Title: September 7, 2026 - Delilah
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| My traditional outhouse view |
Another good night of sleep, did wake up at 0500, but returned to sleep for another hour. Then just laid in bed for close to another hour. At 0700 I got up, washed up and had breakfast. Then I packed up what I do not need for today, principally my sleeping bag and dirty laundry-my gift to Sherri. Then down I go and walk three laps around the loop which surrounds Delilah Lookout. Each morning I am doing less. Does this mean something?
I get back to the cab, tidied up and got a bit of housekeeping done. By this time, it is 0900 and time to do what I am “paid” to do. That is take my morning weather readings, raise the flag, get cleaned up for the day and do a scan before going into service. That I do at 0928 or 00931 depending on which dispatch took the signal about 30 seconds apart. They seem to be working off of two different clocks today.
As I am doing my scans in the
morning light, I realize, probably for the nth time, how fortunate I
am. The hills are catching the light with the shadows behind it. I do
not think any picture will capture the depth of what I see. And
since I do not have a poetic bone in my body, my words will not
describe it. Sherri has a better way of saying this when we were on
the John Muir Trail:
The beauty you see,
words do not describe its fullness,
pictures only show shadow
Normal stuff, sort of. The 1000 weather and staffing is scratchy. I have what our staffing is like in the area, but I cannot understand the weather. From other transmissions, it sounds like a pleasant day at Delilah. When 1100 comes around, I respond to the Sierra lookout check in. But I do not hear BuckRock respond. I waited about 10 minutes to see if Buck Rock would come in late. I tried to raise Buck Rock and could not. Then radioed Park Ridge to see if they could raise Buck Rock. As we were talking, Buck Rock checked in with Sierra.
Back to normal programming. Today, the radio traffic is a lot of the residuals from it being a three day weekend. Many people camping where they should not; campfires, both legal and illegal are left hot; toilets needing care; and garbage bins overflowing. I think I am glad I am up here at Delilah rather with all of that going on. Later on, to add to my entertainment, I assume, there is a call for one of the patrols to come over to Hume and cut away a branch which had fallen in a parking lot.
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| View from the loop around Delilah |
About 1230, I had my first visitor of the day. He is a person in the Reedley area who was wandering the area and had seen the sign for Delilah Lookout. He was surprised to find that it was an actual lookout, not someplace where people drove to as a scenic vista. He spent about 30 minutes with me until another person drove up. The second person came up and mentioned he was a bit concerned about heights. But he was up here and that is what counts. He is from Kentucky but is living in Clovis. His wife cannot climb up stairs, so he is just enjoying his time up here, with the wife in the Jeep. We talked about places where they could drive to, like Davis Road and going up to Black Rock Road. I think he left glad he braved coming up.
By this time it is 1320 and I have not taken the weather. I do that by 1330. Then it is time to cook my dinner. On days I am going to leave I find that it is better to have dinner at lunch and make a sandwich to eat on the way down. I have the remains of the Birdseye meal I had Saturday. While not as delightful as the lasagna I had last night, it is filling and will get me back to Fresno tonight.
Then it is more scans and more rest and more writing until 1600 when Sierra does their lookout checkin. Right at lookout check-in time, Buck Rock gets a request to do a relay. When Sierra calls Buck Rock, I cover for her and answer my own call. All seem to be happy with the world. I continue to clean up, not that it is messy.
Between cleaning, packing and scanning, the rest of the couple of hours of my shift went pretty fast. I went out of service at 1750. Then went through the check out list for the lookout. By the time I finished figuring out how to get everything down in one trip, it is 1810. I am able to have the car moving byt 1820. The ride home is not that bad-I think most of the holiday traffic has already gone by, I get home a few minutes before 2000. This is even talking with Mike who is a friend of Buck Rock who lives in the area. Sherri and I talk for a little while, then I take a shower and start unpacking before heading to bed.
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