October 18, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: October 18, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

I slept pretty well last night. A bit cold, even in the cab. I put on socks during the night and that helped to keep me warm. When I awoke this morning with first light, I decided that it was better to snuggle inside of the sleeping bag. So I finally got up at 0730. A bit late for me. Even stayed inside of the bag for awhile. We are slow getting started, but we will open for service at 0930.

Mill Flat Creek coming out of Sequoia Lake

Part of the reason why I lounged in my bag was that I finished reading an article by Michael Kunz in the Pacific Journal called John Muir and Pilgrimage through Sacred Land. Besides knowing Dr Kunz, what was interesting to me was the journey he took to retrace John Muir’s route to look at and ponder the Sequoia trees of our area. Muir explored the area of Sequoia Lake and the Converse Basin, Grant Grove and Giant Forest, and some further down. But Dr Kunz retraced Muir’s travels starting at the Kings River. He says that Muir went up Mill Flat Creek till he hit the Millwood area. All of this, along with the Converse Basin and Grant Grove is in direct observation of Delilah. I spent a lot of the day just gawking over the area, imagining what both John Muir and Michael Kunz saw in their travels. Maybe it is because I know the area or Michael, I enjoyed the article.

Shuteye

One of the good things about yesterday’s front coming through, even though it left things cold, we have a spectacular view! Shuteye Pk, 41 miles away is crystal clear. We can even see the peaks in southern Yosemite, such as Sing and Madera. If I really am able to convince myself, that I am seeing Red and Merced Peaks, about 60 miles away. This is sort of like last year on our last day at lookout, we had a clear and spectacular view. Sort of like a reward for serving the forest all summer long.

Sing, Madera, Red and Merced Peaks

We go in service at 0930 with the weather being great. And then we settle down into our normal life-as great as it is. I show Sherri about setting the handheld to scan so that you can hear radio traffic out of the cabin. Also we look at certain things on the base radio-which leads us to a bit of oops. We have a conversation with Buck Rock. She says that she tried to raise us on R5 Project, but we did not hear her. Sierra had done the lookout check-in without mentioning Buck Rock, so she was wondering if we heard her-affirmative. I figured out why we did not hear her-we had not returned the base radio to scan. Not the worst thing in my life.

No smoke towards our Mud Creek

Then we hear about aircraft being called out for an FKU incident. Where is that. A lot of our viewing incident is for CalFire, so should be able to see a smoke, particularly if calling out aircraft for it. This sets me to scrambling, wondering where it is. After scanning the area and coming up negative, I am desperate enough to turn on the radio for CalFire. Pretty soon we pick up a transmission about a Mud Fire in FKU land. Since fires are normally named after something in geographical proximity, I look for a future in our area with the word “Mud” in it. All which we can see in FKU territory is a Mud Creek about 22 miles to the west of us, just beyond Tivy Mtn. But there is no smoke and no planes. Then I start hearing about closing off roads in Monterey and Fresno Counties. Aha! No wonder. We are not blind! This is 90 miles away from us. Relief is off. Now to go back to the normal bit of looking for a smoke.

Sherri studying the fire finder map

Monarch Area

Yesterday Sierra missed us on the 1000 lookout check-in. Today it was Buck Rock’s turn. That gets cleared up quickly. Around noon, a new incident occurs down near Kernville. It does not really affect us, except that some of the aircraft is moved to support fighting the River Fire. Later that afternoon, our regular radio channels with Sequoia is restricted so we move to an alternative set of channels. That is about the extent of our excitement for the day. At 1600 there is the lookout check-in. Shortly afterwards at 1630, we go out of service for the day. And in our case, for the season. Delilah will still be staffed for a couple more weeks. But all the available slots are filled up. It looks like today is our final time up here. Sort of a time to say goodbye until next May.

On the way back, we stop in Squaw Valley for a pizza. Then head on home. It is nice getting back with a full stomach by 1930.

 

 
Menu

 

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Sandwich: Peanut Butter, Nutella	Bear Mountain Pizza	Smoked almonds and string cheese

Animals

August 14, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 14, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I woke up at 0600 with the sun just beginning to clear the Sierra to the east. I read for awhile, but not moving too fast. Might be because even though my body and mind are awake, my right foot is asleep.Sherri wakes up about 0645. By the time I start making breakfast-oatmeal-it is closing in on 0800. Sherri works on getting the place cleaned up-we have been here two days and it is in need of a bit of tidying.

Our newly charged battery looks like it is going to cooperate this morning. At least the radio turns on and keeps on. We go in service at 0929 and then begins our normal day.

More hummingbirds

One decision-how can you have decisions in a fire lookout? You are in a small room crowded with furniture and no place to go except on the catwalk or down to the bathroom. Anyway, I digress, we have is what to do tomorrow. Originally we were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. But the Wednesday and Thursday person needed to backout, so we offered to take Wednesday if no one was available to take it. We are up here still so nobody took that day. Now the question is do we want to stay up there Thursday? That will sort of does a crimp in going camping Friday through Wednesday. Resources is not an issue. We had prepared for three days. But after the Davis Fire a couple of years ago, Sherri packs a bear canister for dual purposes: to take off on an overnight backpacking trip and as an emergency reserve in case we are held overnight in the lookout.

The debate is on. (What else would we be talking about with little activity around Delilah? Not that life is boring up here, just relaxed-that is until a fire breaks.) The key question is will we enjoy another day up here more than doing other things? While I cannot say yes to this question as to “more”, I can say it is enjoyable being up here. We decide to stay up here, assuming Kathy cannot find anybody else, but only to 1600 at the latest Thursday. I think the two reasons are: 1) we do enjoy it up here; 2) there is a need and this is a means we can service and return what we have been given. So it is not grudgingly given, but more viewed as one of several possibilities. Besides it will be hot in Fresno tomorrow.

There are a couple things which I need to take care of now that we have decided to be here. My brother and I are selling a property which belonged to my parents. Earlier this week we were told it would close Friday. Now it looks like it will close Thursday. There is a paper to sign and services to stop. I am so thankful for the Internet and the services which have developed. The only drawback is that I did not bring the sign-on information up here. But I am able to wade through the DocuSign procedures and sign the paper. Then work through shutting off services for PG&E and the water, sewer and garbage. I feel like I have accomplished something today.

Where's the ssmoke? Haze and ridges blocking view

Besides interspersing the closing of escrow matters with fire lookout duties, it was a pretty routine morning. That is until we hear Park Ridge calling Porterville with a smoke report. Park Ridge nails the report, giving the azimuth, distance, and legal. He even follows it up with the location-one mile west of Highway 245 and Dry Creek Road. As he is giving the location, I start zeroing in on it can I see it as well-Sherri is down stairs taking inventory. I can see where it should be, but there is a lot of ridges which I cannot see behind. So I look and wait and keep on looking. There has been a lot of haze in that direction which will mask any smoke. Still I look. After a couple of minutes, there is a puff of smoke which appears-later I have questions about what I am seeing. I get the azimuth, but cannot determine the distance as the puff has disappeared. After Porterville has called out everybody, I give a confirmation of seeing the smoke with the azimuth. I never see the smoke again. But I do a play-by-play action for Wendy so she knows what is going on usually she is glued to the radio and would know by now, but she decided to do some shopping-imagine that, having a life?

Smoke as seen from Park Ridge - Photo by Greg G.

We talk with Kathy about our decision and I go over the that we will vacate by 1600-she is OK with us leaving earlier if we need be. She has concerned about us being cooped up in solitary for four days, but we should do OK. Also told her that the batteries seem to be doing good. Talked about Park Ridge’s fire and she is delighted in how things went there.

The rest of the afternoon is pretty quiet-sort of seems to be the theme doesn’t it? I finish charging the rest of the batteries. But they are not needed as the “New Battery” is holding its charge. I type up Sherri’s inventory list and send it off-Delilah will need certain essential supplies in a couple of weeks, like toilet paper. I also finish up cleaning windows-a task I started yesterday. All the while Sherri and I keep watch.

There is one thing of interest to us. Shuteye Lookout reports a smoke which looks like it is coming from the footprint of an earlier fire called the Peak Fire. Wherever this is, it is north of Shuteye and definitely out of our viewing area. Mt Tom can also see it and confirm. It is fun and interesting hearing the interaction and coordination between the two lookouts. This smoke is causing enough concern that they are sending people up there to investigate. I think I am remembering this correctly, also the helicopter out of Trimmer is being sent up to do a recon. Eventually the coordinates are given and we can place where the fire is-on the flank of Madera Peak, next to Yosemite and Vanderburg Lake. This is where we had been thinking of going camping. So this will give us cause to consider.

Park Ridge calls after 1630 and says that he sees a bit of smoke from the Needle Dump, but it is pretty light. We start looking in that area. After awhile we think we see some smoke there, rising just above the ridge. We talk with Park Ridge, but he does not think so as the smoke is very light-he sends a picture to show what he is seeing. We take another look and decide it is some grayish-silver looking trees and brush which we may be seeing.

Left is as we saw it; right is filtering out the haze

Sunset over Pine Flat

By now, it is time to start closing up the lookout as 1800 is closing in. Sierra does their lookout checkout out and we go out of service with Porterville. Now it is time to eat and relax. It is the freeze dried beef stroganoff from Mountain House. It does taste better backpacking, but neither is it the throat gagging, retch inducing thing called turkey tetrazzini. Definitely not worthy of pictures tonight-I guess we have not had any dining pictures this trip.

Once again, time for the trip down to the outhouse. But this time we are a bit slower. There is Delilah Doe and three fawns wandering around. They get startled by us and disperse. But we see a couple of them hanging around. So we watch them as they watch us. Back up in the tower, we get ready for bed, but not until we play the game of what are we seeing in Fresno. We decide that some of the lights are not the SaveMart Center, but what is it? Maybe they are more on the Barstow side. By the time we get down and I finish reading it is 2130 and I am falling asleep.

Background

Legal. This is a system marking land which goes back to Thomas Jefferson. It essential marks off from a set point, called a Primary Meridian, a series of 6 by 6 mile tracks, divided up into 1 mile squares. Each 6x6 square is designated by how many sections north or south it is from the Primary Meridian. This is called Township. The east and west designation is called a Rane. Each 1x1 square is called section. So a legal definition would be T12S R26E Section 5.

Park Ridge. Later that day, Greg and I talk a bit. I congratulate him on a good report-BC31 has done that previously on the R5 Project channel. He was telling me that some hikers had also seen the smoke. He felt relief he had seen it before they had-after all, isn’t that why we are paid the big bucks in beauty to report such things? But I can share a sense of relief. No lookout wants to have a smoke reported in his home territory by someone else. It does happen, and not because the lookout is at fault, just when you have someplace between 900 and 1200 square miles of surface area to gaze out closely, you are not going to see every tree out there. My prayer-Lord, don’t let me look too foolish, just enough to keep pride at bay.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Mountain House Beef Stroganoff	Smoked almonds, mixed nuts, cheese

Extra Photo's

Man in the Moon with his mustache

City Lights and Sunset

Animals

What'cha looking at?

June 19, 2018 - Vanderberg Lake to Fernandez Trailhead

Title: June 19, 2018 - Vanderberg  Lake to Fernandez Trailhead
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons :  Menu : Extra Photo's :  Flowers and Plants

 Trail head: Vanderburg Lake

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail: Lillian Lake Trail

Destination: Fernandez Trailhead

Distance:  4.71 miles ¹

Start Time: 10:31

End Time:     3:10

Travel Time:  4:39 (1.01 mph)

Moving Time:   2:43 (1.73 mph)

Elevation Rise: 446 '

Descent: 1,637‘

Maximum Elevation: 8,232'

GPS Tracks

 ¹Because of some confusion of where I was in relationship to Rose and Sherri, I backtracked about a quarter mile to see if I had missed them. Also as a note, someplace on this hike, the elevation readings were dropped. So the elevation information is off of Google Earth’s estimates.

Distance:  5.15 miles

Travel Time:   4:39 (1.11 mph)

Moving Time:  3:01 (1.71 mph)

Elevation Rise:  571'

Descent: 1,762‘

Description:

Got up 7:45. I must have been somewhat rested as I woke up several times last night and stayed awake for awhile. Nothing profound. I had a short quiet time and then went exploring about how to get across Madera Creek. Had our breakfast and then got things packed. Evidently breaking camp is not our specialty as it took us until 10:30 to hit the trail.

Rose Log Crossing

From my earlier scouting of the area, I thought I had a plausible way across the creek without taking off boots. But I seem to have misplaced it. Am I getting that old? This is the third time this summer which I was not on the ball in my navigational skills.

Rose and Sherri and a steep place

We do cross Madera Creek safely: Sherri and I rock hopping; Rose doing a high log balancing act. We are downstream a little ways from the trail, So I propose we head up the slope and then angle over to get to the trail. We do this without too much struggle, and nor buck brush or manzanita. The trail comes up shortly and we are almost at the top of a ridge.

From the top of the ridge, we lookout over where the waters drain into the San Joaquin River. This includes the areas where we have hiked, but also views all the way to the crest of the Sierra. After returning, we see that there was a fire called the Lion’s Point fire straight across from us. But we do not see any smoke with our naked eyes or later on our the pictures. Mt Ritter is still with us, but not for long.

Lion's Point Fire Location

As we descend, we realize how steep the ascent was. We also get into more the meadows which we passed up earlier. There are two things which really impress us about these meadows, first is the variety of flowers in bloom, Particularly the Hartweig Iris seem to be all over the place. The second is the abundance of mosquitoes which have found us so quickly

View of the Sierra Crest

After a quick stop to film the flowers and meadows before the mosquitoes get to me, I take off and catch up with Rose. She wants me to pass her-I guess it is a bit intimidating to have this huge person pondering dirt right behind you. I think Sherri is in front of me, so I hurry a bit to catch up with her. It feels good to stretch out my legs a bit and the general direction is down, not steeply. So I do pretty good. After going on close to an hour, there has been no sign of Sherri, which gets me to thinking, where is she? I hit the junction with Lillian Lake and decide to continue on down to the Norris Trailhead junction. Still no Sherri. So I drop my pack and head backpack and head back to the previous junction and wait.

One of many meadows

After waiting there for awhile, Rose and Sherri appear. Where has Sherri been? Well when I was talking my pictures, Sherri was actually behind me. So when I took off, I lost both of them. They were wondering what happened to me and now they know! I was looking for them and they for me.

We had a few snacks. A few pictures on top of a small rise and we got our final view of the tip of the Sierra Crest. Just a good way to say goodbye to the area. And then we were off. It was about another mile and a half down to the trailhead. But it seemed like it took us awhile to o this easy downhill. May have been the heat. But we got back to Rose’s vehicle at Fernandez Trailhead in good shape and good spirits.

The drive back was long, but not as eventful as the drive to the trailhead. We stopped at El Cid’s for dinner. Sonya met us there and we had a pleasant conversation. Then went across the parking lot to Remier’s for ice cream. A good way to end a trip.

Trail Lesson: You never know how bad of a climb it was until you come down it. Sherri

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers,  Peanut Butter, Nutella	El Cid restaurant Reimer’s ice cream	Clif Bar, GORP, Propel, CytoMax, Scratch, Coffee Candy, Jelly Belly

Extra Photo's

Mt Ritter

Gary, the missing hiker

Unnamed meadow

Unnamed meadow

Snow patch

 
Flowers and Plants

Lupine

June 18, 2018 - Vanderburg Lake to Lillian Lake

Title: June 18, 2018 - Vanderburg Lake to Lillian Lake
Hike Info : Description :  Background : Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Vanderburg Lake

Hike Info:

Type:  Backpacking

Trail: Lillian Lake Loop

Destination: Lillian Lake

Distance:  4.01  miles ¹

Start Time: 11:05

End Time:     4:53

Travel Time:   5:47 (0.69 mph)

Moving Time:  3:21  (1.20 mph)

Elevation Rise:  777'

Descent: 756‘

Maximum Elevation: 9,030'

GPS Tracks

 ¹We lost the trail-see below. I went looking for it. 
The data below includes my wanders when we were off the trail.

Distance:  4.38  miles

Travel Time:   5:47 (0.76 mph)

Moving Time:  3:41  (1.19 mph)

Elevation Rise:  879'

Descent: 808‘

Vanderburg Lake

Description:

I woke up at 6:30 and got up by 7:00. It seems a bit warmer with no wind, but there is a lot of moisture on the inside of the tent’s rain fly. Guess we sweat a lot when we sleep.

After doing my morning business, I went for a wander. The wander took me to the inlet of the lake, on the northern shore. This is part of Madera Creek which comes from Lady Lake. There is a nice big campsite there-probably a packers site. I had my quiet time there, continuing in Psalm 119. A place to meditate and think.

Madera Creek

Vanderburg Lake

When I got back to camp, Rose is up by the lake and Sherri is getting up. No rush to get going. We have decided to do a day hike to Lillian Lake.

Mt Ritter

We get out of camp around 11:15. We head up the same trail we did yesterday, towards Lady Lake, but instead of turning, we go straight at the junction. Now about 30 yards from the junction, we head up what looks like a sandy trail. After awhile it peters out and we start following false leads. I finally head out, scouting for the trail. After covering much ground, I do not find the trail, but get an idea where it is going. So I get Sherri and Rose and we set out across some granite slabs. It actually is pretty nice walking, at least I think so. We climb up, taking our time. Shortly after getting to the spot where I had previously been, we spot the trail.

Clouds to the east

Little Dam at Lillian Lake

Shortly afterwards,we go over a saddle and drop into Staniford Lakes. I was calling it Stanford, but discovered the error while researching the name. The trail meanders around some of the lakes, making for some pleasant walking, if it was not for the winged, blood sucking, swamp inhabitants. When we clear the lakes, and most of the mosquitos, we stop for lunch out on a small point, and in the shade. A late lunch, but when you start as late as we did, a late lunch is what we get.

The trail starts up a ridge of about ¾ of a mile. While an exposed trail and we are in the afternoon sun, there is compensation-the views. That is we are able to see across to Mt Ritter and up the San Joaquin River. But we do not spend much time view chasing, at present.

After topping the ridge, we descend into the outlet creek for Lillian. Soon we get to the lake itself. Rose notes a small retaining wall, probably a small dam to raise the lake level. Was there mining around here? So easy to only see what is here now and not the past. I need these reminders that everyplace has its own history, even if it is not in book form.

Lillian Lake

One of the Staniford Lakes

Lillian Lake is pleasant enough to look at. I would not mind camping here. But yesterday's lakes were more pleasant and refreshing to me. We stay around for about half an hour, relaxing. Sherri thinks this is where she, Andrea and Steven put out a fire several years back. 

 

Coming back, we mostly retrace our steps, with the exception of our little cross country excursion. Those views which we did a cursory glance at before? We now spend the time examining. We can see where the JMT goes and the Red Cones by Red’s Meadow. To the south, one of the small knobs in the distance may be Mt Goddard, a point I look for whenever possible. Many pictures are taken, which do not capture the grandness of what we are seeing.

Which way would you go?

We do see a couple people before returning to camp. I also intentionally lag behind-unlike my normal slowness of late. I am interested in seeing where I went on the wrong trail this morning. I cannot say I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Once back at camp, we do not disturb a whole lot. Water is drawn, mosquitoes are swatted and relaxing begins. A group or two pass us by. Dinner of Beef Stew is cooked and devoured. Rose, Sherri and I talk for awhile before heading to our tents for another night of restful sleep.

Background
Andrea says the fire really was at Staniford Lakes.
It was a single tree,which probably had been struck by lightning two weeks before.

Also as a fire note, the Lion's Point fire had been burning since the start of June. This was pretty much in line of sight with the Red Cones area. But looking at the pictures, there was not a sign of smoke. Shortly after we were there, the fire exploded into a multi-thousand acre fire.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang. .	Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Mountain House Beef Stew	Clif Bar, GORP, Scratch, Coffee Candy

Extra Photo's

Sierra Crest

Southeast along the Crest

Rose and Gary in his Angle of Repose

Lillian Lake

East looking. As a note: The Lion's Point fire happened in the center left of the picture

Lillian Lake

Gary and the Mountains

East towards the Sierra Crest

East towards the Crest

Animals

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeak

 
Flowers and Plants

Penstonmon