April 29, 2025 - Mt Ely

 

Title: April 29, 2025 - Mt Ely
Hike Info : Description :  Background :  Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking 

Trail head: Balsom Forebay Parking Lot

Trail:  Balsam Forbay, Dogwood trail, Trail to East Ely

Destination: Mt Ely

Distance:  4.42 miles 

Start Time: 10:37

End Time:    2:23

Travel Time: 3:46  (1.17 mph)

Moving Time: 2:36   (1.70 mph)

Elevation Rise:  890'

Descent: 861‘

Maximum Elevation: 6,930'

GPS Tracks

 

 

Description:

Sherri at start of trip

Rachel has been with us two weeks and we have not been able to go for a hike yet. But today is the day. The question is where to go? The choices which we have narrowed down to are Musick Meadow or Ely Mountain. Which one to go on?

I got up around 5:40. Just did a few things which I needed to get done--at least in my mind they needed to be done. By 9:15, we are all in the car. Fortunately, both of our choices are close to Shaver Lake, so we can discuss it on the way up to Shaver. It was not much of a discussion. We decided to go to Ely Mountain. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korra, the snow dog

We arrived there at 10:30 and hit the trail by 10:45. We have done this walk before, but in the evening for a full moon walk last May. The route we follow is an SCE road almost all the way. The first couple hundred yards is an incline. While my legs are OK, I can tell I have not been up at elevation for awhile.

 

 

 

Unknown dome

We drop down to the Balsam Forebay area and enjoy that view of the water. The ridge which Kaiser Peak is on looks down onto the water-it is a ways away. The road then rolls along for a way. Sherri spots a dome-she calls it a Half Dome, but it looks like a full dome. Not sure what it is, but Kerckhoff Dome is someplace in that vicinity.

QR Code for AllTrails

We come to a junction. Fortunately for us, there are two clues. First a little circular arrow points the way and second, there is an AllTrails QR code enlightening us. Sherri interrogates that, but Steven knows the way and leads on. The road leads down a ways and then we start climbing Ely Mountain proper.

 

 

Remember that comment I made about not being at elevation for awhile? This climbing up the road is doing me in and I am quickly huffing and puffing. I walk a ways and then stop and breathe. Sherri thinks that I am stopping to wait for her, but that is only an appearance.

 

 

Eventually we leave the road and get to a high point. It does not look like where we were before and there is not much of a view. I tell them I am going to wander around and look for a good view. Steven takes a lead and we find a trail which leads up to a higher point with the view. This is where we were last year, instead of at noon, it was with a full moon.

We made it there around 12:15 and had our lunch. There was a discussion about whether we have lunch now or save ourselves for pizza later. We have lunch. This is between looking around at the various sights and the clouds hovering overhead, we stretch our time on top of Ely to about half an hour, not that we are in any rush. What can we see? We look right down onto Shaver Lake. Then to the east of the Lake is Bald Mountain-one of the many by that name. Then looking to the northwest, I saw Shuteye. And close to straight north is Kaiser Peak. There is a lot more which we could have identified if I had spent the time to gaze, wonder and figure out. It is still a wonderful view.

I did say clouds didn’t I? Last Saturday I did a presentation on clouds and thunderstorms. You would think I would be at least a semi-expert on the subject and be able to identify the clouds which I am seeing. I am just enjoying the clouds or as Judy Collins says:

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down and still somehow

It’s cloud illusions I recall

I really don’t know clouds at all.

The way down is the same up all the way back to the car. One thing which I did not note coming up is that there is still snow on the trail. It is rather patchy and only a couple inches thick in most places. It was pretty firm going up. But coming down the sun has melted a lot of the snow. On the downhill stretches the snow can be a bit slippery. But none of us fell.

We get back to the car about 2:25. There is still a hunger for pizza. We stopped in front of Shaver Lake Pizza and see that it is closed today. But the Pub and Grub is, so we stop in for a bite. We have eaten here before and the waitresses have been friendly. Today is no exception. She tells us she is going to Italy next week and Rachel relays some of her experiences from there. We have burgers which are pretty good and then are on our way. We make 4:30. I think most of us were still feeling the effects of not being at altitude in awhile as we all took time to rest.

Background

Dome. That dome we were seeing is at 354^o , at lat/long of 37.162, -119.258. When plotting this out on Google Earth with a topo map overlay, the dome is called Mushroom Rock.

Extra Photo's

Cloud over Shaver Lake

Balsam Forebay

Steven, Rachel, Friday and Sherri

Rachel and Friday

Sherri

Shaver Lake

Kaiser Ridge

Baldy Mountain

On the way out: Rachel, Steven and Sherri

 Animals

 
 

Flowers and Plants

Manzanita

Snow Plant

Snow Plant

February 16, 2022 - Miami Mountain

 

 

Title: February 16, 2022 - Miami Mountain

Hike Info : Description :   Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail head: Miami Mtn Road

Trail: Miami Mtn Road

Destination: Miami Lookout

Distance:  4.22 miles 

Start Time: 9:45

End Time:  1:06

Travel Time:  3:21 (1.26 mph)

Moving Time:   2:08 (1.98 mph)

Elevation Rise:  1,078'

Descent: 1,061‘

Maximum Elevation:4,336 '

GPS Tracks

Description:

Start of the road up

The goal today is to hike up to Miami Mountain Lookout with our friends Betty and Rose. Woke up unaided at 6:30, my normal time. The big question is will Sherri feel like going this morning. She was a bit under the weather last night. By 8:00, I pretty much had the answer since she did not get up. 8:30 comes and so does Betty who rings the doorbell. We leave in separate cars. We come to the El Meso and 41 off-ramp and find Rose there. After exchanging greetings, I give directions on getting to the trailhead. This is one of those don’t blink, you will miss it turn offs. But we all make it by 9:40. By 9:55, or boots are starting to kick up dust.

Rose and Betty almost to the top

 

 

This route up Miami Mountain is a dirt road, some of it being through private property which allows access to the Miami Mountain Lookout. I have done this several times and know that it is a pretty good haul up the mountain, but doable. It will test how good of shape I am in, also if my lungs will hold out.

The first small section is by the home of the person with private property. A dog comes out to greet us and perform guard duty. The person I have heard is heavily involved in keeping the lookout open. Sounds like a win-win.

The air is cool, but even so, I take off my long-sleeve shirt and feel comfortable walking in the sun. A lot of times when I have done Miami Mtn, it has been 10-20 degrees warmer and there is cause to sweat heavily.

Signal Lookout

I will not say the walk is boring for two reasons. The first is because when you are walking up this road, you are surrounded by oaks and manzanita (or is there some madrone mixed in?), and other shrubbery. Lots there to keep you going. By the way, we do not see much in the realm of wildlife: a few birds and some tracks. Secondly because when you are walking with friends, there is a lot of goodness to everyday conversation: how was Hawaii? Where are you going to celebrate a birthday? How is the ranch doing? And so on. All part of friendship. So good to walk this way.

As we have been climbing for awhile, Betty makes a comment that we seem to be circling around the mountain. And yes we are. Shortly afterwards, we turn and are on the final leg of approach to the top of the mountain and the lookout. The top of Miami is fairly mild, it is a long slightly rounded top with the two story lookout sitting on its crown. There is new construction going on with the telecommunications system. The top is acquired around 11:20.

 

 

Prescribed Burn

There are several smokes showing towards the east, particularly. These are from fireplaces burning to keep the house warm. We see them all the way over to the foot of Shuteye Peak. Also, we can barely make out the lookout on top of that peak. But Signal Lookout on top of Devil’s Peak is fairly evident to the northwest of us. This is a good place to have lunch.

When we were seeing the various chimney smokes, it looked like there was one out of the ordinary to the north. After lunch, when I glanced over there, the smoke had gotten bigger and did not act as a single column, more like a wildland fire. But was Sierra NF doing a prescribed burn? Looking at Facebook, the Forest had an entry saying that starting Tuesday they would be doing a prescribed burn in the Lewis Creek drainage. . Bingo. That is where the smoke is going from. Also judging from the location I think it is in the Miami OHV area close to 41.

 

 

On the Way Down

Our trip down the mountain is much like the trip up it. Low mountain vegetation, views of snow in the high mountains and good conversation. That would be also without the huffing and puffing I experienced on the way up. We arrived back at the car by 1pm without incident and by 1:20, our cars touched pavement. The drive home was relaxed, as was I. It did feel good to park the car in our garage. I touched base with Sherri-she is feeling better. Then laid down for a little while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Extra Photo's

Merced Peak, Triple Divide Peak and Mount Raymond

Looking West

Panorama looking east

Little Shuteye and Shuteye

June 16, 2021 - Delilah Lookout

Title: June 16, 2021 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

I will start with the next day. When I went out for my walk on Thursday, I felt pretty sore, much more sore than after backpacking or hiking. Is being a fire lookout that rough on my body?

This is a day a long time a-coming. First, it is the first day at Delilah this season-we have been to Park Ridge twice this season. Last season we were pretty much on our own. But in the prior two seasons, we were able to refresh with others, primarily Judy. Today Judy will be joining us. It should be a good day. Except, that it is scheduled to be pretty warm and maybe with low humidity.

My day starts at 0545 when I wake up. I packed most of my stuff last night, still, this morning I am bugged because I realized that I needed to pack my sleeping bag-just in case. The “in case” is that there is a major concern that if a fire breaks, it would turn into a major conflaguation in a short amount of time. So the “in case” is that if they needed someone in the tower, I would be available.

By the time 0700 rolls around, I think I am ready. Well almost-where is my wallet? I look around my desk. Not there. I cannot find it. Sherri gets smart and looks in the car-where I had already put it. We get off around 0720. It is an uneventful trip up to Delilah. We get there right about 0900.

Before we go up, we make a short trip into the radio room and look at our “home” in case of a critical emergency. This is a change from previous years where it seemed like the lookouts were left to our own wits. Mind you, it is not going to be comfortable, but we hope we never need to use it. But it is comforting knowing there is a plan. Last year there was one incident which could have had us cut off from our escape route.

Now we can get into the serious task of refreshing our lookout skills. Each year our base knowledge increases so our questions get more focused and technical in nature. We spend some time going over settings on the radio. We talk about the emergency plan and make sure we understand it as well. Sherri listens in and does the other lookout chores. Kathy wants to be called-she asks us some questions and then we question her about some of the issues we could not resolve.

 

Our  view of the Deck Fire

Same View, put filtering out haze

Location of Fire in Auberry

Lookout and Auberry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is past noon now. And we hear three beeps from Sierra. This says there is a fire. We hear Auberry and start looking in that direction. There.some haze over there and we have a hard time seeing any smoke against the gray background. A few minutes later, Shuteye Lookout chimes in with a report of the visual on the smoke. We report no visual. A few minutes later, there is a black column in the area. We report what we saw, as well as the azimuth. The fire is called the Deck Fire.

This now becomes a learning time. We already had a lat-long from the initial announcement. I have a spreadsheet which gives the azimuth and distance, so that leaves us just looking for the smoke. But what if we saw the smoke, but had not heard the report. How would we describe the fire, particularly the location? We talked about it. I suspect that our distance would have been very unreliable, particularly because of the haze. By the way, the fire was 27 miles away.

We continue to listen to the activity on the radio. We note there is now aircraft responding.But where exactly is the fire? So far no clue. But Judy hears there are people being evacuated. I brought up an app called FlightRadar24. We see that there are two helicopters dipping and three fixed wing aircraft. Judy sees a splotch of orange-fire retardant-being dropped. Exciting stuff.

Helicopter Track on Deck Fire

 

 

 

After driving this into the ground, we continue with our refresh. Actually, I take a break and have lunch.

Sherri and Judy Leaving

Judy needs to leave early and Sherri will be leaving with her. So I get the tower to myself for 4 hours. Wonder how calm it will be?

Actually it is pretty calm. I start doing the regular scans. Also there are places which I am now naming off to myself, to get refamiliarized with them. Even though Park Ridge Lookout and Delilah share some of the same territory, the profiles and aspects are different. Time to get reacquainted with them. I do lay down and rest during one 15 minute interval. Then around 1800, I have a sandwich for dinner.

At 1816, I hear three beeps from Sierra’s radio. Another fire. I listen to try to identify where it is. Burroughs Valley, a transformer has caught fire. Can I see anything is the big question. The haze has gotten worse. Before I can pick up the smoke, another grayish image shows up in the haze, in the same general direction. Is this a third smoke? I lose the image and then regain it. I think they are some whitish rocks to the east of Hacker Peak. But I make a mental note to check to see if that area looks any different in 20 minutes.

And now back to Burroughs Valley. I line up the firefinder to the Burroughs Valley area. Yes there is a column of white smoke against the light gray background. I do not think I would have seen it if I had not heard the initial Sierra report. I report my findings to Sierra. I continue to monitor the smoke-it does not seem to be getting larger. Also my other “smoke” is still there, unchanged. So I think it is a rock masquerading as smoke.

 I start to get things somewhat cleaned up to leave at 1900. We are to sanitize the cab on our way out. So I spray the alcohol mixture on various surfaces and get it cleaned up. I hear Sierra itching to go out of service for the night, so I go out of service with an update to the Fallen Fire-it is off of Fallen Oak Road. Not much more to report. Sort of funny, the azimuth for the Fallen Fire was within a degree of the Deck Fire at noon. But they were ten miles apart.

Then when I am just about to start mopping, BC31 calls up and wants to know about some brush he is sending a crew up to wack. It looked OK to me coming in, but I directed him to talk with Buck Rock since that is who initiated the report. At 1922 I go out of service with Porterville. I do give Buck Rock a call to see what BC31 may have been talking about. After getting an understanding, I tell her that I will check on the way out.

It does not take long to get the rest of the cab ready for the next lookout. It has been a long day. Glad I was able to share it with Sherri and Judy. On the way out, I understand what the concern is. The road is badly rutted on one side, causing vehicles to lean into some brush-I took the rut on an edge and avoided the issue. I report that to Buck Rock on the way out. By the time I get to Fresno, it is 2115. After unpacking, I take a shower and am ready for bed.

Extra Photo's

Change in scenery-circled area has trees and stuff

Where did they go?