August 6, 2025 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: August 6, 2025 - Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons 

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

 

Description:

It has been over a month since I have been in a Lookout. Of course, I have been somewhat busy with our Ireland trip. Also last week I was sick last week and probably if I was still sick this week, it would have been a good reason to stay home. But fortunately by Sunday I started to feel better.

Tuesday was the day which I got asked to do things lookout related. First Greg called me and asked me to identify the plug which the stove used. I like talking with him. In some ways it is like talking to myself-I think there are similar thought patterns.We also discussed one of the places which we use to orient the Osborne Firefinder. In particular, it is Burnt Point. We use eight orientation points or lantmarks at each lookout to make sure the FireFinder is oriented correctly. There was some question about what the correct azimuth is for this landmark. Also Wendy called and asked if she could meet me to take up some brochures.

Since this is an up and back, I can fit everything into a daypack, except for water. I get a good night's sleep and wake up at 0500. There is no lightning to report, so that is pretty quick. After eating breakfast, I am ready to go by 0630. I pull my food from the refrig, load the car and am off at 0700. I get to the Hume Lake Ranger District office a few minutes before 00800. Wendy is waiting for me. We talk for about 15 minutes-Wendy is the reason why Sherri and I are fire lookouts. We have only enjoyed the relationship more and more. She has some brochures for me to take up.

I stop at the Big Stump bathroom and then drive up to the Park Ridge Lookout. I get there a few minutes before 0900, plenty of time. It only takes a few minutes to unload the car. It is even faster than I thought it would be. The reason why it is quicker than I thought? I forgot my backpack. The thing which I will miss most is the food for the day. There are a few other things in there, but not essential. I should survive-living off of my body fat.

I get myself set up. One of the first things I do is to take the weather-all seems pretty good. Coming up from the Valley, it seemed like there was a layer of smoke-not sure what fire the smoke is from. But up near at 7,500’, I have pretty decent visibility. I go into service at 0930 with bother Porterville and Ash Mountain Fire.

I start on my first task-trying to figure out the plug. I pull out the stove, not as far as I would have liked. So I can only easily pull the plug out a fraction of an inch. I send a picture to Greg and shortly afterwards he indicates that he really does need to see the male end of the plug. So I reach over the counter and wiggle in and use my finger tips to wiggle the plug out. I did have a thought to use a screwdriver to wedge it out, but then after half a second, I thought how bad of an idea that was. Eventually I got the plug out, took a picture, sent it to Greg. He is happy. So the plug gets plugged in, the stove gets put back into its place, and it even works. 

 

The second part of my task was to come up with what the azimuth was for Burnt Point. I take my view carefully and compare it to our visual book. The visual book has pictures of everything we can see from the lookout and the azimuth for it. I was within two minutes of the visual book value. That is close. I also have a spreadsheet with the computed azimuth from the lat/long of two points. With this one I was within one minute.

Visual	169o30’
Firefinder	169o32’
Computed	169o33’

This gets me to about 1030. The rest of the day is spent doing lookout things. Such as scanning, listening to the radio, and a bit of daydreaming. If you have looked at my Burnt Point page, you will notice that there is a picture of the landmark. I took some pictures of places which I do not have pictures of them before. We shall see how usable they are.

With no lunch, I ignore any rumblings coming from my stomach for the afternoon. It is one of those afternoons which lookouts both are happy with because there is no relevant activity. But it does make the time go past slowly. Around 1730, I got ready to vacate the lookout. And at 1750, I went out of service.

After I text Sherri with my plans to eat on the way down at Bear Mountain Pizza, I start off. At Log Meadow, there is a flock of bovine-I know, cattle do not come in flocks. When I get cell reception, I let Wendy know so she can tell whoever is coming in tomorrow to be on the alert for these beasts. When I get to Big Stump I put in my order and tell them that I would eat in. I got behind a slow car, but that is OK. I get to Bear Mountain Pizza a few minutes after 1900. Apparently they were closing in-restaurant dining when I came in because the guy did not seem to be happy that I was eating in. They turned the sign to close after I got my order. So I eat fast and did not doddle. I get home a little have 2000, a bit tired, but glad I went up.

Trail Lesson: No matter how much you take care to pack everything, chances are that you will forget something. Deal with it and move on.

September 10, 2017 - Park Ridge Lookout

Title:  September 10, 2017 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : Animals 

Hike Info:

Type:  Lookout

Description:

Last night, I asked Wendy about coming up to Park Ridge the night before. She said yes. So today I went for a walk, worked on my desk. Then we went out to dinner at Huckleberry’s/ Food was ok, but service was slow. The idea was if I could leave by about 1:30, I could go for a hike, Hitchcock’s Meadow-a short hike, still a hike. But we got back from lunch at 2:00 pm and would leave at the earliest 2:30. No good for my hike. So I stayed around Fresno till 4pm.

I was aiming for 5:30pm to be at the Panorama Pt gate. But I did need to get gas. A line slowed me down a bit. Then got behind a slow car. So I got to the gate a little after 6pm. Having been warned that it is awkward to meet a car on the road, I waited inside the gate. When I unlocked the gate, I noticed that the series of locks were not set right. With the fear of Wendy in mind, I took a before picture for her. A few minutes later Carol came down the road-the same Carol as on our other two Park Ridge hikes in July and August. We talked for a few minutes and then I locked the gate and drove in. Got into Park Ridge about 6:40pm.

That is when I found the problem of the trip. The milk bottle had gotten unsealed, spreading milk on the bottom of the truck. Cleanup time.  Talked with Kathy and Wendy, electronically. There was a single thunder roll about 7:30pm. That got me ready in case more was to come in my direction. Then had a conversation with my mother. Neat to show the sunset to her. Finally talked with Sherri before going to bed, just after a good moon rose.

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September 10, 2017

For the last hour I woke up off and on as I watch a pink line in the eastern sky grow. Finally at 0600 got up. The lookout yesterday said she could not see the Western Divide. This morning it is grand. Of course later on the smoke may come back and then it will be the same yuk stuff. Or maybe some clouds will come in. But until that time, I will enjoy the sight with my breakfast-granola, without the milk. (Can I cry over my spilt milk?) Walked a little ways just to stretch my legs for the start of the day. Now it is time to take the weather.

At 0925 I go in service with both Sequoia NF and Ash Mountain Fire. One of the differences which you need to get used to being at Park Ridge is the additional amount of radio traffic and the slightly different vocabulary used. Such as with Ash Mountain, we also hear much of the National Park traffic for SEKI.  Bathroom needs plumber? Yep. Road construction holding traffic? Yep. Bear breaks vehicle window? Yep-and don’t forget the bear jams!. Disturbance at a campground? Yep. So there is a lot more non-fire traffic here than at Delilah. The trick is filter out, rather than get involved with the drama-as fun as some of it is.

 But in my world it is scanning for smoke, listening to the radio, taking notes on staffing and weather which are my bread and butter duties. In between all of this, I make sure I remember the area: which hump is Burnt Point (this is actually an easy one to identify, but some bearings I was using did not agree with other bearings, so was wondering which is correct and why the difference), where is the Hogback and the like?  Around 1230 I have my sandwich for lunch.

And then the visitors start rolling in. The first couple is from Connecticut. We talked about a wide assortment of things including bark beetles, how far can we see and where is all the smoke coming from. Then they leave after about 20-25 minutes. Another man has come up and is looking at the brown haze over the Central Valley. He makes a comment about the smog. I reply not only that but there is smoke mixed in. He says, “Gary!” Turns out it is John, a co-worker of mine and a teacher of one of my children-now a college dean. John, Brenda and his son, as well as his friends have hiked up to Park Ridge. Last time I saw them was at the Christmas Tree Lane walk. It was good talking with him and catching up on. I, of course, do the fire lookout tour guide stuff. But it is even more fun talking with people whom I know.

After they leave, I realize I have not done the things I should be doing up here, like take the weather. As I have been talking with the lookout visitors, I do scan the area to make sure there is no obvious smokes. Then another couple comes up and we talk about. They mention they have been to all three lookouts: Buck Rock, Delilah and Park Ridge. I am impressed! Buck Rock everybody goes there. Park Ridge is a hiker magnet. But Delilah? You have to be purposeful to go there. Steve and Kathy and I click right off-so it is another case of, well maybe not ignoring my duties, but at least delaying them. They live down close to the Kings River in the valley.

The evening is coming fast and it seems like most of the day has been spent talking. I get a few more scans in and then it is house cleaning time. I get about half the windows cleaned up and am about to mop. A couple more visitors come by. Then scan some more and mop the floor. Time to go on home. But first, go out of service with both SEKI and Sequoia NF.

Now for the big question of the day. Sherri had mentioned going to Snowline Lodge to eat sometime. So I decided to check it out. When I stopped, I asked if it was too late to grab something to eat. They indicated, it was not a restaurant. But then they looked at my Buck Rock volunteer shirt and this was the key to a conversation. People around here are appreciative of those connected with fire fighting since the Rough Fire went right behind them a couple of years ago. Asked if I wanted a cup of coffee? Not know. But they also invited if we wanted to stop in sometime on the way up, coffee would be ready for us. So I stopped at Bear Mountain Pizza and then headed home.

Extra Photo's

Animals

Places: CA-Burnt Point

Burnt Point-3,727' (Shadequarter Mountain) (36.5829025,   -118.9112120)
Legal: T15S, R28E, Sec 35NE

	Deg	Min	Vertical Deg	Min	Distance	Visible
Delilah	143	0	0	11	19.2	Yes
Park Ridge	169	33	-4	33	10.0	Yes
Buck Rock	194	44	-4	21	11.1

Burnt Point Creek-2,123' (Shadequarter Mountain) (36.5777243,   -118.8945466)
Legal: T__S, R__E, Sec__

	Deg	Min	Vertical Deg	Min	Distance	Visible
Delilah	141	29	-1	21	20.0
Park Ridge	164	57	-5	29	10.6
Buck Rock	189	41	-6	51	11.2

Description : Trips : References : Pictures 


Description:

From GNIS:

• Burnt Point Creek:
• Heads on the southwest slope of Pine Ridge at Hidden Spring, flows southwest to North Fork Kaweah River
• According to the decision card, naming this creek in 1928, it says "Opposite, and near, the mouth of this creek is a mountain summit known as "Burnt Point". It is suggested that  this name be given to  the creek because it is appropriate, helps to identify and is not a common designation which is without meaning."
•  Burnt Point: Located in sec 35,T15S,R28E, Mount Diablo Meridian

Trips:

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References:

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Pictures:

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