I woke up at 0515 with the eastern sky turning colors. It is easy just to lay in bed and enjoy the serenity up here. So I do that for a while, reading and enjoying my sleeping bag. When I do get up, I start cleaning up and getting packed. Now it is time to go for my walk.
I do the same loop as
yesterday in reverse. Only thing is that I put on my boots instead of
tennis shoes. With the first stretch being uphill, I wonder about
the wisdom of this. But then I started seeing little flowers along
the way. As I wander among these colorful, but low lying flowers, I
start getting filled with wonder and awe. Not for their greatness,
but their humbleness. By lying low, it raises them up. A lesson to
learn. The way up is down-I am not the first to discover this.
Trail through yellow
The reason being is that humility points me to the Creator of these humble flowers. From this I am filled with wonder. Like Jesus once said, that God takes care of these small things, so much more he will take care of us. We truly serve a great God!
As I was walking, I was
wondering if I am feeling this sense of awe because I recognize I am
seeing my God at work. What does a person who says there is no God
see in all of this? In talking with some of my fellow hikers, I get a
sense of beauty, but not attribution. Is that what creates awe?
Log Creek Meadow
I get back to the lookout at 0820, about a 70 minute walk. I get my breakfast ready-how much prep does granola need? By 0900, I am ready for the day. So I started cleaning windows. Then take the weather and go into service by 0930-Delilah beats me by a minute.
At 0950, my first visitors come and I get tied up until 1040 when I notice I did not hear the weather and staffing-it is the staffing which I miss as I can get fire weather online. Oh well, I did have a good discussion about Half Dome and Whitney with a couple of visitors. And then there are visitors from Texas and Poland. I feel like the last couple of days I have been to a European convention.
Another Day and More of the Inversion Layer
You may have noticed in
yesterday’s
sunrise
pictures a few drips and streaks in the picture. I had noted that
there was some dirt on the windows. There was not enough time, nor
energy, to clean the windows. After going in service, I start
cleaning. Of course, I got interrupted every once in a while by
visitors. But by the end of the day, the windows are cleaner, but
they really could do a second going over.
One set of visitors, a father
and son, comes in after lunch. They are from Ohio, but he works out
of Lancaster. What interests me is that he is part of a team which
flies planes which look for fires. I have heard them on the radio
before and everybody seems to be in awe of the abilities of this
plane to find what we are looking for in the lookout: fires. We
talked a bit about this. His son also seems pretty attentive to this
conversation but also inquisitive about the lookout as well.
Hershey Kiss, Mt Brewer and North Guard
The afternoon is coming to an end and so is my time at Park Ridge. No smokes seen. But between the 19 people today, 65 people have passed through the lookout.I think I have done my job. At 1800 I went out of service. It takes a couple of trips down the stairs to load everything in the Ranger. I also let Wendy know the status of how I am leaving the lookout.
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| Mitchell and Maddox Peaks |
I drove the same road I walked this morning. But when I get to a place where I look over Wilsonia, there is a column of smoke beyond that. Of course I stopped. But at that point I did not have any reception.. I am suspecting this is from the Needle Dump. But I do not have a good idea where the Needle Dump is from this area. Then the column disappears. I look for a while longer and it does not reappear.
Besides getting behind a slow vehicle going down 180, it is an easy drive back. There was a truck which was impatient to pass me in the Park. He did at the entrance station, rather vigorously. But he also got stuck behind the slow vehicle. Sort of a karma situation. I also joined in on our family’s Zoom call on the way down. Got back home about 2000. Glad to take a shower.
Flowers and Plants
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