October 1, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout

Title: October 1, 2019 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Trail head: Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

 Description:

North Guard, Mt Brewer and South Guard

I woke up to my rooster alarm at 0545. Got ready and left the house at 0705. I made good time. Went through the entrance station and stopped at the Visitor Center where I had a short and nice discussion with a volunteer about how was I going to get up the Panorama Pt road since it was closed (Hint: Being a volunteer at a lookout does have its privileges). Then to start the trip up towards Panorama Pt. But the gate is closed for the road. But I have permission to go up it. There is tree work being done. On the way up, I talked to a NPS person. She said that the work is being done at the Pan Pt parking lot. No problem, I will turn off before I run into the work and do not have to dodge falling trees.

I get up to the lookout at 0903. Then I take the weather-it is cold, 34 degrees. I go into service at 0927. After that it is mostly looking around and listening to the radio. Fortunately, there is only a little wind-not too bad. I keep the cabin door closed and am feeling pretty comfortable. That is until I step outside for a few moments.

Mt Brewer

All of a sudden the Park radio comes alive with a fire being fought. Two tankers are dropping retardant, H520 is being used and lots of ground activity. I am thinking the only fire I know of is the Sherman prescribed burn. If this is it, then the burn has gotten out of control. But it is Sierra’s equipment fighting this fire. Why am I hearing it on the Park radio? A light clicks. This happened in August as well. Park Ridge Lookout had heard of an incident on the Park radio. This is a training exercise I am concluding. The communication is through a GEN USE channel. I do wonder what I will hear on SNF’s command. As I am flipping through the channels, I hear the same conversation on channel FS COMM.

At this point I call Buck Rock to see if they know of anything. She does not. But as we discuss the situation, it sounds more and more like a training exercise. But the mystery of the channels persists. We talk about the groups and leave things sort of unresolved. But this seems like it is a fairly easy issue. Looking at the different radio books, we realize the handheld here and the base radios use different code books. Once I make the channel comparisons they use the same frequency. Hence the reason why we can hear Sierra on the Park’s radio. A mystery solved.

Hikers on the hump

The rest of the day was pretty much a repetition of any other day at the lookout. The two things that really stood out for the rest of it was that while the temperature got warmer-maybe to 50 degrees, it felt colder. The wind picked up and I put on my jacket. Even then, it did not feel terrible warm. The other item is I saw two people. There is a hump about a mile east of Park Ridge. There were two people in bright orange suits on it. They did not see me and once they looked over at what was beyond the hump, they left and I did not see them again.

At 1800, I went out of service and cleaned up things around the cabin. By 1815 I was on the road back to Fresno. I had been munching on almonds and string cheese all day. So I am not hungry. So I skip pizza and head home. I get home a bit before 2000, tired, but good.

Extra Photo's

Clouds over Alta

Clouds over Alta-a little while later

Clouds over Alta-Still Later