Hike Info:
Description:
I want to start off this blog
by thanking Wendy who guided us through the tense times described in
this blog. The Buck Rock Foundation is really people who want to offer a bit of fire protection by being able to detect fires early through the use of lookouts. But it is more than that, there are people with vast experience in this area who will monitor the radio and make sure that the people in the lookouts are as safe as they can be. That is what Wendy was doing. I feel the safety net we have gives us a sense of comfort that people like Wendy has our backs.
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Woke up around 0500. Read for
a while before Sherri got up. Today we start taking stuff down to the
car as it is our last day here. We have our breakfast and get ready
for the day.
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| Our view of Balch Heliport |
Sherri takes the first scan of
the day. We go into service at 0759, followed by the rest of the
lookouts, at least on the Sierra side. One of the things about an
early morning start is that there are a lot of shadows-see the
picture in our
July 3rd blog..
The shadows seem to be hiding things, so I am not sure that we would
see a small, single column of smoke if it is in these shadows. On the
other hand, a smoke to our west would stand out like a sore thumb. We
do not seem to have the opposite problem in the evening, at least
until about an hour before sunset.
More scanning and listening.
This gives us time to examine the terrain a bit more. I am working
through a list of names I have gotten from GNIS. The next one is
Balch
Camp Heliport.
This is a subject of debate about what we can see and what we cannot.
I suspect it is behind a small ridge. But Sherri is following a pipe
over to see if we can see the actual port. After careful examination,
I think I see a small road which leads to the heliport. By the way,
this is a little over 7 miles away, with an azimuth of 355O.
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| Gogle Earth view of Balch Heliport |
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| Smoke over Dude Ridge |
This goes on for a while.
Scanning, then picking out a place. And then at 1234, I am doing a
scan having looked into our narrow window of Squaw Valley and moved
on past Dude
and Pine
Ridge over to Bear
Mountain Tulure,
when we hear the sound of three beeps from Sierra. What are three
beeps? This is to alert the first that there is an incident, mostly a
fire, which needs an immediate response. So we all listen closely.
The first question which I always ask is where
is this incident? I
do not think it is something which I should see since we have been
diligent in doing our scans.
The answer comes quickly:
Squaw Valley. Wait! I have just looked there and saw nothing! Is
there a different Squaw Valley? Did I miss it. I take a quick glance
over there and it all seems peaceful. And why is Sierra calling out
resources for something so close to Sequoia National Forest? Then
Porterville starts up the same calls. But the answer comes in the
form of a phone call. Wendy calls right in the middle of this and
says that the fire is about a quarter of an acre and Delilah cannot
see it as it is on the other side of Dude Ridge.
I get the coordinates of where
the fire is from WildCAD on the Sierra side-bless them, they almost
always supply that. Wendy has said it is on Highway 180, and the
coordinates agree. It is an azimuth of 210o
47’ and a distance of 4.1 miles. Say that is pretty close. The fire
has been named the Kings
Fire because
of being along the Kings Canyon Road (Highway 180).
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| From AA15 |
Next thing we know, it is
about 40 acres and all sorts of aircraft is being called in. This
leads to the question about how large will this fire grow? Will it go
up Dude Ridge? If so, Sequoia
Highlands Camp
is right in the path. But more personal is that there is only one
road out of Delilah and the Camp is right on the road. Eventually,
about ten minutes after the first report of the fire, smoke climbs
over the top of Dude Ridge. Now we know this is more than just a
small fire, but something which should be taken more seriously. I
call in that we can see the smoke now, not that they need any
confirmation. Maybe it may make some good to be a small contributor.
At least people know we are alive and watching.
Wendy is the first to work
through the scenario that we may need to evacuate. She prepares us
about this need. The light bulbs goes on in our minds and we start
to evaluate how to make an exit in case there is this scenario. We
start packing and getting things together. Sherri goes down below and
I lower our stuff down to her. In the midst of this, we have
dinner-remains of the lasagna and gnocchi. But this is so we can also
pack up the food as well.
We hear multiple aircraft
being called up: Air Attack 15, A heli-tanker and a couple
helicopters. This is sounding like CalFire wants to take care of
things before it gets too big.
We get done packing the car so
we only have one backpack full in the tower. It is 1400 by this time.
Around 1440 we start hearing that the air support has done their job
and that much of the fire is controllable now. We are breathing
easier. Wendy comments that it looks like that an evacuation will not
be necessary. So we stand down from the tenseness of the situation,
but we do not unpack the car. Things are decidedly more “normal”,
more relaxed.
Wendy and I text back and
forth about the status. While things are not winding down, they seem
to be moving into a different, more controlled phase of the task of
putting out the fire-that will not be completed for several more
days. Sherri and I go back into more of a lookout routine of scanning
for additional fires-just because there is one, does not mean that
there may not be more. Also we have added listening to CalFire radio
in addition to Sierra and Porterville.
The 1600 Sierra lookout check
in happens. with all of us reporting. I have gotten the weather and
indices online. Both Sherri and I are pretty inactive, still doing
the required duties, but not as energetic as we were six hours ago.
At 1735 we started sanitizing the lookout for our departure, making
it ready for the next person. Sherri goes down and cleans the
outhouse, I start wiping down all of the surfaces we touch, such as
windows, radio’s, handles and pens. By 1755 I went out of service
with Sierra. A few minutes later with Porterville.
Now for the last of our stay
and exit. After sanitizing everything, I exit the lookout and start
locking up. There is a gate leading into the catwalk which I lock and
then wipe down. And then the wind catches the wipes and blows them
onto the catwalk where they dance around so nicely, out of my reach..
Sherri has the keys, 72’, 80 steps down. I am not feeling energetic
enough to go down and back up again. So the next person will need to
track them down. At least they are not a virus issue.
We drive out. When we get to
Highway 180, it is still blocked off and we are directed down
Millwood. Not a problem. A bit twisty and steep, but not bad. Some
traffic comes up and we are able to peacefully negotiate the road
with them. And then everybody comes to a stop. There has been an
accident way down the road. We are stuck here for about an hour. But
as compensation, we have phoned into a family Zoom call and enjoy
talking with our kids and my brother. We finally get moving again and
get home tired, a bit after 2100.
Trail Lesson: Be prepared for emergencies. Not everyday is going to be fun.
Background
King Fire. Some of the detail on this fire is that it ended up being 67 acres with 100% containment on July 7th. The cause is under investigation. They brought in some heavy hitting aircraft, including a Sikorsky.
Video from Wendy
It took us about an hour to get everything down from the cab, 72' up to the car-not a continuous hour as we needed to work through other items in the lookout.
If we did need to evacuate, there was some things which we were taking with us: a handheld radio, the fire shelter and the log books, as well as water. As those in the Foundation said, if we needed to get out of there, we would sort out how to get the equipment back to the lookout after the danger passed.
As I told the people on our text messages, particularly Wendy,
it was so good to know we could rely on the experience and wisdom you folks provided. We found out that Wendy was very close to making the call to say leave Delilah.
We figured out that Wendy should have also been very concerned about herself-she was a mile away from the fire with aircraft going right overhead.
Animals
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| Hummingburd |
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| Hummingbirds from the bottom |
