July 20, 2024 - Backpacking to Lower Twin Lakes

 

Title: July 20, 2024 - Backpacking to Lower Twin Lakes

Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail head: Potter Pass

Trail: 24E03 - California Riding and Hiking Trail

Destination: Upper Twin Lakes

Actual Destination: Lower Twin Lakes

Distance:  3.3 miles ¹

Elevation Rise: 1.138 '

Descent: 807‘

Maximum Elevation: 8,984'

 

¹The GPS turned itself off. The above information is based upon a plot on Google Earth. The mileage is close to what I anticipated.

Description:

Gary at the start

Am I ready to go on my first backpacking trip in two years? I think I have the equipment ready, but is my body ready? I am cognizant that my body is older and that there have been some things which has weakened the body. If I sound like I do not want to go, you would be wrong, I am just aware that I am not as young and strong as I used to be.

Now that I got that out of the way, here is how the day went. Last night I did the lightning report for today, so that meant I had the morning free to get things ready to go. I still get up at 5:30. I just did a few things until the others got up at 7. We still take until after 9 before we leave. Some of this is that Rachel got in late last night and she needed to get repacked after some equipment failure. A little slow start but we do not have a long hike today.

 

We stopped at Prather to pick up our wilderness permit-I had gotten a reservation and just needed to pick up the actual permit. But if you know me, I can stretch things. Recently I had been in communications with BC42 and I checked to see if he was in-he is! He came out and talked with me for a little while. It is good to see somebody face to face.

Mountain Meadow

Off we go with Steven continuing to drive. It takes close to an hour to get to the trail head. We passed by Shaver and Huntington Lakes, then went up Kaiser Pass Road. The trail head is called Potter Pass, not to be confused with the Potter Pass Cutoff, which is a bit lower. The parking lot is full, but we are able to find parking about 200’ up the road at an auxiliary parking area.

View from Potter Pass

It is a bit after 11:00 when our boots hit the dirt. My pack is starting out as the heaviest, about 35 pounds. The reason is I am trying to carry the weight as if Sherri and I are going along. I will use Steven and Rachel to offload if I feel like I am going to have trouble carrying this,

Round Meadow

The first two miles is up to Potter Pass. It is a 900’ climb. Because of our late start, it is a bit warm. But we work our way up. I am going OK, keeping a steady pace up. Not terribly fast. While the landscape is not terrible, the flowers which are in bloom kept me inspired as we walked along, And there are many flowers in bloom-see the pictures below.

 

Korra and Steven at Lower Twin

About half way to Potter Pass we stop for lunch. It feels good to rest for about half an hour. As we get ready to leave, we hear a familiar voice. Our hiking friend, Jerry J comes down the trail and stops with his friend Emma. We chatted for a while and then each went our separate ways.

 

We still have a bit to go up, which we do, It is a hot, exposed section. I concentrate on making steady progress towards the Pass. Steven and I get to the top and there are several groups already there. We find a spot off the trail in the shade and wait for Rachel and Sherri. We see more people come through, some on horses. Korra eyeballs them, but does not seem to be too interested in giving chase. Maybe she is hot.

Sherri and Rachel come up and rest as well. Even though I have been laying down for awhile, I still feel like the rest I am going. I feel good that I made it up to the top, since most of the rest of the trail is downhill. Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of haze today. The mountains to the north are only a faint outline of when we have seen them before. To the east are some clouds and before we take off, we hear a couple booms of thunder. I guess this means it is time to move on.

Place of rest

The trail down is steep and dusty and exposed. This equals not a whole bunch of fun since I know we will be climbing out of it again tomorrow. Eventually we get into a tree covered area which makes this part of the trail a bit more pleasant. Rachel and Steven go on ahead while Sherri and I pick our way down through the stones on the path. At our age, we are a bit more cautious of what happens when we roll on one of these rocks.

Upper Twin Lake

We get to the junction to Twin Lakes. And now the trail goes more even. We pass by a nice meadow, Round Meadow. And we continue on with the two “kids” in front. I stop and talk with a couple backpackers who are coming out. They advocate stopping at Lower Twin Lake to camp. They say that there are some large groups at Upper. I keep this in mind for when we arrive at Lower.

That is only about ten minutes away. When we discuss our plans among the four of us-Korra has a tendency to do whatever the rest of us wants to do, Rachel goes off to find if there is a suitable camp spot. She finds one at the northwest end of the Lower Twin Lake, across the trail from the lake. It is back aways, not hidden, but obscure. There is a fire pit, not that we are going to use it, and places for a tent and a couple hammocks. We decided to stop here.

Reflection in Lower Twin Lake

The kids put up their hammocks. I just lay around for about 20 minutes. I guess the hike, even though it is about 3½ miles, tuckered me out. I laid around some more and eventually put up the tent. Steven and Rachel went over to Upper Twin for a swim. That gives me about an hour more to read and rest. When they came back, it is time for dinner. It is freeze dried stuff. Pretty good and filling, or maybe it is that I am not all that hungry.

After dinner, Sherri and I walk over to Upper Twin and enjoy a sunset. Then we walked back to Lower and enjoyed some more of the evening, before heading back to camp. Rachel and Steven have cleaned up camp. There is a little bit of smelly stuff left over which will not fit into a bear cannister. So we will do one of my favorite camp tasks-hanging the food. Rachel tries several times and either the cord comes off of the rock or the rock does not go up high enough. She turns over the task to me. I somehow do it in one toss. Is this experience or luck? I am leaning towards the latter.

Since it is dark, we all head to bed, around 9pm. I read for a while and then turn over and go to sleep-Sherri does go to sleep a bit after me.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Breakfast at home	Sandwiches made at home	Freeze dried food: Chicken Alfredo Pad Thai with Chicken We also brought along a Jambalaya, but did not use it	GORP, Jelly Bellies, Energy Bars, Energy Drinks

Extra Photo's

Upper Twin Lake

Lower Twin Lake

Potter Pass- Korra, Steven, Rachel, and Sherri

Are the mosquitos really that bad?

Rachel, Gary, Steven, Korra, Sherri, Jerry J

Rachel is still happy, her mom trods on

Potter Pass

Sherri

Rachel

Meadow below Lower Twin Lake

Korra

Upper Twin Lake

Rachel ready for a swin

Upper Twin Lake

Steven going in for a dip; Korra already a cool dog

Steven and Korra on an island in Upper Twin Lake

Animals

Marmot

 
Flowers and Plants

Richardson Geranium

Richardson Geranium

Columbine

Tiger Lily

Alpine Aster

Brewers Angelica

Alpine Shooting Star

Scareltt Gilia

Cabbage Lily

July 15, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout

Title: July 15, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's :  Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Morning Sun

I got up at 0530 and did the morning lightning report. Not nearly as bad, in some ways as yesterdays, but I think there is much more potential for fires-both from locations and the type of lightning. I finished up by 0700. Sherri has already started taking down loads of our stuff to the car. I helped her take down a couple loads as well. Still more up here for the rest of the day. We are going back home tonight. Also today is a regular day: 0930 to 1800. Finished up with breakfast and continued to clean up.

Sherri is doing the majority of this morning’s lookout chores. She took the weather, then went in service with Porterville. I went in service with Ash Mountain. Then Sherri does a scan. She must be much more rested than yesterday-that is a good thing.

Fire Retardant on Basin Fire

The fires down south still have one of Porterville’s channel’s tied up, so we continue using Channel 2 to communicate. Except for some chatter on R5. On speaking of R5, for once I was not the source of issues with radios. Buck Rock and Delilah were having a classic failure to communicate. After a while, I helped Buck Rock work through what the issue was. My success for the day. That is not that I am a radio wiz, more like I was available to help debug a problem

So it is back to scanning, and practicing being a lookout.

Gary on Cat Walk

Timber and Sentinel Fires are burning-they were discovered yesterday. Timber is pretty small, less than an acre. But the Sentinel is about 15 acres. This morning Ash Mountain is reporting on them. Both are being monitored by air.

I get into window cleaning mode while Sherri does scans. She also gets into cleaning mode-pulling stuff out from under the bed. About that time, we both smelled a bit of smoke. We are wondering if it is the cabinets and stuff we are looking in for window cleaner. But maybe we should do a scan to make sure the forest is not burning.

That smoke which we saw last night? It was not there this morning, which makes sense since at night it cools down and so would whatever was burning. But now at about 1130, I am seeing a faint bit of smoke in the same place. I will wait until I see a bit more before informing Chief 2.

About 1240, a person comes along and starts to clear around the powerlines which feed the Verizon building as well as the lookout. Good to know that this is a concern of the power companies.

Smoke from Park Ridge Rx

With that you can tell how the day is going when a guy with a weed whacker and pruner is the highlight. Oh wait, the smoke we see by the Wye is still puffing. But it just continues to smoke, then die down, and repeat the cycle. Of course, that smoke is not the only thing we do. We continue doing our scans and other stuff.

In the early afternoon, we have the rest of our lasagna from last night. Pretty good still. Of course, well made lasagna is good anytime. After this we start packing up so that there will not be much to take down when we leave this evening. A PG&E truck comes by and works on the transformer by the lookout.

Top of a dangerous tree

So our day goes on without too much ado. We start cleaning up, scrubbing floors and wiping down counters, making sure the bed looks straight-not as good as military, but good enough. When we bring down the flag, it really feels like we are going back home. A few minutes before 1800, we go out of service with both Ash Mountain Fire and Porterville. Then it is time to go on home.

A quarter mile before we get to the saddle, we spot the dangerous tree which E42 told us about Saturday. I can see the concern. The top part looks like an ordinary dead tree, but the bottom is leaning against a couple other trees. We have gone through safely and made it home a little before 2000. Feels good, so does a shower.

 

 

 

 

Extra Photo's


 

Gary on the Cat Walk

More smoke from the Park Ridge Rx

Park Ridge Lookout

Clouds to the Southeast

 
Flowers and Plants

July 14, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: July 14, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout

Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Park Ridge Lookout

Description:

A peaceful night was interrupted with my glucose monitor saying that I had low blood sugar. It lied. When I read it with my regular monitor it said I was well within range. And here I thought I would be woken up with the sounds of thunder and lightning streaking across the sky.

I did go back to sleep and woke up at 0530 and did my lightning report. There were over 500 strikes in my area. Unlike June 24th, most of these were higher up and away from the grassy area of the foothills. Still they are very capable of starting their own destruction. It took me about an hour and a half to do the report, then had breakfast and went into service.

Today is extended hours because of the concern the lightning has. We went into service at 0800 and will be going out at 2000. In the meantime, we start down our scans and normal lookout stuff. The above is with Sequoia National Forest. Sherri takes the weather at 0915 and I go in-service with the Park at 0930.

Flag Raising-New Day

We continue our routine, only to be “interrupted” by three young women from Mountain View. They started early and got here before any anticipated lightning, as well as when it was cool. We had a pleasant conversation, showing them a few things around the lookout. Then after they leave, it is time to continue with the normal duties. This includes listening to more of the “stump” fire from yesterday. Also the usual, campfire unattended and not put out stuff.

We heard a truck come up the road. This is not Delilah which is on a public road, so that means it is either a Park vehicle or service vehicle for the Verizon tower. It is E42. The two guys come up and we talk for a time. They warn us about a tree about to come down just this side of the saddle. Then they are off.

We resume our routine. I will not bore you, gentle reader, with all of the minutiae of lookout life. At least anymore than what I have so far. As 1230 I have lunch, followed by my afternoon nap. I woke up to Delilah being called on R5. For a moment, I forgot where I was and then realized, this is not for me, I am not Delilah today.

 

 

 

Cells in the Sierra

Then we continued on with the normal stuff. The skies overhead look good. The visibility was not too good at the start of the day, about 10 miles. But now we are about 7 miles, maybe. I am suspecting that much of this is smoke from the fires. To the east it looks like there are clouds building up, but not much activity around us.

Prescribed burn - duff removed along with some singed trees. Result will be a better forest

 

Coming up the steep hill

About 1630, we see E42 coming back. Wondering what he is here for? Some firefighters are training and coming up the hill from the Wye area. You might think this is no big deal, but it is. It is only about ¾ of a mile away as the crow flies. But there is just short of 900’ elevation gain. Also these folks are not in hiking shorts and a T-Shirt. They are in full firefighting clothing and lugging equipment up this, including what looks like about a 2+’ blade chainsaw. They look tired. I am pretty sure even at my best, I would not make it up that with that kind of equipment.

The Park is not on extended hours, we do our normal stuff until 1755 when we go out of service with Ash Mountain Fire. But we are still in-service with Porterville for another two hours until 1800.

 

 

 

 

Shortly afterwards, I see just a smidget of white through some trees. That white was not normally there. As I watch it, I call Sherri over and the white grows. It is a smoke. But it is just barely in the Park Ridge Prescription Burn. We watch it puff up and then decrease for about five minutes. Our instructions have been if it is in the burn area of the Rx, then do not call it in, except if it seems like it is growing to a place where it was a concern. We confirm with Wendy and watch it some more. It seemed to grow a little and then die. So I sent a text to Chief 2 with pictures, just to let him know what was going on.

Smoke above the tree tops

What we saw at first

 

 

We have dinner during our extended shift. It is a simple affair, microwaved homemade lasagna and bread. Somehow it tastes even better up here. But no glass of wine, after all, we are still on duty, not to mention, we forgot to bring it up.

 

 

 

 

 

Then it is back to scanning as the shadows lengthen. At 2000 we went out of service as does Buck Rock.Sherri and I went for another short walk down the road and up to the top of the first knoll on the Park Ridge Trail. A nice sunset. With the setting of the sun, we head back to the lookout for a good night’s sleep.

Extra Photo's

Setting Sun

Clouds reflecting the setting sun

July 13, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout

 

Title: July 13, 2024 - Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Background :  Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

CalFire Warning

I got up at 0530 and did my lightning report. There were some cloud-to-cloud, but none hit the ground. So the report was rather simple. I was done by 0615. Then I started working on getting the car loaded. Not much excitement here. We had decided to go out to the Train Depot for breakfast. We get there by 0850, with a few minute wait. I had a Frankie’s Omelete. Filling and good tasting It was just before 1000 before we got back, in time for Steven’s game time with his friends.

Sherri and I get the finishing touches on what we are going to take up to Park Ridge Lookout. In the meantime, I get an email asking that a couple of people want to be added to receive my lightning report. Interesting that this little niche report which I thought a few people might be interested in has become a useful tool. Anyway, Wendy and I also talked about the concerns of the day. That is lightning. Fire Weather has today with an LAL of 2, then going to 6 this afternoon. See Background below for more.

Park Ridge Lookout

By 1130 we are on our way. But first, we stopped at a furniture store. Sherri orders some sofa pillows there. By the time we leave it is 1230. Sherri drives up to Big Stump and we talk about what today might be like. It is said that normal people run away from danger while firefighters and the police run towards it. I am thinking this is more of an exercise of walking towards danger-we know there are safeguards in the lookout so, we are not too concerned as long as we take care to do our part.

I drive up to Panoramic Point and then to Park Ridge. There is a spring which turns a small section of the dirt road into a quagmire. But we make it through without trouble. We get to the lookout at 1430. I think Peggy, the lookout which we are relieving, is glad to get out of the tower before the lightning starts. She lets us know what the status is. Seems like it has been a good morning for her. I asked her about a person I had read about in a book, Cool, Gray City of Love. Turns out she will be having lunch with her soon.

After Peggy leaves, I start bringing up stuff and then the wind starts to blow hard and the rain starts in. I am thinking it feels like it will rain hard, but it just sprinkles enough to turn the dust on the car to mud, but not enough to wash it away.

Cells in the Sierra

I hear on the radio that Division 3 and Buck Rock Lookout are talking about the status of Buck Rock. Buck Rock is saying that he is not seeing lightning. But as he says that I lookout and note a strike to the east, a little north of where Buck Rock is located. But I am not sure where the strike is as there are hills and ridges blocking my view. I relay this information to them.

There is activity down south, enough so that Peggy has said the Hume Lake area is using a different command channel than they are usually using. Turns out they got hit hard with lighting which has started several fires. One of them, the Trout, keeps getting mentioned.

On our end of the world, Buck Rock notes there is a cell going up Ten Mile Canyon. But there is no lightning seen. That turns out to be the most excitement weatherwise we have. It generates some wind and rain, but the rain is away from us. Buck Rock and us do discuss the weather and what it looks like on each other's areas.

Then we get into hearing about oddities. Not from Buck Rock, but from Porterville. A smoldering stump has been reported at Jennie Lake. Not one hit by lightning, but somebody had built a campfire into the stump and did not put it out. Maybe they did not realize how hard that would be. It is late in the afternoon, so DIvision 3 says they will send someone up there tomorrow. And then we are back to the normal interesting things like a tree falling across the road into Cedar Grove around Grizzly Falls.

Normally, we would go out of service at 1800, but we will be on extended hours today and tomorrow. Buck Rock has a drive home, so they are leaving at 1800 after checking in with Division 3. Delilah is going out of service with Sierra, but somehow it gets communicated on Porterville’s channel. I talk with Delilah and they have it straightened out. They also had a shift change about that time and I will be talking with Delilah for the rest of my time at Park Ridge.

The reason why we have extended hours is because of serious conditions. In this case it is the lightning. I usually get to experience it during holiday weekends. After 1800, the shadows make it hard to see too much, but we look, concentrating on where visibility allows us to see. We also have our lasagna dinner-sorry, no pictures. In 2000, we went out of service.

Sherri and I get ready for bed. The light is starting to fade. But we have enough time to go for a short walk down the road, maybe about 100 yards and then turn around. The sunset is good. Between Park Ridge and Delilah, I think Park Ridge has a little bit better sunsets. It may be because Park Ridge has a nice wide catwalk facing west. After getting our reward for being up here, we settle down to our bedtime routine about 2145. I am out by 2215.

Background

LAL. Lightning Activity Level: The idea behind this item is to alert people to the potential for lightning and what type it is. There are six levels, but levels are not like hurricane levels where it designates the strength of the activity. Rather it talks about the likelihood of activity and the types. Such as a 2 says there may be isolated thunderstorms and a 3 says widely scattered thunderstorms. But a 6 says that like 3 there will be widely scattered thunderstorms, but it is likely to be dry rather than having rain associated with it.

 

 Extra Photo's

Moon through Park Ridge's stairs

Magical evening time

Last light of day

July 1, 2024 - Return to Fresno

 

 Title: July 1, 2024 - Return to Fresno

Hike Info : Description 

Hike Info:

Type: Car

Description:

I started off by sleeping well last night. That is until 3:30 when I woke up and started thinking about today and the trip back to Fresno. I finally fell asleep around 4:30, but then woke up at my normal time of 5:45. I polled to see if there was any lightning in my area of reporting-none, and I am glad as there is enough going on with the Basin Fire.

There were a few more things to pack before breakfast. By 6:25, my mouth was full of granola. Steven and Sherri got up and had more stuff for me to load into the car. It is a lot less packed than when we came over, but not by a whole bunch. We can even see out the back window.

By 7:00, which is our planned leaving time, we are saying our goodbyes. As I have said many times, it is good that our kids want us to be with them. In particular, we had an enjoyable time with Andrea and Lawrence these past four days. I think this may be about the right amount of time, unless we have something planned. I much prefer to leave knowing that we are wanted back again.

Steven starts off driving. My plan, like when we came up, is have Steven and I drive for about an hour and half to two hours before switching off. So I will be driving into Medford.

So I thought. Sherri surprised me by driving from Seven Feathers to Medford. We fill up with gas at Costco and start off again with me driving. Still nothing of interest to report, only the road. When we hit Dunsmuir, we stop for lunch at Yaks. Sherri and I went here last year based upon Andrea’s recommendation and was impressed by the size of their burgers, as well as the quality. Sherri thinks this is one of the top five burgers she has had. Knowing we cannot handle that size again, we order a couple sliders and fries while Steven orders a full burger. I barely finished mine while Steven and Sherri have an offering for Korra. We all had fries leftover.

Steven is driving. Dunsmuir is the last which we will see of pleasant temperatures for the next ten days. When we get to Redding, it is over 100 degrees. Before reaching Sacramento, we stop at the Elkhorn rest stop for a much needed stretch. Steven continues to drive us to El Grove’s Costco where we switch drivers again. Besides a burning bush in the center divide, there is not much to say about my dive down Highway 99. In Turlock’s rest stop, we switch drivers again. Steven takes us home, arriving about 7:30.

We unpack and rest. Steven goes to Costco to fetch some supplies for the next couple of days. Then it is to bed at 10. A good trip. But tiring.