Title: July 3, 2020 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background :Animals : Flowers and Plants
Hike Info:
Type:
Lookout
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| New Delilah Sign |
It was a cool night out on the
catwalk, but comfortable. The catwalk is a bit narrow for me, still
it is only bothersome when I turn over. I wake up around 0445 and
watch the glow come on the horizon, falling asleep and waking up to a
bit more glow. I finally got up at 0610. The sun has broken over the
Sierra. First thing I do is check my lightning report-there was none
yesterday. then go down to take care of business and go for a short
walk. Sherri follows me down for her morning coffee.
By 0800 I have finished
breakfast and doing a bit of clean-up. We have been requested to go
into service early, so we do and start our scanning. Sherri worked on
Brent’s refresher quiz, getting pretty close to what I did last
time I was up here.
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| Morning Shadows |
Sherri takes the weather,
without breaking the thermometer, and goes into service with Sierra.
And it is back to scanning and refreshing. We get the weather and
staffing. Then our 1100 check in with Sierra. So far a calm day.
For what we thought would be
the highlight of the day, Division 3 showed up. He is the head honcho
in fire for the Hume Lake Ranger District. He is new and is checking
out his area. Delilah
was the first lookout which he has gone to. We show him the area,
while maintaining a distance. Hope we did our fellow lookouts proud.
Usually Kathy will call
sometime during our stay-she did yesterday--but Greg called us to
make sure we are still alive and kicking. Nothing really noteworthy
as far as content. But it is reassuring to know that there is a
support net behind you when you are in the lookout. And that would be
a support net of good and knowledgeable people.
And now we return to the
normal day. Listening to the radio-which can be a bit entertaining.
The amount of citations picked up during holidays. So we hear reports
going on about abandoned campfires, people parked in dangerous
places, camping where they should not, and a few accidents. Also
there seems to be more resources out. Such as most of the time we do
not hear of the Kings
River area
being patrolled. But today it is. I suspect it is because there is a
concern that people will flock to the River and disregard safety and
signs.
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| Flag over Delilah |
Jeff from Buck
Rock
talks with us about locating a tree up on the ridge east of us. He
can see it as well as us and would like to get an idea of where it
is. Once we decide on which tree he is talking about, we do a
triangulation on it and come up with a location. Sometime, we will
have to do a ground check. There was some speculation that it could
be the Boole
Tree but
neither of our azimuths supports that speculation.
The 1600 check in comes and
goes without too much incident-Buck Rock had a dead battery-haven’t
we all. But in a perverse way, just glad it is someone else besides
us. Our friend Judy calls us and we chat for a while. A lot of it is
about things she saw when she was up at Delilah before us. We talk
about air clarity-something important for us. Towards Auberry it is
pretty hazy and so I comment on this. Judy asks can we see Black Mountain.
I draw a blank about where it is-later on I realize which mountain
she was talking about.
Then excitement for the day
happens. Somehow Patrol 33 finds out about a potential wildfire at
the intersection of MMillwood and Highway 180 (this area sounds like
it is a hot spot, so to speak about fires. See the July
5th post-when
it is posted). That is right next door to us!. But we cannot see it
because Pine Ridge gets in our way. We look to see if there is a
trace of smoke creeping over the ridge. We think there may be
slightly more haze right at the edge of the ridge, but this is very
probably the power of suggestion. We report to Div 3 that there is no
smoke visible, but Pine
Ridge
would block our view. About that time we hear both Sierra and
Porterville calling out resources, even planes for this. Park
Ridge
also reports he does not see any smoke. Within ten minutes we hear
both forests calling down the resources as it appears to be more of a
car accident than a fire. Later Division 3 reports out that there is
a medical emergency, but no fire.
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| Pine Flat turning golden |
About half an hour later we
hear that Sierra has a report of smoke at a place called Buckeye
Heliport. Where is that? We see several references to Buckeye around
Mariposa. That is too far away for us to see. Then we hear about
engines looking around the four-lane. That is in our viewing area.
Turns out that Buckeye Heliport is close to the top of the four-lane.
So we get on the stick and examine that area more closely. Remember
our conversation with Judy? About the hazy around Auberry? That is
now what is hampering our visuals. On the other hand, is there a fire
in the area which is contributing to the haze? We cannot see
anything, so we report that to Sierra. After a while, Sierra cannot
find anything so they call off the search.
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| Moon rising over Big Baldy |
We are on extended hours so we
will go out of service at 2000 today. We have a second dinner of
gnocchi someplace in the middle of all of the excitement. We are not
looking through binoculars all the time. But our eyes are pretty much
always roving around the area we can see to see if there is a wisp of
smoke.
By the time we go out of
service, shadows have crept across the landscape. We start getting
ready for the night. Around 2100 the sun has set and the last
vestiges of pink are fading. We notice that close to the antennas in
Orange Cove a neighborhood is having some pretty robust display of
fireworks. Then further out Reedley is having their fireworks show-23
miles away. I love being in the lookout on nights like this.
We also notice lights in
places which we normally do not see them. Such as the McGee Overlook
or on Delilah Road. Just before we go to bed, we see a car making its
way down Davis
Road.
First vehicle we have seen on it. We wonder what was so imperative
that they felt they needed to do this at night. We lost them before
they got to Sampson
Flat.
But it is past 2200, we time for us to go to bed.
Background
From Wendy, concerning the
Millwood Fire: The
craziness started yesterday afternoon with a vehicle accident near
Hwy 180 and Millwood. One car on its side but the crazy part? Road
flares were set out... which, yeah you guessed it, started a
vegetation fire and garnered a full wildland response. Thankfully,
it was on the downhill side and extinguished very quickly.
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| Early Morning Junko |
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| Hummingbird |
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| Hummingbirds on feeder |
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| Bee getting his tan |
Flowers and Plants
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| A few flowers coloring our world |
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