December 3, 2025 - South Shore/Blue Oak Trail

 

Title: December 3, 2025 - South Shore/Blue Oak Trail

Hike Info : Description :   Animals 

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking 

Trail head: McKenzie Point

Trail: South Shore/Blue Oak Trail

Destination: Winchell Cove

Actual Destination: Trail closed about a third of a mile before the Cove

Distance:  2.73 miles

Start Time: 2:10

End Time:   3:38

Travel Time: 1:27  (1.88 mph)

Moving Time:  1:13  (2.24 mph)

Elevation Rise: 273 '

Descent: 225‘

Maximum Elevation: 579'

GPS Tracks

Sherri on the trail

Description:

It is a cold cruel world out there. We still want to go hiking, but maybe someplace which will not be freezing. After everybody got up, I suggested that we hike after lunch-maybe it will be warmer then. Steven is busy brewing some beer and Rachel-whom we told rather later-has other commitments. We putter around doing various things, then have lunch. I stayed prone for about 20 minutes before getting up and getting ready. I am ready about 1:10.

We left our house after a few things which needed to be taken care of delayed us. It is about 1:45 when we leave. We get to Millerton State Recreation Area and the McKenzie Point parking area around 2:10. We have a Senior Golden Bear Pass which allows us oldsters into most State Parks during the off season-it is definitely the off season now. We are the only ones who are in the parking lot.

It is 45 degrees with a high fog. Even more is that the humidity is at least 80%. At least there is not even the slightest breeze, that would have made it not only cold, but maybe, we are going back home territory. Fortunately I have dressed properly in several layers with a coat being the final as well as gloves. I think Sherri and I have switched our resistance to cold as she is not dressed with as many layers and still is warm.

We have done the South Bay Trail several times-by this time in our lives, most trails we can say this same thing-but we are always open to the possibility of something new.The first time we did this trail was our first hike with the Central Valley Hiking Group, about 13 years ago. Actually the official name is the Blue Oak Trail which starts about a mile and a half up the road at a picnic area.

Different cloud covers can affect how a trail looks and feels. Today with no sun, it would be easy to think of gloom. Instead, I am thinking more of things being subdued. Not too much is moving out there, except for us. No boats moving on the lake, only a few crows in the air, and as mentioned there was no wind to move the grasses.

Sherri

Despite being subdued, our pace is a good one. I stop occasionally to look at something or to take a picture. I get to play catch-up often. This is a good thing on several counts. First, Sherri is moving well; second, it has been awhile since I have felt comfortable in playing this game of keeping up with Sherri.

Our travel comes to a stop when we come to a roadblock, or maybe it would be better to describe it as a trailblock, with a sign saying “CLOSED”. It looks like others have gone around the barrier, but we prefer not being that person. The blockage is only about 50 yards as we can see the sign on the other end of the closure. (Note: I talked to the Park the next day and they said that the Spring rains had washed out part of the trail.)

We returned the way we came. As we closed in on to the car, I asked Sherri how she is doing? Pretty good is her response. I asked if she wanted to hike further? Yes. So I suggest she go on further along the Blue Oak Trail. I would get my stuff stored and pick her up at the turnout after I pass her. This is agreeable. She was able to hike close to a half mile more before I picked her up about 3:45. It is about half an hour drive back to our house.

Animal

Millipede

Geese on the road

May 19, 2023-Delilah

 

Title: May 19, 2023-Delilah

Hike Info : Description : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type:Lookout

Description:

Slept well last night. I woke up to an early morning light around 0500. The subdued orange and pinks of the early morning is always pleasant. The other good thing is, I do not need to get up to enjoy. I just can lay in bed and look out of my glass house. Just before the sun comes up, the area behind Split Mountain gathers light with intensity.

Around 0530 I start gathering information for the day’s lightning report. I know there was some activity because of the clouds I was seeing and the alerts I got. But it turned out there was only a single cloud-to-cloud which nobody cares about. So I do not need to send a report.

I mosey around the rest of the morning. Mich had sent out an email about Delilah which others responded to. Since I am the only one on scene, I take this time to respond. Also I talked with Greg about the water situation. Breakfast is granola and lemon bread, which Wendy gave to me yesterday.

Patterson Falls

Rancheria Falls

I took the weather for the morning. Nothing alarming. Wendy alerts me through a text that I will be doing a relay for Patrol 33. Not five minutes later, P33 summons me and I do it. Yeah! One of those radio things I feel I can easily screw up. I hear Engine 32 go into service to Delilah LO. Company today! And all of this is before I go in-service

 

At 0933 I go into service with both Porterville and Sierra. Then I start washing windows between doing scans. P33 lets me know that her crew will be raising dust along Davis Road. And I see her convey of trucks heading down, marking areas for drivers to be cautious of. At 1000 Porterville gives the weather forecast. P33 and her gang gets close to Sampson Flat, taking care of some logs and trees. Then at 1100, is the Sierra Lookout check in. Another lonely day-I would not trade it lightly.

 

Hillside shift above Davis Flat

This gives me a chance to review my area of the world. Usually when I am up here, there is so much which is dry. As I look across the Kings, I am seeing several waterfalls. There is Patterson Falls, at least a significant drop from Patterson Creek. Also Rancheria Falls. Then I am not sure if it is a fall or just a long descent, there is water coming down the ridge into Dinkey Creek. Several places have had mud slides. You can see the scaring in several places, including over on White Deer area, the hills above Davis Flat and on McKenzie Ridge.

 

Mt Nelson

Lonely not for long as Engine 32 did show up with batteries for our repeater. I got to talk with the head of Engine 32. Most of the time I only hear these disembodied voices over the radio. So it is a pleasure to greet them in person. Not only have they brought batteries, they also brought a replacement fire alarm. We talk for awhile. One of the things he said was that yesterday some Forest Service staff snowmobiled into Buck Rock with batteries. That explains why tone 2 is available.

Engine 32

He then goes down to help move the batteries. Another person comes up, a first year person and we talk for awhile, but he does not seem too interested. Engine 32 moves on and I am left by myself again.

I have my lunch and then settle into the normal routine. That is until 1334. Porterville tones out a fire and it is in my neighborhood. Unfortunately it is behind Pine Ridge, so I cannot help. But I did report I cannot see it. P33 did not catch the address, so I told her what I heard. Also we have a third radio now so we can listen to CalFire when something breaks. That is what I did. That all was worth about 20 minutes of excitement.

And back to the routine. P33 wants a few more items relayed and Division 3 notifies Delilah that our repeater tone should go in service sometime tomorrow. I had my dinner after Sierra 1600 check-in. Then cleaned the floors and generally cleaned up. Not much of a mess on my part.

As 1700 hits everybody is going out of service, except me. I do some more scans and enjoy a bit of quietness. And at 1720, Sierra calls with status of Delilah. I said I would go out of service with dispatch. And now I put the final touches on cleaning up and packing. At 1754, I go out of service with Porterville.

It takes a few minutes to get everything put away and my stuff taken down the stairs. But at 1815, the tire on my car starts to move. I get home a few minutes before 2000. A good, but tiring, couple of days.

 

Flowers and Plants

May 18, 2023 -Delilah Lookout

 Title: May 18, 2023 -Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I will be opening Delilah for the season today.

Delilah, my home for two days

And I will be the only one up there. But I will not be alone. Both Greg and Wendy were there as I bounced issues off of them. It is great to have such a support team.

But first, I need to get up. That a do at 0550. This should give me enough time to have breakfast, get the remains of stuff packed and be on my way. I had gotten most of my stuff ready to go last night, so this morning is making sure I did not forget anything.

 

 

 

 

Delilah with Mt Nelson

 

I leave my house at 0705. Traffic is not bad and I make it to the Hume Lake Ranger District’s office a little before 0800. Wendy is there waiting for me. I am being the mule to take stuff up to Delilah. Things like a handheld radio and weather instruments. She also gives me stuff for others to pick up.at the lookout. Before I left, Wendy introduces me to the new information officer for the HLRD, Farrah. And then I am on my way for two days. 

 

 

 

Source of the leak

Not much traffic on the way in. Even though when I turned off on Millwood, a whole line of pickups followed me up to McKenzie Heliport. I am assuming they are part of the team working on the Davis Road. Most of the Delilah dirt road has been graded and is even better than last year. But then there are places which had have some pretty heavy runoff which I had to pick my way through. I past by Sequoia Highlands, not seeing anybody there. When I got to the Delilah Springs Road junction, there is a black car parked there with nobody in it, but the back is open. I noticed that the car is from Louisiana.

Looking up the Middle Fork of the Kings

I make to Delilah a few minutes before 0900. I retrieve the keys and start gathering my stuff to take up. And then there is the black car parked close by. A woman is driving it and has two kids.. I ask her to give me about ten minutes to get set up, which she is more than willing to.

 

 

 

I get Delilah open and now try to go in-service with Porterville. We have a new radio set up, but on the first cut, it was not working. At least I do not get any response. I eventually get it set up the old way and go in-service with Porterville. I tried to do the same with Sierra-also no response. But I now have the first visitors for 2023. Turns out her husband will be a firefighter on a strike team out here. She is doing a tour of the Western states. This is the first lookout she has gone to which is open-just barely. We talk and she is happy she came up here. She is the Louisiana car I saw earlier.

Mt Nelson to the north of Delilah

 

 

End of Park Ridge

When they leave, I am back to trying things and getting situated. Eventually I change tones for Sierra and get them to respond. I think I heard that one of their repeaters(a piece of equipment which relays radio signals) is out. So I switch tones and voila! I can reach Sierra and go in-service.

 

 

 

 

 

Rancheria Falls

But in-between all of that, a couple from Visalia come up. They are interested as they have not come here before. But I think they are really more interested in going down Davis Road. But when that did not work out, my new friend Farrah directed them up here.

 At 1101, Sierra did a lookout check in and staffing. Let me say, it was a pretty lonely feeling when the only lookout called was Delilah. On the other hand, I was pretty prominent. A bit later I heard three beeps-that means a fire is being announced. I do not recognize the name and so do not follow up very closely until I hear the fire is projected to go to 500 acres and go down to the Kings. Wait! A fire that big I should be able to see the smoke from here. I frantically scan, and still no smoke. I follow the Kings past Pine Flat-Nada! I give. So I phone Sierra’s dispatch and asked for a location of the fire. What fire? I hear aircraft being called in on R5. I can feel the dispatcher breaking into a smile. He gently lets me know that a group is doing a practice over in Blue Canyon. I should have known as it would be unusual for them to use R5 as a Tactical channel.

Little speck of the Kings River

And then relative quietness for awhile. I settle down and have my lunch, take scans, and listen to the radio (think Nancy Griffith). I then notice that my phone is not charging on the electrical outlet by the bed. And then the same at the other outlet. But the radio works, so does the inside light, but the outside light does not. Now what! Also I get some alerts that there is lightning activity in the Buck Rock territory. There is enough clouds over there that there should be. I get into a conversation with Greg who directs me to an inverter. It was off. When I flip it on, the outlets come on magically.

Clouds over Park Ridge

 

 

Delilah

But I have missed both the afternoon weather-no loss, the indices-some loss, and the Sierra lookout check in-disappointing. But on the last item, there are two reasons. First, I was on the phone with Greg resolving some issues. Second, the handheld radio’s battery had gone dead, so I did not hear it. Still, usually I check things like that before 1600. I call Sierra and check in with them, a bit late.

I am still fiddling around with the radio and using channels. I do a radio check on Group 4, Channel 4, Tone 12. Porterville hears me, but has low volume. The theory is that our output volume control also controls the mic’s volume control. But that does not seem to make any difference.

Pine Ridge, and Delilah Mountain

I hear that Tone 2-Buck Rock’s repeater-is back online. Now I wonder how they got into Buck Rock to put in new batteries? Buck Rock last I heard had 8’ of snow on the ground? (I did find out on Friday what happened.) That just leaves my repeater down.

At 1718 I hear Sierra going through their status before their dispatch goes out of service. When I say I will be in-service until 1800, they note their dispatch goes out of service at 1730. So I tell them go ahead and take me out of service then.

 

 

 

 

Sunset over Pine Flat

Greg and I have another discussion about the radio, but come to no conclusion. But it is heartening that at least Porterville is hearing us on the proper channel. I go out of service at 1754-a few minutes early.

I am beat. It has been a full day. I make myself a quesadilla. Simple and filling. A bit later I remember to take down the flag. Usually I go for an evening walk. But tonight, I just feel like getting my sleeping bag, go to the outhouse and resting up in the cab. I lock myself in for the night and read for a bit. Sherri and talk. But I am starting to fall asleep, as I enjoy the stars.

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.