Rain and Snow

Another quick update from Glacier.  Things are going well aside from the weather.  After about a week or great, sunny, warm weather we've been getting hit with some snow and cold rain over the last week and it looks set to continue for a little while anyway.  I'm told that this is well within the norm so I guess I'll hold out for the sunny skies of July, a whole month away.

Working is still ramping up.  Mostly training for now and getting oriented to the area.  I've been doing a lot of field training with some of the permanent Rangers.  Just going out on patrols with them and getting to know the problem areas of our district and getting some real world experience on some of the things I've been training for over the last year.  The end of this week is swift water rescue training which should be sweet and very cold I imagine.  I have a dry suit which I tried on this morning and I felt like I was being strangled by the neck like a gasket so I'm looking forward to wearing that for three days.  We will be down on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River for the training which is a very pretty spot which is popular with rafters and kayakers.  After that it’s Bear Management training for a few days.  Basically how to deal with all the bear/human interaction issues we have in the park.  I know I'm slacking on the Ranger specific pics here and the full uniform pic is coming but in due time.  I never seem to remember to get my camera out when I'm working.

The last few weekends I have spent in the back country.  Two weeks ago I was down in the southern part of our district out of the Walton Ranger station.  I hiked for two days and never saw another person or a sign of another person.  It’s a pretty wild part of the park with little visitation.  Had a great time and stayed the night in one of the patrol cabins.  These are historic cabins that were put in place for Rangers on back country patrols and are still used today.  This past weekend I spend in the northern section of the park bordering Canada along the Belly River.  It rained on my most of the time but it was still a nice trip.  This area supposedly gets pretty busy as the season picks up so I was glad to get to it when it’s quiet.  I stopped and checked out the back country ranger station in the Belly River which is awesome.  Its a seasonal post about six miles by foot from the road.  They have quite a set up there; it reminds me of the homestead in Legends of the Fall.  It’s staffed by two married Rangers. I wouldn’t mind spending a summer in their spot.

Check out the new pics and enjoy.