Tower Log - September 5-9, 2003

Picture: 1730 hrs

This is the off ramp from the Interstate 210 Freeway in La Canada.  The sign on the bridge says:

(2) Angeles Crest Hwy
La Canada Flintridge

I just got out of work, went to Ralphs on Foothill for supplies, and now heading up to the tower.

This will be my longest shift. Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning.  Three nights in the tower straight.

At about Mile Post 47.5 I see the sign on Highway 2 for the Charlton Flat and Mount Vetter Tower.

I turn left and follow the road all the way up to the "Twin Gate" parking area.

It's almost getting hard to remember to take photographs for this journal.  I keep thinking, I have taken that picture before and people have seen it.  But then I realize that there are little details, sky, clouds, and in this case, the moon that is different.

So I vow to keep clicking photos even if they are redundant.

The tower is closed and awaiting for me.

I start the opening of the shutters and I am about half done when...

... I hear voices on the trail coming up start yelling excitedly, "SNAKE!  SNAKE!"

I lowered the shutter I was holding on to grabbed the camera and ran down to the garage area.

Three hikers indeed found a "Southern Pacific Rattlesnake" that was making its way across the road.

There it was in all it's glory.  A prime specimen of a Rattler.  These snakes are great for keeping the rodent population under control and as long as we kept a good distance (as you can see in the photo above) there is no danger for us.

At first I was worried that these hikers might attack the snake, but they were very respectful and in awe of this guy.  

This one is about eight years old going by the number of rattles on it's tail.

Here he is making his way along the ground to his hiding place.  He is moving slow and not aggressive at all, but then again, we are not bothering him at all and keeping our respectable distance.

He didn't rattle once, and it is said that more rattlers are evolving not to rattle.  Those that rattle usually get killed by humans and thus don't have little baby rattlers.  Thus evolution is happening in our lifetime and we should not kill snakes at all (well ok, if they are in your home that is one thing).  At least not snakes you see on a trail.

Here are the three hikers that found the snake.  They stayed and watched the sunset and learned about the tower.

We have chairs in the tower for visitors to take a load off, and even a few they can take outside to sit on the cat walk.

The sun is setting low.

Sunset from the weather lookout station. Clear skies. Nice and peaceful again.  Should be a cooler weekend then the last few.

Mars rising in the East.

The Roman God of war is close to Earth.  At 5:51 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27, 2003, Mars was 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) of Earth. That was the closest that Mars has come to our planet in nearly 60,000 years.

It is six times bigger then normal and was at Magnitude 2.9 for several days.

I need to print this picture and post in the Tower to show visitors what the city looks like at night.

The city at night.  Below there are four lights from Short Cut Fire Station.  It is about a mile away from the tower.  The top light often goes out when just when it gets bright enough so I have invented a game, called "hit the light".  I'll guess when it is about to go off and pretend to shoot it out with my finger.  Boom, it goes out.  Hey at night, it is so quiet you need something to do.

Below at 2140 hrs is the Firework show at Disneyland:

Picture: 0638 hrs

Sunrise comes over the railing of the tower.  I'm already up and about.  I went in service at 0600 after waking up early.

I put the flags up about 7 am.

An Oak Titmouse grabs a seed and starts to peck it against the railing to crack it open.  The Titmouse is very skittish and shy, and will fly away as soon as they see me.

Here he enjoys the sunrise with me which is a surprise for me.

Hello, who is this masked man?  This is the first time I have seen this bird so I go to the book and look him up.  This is a "Mountain Chickadee" as denoted by the black eye stripe.

This quickly becomes my favorite.  The exact opposite of the Titmouse, the Chickadee is courages and brave.  At one point my hand was only 1 inch from this bird while I was adding more seeds to the feeder.

Although they often give way to the Titmouse, the Chickadee  comes back as soon as he is gone, and the Chickadees don't mind how close I am to them.

Not everyone that comes up to the Mountain comes up to the tower.  These hikers brought their breakfast and ate at the bottom of the stairs.  I invited them up, but they politely declined.

The mountains offer so many aspects of recreation for so many people.

Ok for our Upper Yucca fans, here is yet another shot in the day of the life of a blooming Yucca.  As you can see, the stalk is entirely dry and every time a bird lands on it, the fruits rattle just like a rattlesnake.  It makes me jump a few times.

The Lower Yucca is in the same shape now.

It is slow and quiet.  I decide to grab the radio and do a foot patrol.  As I have mentioned in the last log, I would feature the "Air Quality Monitoring Station" (AQMS) from the Air Quality Management District (AQMD).  Los Angeles is still the Smoggiest place in the Nation, but... the air quality now is better then it has ever been!

This is a remote monitoring station that filters the air and checks for a whole host of pollutants.  Some of the other Lookouts have met AQMD personnel as they work on the station as they often come up and visit the Tower.

Sometimes at night, there is a motor or fan inside of the station that starts up and due to the quiet nature of Vetter Mountain, the lookouts can here it.  Most pay it no mind.

This is also the closest point of electricity to the tower.  The tower has no electricity, yet it did once upon a time.  We seem to do ok without it.

(The diagonal wire over the tower is from the "stay line" of the electricity pole and no where near the tower.)

Beauty shot.  While I'm down taking pics of the AQMS, I see a great angle for a shot of the tower.  The wind is calm as the flags just hang, but the sky is wonderfully blue.

I get a surprise.  Both Bob and Kevin drive up from the city while they are taking a "ground check" of the forest.  Bob brings up a chain for the home made "Lookout Feeder".

Bob also notes in the shutter above him that I did not use the third wing nut.  I stopped using them as I have noted others have too.  He stated that he had to fix one of them that started to bow in the center.

I put all the wing nuts on and made a note for the other lookouts to do the same.

While driving out, Bob and Kevin stop the car and notice some tracks down by the AQMS.  They find a whole set of tracks of what Kevin thinks maybe two Mountain Lions (Puma).  My tire track is on the bottom, so these cats must have come by sometime last night while I was in the Tower.

These tracks are big!  Notice the size of the tire print in relationship to the track.  That was one big kitty.

Mt. Lions are very peaceful masters of the wilderness, yes you must be careful but your chances of being attacked by a Mt. Lion are less then winning the California Lottery.

Here is an external link explaining that. Remember to return here by using your back button.  Link: Mt. Lion Attacks by Tom Chester.

More visitors show up and the hiker on the left watches as Air 5 responds to a call of a 13 year old boy that was hit in the eye with a rock.  The father of the boy will transport him to St. Josephs Hospital via his car.

Air 5 was called off, but they spot a Motorcyclist down and report it to dispatch.  They stay in the area to help.  Air 5 will have a busy weekend.

The Bark Beetle is gaining ground in the Angeles Forest.  Below is a report from Los Angeles County regarding the beetle:

From: Cato R. Fiksdal, Agricultural Commissioner and P. Michael Freeman, Fire Chief, Los Angeles County

Bark beetles infest weak, stressed, or dying pine trees.  The most common cause of stress, is drought.  Although rainfall this year was slightly above normal, last year's was the lowest on record and was the fourth year of below normal rainfall.

Three species of bark are involved in the current high level of infestation and tree mortality. They are the Western, Mountain, and Jeffrey pine bark beetles.

The Western pine beetle is a serious pest of Ponderosa and Coulter pine.

The Jeffrey pine beetle is a serious pest of Jeffrey pine.

The Mountain pine beetle attacks Ponderosa, Sugar, Lodgepole, Western White, and other pines."

Also here is some advice for mountain residents:

ACTIONS FOREST COMMUNITY RESIDENTS CAN TAKE:

High water use plants (such as nonnative annual flowers and lawn grasses) should be kept away from the roots of native pines. All freshly cut conifer stumps should be treated with a thin layer of a fungicide to prevent infection by the root rot fungus.

Property owners should maintain a cleared space inside the dripline of native trees.  The trunks of pines can be treated with insecticides prior to being infested with bark beetles that prevent adults from laying eggs on the trunk.

There are no chemical insecticide treatments that will save bark beetle infested trees. Native annuals and perennials should be used for landscaping. Native pines should be thinned to maintain low stocking levels. Dwarf mistletoe brooms should be removed to improve the health of individual trees.

A few visitors have been coming up.  Here another "hard core" biker makes his way to the tower.  It seems the Tower is on an Internet site that adversities three mountain peaks.

Here is an outside link to the website, please remember to use your browsers "back" button to get back here.

Chilao Singletrack Trail Map

There is smoke over Mt. Baldy but I know it is from the Bridge Fire.

I can usually see all the way to Riverside, and for fun I called my Sister and Brother in Law and told them I could see their house.   They said that the smoke from the Bridge Fire in the San Bernardino Forest is getting thick, and indeed it is.  

The wind is from the West so I am upwind, but there seems to be some smoke making its way West.  

This is high altitude smoke (and smog) that seems to be coming from the West.  I'll have to check my reports to see if anything was burning to the West of me.

This picture shows the condition of the paint and the wood of the lookout.  It also is a good pic of the lookout feeder.

No more visitors for today... well, except for one more.

Sunset over the mountains.  I watch the sun go down, the moon come up, the city lights sparkle and Mars rise.  Later in the night it is time for me to say goodnight.

Picture: 0732 hrs

At about 0615 hrs I rise and take a check.  

This is early to hear voices coming up the trail.

Our first visitors are out taking a morning stroll.  They never been to the tower and they wanted a map to take another trail back. We had one in a book, but I couldn't give that out so I drew them a map to get around Charlton Flats.  Here they are heading down the trail.

(I have made a new map of the area, and will post it here soon.)

Karen takes a picture of me showing visitors pictures of the Curve Fire.  Just a week ago, many members of our team went up to Mt. South Hawkins for a visit and a one year memorial service.  I hope to post some of their pictures soon.

For those that don't know, we lost a tower and our crew got out just 4 hours before she went down (or up in smoke) from the Curve Fire.  That was September 1, 2003.

A motorcycle is down about Mile post 37 below Clear Creek on Highway 2.  Patrol 12 is on the scene, and Engine 14 from xxx and Engine 16 (in picture) from Chilao are on their way to help.

I can hear the siren from Engine 16 as they role through the mountains.

Air 5 gets to the scene quickly and Patrol 12 requests that Engine 14 be used to close the highway at Clear Creek to keep any more cars from coming down.

Engine 16 is released from the incident and they return to Chilao.

I take a walk down to the Restrooms and I smell death on the air.  Right next to the restroom I find a dead Quail.  Death is a part of the ecosystem so instead of throwing the carcass away, I relocate it to another part of the forest.

I was interested how Hornets are meat eaters.  They were pretty busy on this carcass.

This is a view of the Restroom and the water tank at the bottom of the hill.

The water tank is fed from a natural spring, located under the tank.  It is a self filling tank.  However, in the last years there was no water and there is only about two foot of water in it now.

Some lookouts use this water to fill the "guzzlers" that we have near the tower.

I prefer to bring up my own water.  In the last log I mentioned I would bring up a 5 gallon "blue" jug.  Instead, I brought up 24 gallons of water.

This is tap water from my home and I have it labeled as such.

Hikers can access this water if they need.  The shower no longer works, but is in "fair" shape.

Who is that man with the smile?  It's Bob my Instructor and his wife Maria (also a lookout) in their car.  Bob just got off work from the Chilao Visitor Center where he also volunteers there (what dedication to public service) and had come by to see if all was ok before they headed down the mountain.

Bob had passed two visitors on the trail coming up to the mountain and told them that they had left their lights on their car back at the parking area.  Good thing Bob found them in time.

Bob and the visitors visited for awhile then left.

Visitors gone, flags down, no lights, just a dark quiet place at sunset.

Inside the cab of the lookout, the fire of the sun rages upon the clouds.  I sit in the silence of the Mountain.

My last visitor of the day.  With the flash, the camera stops time for this perfect shot.

No not a visitor, I have been collecting a series of 1/87 HO Scale Forest Service Fire Trucks and I put this one on the railing and use the sunset in the background.   Interesting special effect.

Picture: 0619 hrs

Red sky in morning... sailors take warning.

Indeed it did get very cloudy this day, and the sunrise was very much like the sunset.

Here is the city shot with the Upper Yucca.  The city is encased in fog and a marine layer.  It will continue like this for the next week.

I keep hearing funny sounds from the bushes and running down by the Weather Station is a flock of Quail.

A shadow of my mountain on Strawberry Peak (to the upper left).

Ok now I'm in trouble.  My Tower instructor Bob showed me a way to tie the ropes of the flag so they don't clack and clang during the night.  I tied the ropes this way and found that during the night they became entangled with the weather vane.

It takes me about 15 minutes to get the solution to the puzzle and restore order to the universe.

Yet again I am running late to get to work, so I put the camera down and start closing up the tower.

The tower is closed and I am driving down.  The Forest Service crews have been busy working on the dead trees caused by the Bark Beetle.

This is the area near parking area 17 in Charlton Flats.

Blue, green, brown and white.  The colors of nature in progress.  Good thing these are some of my favorite colors.

What a long shift.  Don't know if I'll do that again, but I sure love every minute of it.  Time to get back down off the mountain and get to work.

I wonder if I need a shower?