915 with Judy coming in a little after 0930. We go in service at 0930 with both Sierra and Porterville. I have gotten the fire weather report off of the Internet. Also the staffing gets updated right before Porterville reads it out. So we are all set to study.

This studying/refreshing takes several forms. We go through settings on the radio, understanding how to scan for certain channels and how to set a channel as priority. All part of remembering. We also go through about 45 minutes of scenarios. What do we do? Who do we report this too? Where do we write this down. Pretty exhausting. At least we can take a quick break for lunch.

Our smoke from the burn pile

But someplace in the middle of that, Sherri spots a smoke. It is south of us. We have it plotted out and are pretty close to where it is. The one question is, "is this an allowable burn?" We are leaning towards yes it us and then how to report it. Wendy calls us about this time and identifies exactly where it is and yes, it is a burn. pile and is allowed. We would call it in to let Porterville know, but not even a smoke check. If we did not know, a smoke check would be appropriate. It is n CalFire area.

Then in the afternoon it was more about the terrain than anything else. How do we know where something is. Judy would pick out a spot which she would work out where it was. Then Tom and I would see what we came up with. Sometimes we were spot on with each other. Other times we would work through where the spot was. I think Tom was the winner.

At one point, Tom said there is a certain spot where you could see the Kings River. I had not seen that before, so I was both wondering where it was and disbelieving him^*. We did this kind of thing for several hours. Good practice for all of us.

Tom left about 1600 or 1700. Judy, Sherri and I stayed until going out of service at 1800. Then it was time to celebrate a wonderful day. Judy had made a spaghetti dinner with wine, along with an appetizer. We brought bread and dessert. Good company and good food with out of this world scenery. All days in the tower should end this way.

After dinner, Judy leaves and we get ourselves situated for the evening. Tonight we are more in tune with the setting sun. And it is spectacular-actually most sunsets at Delilah are that. Tonight I decided that I will sleep inside the cap. Not much difference warmth or comfort wise. Just a bit more wind gets me to thinking it is wiser to stay inside.

Background

^*On Sunday, I saw where Tom was indicating. I did not quite believe what I was seeing, but it was there. Only when the Kings is high and running fast can you see the river. Otherwise you see what looks like rocks below a roadbed.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as strawberries, nuts, granola. .	Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwiches	Spaghetti-furnished by Judy. Wine, carrots and cucumbers, bread, cookies	Almonds,