My Mountain Trail

Working The Lookout

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

  This is from Friday.  I also worked the lookout yesterday, and will do so again tomorrow.  Then be back late next week. 

I have some more photos I will post soon.  The sunset on Friday was nice and the sunrise on Saturday was also very nice.

No smoke. Ignore all that smog.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Composite of 10 photos.  Looking north from the lookout at about 1745 on Tuesday.  It was a bit hazy as the day wore on.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

You may be wondering:  “Why do we only see pictures looking north?”  Well, two reasons.  One:  It’s where the wildland fire danger is.  Most other areas are cooler/wetter (due to fog) or near population centers.  Two:  Fog covered most of Southern Marin on my first lookout watch day.  Maybe next time I’ll  have a clear view in all directons (with less smog/haze).  Then you might even see the Golden Gate Bridge or a real city or two.

You can see for miles

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Looking NW from the Mt. Tamalpais lookout.

This afternoon I am working my first shift as a lookout on Mt. Tamalpais.  So far I have reported the weather conditions twice, eaten lunch, looked for reported fires (all have been false alarms so far), listened to folks describe what they see and where it is, and well, looked out.  It’s peaceful from the perspective that one is all alone in the little lookout box.  It’s also a bit busy at times too because of all the action on the radio and all the noise from the hikers congregating at the base of the building.  Not busy for me of course, just busy sounding. 

Listening to folks describe what the see is one of the more interesting things to do in the lookout.  I heard one guy taking another stranger through all the major sights, and a number sights not visible due to the coastal fog covering Southern Marin and San Francisco.  What made it interesting?  Well, he used a lot of names of things that are visible from here (and some that are not visible or don’t exist), and pointed in the wrong direction almost every time.  He sure sounded like he knew what he was doing, but “clueless” doesn’t even begin to describe his story.  The person he was talking with obviously knew even less (or was VERY polite), so it didn’t seem to matter.  I figured if the person asking didn’t know what they were hearing was wrong, it wouldn’t matter one way or the other anyway – they weren’t likely to remember anything when the got home.  And, whatever they did remember, they would probably just figure they got it confused somehow.  

Of course, it is important, as a lookout, to actually know what you are looking at.  I have a lot to learn.  As calls come in over the radio I try to place the events on the landscape.  If forces me to think about what I see now vs. what I have seen from the ground level.  It’s a different, and not always easy, shift in thinking.  I have also been studying the maps, learning ridge and hill names, identifying fire roads and trails, and generally learning more about Marin.  All, in all, plenty of things to do to get good at this relatively simple job.

In the photo above you can see Lake Lagunitas, Bon Tempe Lake, and Alpine Lake – all part of Marin’s water supply.  You can also see Pine Mountain and Pine Mountain fire road; the Barnabe lookout is on Mt. Barnabe behind Pine Mountain.  You can see the Meadow Club (golf course), White’s Hill, Black Hill, the fog stacking up behind Bolinas Ridge, and Inverness Ridge off in the distance just in front of the fog bank.  Oh, and no smoke.

Mymountaintrail 1.0

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Okay, I can live with this for now.  Using a Firefox plugin called Firebug, I have been able to figure out how to change most of the colors in this Worpress theme.  I wanted to darken most of the graphics so that the photos will stand out more, and I have been able to do that.  There may still be some text or graphics that don’t quite look right, but I will try to fix that going forward.  Feel free to leave me any feedback (positive or negative) about the new site and its look and usage.

This photo is from my ride in to work on Monday.  It is a composite of several photos taken with my 45-year-old Yashica Minister-D camera. 

Back in May I misplaced the camera while packing for our vacation trip to Utah.  At the time I was debating what cameras to take with us — film (which ones?), digital (which ones!?), pen and ink…  I finally settled on my choices, but at the last minute I threw the Minister-D and GSN in the center console of the truck.  They both had film in them and I guess I figured I would finish out the rolls w/ snapshots. 

Anyway, the time was so busy I kind of forgot that I put the cameras in the truck.  I ended up using the digital cameras and Hasselblad for the trip.  When I got back home I went looking for the two Yashicas (thinking I had left them at home) and couldn’t find them.  I remembered the camera selection process before leaving on the trip and figured I must have actually brought the cameras with me and put them in some safe place in the camper.  After searching, no dice.  Then I searched the rest of the truck and Jeep.  Nope.  The garage (did I store them away???), no joy.  I finally gave up in frustration, figuring they would show up some day.

Well, that day was Sunday.  I happened to look in the truck console for some bottled water while working on the acacia forest, and there were the two cameras!  I am sure I looked in the cosole during my search, but somehow I missed them.  I guess.  I don’t know, but at least I found them.

So this week I finished out the film in each camera.  The above picture is stitched together from scans of 7 different photos.  The actual combined scan is quite large, and pretty okay quality for such an inexpensive camera.  And it’s hard to beat the retro fun.