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| Road in Delilah-Flowers are blooming |
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants
Trail head: Delilah Lookout
Hike Info:
Type: Lookout
Description:
Today is the first back in the
tower. I'm a bit nervous. Will I get things right? Will I be able to
operate the radio? Will I sanitize the tower when I get in? All these
things. Also Sherri is not feeling up to coming, so I will be doing
this solo. It is not that I cannot be in the tower alone for two
days-I went four days last year. But the first time around, it is
good to have someone to keep me upright when I get in my mind to do
stupid stuff. We will see how these two days go.
I got up this morning at 0540
(yes, it is military time now that I am back in the tower). I get the
Toyota all packed and ready to go. At 0705 I leave home without
saying bye to Sherri-she is still asleep. I think I have everything I
need for these two days. I do not think I will die, even if I forgot
all of the food-I have enough on the body to last that long.
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| Patterson Creek |
It is an uneventful ride, that
is until I reach Forest Service land. The gate across the road is
locked. Got hold of Buck
Rock and
she told me the secret belly rub and head pat pattern I needed to get
past the gate. This is almost as much fun as battling trolls to cross
a bridge. Once past, I guess I am locked in for the duration. If
there are visitors, they will need to walk three miles in-not
impossible. Also the gate on the tower’s stairway will be locked.
I reach Delilah at 0850 and
start the sanitizing efforts. The Buck
Rock Foundation
has done a pretty good job of figuring out how to sanitize lookouts
between volunteers coming in. It will take a bit more front work, but
it is a lot better than getting the Covid-19 virus. Lugging that
backpack up the stairs is a bit heavy. But neither have I been
carrying my pack on my morning walks. So I am paying the price. Still
I make it up the stairs and get the place sanitized.
I get myself together and look
at the clock-time to go inservice. Porterville-Delilah, Inservice;
Sierra-Delilah, Inservice. It is 0931. Not bad. I hear Buck Rock come
in right after I do. Not bad. Now to do my first scan. I know I am
forgetting something. Oh yeah, I need to take our weather and it is
0955.In service with PTV(Porterville) and SNF(Sierra) 931. I did the
first scan. So at 0955, I took the weather-a bit late.
PTV broadcast the weather and
staffing at 1000. The weather I got-it is on the ‘Net and the
dispatcher read it at a pace I could deal with. But my oh my, the
staffing was a total fiasco. I must be out of practice. I was able to
find most of the staffing. But the most important part of the
staffing, who is the duty officer for the day I completely missed.
The dispatcher seemed to be in a race to get through the list.
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| Patterson Mountain |
So what does a bewildered
lookout do? Radio Buck Rock to come to my rescue. Buck Rock called me
and she was able to tell me who the duty officer was. She also checks
to make sure I am doing OK-that is always a good plan. After I hang
up on her, Brent calls and is interested in the general situation.
Also, were there any supplies needed? Things are pretty well stocked,
but I have not really looked yet. Still good-but I have not done a
scan in about 30-40 minutes now. So I do that.
Kathy calls. Well, she tried
to call and I fat fingered the cell phone and hung up on her. I
called her back-she is in Oregon, on her way back from rafting in
Idaho. She was calling to check in on how things were going. I guess
I must have sounded frazzled as she said she would call back later on
this afternoon-I probably am. I do not have a rhythm yet.
And that might be the key
thing to keeping sane: To establish a rhythm. Be conscious of the
time-there are certain checkpoints-check in, check up’s, weather,
staffing, indices, and taking the weather are all done at certain
points. Everything else is what happens in the lookout. Since there
are no visitors at Delilah-never has been a great deal of visitors,
the lookout can establish their own rhythm. The lookout is
constantly eyeing the area. But once about every 15-20 minutes they
need to do a more in-depth scan. That is the part I do not have down
yet this season.
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| Gary, the fearless lookout |
Another reason why I am a bit
frazzled is that Wendy had just sent an email about a fire in Sequoia
National Park, the Cabin Creek Fire(36 39.030, -118 49.110, about a
tenth of an acre). The question I was pondering was how close of a
strike, at least recorded. I have enough in Sherri’s computer to
look. But, not in depth. I did see where the closest strike was over
a mile away. This does not look promising for the accuracy of the
lightning map.
At 1100, I did catch the
morning lookout lineup from Sierra. One victory for the morning.
Back to scans. Judy calls-she
is somebody who we have refreshed in the lookout the past couple of
years. Been fun, too bad we will not have the opportunity to do that
this year. She just wanted to say Hi and add joy to our lives-she
then found out Sherri did not come, so it is only joy to my life.
Now I do my scans as there is
not much external activity. Brent had sent out a refresher course for
us to follow when we first got back in the tower. So I ponder it,
fill it in and send it off. Wondering how well I did.
In the afternoon, I start to
get that rhythm going. I even find time to do a little bit-a very
little bit-of refreshing on where places are around us.
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| Smoke in the Valley |
As I look around all points of the compass, I see almost directly West of me, over Tivy Mountain, a smoke. Be still my heart! But then I realize, this is not a smoke I will be calling in. Anything beyond Tivy I understand that the various districts will take care of their own. We can be a nuisance as even as something as clear as this would be pretty hard to pinpoint a close distance.
1600 brings a bit of
conflicting radio calls. First, PTV does their weather and indices at
this time. This is something which we just listen to and get certain
information which we put onto our logs. Last year we were able to get
this information in advance, only confirming that what I was getting
was what was being said. This year we need to pay attention to the
indice reporting, particularly the burn status.
The other half of the
confusion is also at 1600 SNF has their lookout checking. Buck Rock
and Delilah are right at the start. We need to respond. This
coincided with the PTV 1600 call, leaving me to miss the burn status.
I had tried to set my voice recorder to record PTV, but it did not
cooperate. Oh well. That is the story of today.
The next couple of hours are
quiet. At 1800 I go out of service. After resting a few minutes, I go
downstairs and take an inventory of what is in our storage shed. This
gets sent on to Brent and Mich. I decide this is a lovely time to go
for a short walk, down to the saddle between us and Delilah Mountain,
only about half a mile. Still a good time just stretching my legs.
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| The big on a glass-taken with a flash |
Sherri has made bierocks and
sent me with a couple of them. While it is warming up, I talk with
Sherri. Tavern Theology, a Facebook group, has decided to meet at
someone’s home tonight, so no Zooming in on that. Sherri decides
she will enjoy the time out. So around 2000 we ended our talk.
Andrea wanted to talk but she
is attending a virtual birthday party for Cristal. She will call me
later. It is starting to get dark, but with a good sunset. So good to
see this. Always a good way to end the day in the tower. So I climbed
into my sleeping bag and read while waiting for Andrea's call. She
calls at 2100 and we chit-chat for a while.
I hear a thump on the window
above me. A bug 2-3” long is parched on the outside of the window.
I decide it is prudent to close the window. Andrea does wonder about
her father at times. But the bug seems to be content just to be
there. After our call ends, I turn off the electronics and go to
sleep.
Background
Normally I take a picture of
my logs. I forgot to. So some of the items in my blog may be out of
place. But I am pretty sure they all happened.
Sanitizing.
The Buck Rock Foundation has a
pretty good document, at least to this amutur’s eyes, on how to
sanitize the lookout, particularly the cabin part, to minimize the
dangers of the Covid-19 virus. Most of it is pretty standard stuff.
Wear gloves until the cabin is sanitized or if you touch unsanitized
surfaces. Make sure surfaces are cleaned off with IPA or cleaning
solutions. Clean with wipes those things such as radio’s,
firefinder, weather instruments, handles, log binders, pens, … I
realized afterwards, that I was not as thorough as I should have
been. Next time, I will do better.
Extra Photo's
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| Road into Delilah |
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| Fox Springs area. |
Flowers and Plants
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| Hiker's Genterin |
