Mascots & More

We have weekly staff meetings here, they are informative and fun. The forest supervisor (top official) visited with us last week, he even brought donuts. One topic at that meeting was forest mascots. Of course Smokey Bear (not Smokey the Bear) is the top mascot. He just celebrated his 75th birthday. The supervisor says his message has changed, it's no longer "Only you can prevent forest fires." He couldn't remember what the new one is though, one of the staff suggested maybe it's "Only you can start forest fires." Hahaha, but not funny? 

Then there is Woodsy Owl,  he is most famous for the motto "Give a hoot—don't pollute!" His current motto is "Lend a hand—care for the land!"  Our boss said Woodsy was out of favor back in the time when protection of the Spotted Owl was controversial. Last, there is Captain Cal, who is Cal Fire's mascot. He is a mountain lion, he educates about wildfires and fire hazards. Apparently he is so new that the fire crews don't know about him.

Since it's getting late in the season, we were advised on keeping our tempers in check. There is a term called "Snaptember", when nerves get frayed enough (September or late August even), then one "snaps". Hoping it doesn't happen to any of us. But a noticeable thing is the visitation is down, most K-12 have started for the Fall. But still expecting the campgrounds to be full this weekend. 

Kathy and I don't need to get involved with campground disputes like some of the other staff does. We are 9 miles from the nearest campground, the other information center is closer to all of the campgrounds so that's where campers with complaints tend to go. But one of the staff said she would actually lose sleep over some of these. On weekends, with camp  sites getting grabbed up, people can fight over who has dibs on a site. Who gets it between the one who filled out the envelope and paid for it vs. the one who occupied it first? It's actually, the one who occupied it first, per the rules. Glad I don't get pulled in to these.

I visited the fire lookout at Big Hill recently. The lookout (spotter) who mans it, Mike, is retired from the Sherriff's Dept. He's been doing it the last 6 years during fire season, which usually ends sometime in November. It surprised me that they still use human lookouts, as the trend has been more electronic surveillance. But humans as spotters still add value as they can help due to a policy change for letting some fires burn. Fire suppression is not the norm anymore. Mike showed me the tools he used in locating and monitoring wildfires, mainly a large map with a 360° view finder, another map with a triangulation device between the 3 towers in this part of the forest and binoculars. Not high tech stuff. They report the direction in degrees (North is 0) and the estimated distance to dispatch. He told me that the ranger station can also operate a camera at each of the towers and see the fire and its progression on a screen in the office. I also read that the state of California is using more drones this year, courtesy of the Federal government. There have been more reports of plumes of smoke lately, we hear them over the radio. If it warrants dispatching a fire crew to the area, we hear a call for the different engines by tones and then their number. If a wildfire is major enough, it gets a name. Otherwise it gets reported as a 'vegetation fire'. A good source of where the fires in California are at any time is on https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/

There is not a good recycling effort here in the forest, unfortunately. We turn in reusable bottles and cans with the CA CRV label. At the information area we work, only aluminium and plastic CRV containers are taken in bins. Everything else that we would normally recycle back home, like paper, cardboard or other plastics have to go in the dumpster. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but I wish they accepted more material.

Rattlesnakes have become more of a problem lately, yikes. We heard of 3 different people getting bitten. In one case, a young girl reached out of her tent for her shoes. Ouch!!! We keep an eye out for them, Just in case. 

Our fellow staff do some cleaning up of trash and messes left by campers. One area of dispersed camping, Millionaires Camp, became a mess. Campers leave trash in bags, which when left attract raccoons and other varmints who spread it all over. There was another instance of a small group leaving their campsite with a bunch of their stuff, including coolers with food in them. Not sure what prompted their evacuation, as they had reserved the site for a few more days. A motor boat has been left at the side of the road near us for close to 4 weeks now. The trailer is missing a tire, and has a license plate, but it's unsure if the owner will every return for it. It's the Highway Patrol's problem though, not the USFS.

Ice House Road is the main road here, and is very busy. Our living area and information booth are on it. It is quiet during the night, but by 5:00 AM, traffic is coming up it. Lots of construction equipment, trucks, campers, jeepers. We've more or less gotten use to it, but if you were wondering about our spot, it's not as quiet overall. Some of the drivers take it too fast, going over the middle lines, slow down on the curves will ya? There have been only a few accidents or mishaps this summer, surprised it's not more. Coming down, braking is essential, especially if towing. Often we smell hot brakes, sometimes they pull in to cool down their brakes. I think our Honda is probably going through the brakes quicker than normal because we travel up and down the road a lot.

There is an abundance of fresh vegetables and fruit in the area. I shopped at a couple of different produce markets, and just went to the Placerville Farmers Market. I bought peaches, nectarines, fresh salsa and fresh donuts there. Yum. We still can't figure out why avacados are so expensive here. The black raspberries down the road from us are free though, been picking them along a side road.

I got my 10-day fishing license, went out on an exploratory expedition, but didn't get any bites. Then tried the dock at  Wright's Lake, where I had seen people catching rainbows 2 weeks ago. I saw one trout, who didn't bite. A camper told me the fish were biting over by the inlet. May have to try that another time. My fishing success leaves something to be desired so far

There was a recent spell of hot weather. it only reached 90 here, but reached around 104 in Sacramento for a couple days. Some people came up here to  escape the heat, the woods or reservoirs offer a respite.

The days are getting shorter, kids are back to school, crickets are chirping in the evening, and bow season for deer started. Although it still feels like full summer, these are sure signs that the end of summer is near.