Back on the Front Range

I made it back to civilization successfully.  I just got back to Fort Collins about two weeks ago after completing my season in Glacier National Park.

The last few months in Glacier were great.  Lots of time spent along the boundary of the park meeting property owners, talking to local hunters, and sneaking around in the woods looking for would be evil doers.  For the last month and half of my season I moved to another area of the park and a more isolated ranger station.  I had a four bedroom house and a ranger station all to myself.  Pretty nice but due to the lack of consistent human interaction, internet, TV, etc. I started to talk to the squirrels and trees from time to time which was a little worrying.  I was somewhat comforted that I never actually heard them talk back though.  My time there often made me nostalgic for my Gambian days of sitting on the porch just watching the world go by.  The difference being that in the Gambia you were never without someone ready for a good chat or a small child doing something entertaining.  When I drove back into Fort Collins for the first time after a long empty drive though Montana and Wyoming I was freaking out and was sure I would be flattened by a speeding car at any moment.

I'm spending this month just studying for a Wilderness EMT course that I will be taking in Wyoming in January.  Sounds like it should be a pretty intense course but I think it should be fun.  The not so fun part is reading the one thousand five hundred and sixty-six page book that goes along with it and remembering from time to time that I actually need to retain a significant amount of what is on those pages.  Takes me back to my college days.  I pretty much ride my bike to a new coffee shop every morning and start reading.  The number of coffee shops within a few minuets ride of my house is a little ridiculous and I keep discovering more.  The crazy part is that they are all busy.  I expected them to be populated with college kids and the like but a surprising amount of business deals go down at the coffee shop tables throughout the day. 


I'm spending as much time as possible hanging out with Lydia.  Six months apart was not fun and I wouldn't recommended it.  Although its good to know that our relationship is strong as ever and can handle anything we throw at it.  It's good to keep perspective as well, I have a lot friends and family that are/have been deployed to war zones and separated from their families a lot longer than six months.  Lydia and I are headed to Guatemala in December over her school break.  We're going to take Spanish classes in a town in the mountains.  Should be pretty sweet and hopefully I can put my new found language learning skills to use and even dig down and find some of that Spanish that must be lingering in the depths of my head from high school and college.  Anybody who has tips on Guatemala give me a shout, or if you know any current or former PCVs there we were thinking about hooking into the PC network.  

Other than that I'm going to take some horseback riding lessons from a lady that has a farm near Fort Collins.  I put an add on craigslist advertising odd jobs in exchange for free lessons and it seems to actually have worked.  I didn't even get one response from a freaky psychopath.  Knowing Craigslist's reputation I thought this might be a possibility but so far I have escaped unscathed.

That's it for now.  Just a couple of new pics added.  Need to download some from the camera soon.  Back to the studying. 

Summer is Going

Well, it appears that I pretty much neglected the blog this summer. Sorry about that but there are a lot of mountain passes and forests that needed my full attention ;)

I can't even begin to tell the tail of this summer in this post. It's been pretty much one big learning experience. This job entails such a variety of tasks that everyday I run into something that I haven't seen or dealt with before. It's got me hooked and I look forward to doing this for a long time I hope.

Throughout the summer we had some pretty big incidents here in Two Medicine and other parts of the park. Search and rescues, man hunts (remember those guys who escaped from prison in Arizona), wildlife issues (Jack Hanna?), a suicide, car wrecks, etc. etc. Some of these ended well and I could go home feeling good about the whole thing. Some ended sadly mostly due to circumstances beyond our control. After those I would go home and evaluate how everything went. I always came away having learned something and impressed by my fellow Rangers.

The day to day stuff is just as interesting. Hiking the trails and walking the campground at night. Meeting people from all over the world who can't stop talking about how much they love it here and how much they wish they could be park rangers. I always tell them its easy just get rid of most of your possessions, take a big pay cut, and convince your family that moving every six months is a good idea and your half way there. The funny stories I hear and crazy questions I get asked never get old. I once sat next to a young couple near the lake one night as they discussed how they might start a campfire. Should they light each stick individually or put them all together and start them all at once. I think they settled on the individual stick method but I didn't think I could hold a straight face long enough to help them out. Somethings you just have to discover on your own. The completely serious questions about recent Sasquatch sightings were always good for a laugh. Welcome to your National Parks.

Living here in Two Medicine has been great. Surrounded by a ridiculously beautiful valley never gets old. The people that lived in out tiny community of about ten were great. Lots of great nights hanging out at potlucks and days off spent doing some epic hikes. I'm sure I will see some of these folks in the coming years. The Park Service is a small community.

Now as we transition to fall my job description transitions as well. My season has been extended so I get to stay into the fall and work on hunting/poaching patrols and some other issues that we have near the park boundaries. I have already started to work on some of this and it's a lot of fun. A lot of time in the backcounty and doing something that I see as a core ranger task of protecting the resource. I will be moving to another ranger station for the last part of my season so a new spot to explore.


I look forward to catching up with some of you and filling you in on the details this winter when I get back to civilization and my cell phone works again.  Until then check out the new pics and keep in touch with an email now and again.

Summer is coming

The weather is actually starting to turn a bit here.  But it sure isn't in any hurry.  Were getting a lot more sun but still plenty of rain and the wind is kick'n.

I think I may actually be done with training for awhile.  Its been fun but I'm ready to stay in my district full time and get in the mix of things.  Last week I spent three days up at a backcountry ranger station called Goat Haunt.  I was up there doing boat operations training.  Great location and a lot of fun.  To access the area you have to drive to Canada and then take a boat across Waterton Lake back into the US.

I've been spending all my weekends backpacking and getting to see a lot of the backcountry.  Check out the pics for more.  I've been coming away pretty much wet, cold and tired but the upside is that I've had most of the places to myself which won't be the case later in the season.  

On a heavier note, several weeks ago I participated in a search and rescue for two days in the St. Mary district of Glacier.  Unfortunately it did not end how we hoped it might.  Take care in your summer recreation... http://www.nps.gov/glac/parknews/news10-54.htm

Check out the new pics.  I apologize if I don't call/email often enough.  If you do want to get in touch email is the way to go.  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.