RESCUED BY CAL-FIRE

Kerk Swartclander and Phil Brown
CAL-FIRE, Tulare Unit

DATE:  Fri, Oct. 28, 2011
HOME: Pier Point Springs Resort near Camp Nelson, Ca
DISTANCE:  16 (Bob), 10 (Shelagh)
ALTITUDE: 3500 (Bob)  1500 (Shelagh)
WEATHER: Perfect, except for GNATS!!!!
NARRATIVE:

On the way to Pier Point Springs Resort.

The weather was perfect, the scenery spectacular (steep forested hillside with the Tule River below), and the road windy and steep (sometimes up to 13%, often 8-10%, but with a few flat spots to rest).  The climbing was actually doable (we’re strong and rested).  So what was the problem?  GNATS – they swarmed at the worst times, when you’re struggling up the 10-13% grade and having difficulty taking a hand off the handlebars to swat them.  They seem to know this and get up your nostrils and down your throat.  Bug spray completely ineffective; if there was ever a time we needed mosquito netting for our heads, this was it.  But, we had none.

I was on the side of the road with my head down trying to get rid of the bugs, lifted my head when I heard a truck coming round the corner, and seeing it was a pickup without a load, stuck out my thumb for a ride.  Turned out it was CAL-FIRE and they were more than happy to take me up to Pierpoint Springs (it’s where they were going for lunch and a meeting).  Bob, of course, declined.  Nice guys – we talked fire, and it turns out one of them was fighting the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire.  He was with the Fresno Fire Dept. at the time.

Meanwhile, Bob was freed from my slow pace and nasty mood, had a fun and fast paced ride up the rest of the hill to the resort.  I had showered, and was walking to the restaurant for lunch when he appeared, sweaty, with bugs swarming around him, but smiling.  He always likes those challenges – glad I could help him out:)