September 1, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: September 1, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Menu : Extra Photo's

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Not a bad night’s sleep. Got up once to stargaze and fell back asleep until 0545. No special sunrise, just quietness. Not a bad start to the day. Sherri was pretty tired from yesterday so I get the place all to myself until just before 0800. We have our breakfast and then tidy up for the new day.

Park Ridge goes into service with a low humidity reading of 17%. Seems strange since we are at 35%. But maybe they are on a different exposure or something. We go into service right after they do at 0929. Buck Rock must have come into service before we turned on the radio as we do not hear them.

The morning passes along quietly for us, doing the routine things we do. Listen to the radio, respond to lookout check-in, note the weather and staffing and writing down relevant activity in our area. We note that the voice on Patrol 33 is different than what we are used to and wonder what has happened. Also there are a few gunshots heard, probably around the Davis Road and Delilah Roads junction. This is legal-probably on target practice.

Then at 1211 we hear there is a fire spotted outside of Auberry. A lot of times we have a pretty good view towards there, so our ears perk up. When we heard the report, we start scanning in that direction to see if we can get a sighting. Alas, there is a lot of haze which cuts down on what we can see. Even with our new powerful friend, Celeste, we cannot see through the 28 miles of haze in that area(later on when we get the coordinates, we figure it is about 32 miles). So we radio in that we cannot do a confirmation due to haze in the area. This will be called the Caukins incident. Sierra personnel get called off once CalFire responds. There are now notes saying that if the smoke is in our area, even if we do not see the smoke tell the dispatcher that.

Then it is back to normal incidents like abandoned campfires. We break up some of the time by trying to identify the locations of the incidents, even though they really are not something we are involved with. It just helps to know the territory. Such as one of the forest people was asked to respond to a stuck vehicle in the Converse Basin area, on road 13S77, near Cherry Gap. We knew where the Converse Basin is and where Cherry Gap is, but what is road 13S77? Turns out that is one of the roads we ski on during the Winter.

Gary and Pasta

Now it is getting late and the patrols and engines are starting to return to quarters. One of these days, I might respond “Porterville -- Delilah, In Quarters.” I wonder what kind of reaction that would bring about? Obviously I am going a bit batty.

Buck Rock and us go out of service at 1900. As you can tell, a quiet day. Dinner is a sausage-chicken pasta. Then it is time to prepare ourselves for going to bed. We ate a bit late tonight, so dishes are done under the setting sun. When I look up, the scene is spectacular! The payment for being a fire lookout can take the form of sunsets. Because we worked an hour over, this sunset was payment for overtime.

By 2030 it is almost dark. The city lights are out and the stars are shining. Time to lay down and just enjoy a bit of reading. But wait! What is that redness doing around Fox Springs? Is someone camping down there? Oh there is some truck lights inching down the road. We watch to see what is happening. They certainly are not moving too fast. We lose track of them. Then right before Sherri falls asleep she sees the light on the north side of Goat Saddle. We are not too concerned because of the note on the white board. So off we go to sleep.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Sandwich-Peanut Butter, Nutella. Chips	sausage-chickenPasta, bread, ...	Jerky, cheese, ...

Extra Photo's

Sunset from Delilah over Pine Flat

Sunset from Delilah over Pine Flat