Friday, July 3, 2020

July 3, 2020 - Delilah Lookout




Title: July 3, 2020 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : DescriptionBackground :Animals : Flowers and Plants


Trail head: Delilah Lookout
Hike Info:
Type: Lookout


Description:


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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Animals
Early Morning Junko

Hummingbird

Hummingbirds on feeder

Bee getting his tan




 
Flowers and Plants

A few flowers coloring our world



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