September 23, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 23, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I woke up at 0300 and looked at the stars and moon for awhile, then fell back asleep. They do have a tendency to bring peace to one’s self. I then woke up at 0600 to a line of sunlight just glowing above the crest of the Sierra. This is fortunate as I have a busy morning. I need to be back in Fresno around 1600 because we will have our House Church at Sherri’s and mine house tonight and Sherri is leading the study tonight and unless something happens, it would be good for me to be back for her.

Squirrel with a big bushy tail

So I get things together, stuffing my sleeping bag-finding a small hole. Then getting dirty clothes into a bag and a few other odds and ends together to send down. The idea is that the more I can send down now, the longer I can stay in service. On the heavier stuff, I will send down via a pulley system we have. But the lighter stuff will usually gently float down and if I am good, and in the bed of the truck.

Evidently I was not that good. When I tossed my bag it was right on target for the truck bed. But even though there was not even a breeze the bag started to float towards the tower. I am thinking, I hope it does not get stuck on the roof of the building below-it would have been better. It bumped against a cross-beam. The cover went on down and my sleeping bag got hung up 20’ above the ground. After the initial shock wore off, I tried to reach it with a broom-inches too short from both the stairs and the ground. Being a former Boy Scout, I lashed another pole to the broom and was able to reach my sleeping bag. But the lashing was not stiff enough. Finally after bungee corded the two together, I reached the bag and down it came. So much for my efficient morning.

After stowing everything, I had breakfast. Packed up the food and lowered it down, with some other things. Now to start the day. I took the weather reading and went in service with Sierra and Porterville. Pretty much the rest of the day was taking scans, listening to the radio and recovering from the morning. Truly not one of the exciting days in a fire lookout tower, except the obvious above. There was one bit of almost excitement. About 1040, I heard a large helicopter down towards the Kings River. I looked around and could not spot it. This is what passes for excitement at Delilah when I am alone.

At 1230, I have lunch-the usual stuff. Then I start getting packed as I am hoping to leave around 1330. But I am still on duty, so I do a scan. There is a silverish truck coming down the road. Interesting, wondering how badly lost this hunter is? They circle the lookout and park. Wonder what is so interesting here? A young man gets out of the driver’s seat and then helps two women and a baby out. That certainly does not seem like it is a hunter. I tell them they are welcome to come up and visit the tower, which all four of them do-I guess the three month old has no choice.

Turns out that they are part of a well-known local family. But the four of them had never been up here. They are enthralled with the view. Living on the other side of the ridge down in Squaw Valley, they see the stuff I cannot see, but have not really seen the area Delilah sees. Lesson here: We are so close, but so far away from places. Explore local. They spend about half an hour in the tower looking around, asking questions, just being amazed. Then it is their time to go down.

By the time they leave, it is time for me to go out of service and leave the tower myself. I had done most of the clean up before. So I am left with packing stuff up and being off. Originally I thought I would need two trips down, but I figured out how to make it one. In the process, my pack almost made a fast trip to the bottom, but I caught it in time and hooked it on a carabiner. I take one last look around and am content that I have everything put away and am ready to go. So I lock up and leave. More about this later.

I get everything packed in the truck and away I go. I will not stop until Fresno, at least I do not think I will. But as I get to turning onto Highway 180, there is a car stopped right in the middle of the Davis Road. They look lost, but when they see me, they hurry off. But a short ways later, I see them on the side of the road, consulting a map. So I help them figure out how to get to Visalia via Hills Valley Road. Off they went happy to be unlost and I go on. But I have the idea of stopping in Dunlap at the Hume Lake Ranger Station and ask them about Davis Road’s status. It is closed-I knew that from our white board. They do not expect to make it open to the public until they can work on it after the Winter Season. I ask about walking it. The officer at the desk said, she just got briefed on it a few days ago. Hikers and bicyclists can go down the road. Yipee. I know what I am doing this Winter. I go on and make it home by 1615, only a few minutes behind when I wanted to be home.

Note: I realized on my way home that I was not sure if I took the Park’s radio channel off of the radio we listen to Porterville with-I was listening to it because our normal channels were quiet. Also I had left several sticks of string cheese in the refrig. So Tuesday I called up Delilah to tell them about things. I had taken off the Park and a sticky will be put on the cheese. But, you know how I said it was quiet? Well, I left the base radio on, so the next person who came up was hearing voices. Not good, but not the worst of my sins. Also there is one shade which is hard to reach, so a cord had been wrapped around a mirror to make it accessible to those who may not be 6’3”. In cleaning the windows, I knocked it off and did not put it back. Oh well, I guess I do not have to live to the expectations of perfection. :-)

Trail Lesson:

We are so close, but so far away from places. Explore local.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
granola.	Peanut Butter, Nutella Sandwich	Home	Nuts and string cheese

September 22, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 22, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Woke up at 0500 and the stars are still out the moon directly overhead gazed at it for a while and then fell back asleep. Then woke up around 0630 and the sun was just making itself known, as the edge of the Sierra, had a bit of gold on it. I watched the sun getting up from the comfort of the bed, having had a good night sleep last night. When the sun finally picks its way over the crest of the Sierra, I got up and went down to the bottom of the lookout to take care of business.

Deer keeping guard

I went for a short walk down the road, a little bit past where I went last night. Actually went up the other side of the saddle towards Delilah Mountain, but not nearly up to the top. The sun was just catching the foothills to the west of us. It was a good sight to see the hills golden with dried grass-from a beauty perspective, not a fire fighters dream by any stretch of an imagination. On my walk I saw a couple large hoof prints, and was thinking I have not seen a deer this size around here. How long will this buck would last with a hunter's around? But then as I walked further I realized that was no deer that was just the heel of my tennis shoe from last night's walk. Still there was plenty of other tracks which were not my own.

Delilah from the White Deer Road

I came back had my granola breakfast and got ready for the morning. I filled out the forms for the day and read a bit. Then 0930 comes around and it is time to go in-service. Today turns out to be mostly a normal, uneventful day at Delilah. Another day of no visitors and little interaction with the outside world. This is not a thing which I am going batty over. More of a statement of condition. I am content with both solitude and company. The solitude seems more real with Sherri away.

There is radio chatter, which is pretty light, which I try to key in on things which affect the Hume Lake Ranger District. But even then there is not much.

Ants going up the repeater antenna

How much more local can things be besides right here at the tower? Or maybe it is a sign of isolation. When I am doing one of my scans, I notice that there is a line of ants going up the repeater antenna. As I gaze at them, I see they go all the way to the top. Several questions form: What is so attractive that they go all the way up at least 10’ above the top of lookout? What are they doing up there? And why did they travel 80’ up just to go up another 15’? This is all a mystery to me.

About the time I go in service, a copperish red vehicle comes down the road and parks at the White Deer Road Junction. I do not seem them getting out. About 20 minutes later, there is a single gunshot to the west of the lookout. Deer hunting season does not start until next weekend, so I wonder if I have mis-read an email? But dove/quail and squirrel season is going. So it may be that. All is quiet again. That is until 1050 when another single gunshot is heard. All is quiet again, except for the sound of a falling tree. About two hours later, another single gunshot. I am left wondering what they are doing. At 1540, two men get back into the vehicle and drive away.

Hoffman Mountain and Finger Rock

Shortly after that, will listening to Porterville’s indices and weather, there is an interruption in the broadcast. There is a call out for a fire, the Crow Fire. Wonder where that is? Then I hear resources from Delilah’s area being called out and I really wonder where it is? Where is the smoke? Why am I not seeing it? I look at Sequoia NF’s incidents and find it is along Sand Creek. For the most part that area is behind Pine and Dude Ridges, a whole swath of area which I cannot see. Helicopter 520 from Sierra is called out and I finally get a real location. Even though it is only 10 miles away, it is behind Dude Ridge. I am content to listen. Both Buck Rock, Park Ridge and I talk about what we are seeing and not seeing.

Omelette Dinner

It looks like there is still not anybody to come in Monday. Sherri and I talk about it and decide that I can stay up at Delilah one more night. So I talk with Wendy-she was assurances that it is OK all the way around. It is. I do like staying up here.

So I go out of service at 1800. Time for dinner-an omelette and muffin. Simple, easy and tasty. I am content as I watch the sun lower in the sky. I make my trip down the stairs for the evening and go for a walk. Not far, just enough to stretch out my legs. The sunset is just fabulous. The reds, oranges, purples stand me in my tracks. And then I am back in the tower. After talking with Sherri and reading for a bit, I am lulled asleep by the deepening night skies and the shows the stars. They hang over Delilah, protecting her.

Trail Lesson:

A bit of a long lesson, somewhat allegorical. At a lookout, you can see a long ways off, over a vast area. On a normal day, you have about a 20 mile radius of vision-that is 1,200 square miles of territory. You think that you can see everything. Then something like a fire happens close by on the other side of a large ridge and not even a smidgen of smoke can be detected. So can I see everything?

I am up at the lookout alone, so it gives me time to reflect. Today’s fire gave me some ideas of We think we see everything clearly and so are sure we have the answers to all questions. But like a lookout with a ridge, we cannot even see a close by fire. Maybe at times I need to look on the other side of the ridge and observe the landscape from the perspective of someone I disagree with. See what they see, hear what they hear. Will my basic take on things change? Probably not. But maybe I will add a layer of understanding and accommodation to my thinking.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Tortillas, Peanut Butter, Nutella		Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Delilah Lookout

Delilah Lookout from the White Deer Saddle Road

Evening sky

Sun through the trees

Gary at Delilah Lookout

Animals

Tracks-Deer and Squirrel

 
Flowers and Plants

Common Media

September 21, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 21, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Animals

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Bald and Bear Mtns

I got up a little bit before the alarm went off at 0545. Got ready and left right about 0700. No traffic on the road and made the time arrived at Delilah at 0840. Now to haul all the stuff up to the top of 80 feet above the car. A little bit different than hauling stuff up to Park Ridge which is only 20 ft.

Activity at the junction of Davis and Delilah Rads

Coming into Delilah there was a lot more on the road then they're usually is. No cows but there was work being done over on Millwood Road on McKenzie Ridge. Wendy send out an email later on saying that they were getting ready possibly for another prescribed burn there. Then met a couple of electrician trucks who is looking for a cabin but wasn't sure where. Their supervisor was about two miles down the road looking for where looking for the address which he had.

Celeste's view of Delilah's interior

I got everything up and situated by 0910. Took the weather and went into service at 0930. I had meant to bring along Sherri laptop but I forgot it. So I'm doing everything on my iPad and phone like looking up the weather and staffing. That is pretty easily done just looking at things is a bit harder not nearly as nice as Sherri laptop.

Last time I was at Delilah, Kathy and I talked a bit afterwards. She reported that the next person after us had a bat fly out of the cab. Today I had a dead bird on the catwalk. Looks like it had gotten stuck trying to come up through the grates. I put some gloves on me and disposed of the bird.

Dinner at Delilah for one

After the 1000 weather I got out Celeste. The telescope was able to pick out some things for me and I played around with that in between doing my scans. There is not much activity around our area-radio is pretty silent. So in some ways it makes it easier to to do the scans to look for the smokes, I do not need to divide my attention as much to the radio. There is not much to perk ones attention while doing the scans. I use the binoculars, but once I pick up something interesting, I use Celeste to verify what I see. I did not find any smokes today, which is a good thing. Note: something interesting can be anything from a cloud formation, something on top of a far peak or activity along a road.

With things being quiet, I add in the radio channel for SEKI. Even there, it is mostly traffic stop chatter. Not too much happened this day. So at 1800 went out of service. Then had my dinner of a cheese omelette. After dinner, went down for a walk , where a pleasant sunset was taking place. When I got back, called up Sherri, then called it a night.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Home	Peanut Butter, Nutella, Sandwiches	Cheese Omelette, muffins, a couple Milano cookies	nuts and strong cheese.

Animals

Our dead bird

Crow a ways away in a tree

September 17, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout

Title: September 17, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background 

Trail head: Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I got up around 0515 this morning. Sherri has an OSHER class this afternoon and will also be picking up a friend at the airport. So I will be up at Park Ridge Lookout alone. Maybe a bit nervous about my stamina-after all, I am used to taking naps in the afternoon. I had gotten most everything packed last night, so I was able to dilly-dally around the house some. I still left a little before 0700.

I get up to the Visitor Center pretty early-stop in to say, Park Ridge Lookout is open today. They promise to send some visitors. Then it is up to the lookout I go. I get in at 0840. It seems like I have a lot less stuff to take up to the lookout. On the other hand, there is just me, so there should be less and just one day up here. On my third hand, there is only me to sherpa the stuff up. I get myself situated before 0900.

After taking the weather, I set up Celeste so it would be ready for duty. At 0929, I go in-service with both Ash Mountain and Porterville. Today the air is clear and I take a look with Celeste at what appears to be a cloud. With Celeste’s eyes, I pretty much confirmed it is a cloud. At 1000 I hear Porterville’s weather and staffing. But then Ash Mountain starts in with their staffing, I catch what I need from Ash Mountain, but I will need to get a bit more used to it.

You know that clear air I was so happy with earlier? I am in a cloud-I know, some of you will say that I am perpetually in a cloud. But this is a literal clouds. Fun watching the mists starting to swirl to the south of the lookout. But then they no longer are swirling, but are surrounding the lookout. I call in to both Ash Mountain and Porterville that I am now lacking visibility. I can see the trees in front of the cabin, but nothing more than a quarter of a mile. What use is a lookout who cannot see?

Looking towards a cloud covered Eshom area

What use indeed! I get out my “favorite” lookout activity-cleaning the windows. I got done the west windows when a couple of visitors from Illinois came up. Without the sun and the moisture from the cloud around the lookout, inside the cab is definitely warmer than outside-I think our outside temp barely got above 50 anytime during the day. They were interested in all aspects of a lookout, so we spent an hour or so talking about things, ranging from the firefinder to what are the best hiking trails around-my stock answer is the one I am on now-of course, I am not on a trail, … But then gave them some ideas, such as Redwood Mountain/Canyon. Right before they left, the clouds lifted and you could see to the west and north. That was a proper send off. They were so impressed that they wanted a picture with me. I almost feel like a celebrity.

Big Baldy basking in sunlight

The Illinois group parting words were they would probably be the last visitors I had today. But about 10 minutes later-just enough to finish a scan-I had a group of four. After talking with them I found out that they were a group of engineers who used to work together at Port Hueneme. But that was 30 years ago and now they are scattered around the United States-from Redding to Virginia. They come out to hike with each other once a year. They ask all kinds of questions, such as is it wetter now than before (not really, we have had drought years 6 out of the last 8). That lead into the Rough Fire-they had been to Cedar Grove and noted the devastation along the Ten Mile Creek area, where are the best places to hike-I got that question a lot today. After about 20 minutes, they went down below and had lunch.

Shell Mountain

 As the group of engineers left, I noticed two people coming up the road-they were walking at a pretty good clip. I figure that soon I would have more company, so I did a scan-did not see any smoke. The two of them ended up eating lunch at the RAWS station, just under the south east corner of the lookout. I noticed that they were using hand signals, like deaf people use. Usually we will shout down to encourage people to come up to the catwalk and look around. But this seemed a bit inappropriate. So I went down to them-it is only 20’ after all. Would I have gone down at Delilah? I made some hand signs-definitely not sign language stuff, but it seemed to be effective in communicating-that it was OK to go up to the tower. I returned to the cabin to continue my looking around.

Southeast of Park Ridge

After they finished lunch, they came up. This was possibly the start of my best time with visitors. It turns out that neither of them could either hear or speak. Definitely would be an interesting time. And it was. The two women are from San Luis Obispo and are staying at Lodgepole. They are really interested in all things in the lookout. How do I know? We communicate by writing out our inquiries and the answers to them. Of course, they probably had a bit of amusement trying to interpret my handwriting. They asked about the firefinder, radio, how long I had been a lookout, and many other questions. Not being able to speak the answers, forced me to think about the answers and how to answer things concisely. It was a good exercise for me. They asked if I hike or drive in-drive. But I have hiked it several times. They then asked about good places to hike-told them about Crescent Meadows, Watchtower and the Lakes. I drew out where these were on a map. They left after about an hour-seemed like they were pleased with our conversation. I was sorry to see them go. Sometimes you meet people and are happy that you have met them. With these two women, I was glad I was able to talk with them and would have liked them to stay. It would be good to know them better.

Celeste looking

That was the last of the visitors for the day. I could then do my regular lookout activities-you know, scanning, observing, becoming more familiar with the area, taking care of Celeste. You know making sure that Celeste sees the sights around Park Ridge-Buena Vista Peak, Shell Mountain, the General Grant Tree and other scenes. As closing time approaches, I start cleaning up the place-mopping the floor, cleaning the counter tops, and the like. I never did get beyond cleaning the west windows. At 1730, Buck Rock and I have a conversation. She has been silent for much of the day-been away at a meeting at the District office. And now it is time to go out of service with Porterville and Ash Mountain.

Celeste's view of the General Grant Tree

I feel like I had a good day, but one of my main objectives is not been accomplished-to relearn the area. The terrain I have no issues, well maybe only a little bit of issue. But the various populate locales, I definitely do not have down. Such as the Hilltop Church Wendy pointed out to us a couple of years ago-I just could not find it. It will have to wait for another time. This maybe my last time here this year. A prescribed burn is scheduled to take place on or after September 27th which will close down the lookout. On the way home, I stop for a bite to eat at Bear Mountain Pizza. Then I make it back home by 2030.

Background

There are some things which are hard to break. When you learn something in childhood, you use a phrase without thinking about it. One of these is the term “deaf and dumb.” I have always understood the term “dumb” was in line with the older usage of it-that a person could not speak. But there is the new usage which denotes a lack of intelligence. The reason why I note this is that in one of the logs, I noted the two women who came up as “deaf and dumb.” But then on further reflection, I realize that this is probably an insensitive usage. In looking around the web, I was able to confirm this. But I did not come across anything which would be a good replacement. It was mostly things like being sensitive to what a person would like to be called. That really does not help me.

September 2, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 2, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I have said many times that the evenings are worth being a volunteer up at Delilah, but the mornings are really not worth waking up to. Usually the sun just pops out in back of one of the ridges with little or no fanfare.

But this morning was different! First, I wake up entirely too early at least by 0515. I am trying to convince my eyes to close and go back to sleep. But there is a flash of light in the north west corner of lookout’s cab. Who is down below flashing lights at us? So I quietly get up look around from the catwalk-there is a sturdy gate between us and anything down there, so I am not concerned about an intruder. Then another bright flash of light happens, this time from the southeast-lightning! (The flash on the northwest was a reflection.) I see several more flashes about two minutes apart. It looks like it is in the Giant Forest/Alta Peak direction. Later when I looked at a lightning map, I see that most of the strikes are to the east of Mineral King. Now that is how a morning in a lookout should start.

Clouds glowing

But wait, there is more! Now that the lightning is done with its fireworks, I can observe the clouds. And the clouds are the second act in this morning’s entertainment. There is gray clouds spread in bands to the east. Even with the dark skies, I can see that clouds have accumulated all around us. Last night around 0230 I had woken up-overhead was stars, all around us was clouds.But now, there are hints of the sun coming turning clouds golden. Each minute more clouds get bathed in light, even the showers of rain in the distance have a light to them.

Sunshine and Rain

Now the sun is up, much of the color fades. But in a little while we have an encore act. Kathy has told me that it has rained in Pinehurst. But from here, we can look out around us and see where rain is falling. Then the sun breaks through and shines in what looks like smoke, but is mist on Mill Flat Creek. The light just shimmers across it. Then a bit of water falls on us, but nothing which registers in the rain gauge. Not a bad encore.

Sherri wakes up around 0730 after most of the excitement happens-she is there for the falling moisture. But we start getting ready for the new day. By now you know, we fix breakfast, get cleaned up and ready to go. The radio goes on at 0900. I talk with Buck Rock about the lightning. Then we go into service around 0930. I also talk with Park Ridge about the lightning after they go in-service.

Just before 1000 rolls around, the phone rings. It is Patrol 33-the real Patrol 33, not the voice we have been hearing on the radio the last couple of days. The voice is a ride-along person who is usually on horseback. Patrol 33 would like us to do a relay to a work crew to meet up with them. Because of our location and height, we can reach places which coming out of Big Meadows is hard to do. So I use channel R5 Project to try to get a hold of the work group. No success. But about half an hour later, I hear Patrol 33 on the radio and they do meet up. It was good to hear that voice.

Haze view vs haze filtered out. Looking up the Middle Fork of the Kings

It is getting close to lunch time, but then we hear a smoke has been spotted along the Dinkey Road, close to Swanson Meadow, at the end of Blue Canyon. We can see into some of that area. So we start scanning the area but cannot see it. Several Sierra Forest Service personnel are now searching for this smoke and not finding it. We at Delilah ask for clarification about the location. We also communicate we do not have visual on the smoke. Then an engine going up the four-lane to Shaver spots a smoke on the other side of Pine Ridge-the one close to Shaver. It is on the far side of the ridge, so even if the air was cleaner, we could not see it. Turns out this was the smoke-so we feel better that it was not us being blind.

Hummingbirds

That little episode gave us a half-an-hour of excitement. Then we had lunch for a few minutes. Then the afternoon was more of what we had been experiencing this weekend. Except it seemed that a lot more abandoned campfires were being found. We continued to do our scans and listen to anything relevant for our area of interest.

Sherri, the hummingbird whisperer

That is Sherri is the official hummingbird feeder for our team. She has already cleaned and refilled it once this weekend-it is amazing how much those birds will drink. But now the bees are taking over. So Sherri has the feeder taken down and put away until the bees go off someplace else-that will probably be a couple of days.

I will admit I was feeling a bit tired this afternoon. After doing a scan, I would lay down-could not really nap. Then talk with Sherri or read a book. Then back to doing a scan. Glad we did not find a smoke. But also hoping that if there is one out there, that we would find it. Someplace in there, we do some cleaning, like mop the floor. Looks better.

It is getting close to 1800, our normal quitting time. But do we go to 1900? Sierra does their checkout routine and so both Buck Rock and us go out of service. I call up Buck Rock to find out what the plan is. She is going out of service, and so will we. But we are slow in packing up and it takes us about half an hour to get things cleared and cleaned out. It seems like we keep on finding new things that needs to be taken care of before we leave.

Having been to Delilah often enough, we know that we can phone into Bear Mountain Pizza at a certain place and say we will be there in 45 minutes. We are feeling rather tired so that is a good option for us. Food always rejuvenates. We get back to our house around 2100, ready for a shower and a good night’s sleep.

Tuesday Note: Kathy called me up and asked if we had any unusual visitors? Nope. We had a pair of two legged types on Saturday who came over from Buck Rock. There has been a couple low life four legged types hanging around the tower-not sure that I trust them. They look cute, but you can never tell. Then we have seen these bandits with busy tails-definitely do not trust them. How about the flying type? Nope. The person who came in Tuesday, when he opened the cab door, out flew a bat!  

When did the bat get in the lookout? We do leave the doors open all night, along with the windows-gets really stuffy in there. But we did not see the bat hanging around. We also cleaned up so it was not in an obvious place. Guess next time I will be a bit more careful.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Tortillas, Peanut Butter, Nutella		Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Morning Skies

Virga

Sunshine through the Rain

Clouds to our Northeast

Verplank and Hoist Ridges

Hummingbirds and Rodgers Ridge

Space ships disguised as linticular clouds

Animals