July 7, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: July 7, 2023 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Today will be my first day back at Park Ridge this season. It has been a month and a half since I was at Delilah. So I expect some of my skills to have oxidized a bit.

I really have not packed yet-only gotten a few things together. But it should only be two hours max to do that. I did my lightning report-none, but I let people know I will be away this weekend. As I was eating breakfast, Sherri came hobbling out. She did not sleep well at all last night because her hip was being painful. She is thinking that going up to the lookout may not be good. We will discuss this later on, but it does not seem promising.

I talked with Wendy for a while. She gives me the rundown on Park Ridge. Everything is pretty much the same. But there are some issues with the radio. Our rechargeable battery is not charging. The AA batteries are all corroded. So we may need to use the base radio. At least Wendy alerted me so I could think about how to handle this situation before going in. Also Nancy and I will refresh each other.

It does not look like Sherri is going. While her hip is improving, she does not think climbing up into the tower will be good for it. But she does make stir-fried chicken for my going away dinner. Steven helps to pack some of the heavy stuff into the truck. And then I am off a little after 1300. Traffic is not too bad. I get to Grant Grove at 1430. But going up towards Panorama Point, I got behind a car, while not slow, was taking his time. We all have to pull over a couple of times.

Close to the top, I cut off onto the service road. I betcha you that the car I was following was wondering, where is he going? After unlocking and relocking the gate I continue on. The usually soggy part of the road is not too bad-it could have been a lot worse. And then I meet up with a Park truck. I need to back up a ways, which is a minor adventure. I meet BC-3 and exchange greetings. The rest of the trip to the lookout is uneventful. I do pass three groups of hikers along the way. As one of the fire people says, I dusted them, but I tried not to leave too much dust on them.

I get to the lookout a little after 1500. By the time I get parked and get a load ready to go up, one of the groups of hikers I passed is already up in the tower. Nancy explains the working of a lookout and what we do. After they leave, I ask Nancy to refresh me. We start off with the classical “name that place”. To my embarrassment when Nancy asks me to point out Bear Mountain in Fresno, I point to Bald Mountain. I quickly realized my mistake and pointed to the right place. We also go over the radio and how to change tones. This might be useful if the NPS radio runs out of power like our notes indicate it might.

Clam Shell with the missing pin

By 1700, we felt good that we could find places and use the radio well. So Nancy takes off and I start settling in. I take stock of the radio battery situation. It looks like the rechargeable battery is fully charged, so I changed that out. One minor success which will make my life easier. Looking at the AA’s, most of them are pretty grody-a technical term meaning that they are corroded, consequently unusable. But I still have enough to last me through the weekend. Looking at the spare holder for the AA batteries, it also has corrosion in it. It is also missing a pin. So it is not good.

At 1758, Buck Rock went out of service, along with Delilah. I go out of service right at the same time. I fix myself a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich and get settled into my home for the next 48 hours. I read and rest. 

That is until 1954. Rich over at Delilah text’s me about a wildfire on Butternut Lane in Miramonte. He must have been listening to the CalFire radio. I look at an ESRI fire map called #FireMapper and zero in on an incident called Butter. It looks like it is just off of Butternut Lane on a road called Baldpate Lane. I give him the azimuth from Delilah , but he cannot see it, too many hills in the way. But I look straight down on it and do not see anything. I hear on the CalFire radio they have aviation involved. They do not see anything either. Wendy also calls me up and asks what is going on. I tell her that it looks like a false alarm. Friends of hers were concerned about the tank overhead.

Recently I bought a personal locator beacon called Zoleo. When I tested it out last month, I got inconsistent results. So I am trying it out tonight. Once again, was not too successful. But my daughter came to my rescue. She sent me a page which explained what I was doing wrong. Instead of holding down the check in button, just tap it. Bingo! Much happier now.

 

I had thought of going for a walk, but it is getting dark and I am tired. I talk with Sherri for 30+ minutes before going to bed. After reading, I roll over and fall asleep before 2200. I must have been tired. But it has been a good day.

Background

A couple of weeks ago, we were rear ended on our way to Salem, OR. I have been having a stiff neck. A Kaiser doctor recommended not lifting more than ten pounds. So Sherri and Steven have helped me get thighs together. The neck is doing much better now.

June 19, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: June 19, 2022 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background : 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

Happy Father’s Day to me! I also mistakenly signed up for lookout duty on Father’s Day duty. Not sure how Freud would view this mistake-was it unconsciously willful or that I did not plan well? I do enjoy my times up at a fire lookout. I also enjoy my special times with my children-hard to think of them as grown adults. I guess they will always be my children in some way or another.

Needle Dump Smoke

I got up at 0530, packed the car, had breakfast and left by 0700. First I needed to get gas at Costco and then I was off. I made it to Grant Grove by 0835. Then drove the Panoramic Point road to the Park Ridge service road. By the time I got to the lookout, it was 0905.

Since I am only up here for a day, I do not need to lug a whole bunch of stuff up-just a backpack and my laptop. I get set up, take the weather and go in service by 0930. When I went in-service with Ash Mountain Fire, they informed me that the Needle Dump* would be burning-this is an upgrade from, some times before when there was the thought process of hey what is that smoke and working it out that the Needle Dump is burning. A short time later, I hear Super 6 calling on the radio.. He elaborates a bit more.

I had already seen the smoke and was assuming it was from a chimney. It is much better to be informed than to guess should I report this? And to whom?

Towards Redwood Canyon

And now it gives me some time to look around and get familiar with what I am seeing. Much of the territory I am looking at I see from Delilah, where I was over Memorial Day weekend. But I am looking at an area at a 90^o degrees from Delilah-in some cases like McKenzie Ridge, I am seeing the back side of it. So each lookout has its own learning and relearning effort each year.

 

 

Before I came up, I talked with Wendy, who is the lead for Park Ridge. I indicated to her that sometime when I am up here this year, I would like her to come up and talk about the front country some. I know my way pretty much around the backcountry. But she lives in the front country, knows the places and the people. She knows the area, so much more than I do. To her, the area has meaning through the lives of the people she has known and the events which have taken place under her eyes. While to me, most of the places will be names on the made and I will not have intimate connection with the land.

 

The front country

A little after 1000, I see a car drive up. It is Wendy. She decided that today is a good day to explain the front country to a willing student. She spends about three hours with me going through places like Hilltop Church down in Badger, the various drainages andlike Sand Creek. She routes me up and down roads which most people never see or heard of. And then she talks about a thoroughbred ranch near the base of Bear Mountain Tulare called Farley Ranch. I wonder if that is any relationship to the Farley ranch in Kingsburg. I wrote down a lot, but she went through so much more than what my head could handle. I think after the three hours, she could tell her student’s eyes must have been getting crossed with the information she passed on.

 

 

Shell Mountain and Buena Vista Peak

She leaves a bit after 1300 and I start to review what she has told me. I suppose the best thing to do is to get back into Park Ridge soon. But looking at my calendar. that may not happen. Fortunately, this has been an uneventful day both in the Park and the Forest, so I can concentrate on relearning the territory.

 

 

Looking down where the KNP fire came up to

 

Sherri makes it up here to help me celebrate Father’s Day. She was not able to make it with me at Delilah over Memorial Day. So this is a good sight. She is content to look around and get the feel for being in a lookout without doing the technical aspects of being up here. I am just glad she is here.

One of the things about being up here is that I have time to look out over where the KNP Complex fire laid waste. Sherri and I saw it from the perspective of Buena Vista Peak last week. Now I am looking right down on the edge of where the fire went to. On the other hand, there is a sense of vastness when looking around from a lookout. You can see what a fire did not touch, but could have. You are thankful it did not take out this lookout. If it had, Wilsonia and Grant Grove would have been toast. And then there is all of the forest from here to Shell Mountain which is green. How close we came to destruction which would have been three or four times how much got destroyed. Thankful for our firefighters and how things worked out.

 

Delilah in the evening

Steven now comes up the road. He decided to hike the 2.75 miles of Park Ridge. It is good to see him up here. I think it is the first time he has been inside of this lookout. Also it is a blessing to have a son join me on this day. We spend about an hour or so together before it gets close to shutting up the lookout for the next person. I go out of service with Porterville and Ash Mountain.

Sherri and Steven have gone ahead and will order pizza from Bear Mountain Pizza. I am closing up the lookout and leaving things all tidy for the next person (at least that is what I am attempting to do.) I get into my truck about 10 minutes after they left. But that ten minutes makes a difference. After leaving the park, I get behind a slow moving vehicle and need to wait and wait and wait. By the time I get to Squaw Valley, Sherri and Steven have gotten the pizza and are waiting on a picnic table for me. In that way, I am coming just in time. The pizza hits the spot. We get back to Fresno around 2030, a bit tired, but having had an enjoyable day.

 

 

Background

*Needle Dump. This is an area where excess ground debris, particularly around the cabins at Wilsonia is dumped. While conditions are good, the Park will set the debris on fire to get rid of it. Much better this way, then if a fire sweeps through the area.

July 5, 2020 - Delilah Lookout

Title: July 5, 2020 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Background :   Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

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.

====================================================

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.

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 355^O.

Gogle Earth view of Balch Heliport

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 210^o 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).

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

Hummingburd

Hummingbirds from the bottom

July 4, 2020 - Delilah Lookout

Title: July 4, 2020 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : Animals :

Ants 72' up and still climbing about 20'. Gone Sunday

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Woke up around 0500, but drifted on and off for then next hour or so. Got up 0600 and checked lightning report-none. Then just dawdled for the next hour or so. Breakfast is granola.

Gary, the Window Washer

   

We are on extended hours, so we go in service, along with Buck Rock at 0800. The sun is a bit warm this morning, but it should turn nice around 1100. This morning is pretty mundane. Jeff calls us to check on us. Nothing important.

At Delilah, the temps which the body feels is usually the inverse of what the actual temperature is. In the morning, the air is still and the sun catches you and bakes you. But around 1100 the breezes come along and it becomes really pleasant. Good thing with no visitors around, there is no dress code, particularly in the morning-the hours I get a tan.

Spoke too soon. We had a visitor. Not in the tower, but a local who circles the tower. Sherri is on one of the lower rungs and talks with them. Turns out they were the ones we saw last night on Davis Road. They said they own property down there.

Red-Shouldered Hawk in flight

Back to washing windows and scanning. Sometimes we even catch a bird (in flight) which does not humm. Speaking of birds, there was a magnificent bird of prey which we are not sure of the type: hawk or eagle (From Sherri’s description, Rose thinks it is a red-shouldered hawk)? But we enjoyed it soaring from below us, then over the cab and back down towards Bear Creek. Then it took off over Dude Ridge, not to be seen again. Excitement!

Lots of radio traffic concerning many people not doing the right thing. First, we are under a lot of restrictions on where fires may be lit or where people may camp. Plus people are parking on the road, blocking traffic and generally disregarding the rules.This is keeping people on our end of the world pretty busy, except for us. We are pretty much isolated. But Buck Rock has been on the radio all afternoon directing people in the Hume Lake Big Meadows areas where there are smoke, mostly from campsites. Jeff is showing why he is trusted up there.

Dead Trees

An example of this is a patrol from Sierra who was going up the Kings to Garnet Dike. When he crossed the bridge above Pine Flat, he came across two groups who were parked. From the radio traffic, they had a pretty good fire going and had litter just spread throughout the area. I wondered what were they thinking? Were they trying to be caught being in such an obvious place? The patrol did not cite them because they both put out the fire and cleaned up the trash.

Flag over Delilah

1600 has come and gone. Sherri left me to take a nap earlier this afternoon-for whatever reason, I needed it. Felt a lot better afterwards. I did an inventory of Delilah’s supplies and sent it off to Mich for her information.

Lasagna and Homemade BreadDinner

At 1627 Sierra says that all prevention, detection and suppression have extended hours to 2200. Sequoia NF has already requested we be on until 2000. After that we cannot see anyway, so we will go out of service then. Besides we need to turn back around and go in service at 0800 tomorrow. For us old folks, that gets a bit rough.

Between scans, we have dinner. Tonight is lasagna, bread, While the lasagna does taste good, being up here, it really does taste good.

Another view of Pine Flat at Golden Hour

It is 2000 and we go out of service. The last of our three lookouts-they needed to go out earlier. So as Kathy said, We were the lone eyes of the forest in our area. A big burden, but we did not fail.

Today I felt more tired than yesterday. Still, it is good to be up here, even if there is not a big event we are involved with.

Two special treats for tonight:

1. If there are any 4th of July fireworks within 20 miles of us, we should see them
2. Tonight there is a partial lunar eclipse.

On the second one, the full moon has been spectacular. Well worth what we paid for it-12 hours of looking. But where was the eclipse? At least I did not see anything faded or cut during the time it was to occur. Disappointed a bit. Still how the moon looked was out of this world.

Lunar Eclipse-really?

The fireworks, we could see neighborhood actions throughout our viewing range. They were like little flowers bursting out and disappearing all within a few seconds. I do not think we saw anything large going on, which is just as well with the large crowds the big shows attract and the potential for spreading COVID-19.

I am feeling tired so we went to bed before 2200. Read for a while until the falling of an ipad kept waking me up.

Extra Photo's

Sunset and Pine Flat Reservoir

Reflections on afirefinder

Moon Rise

Animals

One of last year's babies

Hummers

August 11, 2018 - Delilah Lookout

 Title: August 11, 2018 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Sunrise

Type: Lookout

Description:

The early, morning glow has started in earnest before I have opened my eyes. By the time I pop my head over the desk, the sun has just started to peak its face over the crest. Evidently it does not like what it is seeing as Apollo keeps his fiery face masked behind a layer of smoke.

And that is how today is. Everything in sight is veiled with smoke, not that we are smelling it. Once again our visibility will be limited. Patterson Bluffs is just barely visible while neither of the Bear Mountains can be seen.

Sherri taking the weather

Breakfast is oatmeal-easy to fix. Then cleaning up and putting stuff away. Now for the most delicate operation which we can do at the lookout: taking the pee can-a Folger’s coffee plastic container from some friends of ours-down the 80’ to the outhouse without splattering it over myself. Successful!

We start to get into lookout mode by taking the weather and then doing the first scan of the day. Not that we have been blind for the previous three ours, just have not been systematic nor looked with the binoculars. Then we go into service with both Porterville (PV) and Sierra (SNF).

On of the interesting.radio calls is about a log burning in SNF land. We felt pretty good being able to pinpoint the location on the map with the lat/lon. Of course, I have a spreadsheet which given to coordinates, I am able tell the azimuth and distance. It puts it at the Bass Lake Overlook.

We also hear Patrol 33 giving coordinates of an out of control campfire. Turns out it is at Stony Creek campground. She says the fire has gotten about 10’ outside of the firepit. But she can handle putting it out. Sure enough about half an hour later, we hear that Patrol 33 is returning back to Big Meadows.

Another morning visitor

We have a visitor! This a rarity. The man comes up to have a look around, but his wife is a bit taken back by the height we are above the ground. They have a new truck and are wondering about going down Davis Road-closed due to potential tree fall. He takes a look around and then returns back the way he came. Later on this evening, we have another truck which comes up the road, but they only go around the lookout and return up the road.

We hear some of numbers, 336 and 332 which we are not familiar with. I think from a conversation with Kathy she indicated that these numbered folks are more recreational people. But it also sounds like they do a lot of the grunt work like emptying garbage cans and cleaning restrooms. One of them is coming over to our neck of the woods, over to Millwood. But we do not see him.

Just to show how much people do not leave their natures back in the city when they come out to public lands, we get a radio report of a Patrol 46-way out of our area-who needs to respond to a campground host at Camp 9. This sets us to scrambling to figure out where Camp 9 is-Lake Isabella far to the south of us. As the story unfolds, law enforcement is called in for backup as well. Turns out a camper had taken a shovel out of the campground hosts cart and taken a swing with it at the host. Wow! Get real! I do not hear what happens next, but about an hour later Patrol 46 calls in clear.

Then Patrol 33 comes on the radio again. You know the unattended campfire from Friday? Same spot, same people. Sounds like they will be getting something serious as there is a request for their license information. They are from Fresno of all places.

Looking over the edge

We start to see a cloud buildup, but it will not affect us today. There is a radio report from SNF which advices there may be some lighting strikes in the Dinkey area. We load up Weather Bug to see if there is anything closer to us. Nope-that is about as close as it gets to us-35 miles away.

Gary wandering

Now, it is time for folks to go out of service. So we start hearing the various Forest Service units going back to their quarters and out of service. And pretty soon it is our turn, along with the rest of the lookouts. At 1800 we go out of service. Quiet day on our part, particular when you have limited visibility and considering what happens out there. Dinner is Costco spinach/cheese ravioli along with nan for bread. After washing dishes, it is off to go for a walk.

Early today, I had looked down a slope close to Delilah and realized there was a log which looked sort of hanging over an edge. I was wondering if there was an edge really that close to Delilah. The first thing I noticed is that the slope from the road around Delilah to this log has about a 20-30% grade, but appears somewhat flat from above. But then the slope at the log is a really steep drop off. Gives me a new appreciation of how Delilah stands. The other thing which this little jaunt gave me was socks and shoes full of thistles. Exploration is not to be painless.

Smoke towards Bald and Bear Mountains

Setting Sun

We walk along the Delilah Road to the junction with road 12S19B. This is where we saw the truck in June go up and it goes right under Delilah towards the west of us. We walk about a third of a mile down the road and then decide we will need to come back up up. But the scenes towards Squaw Valley is pretty nice. The smoke is starting to lift and we are able to see some of the Valley lights.

Delilah at Dusk

When we get back, it is time to get ready for bed. I decide I will try sleeping out on the catwalk tonight. Hopefully the Pleiades meteor shower will show it-it should be a good show if it does as there is only a sliver of a moon showing. But in the meantime, Mars is glowing red to the south east and Saturn with its golden color is to the west-later on when I check the sky charts, it probably was Venus in the west. I think Jupiter is to the south of us. Looks like a nice night to look at stars.

Background
Weather.For those of you who might be interested, Sherri is reading the relative humidity using a sling psychometer. This device measures the  the temperature of the air dry and wet. The relative humidity is then determined from a chart for our elevation. The relative humidity is important as a low reading, typically less than 20%, will allow for easier ignition and spread of a fire.


Extra Photo's

There are cows in Sampson Flat

Bear and Bald Mountains.through the smoke

Gateway into Delilah

Sunset from Road 12S19B

Sun about to set

Orange skies

Animals

Did a coyote mate with a deer?

Bear Scat