August 15, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 15, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

There is a sense of timelessness when you are in a lookout, particularly after several days up here without seeing others, besides yourself and your wife. I woke up this morning wondering what day it was. And then wondering does it really matter?

Early morning Moon

 

Not saying there is no time element here, as there is: 0910-take the weather; 0930 go inservice; 1000-listen for today’s weather and staffing; 1100-check in with Sierra; 1300-take the weather; 1600-weather and lookout check in; 1800-go out of service. Still other times, there is nobody checking in on you. And then one day being interchangeable with the next leaves one a bit disoriented chronologically. I like it.

This morning, I wake up before 0600 and just enjoy the early morning. We have not been in a lookout for four straight days before and I am looking forward to experiencing it as well as going home this evening. I wash up this morning, but why? Only Sherri is here and she is in the same situation. For all of the visitors coming my way? Only person whom we have seen is Zach on Tuesday delivering a part. Still, I feel better for it.

Moon setting over Bear Mouontain

Sherri is waking up, but she feels it is way too early to actually move. A luxury we have up here, watching the glow of the sunrise. Then a hummingbird pops up making the perfect setting. So good that God gives these moments of beauty, even for an audience of one. My lesson today is to learn to cherish such times as His gift to me.

Breakfast is the normal stuff-oatmeal. Then we start getting the excess gear down to the truck, some go down via the pulley system rigged up at Delilah by some enterprising and talented engineers and engineer wanna be’s. But some go down via air express. one actual hits the target-the bed of the truck.

Laundry Service at Delilah

Kathy has expressed some concern about us being up here four days in solitude.But I do not see why. I think things are pretty normal, at least for me. Sherri forgot to bring down last night’s pee can for emptying. So I transform from being Window-Washer Guy-vision an ugly male Wonder Woman now doing her twirl-to PeeCan Man as he races down the stairs with his hazardous canister to the outhouse. After this, he goes takes a lap around the lookout before being driven back by the flies to the safety of the lookout. But here he finds a new deadly peril, a huge ugly bug has Sherri cornered. Never fear! PeeCan Man is here. He swifty captures the bug and throws it to the breeze outside of Delilah’s cabin. He can now return to being a mild mannered retiree, hoping his eyesight is good enough to see a wisp of smoke.

It is now 0900. Time to the lookout ready for its purpose. More of the same: weather, go into service, listen to weather and staffing-staffing is pretty sparse today, only the duty officer and an engine from down south.

Let me just say, this paragraph is more of a warning to myself than anything else. The incident which is talked about was probably a training drill which got overheard. We got a phone call which asked had we heard about the control burn which got away? Also one fire fighter got burnt over 20% of his body. It was said that this was heard on a channel we do not normally monitor at Delilah. But the incident was said to have happened within an area which is under our general viewing. The particular place where the prescribed burn was said to take place was behind a ridge, where we cannot see. But we have seen a smoke there before once a fire got going. We kept looking in the direction, but could not see anything. I texted Kathy and Wendy asking if they had heard. These two have lots of contacts and they started calling around. None of them had heard of this incident, nor did I see anything on WildCAD about a prescribed burn. After Wendy and Kathy investigated, the conclusion was that maybe what was overheard was on a radio channel which is used for training. Lesson for Gary: When you hear something, observe - think - report. Just like one of the signs at Delilah says.

While this is going on, we also heard of a smoke report-which got changed to a smoke check-on the Sierra side of things. Usually Sierra lookouts are paid professionals and when they report a fire it is spot on with the description and location. But they also have volunteers over there as well. This smoke report was a lesson for me in how not to do a report. Just from the sound and the uncertainty of the report, it sounded more like a smoke check. Then Sierra dispatch had the lookout confirm the azimuth. It was 20 degrees different from the first reporting and I think the distance was different as well. Also he was not sure about the color of the smoke-was it white or brown? This makes a difference on if it is a vegetation fire or dust being kicked up by machinery. Three engines were sent out to see if they could find something. In the 15-30 minutes for them to arrive, even the lookout could not see the original cloud. Gary’s Lesson: When reporting a smoke, be as accurate as the circumstances allow. What you do not know, don’t oversell.

We have visitors! Three of them from Los Angeles and their dog named Buddha. They had gone up to Buck Rock yesterday and was told about Delilah. So they made their long trip from Dorst to Delilah. So good! They stayed over an hour. Got to talk about the history of Delilah, the Rough Fire and and different aspects of being a lookout. They seemed to survive us pretty well.

Wendy also sent out a congratulations on a good job to Park Ridge for yesterday’s smoke report on the Highway Fire. And then things quieted down again. We took the weather reading a bit late, around 1330. And then continued our scans-even with the visitor’s here we would look around and eyeball the area. Listening to the Sierra radio, the Peak Fire is getting a lot of attention. Looking at WildCAD, it still is pretty small, but hard to get to.

The next couple of hours go by fast and it is getting close to 1600 when Sherri and I will shut down Delilah early. At 1550 we go out of service before Sierra and Porterville do their lengthy reports. By 1620 we are in the truck and on the way back to Fresno. At 1810 we arrive back at the house, ready for a shower and dinner out at Casa Quintero. Sherri is watering the plants-it is our night to do it. By 2200, I am in bed, reading and ready to sleep. Sherri must have more energy because I am long asleep before she joins me. A long, but good four days. I am glad we extended our stay.

Trail Lesson: 

Cherish times of beauty as a gift from God.

When you hear something, observe - think - report. Just like one of the signs at Delilah says.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Casa Quintero	Cheese, jerky

Animals

No matter how early this hummer is, it will not get the sugar water

Faun

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?

August 13, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 13, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

When there is the spectacular available to you, but it does not show, are you disappointed? Or just glad for the ordinary beauty? The Pleiades Meteor Shower should have been at its height last night. But the moon washed out the fireworks. Second year in a row-last year the Ferguson Fire smoked out the event from the lookout. But was I disappointed? I did see a few meteors, but nothing more than ordinary, even at 0400. But what I did see was a near full moon, and a plethora of stars coming out just for me to see. How glorious!

Is not God in the heights of heaven?

And see how lofty are his highest stars?

Job 22:12

A hummer in flight

I did manage to get out of my sleeping bag on the catwalk at 0600. A cool wind is blowing, but it is warmer in the cabin. I read for a little while and just enjoy the morning. Sherri wakes up at 0630. After relaxing for a little while, we have breakfast.

It is a bit more hazy than yesterday. Our good visibility is about 15 miles in most directions. We go in service at 0929 with Porterville. But because of battery issues-needing to change out three batteries, we go in service at 0932 with Sierra. Also the handheld radio is staticy, so we switch to adding them on our base radio, along with all of the other channels we scan.

After that, things quieted down. Except at 1100. Sierra does a lookout check in. Mostly because as a group, we are a pretty silent bunch. That is except when we see a smoke, which hopefully is not too often. So Sierra has us check in to make sure we are all OK. They skipped right over us. Evidently they did not hear us on the weakened batteries. We thought they had we radio’d in to them and they put us in service.

Then Kathy calls and we discuss the radio situation. She says that a part for the charger has been delivered to HLRD. Now to figure out a way to get it up to Delilah. She will check with the duty officer and see if there is a way to bring it up to Delilah. A few minutes later, she said that it would be today or tomorrow.

Faulty item and repair part

A little after 1300, Sherri sees a truck coming. It has a PT-32 on it, but PT-32 is out of service. Who is it? When he gets out of the truck, it is the engineer for E32. He has the part for the battery charger. We talk for a few minutes and then he is off to make his next delivery-to Buck Rock who has the same issue as us. Now to figure out how to install this piece. It turns out to be quite simple-only a screw holds in the sleeve. It takes less than ten minutes to change out. Now to start charging the battery. The initial results looks promising-the red charging light is on.

Birds and Bees Delilah Style

Now back to the mundane. Actually, I take a nap and leave Sherri on duty. This nap is short by comparison to yesterday’s. It is only about half an hour, but I feel refreshed. We are back to our usual routine, no excitement. At the 1600 Sierra check-in, I use the half charged battery on the handheld radio. It works! After that, I continue to charge it, out of the handheld, until the 1800 lookout checkout. This battery took about three-plus hours to charge. Will see how the other ones do.

Sunset

But we are out of service now. I go down and the doe is hanging around the lookout. After doing my business, it is back up to the cabin, 80’ up. Sherri informs me that we do not have a wine bottle opener up here. I am wondering what my knife has on it, so down 80’ to our vehicle to look in my emergency bag. No cork opener there. So we will not be enjoying the wine with our garlic chicken noodles. Life can be rough in the tower.

Fading light

 After cleaning up, we read for awhile, then go back down the stairs. We lock up and come back up to the cabin. By now the city lights have come out. We start to play the game-can we identify places in Fresno. We think we have the airport nailed-how can you miss an airport? And the Save Mart Center. Highway 180 is obvious along with Shaw. By 2100, we are tired enough to go to bed. Tonight, I will sleep inside the cab.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Peanut Butter, Nutella	garlic chicken noodles	Jerky, cheese sticks, nuts

Animals

Hummers

Bees

Deer

Deer

August 12, 2019 - Delilah Lookout

Title: August 12, 2019 - Delilah Lookout
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals 

Trail head: Delilah Lookout

Hike Info:

Type: Lookout

Description:

Hummingbird

Got up at 0530. Sherri gets up round 0600. We get ready with the last minute packing and leave about 0720. On the way up, we call Armand who stayed overnight at Delilah. Sherri offers a cup of coffee from her place at Clingan’s Junction. But he is contently sipping his tea. Sherri gets her coffee anyway, and a lemon scone-yummy stuff, that is the scone.

After traveling the Delilah Road (13S75)/Davis Road (12S01), we get to Delilah just after 0900. Around the junction of Davis and Delilah Roads, we come across a young buck, maybe 3 or 4 points, who decided that he was not waiting around for us to take a picture of him. Armand already has already unlocked the tower, having stayed there last night. We have a good conversation. But he leaves about the time Mich calls from Buck Rock. She is having troubles with her Internet connection and is wondering if ours is up-it is.

Today is a pretty quiet day, on everybody’s part. There is a fire near North Fork, but that is way beyond where we can see it. Other than that, we do our scans, take the weather at our location, and listen to the radio for communications which might be of interest.

The handheld is having battery troubles. None of them seem to be holding a charge. So that will be a tomorrow thing-charging the batteries fully and see how long they hold a charge.

Evening view from Delilah

Delilah  and Moon

Actually it was a quiet day, but we are not as prepared for these days as we usually are. We forgot several food items: sandwich bread, brown sugar, and a few other things. It is not exactly like we will starve or anything like that, but we make do in a different way than expected-sounds almost like backpacking.

At 1800, we go out of service. For about half an hour, we sort of lounge around for awhile. I go down to use the facilities. Then we have dinner, like we had last time-no dinner picture this time. We talk a bit about future stuff as the night creeps in over us. This year’s Delilah Doe is hanging out by the water drain when I go down for the final time. Now we took ourselves into our sleeping spot-Sherri on the single bed and I to my preferred spot in my sleeping bag on the catwalk. Wonder what the stars have in store for me tonight.

Note: Not too many pictures from today.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Breakfast at home	Bread, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Gnocchi, Carrots, Cookies	String cheese, almonds

Extra Photo's

Animals

Delilah Doe

One of our hummers

August 3, 2019 - George Lake to Trailhead

Title: August 3, 2019 - George Lake to Trailhead
Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons :  Menu : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: George Lake

Hike Info:

Type: Backpacking

Trail: 7s32 California Riding Trail, 24e03 Twin Lakes Trail Loop, 26e31 George Lake

Destination: Potter Pass Trailhead

Distance:  4.76 miles ¹

Start Time: 11:15

End Time:      4:30

 ¹I forgot my GPS. The information on length and elevation is taken from a trip we made on August 19, 2014.

Description:

Traditional Creek Crossing

Last night was somewhat miserable and it was my fault that I had not taken care of the issue. Yesterday while hiking up to College Lake, I acquired a headache. It was not bad-I was wondering if it was somewhat altitude induced. Anyway, I thought that I could sleep it off. Nope. As the night wore on, it got worse. So on one of the midnight runs, I asked Sherri if she had any Advial in the tent, otherwise I would dig through the bear canister for some in my medicines. Sherri did not, but she knew right where hers was, so St. Sherri rummaged around her first aid kit and rescued me. I slept the rest of the night very well. Thanks Sherri.

Flowers on the way down

I got up around 845 pretty refreshed. While Sherri was sleeping, I finished off the book The Art of Dying Well by Katy Butler. Not that I am thinking of dying soon, more because my parents have been on my mind and how they went I just want to be responsible for my own passing when the time comes. It is a book which at the least will cause you to consider how you want to go.

We are in no rush today. I figure about three hours to walk out of here. So Sherri is sleeping in even more than I did. Breakfast is the normal oatmeal fare. Sherri did put an extra serving of oatmeal into us, so I am feeling a bit bloated after breakfast. Good to know.

More flowers along the way

What is not normal is we are a bit lethargic in our morning. Neither of us are moving too quickly or purposely. Still, we have plenty of time to walk out of here. There are 5 miles to travel and all except for a mile is downhill. We manage to leave around 11:15-or maybe a few minutes afterwards. It is a lot easier going this way than it was Thursday coming up the hill. Also there is a lot less mosquitoes. All of this allowed us to stop and enjoy things.

Quartz Rock

Things like flowers and butterflies. Coming in, where there were pretty flowers, there was mosquitoes. But having gotten a later start, the mosquitoes are more dormant now. So we stop and enjoy the flowers a lot more. And there are a lot more flowers to enjoy. The yellow-orange of the leopard lily, red of the Indian Paintbrush, and of course, purples of lupine. All combined to provide a visual feast. Then as we get close to Upper Twin Lake, butterflies come into play. Mostly fritillaries, but some checkers and swallowtails pop up.

Round Meadow

We follow the trail around the north side of the lake and come to a large camping spot at the east end of it. So we stop for a few minutes to take a break before moving on. There is a couple coming up the trail from Sample Meadow. The guy looks familiar, and then we recognize the women-it is Julie and Michael from our church. Julie is the worship leader there and to be frank, we do not know them very much. We talk for about 45 minutes-much more than we have talked with them ever. It is good to have “accidently” met them up here. Sometimes you meet people in the strangest places. Amazing stuff beauty, hiking and God bring together.

Looking north from Potter Pass

They leave and we go about 200’ and then we see Mark, from our house church coming along the trail with some of his forest service friends. They are coming in to camp at Upper Twin Lake. A series of coincidences. Actually I am not sure there are coincidences, just fulfillment of plans.

The end of the trail is not getting any closer, so we move on. The path starts to go uphill, which means, I am huffing and puffing. This side of Potter Pass is shorter, but steeper than the south side. More reason to stop and breath. But the good thing about going up a bit steeper, is that as you climb, you start seeing over the trees. And what a sight we see-as I rest often. The crest of the Sierra rises up along with much of the drainage of the San Joaquin River.

Sherri descending from Potter Pass

This is culminated at the top of Potter Pass where we can see both to the north and south of us. A pretty good view for a lower Sierra pass. As we rest at the top, a couple who had done a day hike to George Lake came over the top. We talked a bit. The lady shared a quote about llama’s-see below. Then they are off. As Sherri and I are thinking about leaving, three young females come up and ask if they can share our shade-of course. I think they are much younger than they are-they are in college and all met in New Zealand-are all Americans (not that it matters much up here, we will talk with anybody it seems like.) We sit and talk for about half an hour before they leave and we decide it is time for us to leave.

Huntington Lake

The rest of our trail, about 2 ½ to 3 miles is all downhill. My body seems to be more tired in the afternoon than in the morning. So even though we have not gone more than 2 miles, the body seems to be dragging. Yesterday I said that I do not so much description on smell, that is true about noise. Both coming in and going out, we are being serenaded by grasshoppers, sending up a constant racket. I suppose if it was only one of these pests, it might sound like a rattler. But with it being so many, it is a rataplan of clicking sound. Once we get into the forest it subsides.

Going down, we stop a few times, just to rest for 30-60 seconds, then we are off again. We make it back to the car around 4:30, pretty tired, but surprisingly not very hungry. Even when we get to Shave Lake, we only stop to pick up something cold and a bag of chips. I guess Sherri’s extra serving kept us going and full. So we get home around 6:00pm and get cleaned up. After laying around for about an hour, we decide to eat at Yosemite Falls restaurant. I have a small dinner and bring the rest back home. Then it is off to sleep.

Trail Lesson:  Be more like a llama rather than a horse-look around, not always at your feet. From a fellow hiker.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Ritz Crackers, Tortillas, Peanut Butter, Nutella	Yosemite Falls restaurant	Clif Bar, Scratch, Coffee Candy

Extra Photo's

Leopard Lily

Quartz Rock

Potter Pass as viewed coming out of George Lake

Towards the crest of the Sierra

Clouds from Potter Pass

Mammoth Peak

Clouds from Potter Pass

Clouds from Potter Pass

Mt Ritter and Two Tets

Round Meadow

Mt Ritter and Two Tets

Gary sauntering down the trail

China Peak

Animals

Fritillary

Fritillary

 
Flowers and Plants

Leopard Lily

Leopard Lily

Mariposa Lily

Columbine

Scarlet Gaia

Indian Paintbrush

Lupine