September 7, 2026 - Delilah

  

Title: September 7, 2026 - Delilah

Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

 

My traditional outhouse view

Description:

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.

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.

September 6, 2026 - Delilah

 

Title: September 6, 2026 - Delilah

Hike Info : Description : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

I slept well last night and woke up a few minutes before 0600. I tried to see if there was any lightning to report, but the Wildfire Enterprise Geospatial Portal (EGP) seems to be having an issue and I could not sign in and interrogate their lightning database.

While there was still darkness, I saw a couple of vehicles’ lights on Davis Road. One just about going over Goat Saddle; the other getting close to the Delilah Road. I do not think I would want to travel that road in the dark. But then again, at least I would know someone is coming up the road.

I dilly-dallyed around. Then I had my granola breakfast. By this time it is 0800 and I still have not made it down to the ground. So down I go. I only walked to the saddle to the south of Delilah and back. By the time I made it to the cab, it is 0850. Time to start getting ready for the new day.

Up goes the flag. There! I am official now. By 0915 I have taken our weather-the RH is 47% and the temperature is 65. A lot warmer than yesterday. I go into service at 0929 with both Porterville and Sierra. Both Buck Rock and Park Ridge beat me. Then it is the normal stuff-do a scan, listen to the radio-at 1001 Porterville did their weather and staffing.

Hunters Practicing

Between 0900 and 1000 I also listened on YouTube to my church’s worship service-First Presbyterian Church of Fresno. The pastor is going through Revelation. I will admit, I probably did not get the full impact as I was also listening to the radio, going in service and doing my scans. But what I heard was good as Jeremy talked about how Jesus rose up to bring restoration while evil can only corrupt and brings destruction.

As I was about to do one of my scans, a head came up the ladder-and I guess the rest of his body came up as well. Anyway, it was a bit of a surprise, but he was pretty personable and said he is from Squaw Valley, or Yokut Valley depending on whom you talk with. He has done work with the Forest Service and is interested in being a volunteer in a lookout as well. We talked for over a half an hour. He was interested in various places to hike, where the Sequoia groves were and if there are any archeological places of interest. One the first two, I was able to let him know where some of these places are. On the later, I directed him to the District’s archeologist.

During my conversation with my long visitor, Sierra did their 1100 lookout checkin. I did respond in a timely manner. After he left, I had my lunch, around 1230. I had started cleaning windows when my visitor came up and continued that after lunch. It is a very broken up after lunch rest period for me.

Reflections of buildings at Prather

On one of my afternoon scans, I heard gun shots. I was able to find the source being from around a vehicle parked on Davis Road just north of Goat Saddle. After about ten minutes they moved on, but then I heard another group of shots about 15 minutes later. It probably came from the same people, but a couple of miles further north on Davis.

While the shots are a bit unnerving, on the other side of the lookout, I followed a hawk in flight for about five minutes. So graceful, so majestic, such a wonderful creature. Unfortunately I am not very good at catching birds in flight with my phone camera-not sure the phone part made any difference.

Ar 1600, Sierra did their afternoon lookout check in, which all the lookouts did respond-that is always a good sign. Then it was back to the normal routine until about 1730 when I got my dinner ready. My dinner is lasagna and bread-pretty plain. While I am eating, I hear both Buck Rock and Park Ridge going out of service. They are returning home so they are leaving at the normal time. Otherwise because it is Labor Day weekend, I will be going out of service at 1930 when the shadows make it hard to see. Wendy text’s me and notes I am carrying the entire Forest’ burden on my shoulders, or something like that.

Delilah's Night Sky

At 1830, we have a family Zoom which I tuned in for. About every 15 minutes I cut away and do my scans. I listen to the radio as well, but there is nothing which concerns me.

At 1920, I went out of service, saying I was staying overnight. But we are still on Zoom for another half an hour. Then I go down to close up and get a few things for tomorrow. That seems strange since I will start bringing stuff down tomorrow morning. But I figure I should have a gallon of water up in the cab.

When I get back up, it is past 2030 and I let Sherri know that I am available to talk. Which is also strange since we also talked just an hour ago on Zoom. But there are things which a husband and wife should share, times between themselves. Which we do for over an hour. It is closing in on 2200 before we hang up. I read some and then go to sleep.

Animals

September 5, 2026 - Delilah

 

 Title: September 5, 2026 - Delilah

Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

Friday, September 4, 2026

I came in at the end of Delilah’s Friday shift because it is a three day weekend and the traffic is usually terrible. Sherri made me chicken cordon bleu for a lunch/dinner. I ran a few errands before leaving at 1515. While there was pretty good traffic until Centerville, it flowed along smoothly. I made better time than I thought I was going to.

Once I turned off of 180, I met no one. I stopped at a couple of places to look over things, such as the Armenian/Hye Camp and the area which Davis Road runs through.

Outhouse View

I made it to Delilah by 1715 where I was met by Richard-not that person whom I was expecting. Richard is one of the two leads for Delilah. He said that there was something which happened last night where he needed to come up. It was good that I came up early and it was good to talk with him face to face. I closed out the evening at Delilah and went out of service in quarters.

I felt tired, so I laid down for a while. Then I had a sandwich. Finally, I finished bringing up my stuff. Either I am getting weaker or packing more stuff. The stuff at the end of the pulley felt really heavy. When I was going up and down the stairs, I realized I did not bring my knee brace. It did not hurt too bad. There was a hunter who drove by. He indicated he was bow hunting and looking for deer.

After I got things sorted out, I decided to go back down and see if I could take some evening shots of the tower and stars. I was somewhat successful on the tower, not so much on the stars.

When I went back up, I let Sherri know that I was available for a call. Then I crawled into my bag and read and waited for her call. About 2100 she called. We talked for 45 minutes, then I read a bit more until shortly before 23000.

Delilah from the road

Saturday, September 5, 2026

It felt like a short night of sleep last night. When the moon rose, I woke up for a while, but not because of the brightness, but just to gaze on it. Like the sun which causes the moon to fade from view, the moon causes stars to grow dim to our eyes. Isn’t this like how heaven will be? We think we see clearly now, but we do not. When heaven comes, we will see that our current times are just a ghost of reality. What is more, even heaven will fade before the glory of God. If our hymns could only capture a bit of this!

Having rambled on with my thoughts-no apologies, just realizing this is what was going through my mind. I did look for lightning on EGP, but there was none. I had my breakfast and then went down to the ground. On the way down, I realized that things did not feel quite right with the body. Not feeling sick or bad or achy like the flu. More breathing harder than I should going down.

After taking care of the things which were on the pulley, I decided to go for a walk. Maybe that would help out whatever is happening. As it turned out, I probably walked too far and up too much. If anything I was breathing harder and not feeling better. Also the heart was beating pretty good on the uphill. At least a good part of this walk back is downhill. That helped with the breathing and heart. But there is a climb back up to the base of the lookout. Which I take easy, but I still feel winded, fortunately not lightheaded or feeling like I will faint. But I am careful not to push it. That was only about a two mile, 50 minute walk.

I still have the climb back into the tower, which I make, stopping at each landing. These stops would have been a good picture break, but I have done that so many times, not sure what would be different. When I get back into the cab, I laid down to get my body back into a comparatively normal state.

I did the normal going into service stuff-flag raising, weather taking and scanning. Then went into service at 0930. I was the last one in. Then it was pretty much a normal, quiet Delilah morning.That is until three visitors showed up. What made them unusual is they appeared on bikes, mountain bikes. They came up and I showed them around. The usual visitor, not that I would know this year, will come up, look around, ask a question or two, ask if I stay up here at night and leave. Maybe 10-15 minutes, just enough to catch a breath and go back.

These three stayed for 30-40 minutes. The three had come from Millwood and were a bit out of breath from the hills. They asked about various places and roads in the area and did not seem to be too concerned about leaving anytime soon. They stayed for over half an hour and were very content with the visit as they got to see areas around them which they normally do not see. One person was from Squaw Valley, the other two from Clovis.

And then it is back to the normal day. At 1100, I responded to the Sierra Lookout Checkin. Then it is doing the scans. I am still tired from this morning and still not feeling right. I lay down for 15 minutes until the next scan. This continues through the morning until lunch time.

At 1230 I fixed my lunch-peanut butter and Nutella sandwich along with some chips. But then I faintly hear a call on R5 Project, our off command channel calling out Delilah. Turns out it is 335 trying to reach a couple of her staff. They are down in the Kings. I try to reach out to either of them. The Kings is far enough down where we cannot directly reach them. I also try on Channel 2, which is a command channel using repeaters.I do reach them and say what the message is, but I cannot hear their replay. Porterville does get a response from them. Not sure how well I relayed the message, but the jest of what is being transmitted. I do not do many relays. I knew the mechanics, but not sure how well I would execute in reality. I gave myself a middling grade.

 During all of this, I knocked over my carton of milk. I ended up having to remove the glass on the desk and cleaning up under it, along with some papers there. Sigh, not the way I wanted to down my milk nor to conduct a relay.

I do the weather and fall into the familiar patter of scanning. About 1400, I heard the sound of a propeller. I realized it was coming out of the south, but could not see it. I am also seeing that there are hang gliders off Sontag Point. If there is something flying out there and it is low, how to warn them about the gliders. By the time I recognize it, it is flying over where Davis and Delilah Road meet. It is a helicopter and I can see the id of N551HQ on it. As it flys by I wave and they acknowledge. That makes my day much more than spilling milk. I follow them on FlightAware as they go out over Pine Flat Reservoir and head northwest.

Because the helicopter's path should have flown right in front of Park Ridge Lookout, I called over to him. He did not either see or hear it. I am a bit surprised, but I know that depending on the wind and direction and if he was busy with something else, he may not notice it. We talked for a while. He mentioned that a similar helicopter had gone by earlier that day going south. There was a SAR effort around Moro Rock which this may have been part of. This may be because I noticed on FlightAware history, it had lifted off from Ash Mountain.

I go back to my scanning. There is not much exciting. Well maybe just a little. As I am doing one of the scans, I looked over at Pine Flat Reservoir. There I see another helicopter. When I look at FlightAware, I see that it is a CHP helicopter. It flies off towards Sanger. Wonder what they are doing out there? A rescue? Looking for a pot farm? Something else illegal? I guess I will never know.

Around 1800, I prepare my dinner. This is Birdseye Alfredo Chicken Skillet Meal and a couple pieces of bread. Pretty easy, just heat it up and service. I will confess, not my favorite. But it is a good dinner meal.

As the shadows start to deepen, I continue my scans until 1930, which is the end of the shift. There was a nice sunset with a layer of clouds. Looked almost fiery at times. After I went out of service, I went down and got a few things, then locked myself in.

Around 2030, Sherri and I talk for a while, at least until 2130. I then look at my phone for a bit more before going to sleep.

Extra Photo's

 

Sunset through the trees

Sunset and Pine Flat Reservoir

Valley Lights at Sunset

 Animals

Hummers

Whose Track? I think a bobcat

August 12, 2026 - Delilah

 

 

 Title: August 12, 2026 - Delilah

Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

When I woke up this morning, there were clouds to the west and north. When I did my lightning report.I was shocked to see all of the strikes over Jesse Morrow Mtn, Tivy, and around Trimmer-I did not hear a thing. These places are between 12-15 miles away from me. I was thinking about the discussion about how secure is the lookout if it is struck? I made sure I had my lightning stool ready and all of the things I would need during a thunderstorm. Still there is a bit of apprehension. By the way, the shock mentioned above was figuratively, not literally.

Clouds over Jesse Morrow Mtn and Tivy

 

I tracked what these clouds were doing and did not see them moving closer, so I relaxed a bit, but not much. When I looked a bit further on where the strikes were, I saw a string up highway 99 from Visaila to Kingsburg, going over to Reedley and then to the areas already noted. When I turn on the radio, I hear patrols trying to track down if there were strikes in the northern part of the Sierra National Forest.

 

I do not have time to do too much more than have breakfast, wash up, take down the stuff I do not need today, as I will be going home tonight. I get enough walk time to walk for a couple of minutes, before heading back up into the cab. When I get up there, I take the weather and get ready. The weather still looks the same as it did when I got up.

A few minutes before 0930, both Park Ridge and Delilah go in-service. Then it goes on to the normal routine of listening to the radio, doing scans and practicing locations. I am also keeping an eye on where the clouds are, which leads to lightning. So far nothing to be concerned about. I hear Porterville reporting the weather and staffing. Then at 1100, I responded to Sierra’s lookout check in.

Richard and I talk some more about lightning and what the plan is. I am still comfortable with the lightning stool/ So I will stay in the tower for the rest of the day.

About noon, I am doing my scan, when I see some discoloration through the haze beyond Sacate Ridge. What am I seeing? I looked at it for a while. Then I see some of the whiteness in the area rising. I look a minute more to confirm, then radio in what I see. The azimuth is at 338 with an approximate distance of 12 miles. I cannot see the base as it is beyond Sacate. I confirm it is in the direction of Haslett Basin-I cannot see into the basin. Sierra radios me back after a while to confirm what I saw and the azimuth. I also talked with Judy who will come in after me about what she will be coming into.

The slight discoloration in the center behind Sacate

 

Same photo filtered so you can see more of the discoloration

 

Sierra is throwing the whole army at this, including an air attack and a tanker. Several units are sent as well. Battalion Chief 42 radio’s me about 20 minutes later and asks what I am seeing now. The haze has cleared, and the column which I was seeing before has almost completely disappeared. Both air attack and unit 430 say they cannot see any smoke. The units and the air are called off. One of the units, Fresno4, is left to observe. After two hours, they still do not see any smoke, so they are relieved and allowed to do their other duties. I will go into my speculation in the Background.

Same shot half an hour afterwards

 

After this, I talked with Wendy, our lookout wise woman,both me calling in the smoke and about lightning or as I said to her, I needed a sanity check. But before I talked about that, I recapped my smoke report and the outcome. She notes that it looks like I went through the proper procedures. Which I think I did, still it sits with me wrong to radio in a bad smoke call. Wendy says not to beat myself up.

Air Attack

As far as the lightning is concerned, we talked over what the notes said as well as the inspection. I also went over what I was thinking that we have been OK for so many years, at least 20 years of staffing this lookout. With the lightning stool, there is the added protection. So I feel comfortable. She thought that my reasoning made sense. So until someone says something different, that is what I will be doing. She asked me to send her the notes and the signs. I sent it to her and to Greg.

The rest of the day, is uneventful. The normal stuff. I was hoping that I would not be faced with another situation where it was a call which would look questionable later. But there is nothing even close. I did talk with Buck Rock about the status of our hours. We are off of extended hours.

Greg calls and we discuss the inspection. There is no change of plans on my part. Greg will be talking with those in charge of our area about direction and meaning of the report. This sounds like it will be taken seriously and may not have resolution for a little while. Later on there is a directive which said, if there is lightning in the area, get out of the tower.

Hume Lake Region District will not be on extended houses, but Sierra will. What this means is that I will be leaving at 1800. After the 1600 Sierra checkin, I start cleaning up so I will leave the cab presentable for Judy. Yesterday and today I cleaned the windows. I also heat up my hamburger dinner. By 1800, I went out of service with both Sierra and Porteville. By the time I lock up, get down the stairs and put everything in its place, it is 1820. I am able to get home a few minutes after 2000. The first order of business is to take a shower-which feels so good. Then talk with Sherri for awhile

Background

A few days later, after getting home, I was processing my photos from today. I noticed that I had taken a picture of Sacate Ridge about 40 minutes before the rising white stuff which I thought was smoke. The image shows a very dark area right where I saw my smoke. It looked like a very intense spot of rain. My hypothesis is that what I was seeing and reporting was left over from this downpour. That the white going up may have been due to an updraft pushing up some of the leftover mist. I think there may be other plausible explanations. I really hope it is not that Gary is fading as a useful lookout.Below are the images I took of the area before and after what I saw:

Picture where the discoloration was 40 minutes before

Discoloration as I saw it

Lightly filtered from above

Heavily Filtered

Same area about half an hour later

 

 Extra Photo's

Afternoon clouds to the east

Outhouse view

Virga to the southeast

Morning cloud over Dude Ridge

Morning skies

 

 

 

 

August 11, 2026 - Delilah

 

Title: August 11, 2026 - Delilah
Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

I woke up and it was still pretty dark with only a sliver of light above the tops of the mountains in the east. It is a 0520. But even though I am awake, I do not get up. I just look out the windows. And what do I see? To the west, I see bats swarming outside of the windows. I am glad I closed that window. To the east, there are also bats, but not nearly as many. Once they calmed down, I got up. I had checked to see if there had been lightning in the area and there was none

My feet touched the floor around 6:20. I read a bit and then have my breakfast. Then I get up-it was warm yesterday and I am a bit smelly. To live with myself, I wash up, lookout style, a spit bath. By the time this is done, I go down the stairs and get some water for the day. I had time to go for a short walk before heading back up.

Pine Ridge

At 0900 I start with my lookout duty at Delilah. Things like setting up my logs and taking the weather. At 0930 I went in service with Portville, along with Park Ridge Lookout. I think Buck Rock went in earlier. Then it is into the routine of scanning and listening to the radio. At 1000 the weather and staffing was broadcast. I did not get the weather. Since Porterville does two readings, I was able to catch the staffing on the second go around.

The mornings at Delilah are warm. Today it is hot. Since nobody is around, I take off my shirt and enjoy a bit of cooling on my skin. I still sweat though.

Lookout!

Sometimes on the radio, you hear something which is out of place from reporting the normal patrol location changes. On R5, our chatty channel, I hear what sounds like a researcher and her assistant. Not sure what they are looking for. But apparently she spooked some cattle and thought she was going to be trampled. It can be a bit intimidating being around those big animals. From the radio, it does not sound like her partner is bothered.

PG&E Tower

At 1100, I responded to the Sierra Lookout Check-in. Then it continues on the normal day. A feature of Delilah is that after 1100, a breeze comes up and cools down the lookout. I put back on my shirt.

I have my lunch. After that, I did the weather. If I am at home, I would have an hour rest period. But up here, I just lay down, turn up the radio and set a 15 minute timer for my two short times of relaxation. Then it is back to full time looking for smoke.

 

 

Goat Saddle

It is a normal afternoon. The 1600 indices and weather from Porterville is noted. I responded to Sierra’s afternoon lookout check in. About 1730 I had a dinner of quesadillas. Then continue looking for smoke, at least on the Sequoia side. On Sierra, I go out of service at 1800. Because of the heat, we are on extended hours so I go until the shadows make finding anything feasible. At 2000, I went out of service with Porterville.

 

 

 

Then it is time to get the cab ready for bedtime. I go down to the ground to take a few things I will not need tomorrow to the car and bring up some more water. At 2030, Sherri and I talk about the events of the day. By the time 2130 hits, I am ready to turn in. After reading, I close by eyes about 2215