August 11, 2021 - Delilah Lookout

 

Title: August 11, 2021 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type:  Lookout

Description:

Mistletoe

As we were going to retire last night, we went out and enjoyed a gander of the night sky. And it was magnificent! Enough that we spent more time out there-around 30 minutes. As we were heading in, I saw two very bright meteors directly to the north of us. Then when we were getting ready for bed, Sherri saw another one more to the northeast. So great to be up here at Delilah!

I also got up around 0100 to see if I could enjoy any more of the Perseids meteor shower. Saw a couple during my 25 minute stay, but nothing which was as good as earlier in the evening. It was warm out on the catwalk, So the time is not uncomfortable. Would have been more comfortable with a chair.

 

Pine Ridge-burnt trees on left

I saw a post from a friend of mine which was on my mind during my walk. What he said as an open Facebook question was What can be more arrogant than believing the same god who didn't stop the Holocaust will help you find your lost earring? I pondered what I was seeing by the road as I was walking. My friend’s exclamation talks about the horrific crimes against the Jewish people. But I was wondering if his objection was too weak. It seems to me as I see so many things either turning brown because of the heat or having died after a brief time of glory. Seems like the bigger question is, why does God permit death and decay and pain in this world at all? Of course, both Jews and Christians died and/or suffered in concentration camps with God not answering their prayers of deliverance either.

Dandelion

Still there is beauty in the decay I am seeing as I ponder my question rather than hisl. That lecherous mistletoe on that tree gives a sense of the coming of Christmas; the dandelion weed shows close to the perfection of a sphere; looking up the slope I see the dead, burnt trees from the Rough Fire six years ago, but I also see the signs of new hope. Do I look at the beauty around me as a clue to the character of the world? Or the destruction which is also out there? How do I understand and process what my senses tell me? As CS Lewis said,

I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly,
of us, why should they hear the babble that we think
we mean? How can they meet us face to face
till we have faces? Till We Have Faces, pg 294

Lewis goes on and notes that once we see God’s face, our questions melt away. Until that time, I think we are left with something like a modified Pascal’s Wager.

Now it is time to go back into the tower and let these thoughts percolate in the back of my mind. As a side note, during my walk, I came across what is pretty obviously a bear track, but it has six toes-wondering if the bear is of the habit of walking over its paw marks to confuse people like me. Sherri and I have oatmeal for breakfast. Then we take the weather, Today we have good visibility, but an RH of 20%. That is how we go into service at 0930.

Jeff's Wind Block

Pretty normal morning. Except that the handheld radio started giving us fits last night. We were hearing everybody but Sierra’s Dispatch. We could talk and Sierra would hear us. That problem continued this morning, even swapping out batteries did not help/ But we made due by listening for Sierra on our base radio and responding on the handheld. Not a great situation, but we adapt. Buck Rock is not having that issue. Must be our handheld or the hand holding the radio.

After lunch, I take a nap while Sherri stays vigilant. After half an hour, there are three beeps on the radio-fire or an emergency. That gets me out of my slumber quickly. There is a fire on the Sierra side of the world. It is at Courtright Reservoir. We will not be able to see the smoke from it unless the smoke gets pretty large as Patterson Mtn is between us and it. A bit frustrating as it is always something to enliven a lookout experience. Still we track it on the radio while continuing our duties.

 Have I said it gets hot in Delilah's cab? Yesterday was hotter, but today is still enough to make us sweat. Jeff, one of the very experienced lookout came up with an interesting way to provide relief. He put together a wind block to funnel a breeze into the cab. Worked out pretty well.  

The rest of the day is pretty normal, what life is like as a fire lookout. As we approach 1800, we get the cab clean and take down our stuff to the car-one of us does remain on duty, ever vigilant. 1800 rolls around and we go out of service. By 1830, we were in the car and starting our drive home. We are a few minutes late to our family’s Wednesday Zoom call. But that is OK-we are on the phone and need to get out of the hills to get good reception. About the time our Zoom call ends, we roll into home. After eating and unpacking, the shower really felt good.

Extra Photo's

Saying goodbye to Delilah for now

Cows blocking the road. What did the cows think we were taking?

Looking Northwest

Clouds towards the east

Clouds where the Dusy fire was

Delilah Lookout on Gary's walk

Animals

A six-toed bear???

What is a stay at Delilah without a hummingbird picture

Flowers and Plants

September 14, 2020 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: September 14, 2020 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :Background 

Trail head:  Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

It is Friday afternoon and I am unsure if I am going up to Park Ridge Lookout. Smoke continues to be a factor in the skies. And then there is the air quality. Goes from bad to downright ugly. I will make a call tomorrow AM about if I am going up or not. Nice to have some visual with the webcams up there.

Both Saturday and Sunday were ugly. No visibility and the air quality monitors I could see were down right hazardous. So I did not go up. Wendy concurred and will notify the powers to be. Sunday night looked around and it looked a bit promising. The air quality is troublesome. What I have pretty much determined for myself is that I will go up Monday morning. If the air is breathable, I will stay even if it is limited visibility. If the air is pretty bad, bad down I will go. So I get my Monday work done today and will see about tomorrow.

Big Baldy behind dead tree

It is now Monday morning and I get up at 0620. After getting the lightning report started-none in our area, I check out Park Ridge. Visibility looking better, not great. But air quality still looks bad. But I will go up like I said before and see how much I can tolerate. Fresno is not good either.

I leave at 0720. Smokey down in the Valley. Driving into the foothills, it looks like a Winter fog or clouds. There is text chatter about the Bullfrog Fire. This is Northwest of Courtwright Reservoir. It has not received too much attention, its much bigger cousin, the Creek Fire is getting all of it.

I get to Grant Grove a little before 0900 and take a few minute break. You can tell there is smoke in the area, but not nearly as bad as I feared. I then headed up towards Panorama Point and cut off on the Park Ridge Road. The smoke seems about the same, but not as bad as breathing.

 

It is good to be up at Park Ridge Lookout at least once this year. Each lookout is a little bit different. Unlike Delilah, this one is only 20’ off the ground. So if I forget something, it is only a minute out of the tower. Also even though we look at some of the same territory as Delilah, it is a different view.

I go up and clean/sanitize the areas I will be touching. This takes me to about 0930. Time to go into service with both Porterville and Ash Mountain Fire. Not a problem, except I want to say “Delilah” instead of “Park Ridge Lookout”. I manage to avoid that mistake, but not by much.

McKenzie and Pine Ridge area

The view from the lookout is not much. I can barely see Big Baldy, a generous five miles away. Looking northward, I can see Delilah without my binoculars. So go figure! But that is about as far as I can see. And that is pretty much the story of today.

Most of the day is pretty mundane. Generally I will be looking around, refreshing what landmarks there are around me. Today? After doing the first look around, there was very little more to identify. Either there was haze or visibility was limited. Scans were taking just a couple of minutes instead of seven to ten.

This left me plenty of time to look around. One thing was Wendy has done a set of visual posts. A vast improvement over the visual books. Also got familiar with a new hand-held radio. So I tried to be productive. But mostly paid attention to some texts from other lookouts.

There was a thread of texts from Rachel, my daughter. She was engaged in a debate about the current set of wildfires-due to climate change? due to improper forest management? My little piece was to share some of the recent prescribed burns (Hint: just search on my block for “prescribed”).

Gary in a lookout invasion

Back to the sky. I see ash falling. Not like a rain, but more as a few flakes of snow fluttering down. Delilah and Big Baldy are starting to fade, not completely going away, but definitely will be a lot harder to see anything abnormal over there.

Around 1500, I saw a text saying an evacuation around Three Rivers. The part up the South Fork of the Kaweah is mandatory, but the rest is under “get ready to go”. We have a couple lookouts in that area.

I need to leave at 1630. There is a Bible Study tonight which I need to leave. Right now I am wondering if I will be back up here tomorrow. It has been good to be here.

Background

Two things:

• Tuesday I looked at the webcams. There was very little to no visibility at Park Ridge Lookout. So I will not be going up. No reason to.

• Also we found out today that Jordan Lookout down south has been burnt in the SQF Complex Fire. That is a voice to be missed. I wonder if it will be like the Needles Lookout and take forever to rebuild, if ever.

September 6, 2020 - Delilah

 

Title:  September 6, 2020 - Delilah
Hike Info : Description 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Please note: This is not a record of the Creek Fire. We were at Delilah Lookout, 25-30 miles away from the action. Below is a combination of my recollection, Forest Service radio communications, text and e-mail conversations with those who know fire. Consequently, this blog entry should be read from the perspective of a person who had a narrow, but interesting window into fighting the Creek Fire and the rescues which all the first responders achieved.

 

Description:

A new day. What will it bring? Smoke obviously. But will there be good news from the Creek Fire? Will there be an expansion? How about all of the people who needed to get out at Mammoth Pool or China Peak?

The sun gives a hint about the smoke. It rises right where the moon rose last night, over Converse Mountain. Today it is a fiery red ball with the trees being silhouetted.

Both Shuteye and Mt Tom Lookouts are now endangered. Shuteye has left its lookout and is heading down the mountain. He has not been heard from in a while. Mt Tom is leaving soon. At 0848 there is good news that the Shuteye lookout has been heard from and is safely out of the danger zone. We follow on the radio Mt Tom’s lookout leaving. He stops on the way out and finds a car covered in ash. No trace of the occupants.

We go inservice at 0800. Once again, we have a low RH-17%. Not a good sign. At 1020 we notify Porterville that we only have 2 to 3 miles of visibility. It is hot! Outside, it is 96⁰. But inside it is over 100⁰. and it is going to get warmer. Fortunately, we have been able to cool it down a bit to about 96⁰. Usually the mornings are hot at Delilah followed by breezes going up the Canyon, cooling down the tower. But today those breezes do not come up. And at 1500, we have even less visibility.

 

And then there are the people at Mammoth Pool and China Peak. Mammoth Pool looks like a large helicopter came in and lifted them out-maybe several trips. Not sure. But it sounds like there may still be a few more people down there. If this is true, that has got to be an amazing evacuation. My understanding is that they still cannot get into Mammoth Pool via a land route-the fire is still raging there.

On China Peak, it sounds like they were able to get people out last night with their vehicles. From what we heard is that they brought people up 168 until Tamarack Ridge and then took some of the Dinkey Creek roads down to where Dinkey Creek is. On the other hand, I heard they brought out the Wishon and Courtwright people down Black Rock Road to Balch Camp. When Sherri and I did this in June I was glad we were going up it, not down it. I think the rangers agree with that assessment as it was reported that a group of campers-found some drivers who were soberish to drive down Black Rock Road.

There are also backpackers coming out of the backcountry. Some are congregating at VVR. Also at Florence Lake. We also heard them say that they should stop at Blayney Meadows. I have got to assume they will airlift them out as well.

Fog or Smoke?

 

1530 and we see a blanket of smoke enveloping the tower like a fog bank. Even though it is hot, we have closed all of the windows and the door to keep out the smoke. Our inside temperature climbs from about 94⁰ to over 100 ⁰. We cannot tell how hot-the indoor thermometer only says “Hi”. We have a discussion first between Sherri and I and then with the group about vacating the lookout. We decided that if the conditions are the same at 1600, we will vacate-probably not coming back up tomorrow as we will not have visibility.

1600 rolls around and no improvement. We notify our group of plans. Wendy says that BC32 is in agreement. When I talk with him to confirm our decision, he also says to let Div 3 know when we go out of service. We go out of service a few minutes after 1700.

We made it back home by about 1930 with no problems. Wonder if we will be back up at Delilah this year?

===========

I thought I might venture a trip back to Delilah on Labor Day, Monday, Sept 7th. Looking at Delilah’s webcams, there would be no value as it was very much all smoked over and no visibility.

August 14, 2013 - Hobler Lake

Title: August 13, 2013 - Hobler Lake

Trail head:  Maxson Trail Head

Hike Info:

Trail: Maxson Trail Head to Hobler Lake

Destination: Hobler Lake

Distance:  9.16 miles  (1.21 miles*) 

Travel Time: 5:55 (1.55 mph)     (0:48*)

Moving Time: 4:15 (2.16 mph)  (0:31*)

Elevation Rise:    1,384'   (152'*)

Maximum Elevation: 9,089'
*A group of people overshot Hobler Lake. The indicated information is the overshot amount

Description:
It has been awhile since Sherri and I have been on a hike with our meetup group, particularly with the mid-week folks. So it was good to be hiking with John, Jerry, Lee F, JerryJ, Nat,  and the female Lee-we missed having Cathey along. Also with other folks such as Rosie and Megan. Hiking can be a pretty socialable event, if done right. This was one of those time.

After gathering in Clovis we headed on up to Courtright Reservoir in Sierra National Forest.  But before arriving at the Maxson trail head, we made a brief stop to examine a unique geological exhibit, explaining the different type of rock and soils in the area. This brought interest to our trip as we were surrounded by domes.

John and Gary

The first leg of the hike was along the Dusy four-wheel drive road. But after about a mile, we branched off onto a hiking path. It was pleasant and gentle. While the affects of the drought was noticeable, the area  was forested so the total effect of going up the valley was refreshing. We came upon a group of backpackers who are going to go over Hell-For-Sure Pass, then up Evolution Valley and Basin before Muir Pass and out over Bishop Pass. One of the people, from Hawaii, had done the JMT last year and wants to do it again.

Elephant Head

At the next trail junction, at Chamberlain Camp area, we started the major ascent. John says about two hundred and fifty feet. But the map shows more like four or five hundred. Still, not as bad as a high Sierra pass. The trail is not as well graded, with some steps being up to three feet up. Not bad for me, but some people are not above six feet tall either. But once we got to the next fork--plenty of jokes about which way to go, the trail eases it grade and we go along pretty well. John shows Lee and I his elephant head burl-very curiously shaped. I think it has a tusk, but John says it is feeding himself. But everybody else misses this scenic wonder.

Hikers

Hobler Lake

After about three-quarters of a mile more, we come up to the lake, Hobler Lake. A nice lake, with plenty of grass on its northern and eastern end. But pretty pleasant. But wait! As we look around, no Sherri, no Megan. Where have they gone? Others think they may have seen them and shouted after them, but that group just continued on. So I took out after them. After a little more than half of a mile, I caught up to the four people who overshot the lake, and we went back to relax with lunch and a view of the lake.

Chamberlian Cabin

The trip back took us about as long as coming up. At the base of the steep ascent, at Chamberlain Camp, we went west, instead of returning back via the same trail. In about a hundred and fifty feet, we came across the Chamberlian's cabin. Built in 1945, it is padlocked closed. But recently, last May, an outhouse was put up by Backcountry Horsemen of California. We made use of the facilities and continued on.

Rocky Road with Gary, John and Lee F

This trail had many places where  we skirted around fallen trees. At the Voyager Rock campground, we hit the Dusy Road again. We follow it as it heads south, inland of Courthright Reservois. We do not get to see much of the reservoir, but do get to enjoy some brief views of Maxson Dome and the valley we walked up this morning. We also cross a long stretch of granite slab where the road goes, marked only by stone and a few blue highway bumps. A couple of four-wheel drive jeeps pass up-friendly folk--and we reach the cars around 2:30. Content.

But not completely content. We go down to Shaver Lake and try to eat at the Trading Post. But they do not start serving until 5. So across the street to Shaver Lake Pizza we go and order up. Now we are content as we wolf down the pizza and drinks of choice.

Place: CA-Maxson

Maxon: Meadows, Dome, Lake, Basin (Courtright Reservoir, Blackacap Mtn)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
According to the USGS, Maxson was an early stockman; not the same person as the "Maxon" referred top by Gudde, Place Names, p 196. The dome and the meadows were named first; both are on the Mt Goddard 30' map, 1912. "Maxson Basin" is the most recent having just appeared on the 7.5' quad., 1982 (SiNF) Places Names of the Sierra Nevada, Peter Browning

Trips:

• August 14, 2013

Pictures:

Places: CA-Hobler Lake

Hobler Lake (Ward Mountain)
(Long, Lat)

Description:


The lakee is named for Sig Hobler, a cattleman, according to John Dale, a former Dinkey packer. (DFG survey.) (Sierra National Forest).    Places Names of the Sierra Nevada,  Peter Browning

Trips:

• August 14, 2013
• 
  

Pictures:

Place: CA-Courtwright

Courtright Reservoir, Dam (Courtright Reservoir)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
H.H. Courtright (1887-1956); in the electrical supply business in Fresno; president of the San Joaquin Light and Power Company. The reservoir was formed by a rockfill dam across Helms Creek, completed in 1958. Before it was flooded, part of the area was named :Sand Meadows. (SiNF).  Places Names of the Sierra Nevada, Peter Browning

Trips:


Pictures:

Place: CA-Chamberlains Camp

Chamberlains Camp (Courtright Reservoir)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
"The present cabin (1961) was built by Carl Chamberlain in 1945; he ran cattle on the 'Post Corral Allotment' at the time." (SiNF history files.) (SiNF) Place Names of the Sierra Nevadas, Peter Browning

Trips:


Pictures: