October 9, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

 

Title: October 9, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

 

Description:

Clouds to east

Another late morning for me, getting up at 0700. I think I need it. I do wake up feeling much rested. Of course, it helps going to sleep at 2130 last night. We take down much of our excess stuff from the cab, since we are leaving today. Things like sleeping bags and mat, dirty clothes and a few odds and ends. And then we are ready for breakfast: oatmeal and cinnamon rolls.

 

 

 

Logging taking place

By the time 0930 comes around, we are ready to go into service. We have already done a scan and taken the weather. We also heard

Fire Finder reflections

Delilah go into service-this was the first time we have heard anything from that lookout. Buck Rock will be coming in much later, when she arrives.

A short time later, a couple comes up the trail, but decides not to come up to the lookout. In talking with them, he was a lookout at Park Ridge 20 years ago. She was a lookout at Delilah and worked at Grant Grove for a while. They are staying at a cabin in Wilsonia. We talk for ten minutes, then they go on to east.

 

Looking eastward

 We continue doing our lookout thing. Evidently Porterville is not believing in reporting the weather-nothing at 1000 and then later, no report at 1600. But that does not stop us from doing our assigned tasks. Still no smoke to report, so things are pretty quiet.

And then a whole group of young people comes up. Turns out that they are students at UC Berkeley.

They are up for the weekend and did this hike. They are amused by my explanations of what happens in lookouts, even my puns and humor. I think I have found my audience for my humor-they are all Ph’d candidates in microbiology. They seemed pretty satisfied by what they heard

 

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Which one is the General Grant Tree

There is a game we play as lookouts called, “What is that?” You have to find what the person is talking about, give the azimuth and distance and a location. Evidently my eyes are better than Sherri’s as I see just before the Hogback where there has been some logging done. Then we have a discussion with no resolution about which of the trees towering above a ridge is the

Looking down into Grant Grove/Wilsonia

General Grant Tree. Our lookout visual book says one thing, Sherri says another and I am hedging on a third, but I think Sherri may be closer to the actual. Finally, I am seeing the parking lot at the Grant Grove Visitor Center. After Sherri gets properly oriented, so does she. Then there is the fire station at Wilsonia which we can pick out.

We get a few more visitors. But all in all, it is a quiet day. At 1800 we go out of service with both Porterville and Ash Mountain Fire. With the later, we just barely caught them before they left. By the time 1820 hits, we are on our way out and get back home by 2000. Glad I was able to catch a few days at Park Ridge before it closed for the season.

Extra Photo's

Virga or does this precipitation touch the ground?

Clouds and Virga around North Guard and Mt Brewer

Early morning view