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.