June 19, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: June 19, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background : 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

Happy Father’s Day to me! I also mistakenly signed up for lookout duty on Father’s Day duty. Not sure how Freud would view this mistake-was it unconsciously willful or that I did not plan well? I do enjoy my times up at a fire lookout. I also enjoy my special times with my children-hard to think of them as grown adults. I guess they will always be my children in some way or another.

Needle Dump Smoke

I got up at 0530, packed the car, had breakfast and left by 0700. First I needed to get gas at Costco and then I was off. I made it to Grant Grove by 0835. Then drove the Panoramic Point road to the Park Ridge service road. By the time I got to the lookout, it was 0905.

Since I am only up here for a day, I do not need to lug a whole bunch of stuff up-just a backpack and my laptop. I get set up, take the weather and go in service by 0930. When I went in-service with Ash Mountain Fire, they informed me that the Needle Dump* would be burning-this is an upgrade from, some times before when there was the thought process of hey what is that smoke and working it out that the Needle Dump is burning. A short time later, I hear Super 6 calling on the radio.. He elaborates a bit more.

I had already seen the smoke and was assuming it was from a chimney. It is much better to be informed than to guess should I report this? And to whom?

Towards Redwood Canyon

And now it gives me some time to look around and get familiar with what I am seeing. Much of the territory I am looking at I see from Delilah, where I was over Memorial Day weekend. But I am looking at an area at a 90^o degrees from Delilah-in some cases like McKenzie Ridge, I am seeing the back side of it. So each lookout has its own learning and relearning effort each year.

 

 

Before I came up, I talked with Wendy, who is the lead for Park Ridge. I indicated to her that sometime when I am up here this year, I would like her to come up and talk about the front country some. I know my way pretty much around the backcountry. But she lives in the front country, knows the places and the people. She knows the area, so much more than I do. To her, the area has meaning through the lives of the people she has known and the events which have taken place under her eyes. While to me, most of the places will be names on the made and I will not have intimate connection with the land.

 

The front country

A little after 1000, I see a car drive up. It is Wendy. She decided that today is a good day to explain the front country to a willing student. She spends about three hours with me going through places like Hilltop Church down in Badger, the various drainages andlike Sand Creek. She routes me up and down roads which most people never see or heard of. And then she talks about a thoroughbred ranch near the base of Bear Mountain Tulare called Farley Ranch. I wonder if that is any relationship to the Farley ranch in Kingsburg. I wrote down a lot, but she went through so much more than what my head could handle. I think after the three hours, she could tell her student’s eyes must have been getting crossed with the information she passed on.

 

 

Shell Mountain and Buena Vista Peak

She leaves a bit after 1300 and I start to review what she has told me. I suppose the best thing to do is to get back into Park Ridge soon. But looking at my calendar. that may not happen. Fortunately, this has been an uneventful day both in the Park and the Forest, so I can concentrate on relearning the territory.

 

 

Looking down where the KNP fire came up to

 

Sherri makes it up here to help me celebrate Father’s Day. She was not able to make it with me at Delilah over Memorial Day. So this is a good sight. She is content to look around and get the feel for being in a lookout without doing the technical aspects of being up here. I am just glad she is here.

One of the things about being up here is that I have time to look out over where the KNP Complex fire laid waste. Sherri and I saw it from the perspective of Buena Vista Peak last week. Now I am looking right down on the edge of where the fire went to. On the other hand, there is a sense of vastness when looking around from a lookout. You can see what a fire did not touch, but could have. You are thankful it did not take out this lookout. If it had, Wilsonia and Grant Grove would have been toast. And then there is all of the forest from here to Shell Mountain which is green. How close we came to destruction which would have been three or four times how much got destroyed. Thankful for our firefighters and how things worked out.

 

Delilah in the evening

Steven now comes up the road. He decided to hike the 2.75 miles of Park Ridge. It is good to see him up here. I think it is the first time he has been inside of this lookout. Also it is a blessing to have a son join me on this day. We spend about an hour or so together before it gets close to shutting up the lookout for the next person. I go out of service with Porterville and Ash Mountain.

Sherri and Steven have gone ahead and will order pizza from Bear Mountain Pizza. I am closing up the lookout and leaving things all tidy for the next person (at least that is what I am attempting to do.) I get into my truck about 10 minutes after they left. But that ten minutes makes a difference. After leaving the park, I get behind a slow moving vehicle and need to wait and wait and wait. By the time I get to Squaw Valley, Sherri and Steven have gotten the pizza and are waiting on a picnic table for me. In that way, I am coming just in time. The pizza hits the spot. We get back to Fresno around 2030, a bit tired, but having had an enjoyable day.

 

 

Background

*Needle Dump. This is an area where excess ground debris, particularly around the cabins at Wilsonia is dumped. While conditions are good, the Park will set the debris on fire to get rid of it. Much better this way, then if a fire sweeps through the area.