September 23, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

 Title:  September 23, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info : Description :  Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

 

 Description:

It was a warmer night last night. I felt comfortable without tunneling into my bag. I woke up at 0500 and tried to go back to sleep-no luck there. At 0525 I queried to see what lightning there was-none. So I was content to read in my sleeping bag.

I finally got up around 0630 with the eastern skies starting to light up. Clouds have come in overnight. Smoke is now on this side of Redwood Mountain, but well below me. I start packing up so there is a minimum of stuff to take down at the end of my last day up here.

I then go on my walk. Wendy has reminded me that today is the first day of hunting season. Wendy, Jeff and I chat on text throughout my walk. I go up the Park Ridge Trail until the saddle. Because it is hunting season and the service road is on the border with the forest, I am a bit nervous about walking on it-after all it is the first day of hunting. But thinking about it, I have not been hearing gunshots, so I take to the road. I also put on my orange bandana, maybe it will be enough to give a hunter pause before shooting. I do walk the road. With nobody around, it is so quiet. Even more impressive, at least to me, is that I am keeping up a pretty good pace. Much better than I expected. But at the end of the uphill, close to the lookout, I do stop to take a breather. Still pretty happy with myself.

Dawn

Jeff notes that he can no longer see Park Ridge Lookout. What I have been walking has been nice, but now that I am on the west side of Park Ride, there is definitely the smell of smoke. I still can see, but the smoke is now higher up. By the time I eat breakfast and take the weather, my visibility is between 2 and 4 miles. Not very good. Better than Thursday, not as good as what I would want up here.

Starting at 0926, Delilah, Buck Rock and I go into service. Delilah has poor visibility and I say 2-4 miles. All of this is from the smoke from the Redwood Fire down on the Middle Fork of the Kaweah. I am also hearing shots coming from the southwest, probably from around Eshom. Even though the campground is closed, people still hunt in that area.

Smoke beyond Grant Grove

The bane of a fire lookout’s existence can be smoke, but the more common issue is radios. When I came in Thursday, the clamshell battery with AA’s was on the Park radio. When it started chirping-meaning low battery-I switched over to the good battery. That worked for a while until the next day. I thought I was charging it up, but by 1500 Friday, the battery was drained. So I switched to a rechargeable battery with a broken latch. That worked. So I let the good battery charge overnight. But the next morning, the good battery was still low. I tried various things, but nothing seemed to remedy the issue. I wrote to Wendy to say we have a bad battery. I left notes for those who will follow me.

Buck Rock in the early morning

And I do have visitors. Today they are from Wisconsin and Cincinnati and then two locals from Fresno. I think I got a bit long winded because one of them kept looking at his watch. But then his wife kept asking questions. She even wanted a picture with me. I do not think I have had so many people wanting the form of my picture as a lookout as in the last three days. I definitely do not have star quality or charisma.

For the rest of the time, I do the regular lookout stuff. The smoke has lifted a little-now I can see 5 miles in places. Still not good. The worst part about the smoke is that when I look out over this sea of white, I am trying to distinguish if a sliver of white is a smoke, granite, a dead tree or something else. I do not think there were any fires out there, still with the gun pop’s in the Eshom area I wonder what I am missing in the haze.

One of the joys of being a fire lookout is the unexpected. Lots of time, I see movement in the distance. When I follow it, I see it is a bird. Most of the time it is a crow, raven or sparrow. Sometimes a hawk. Today, a large bird with a flash of white caught my attention. And then it turns and comes straight towards me. With the binoculars attached to my eyes, I can see its beak and eyes of a golden eagle very clearly, just like in the best photographs. When I pull my eyes away from the binoculars, I see that the bird is still 200-300 yards away. Still a wonderful thing to happen today.

Looking towards Eshom and Redwood Mountain

Wendy has let me know that the person coming in after me may arrive this evening and may relieve me early. While I enjoy being up here, there is a certain amount of gladness thinking that I get to go home early. Also a bit of sadness. Unless something goes different than expectations, it is the last day at Park Ridge this season. I do look for a little bit of dust rising up on the road coming in. I can only see a couple short segments of the road.

I have one more visitor this afternoon. I have my sandwich for dinner. Then I clean up the cab, including giving it a good mopping. Not as dirty as I feared, still dirty enough. I take a load down to the truck and then I am in the midst of doing my last scan before going out of service.

Haze covering Grant Grove by the end of the day

 

Right at 1755, my relief shows up. So much for an early start home. I try to go over the various stuff which has happened during the past three days, but he does not seem to be too interested. The one thing he is interested in is that one of the horse hairs on the firefinder has been broken. In retrospect, it must have happened when I was mopping. I got it fixed-it took awhile, and then cut out.

It is about 1820 by the time I leave. The ride home is uneventful and I reach Fresno by 2000. Tired. I go over my time away with Sherri, then take a shower and go to bed, asleep by 2200.

 

 

 
Flowers and Plants

Elderberry