Brrr....It's Cold!

Catching up with posting is postponed because I have a few other things to say. I'm not sure whether it is a cold front or if winter is on its way here, but it was chilly this morning and last night. When I measured the rain water this morning, it was frozen solid, (because the minimum last night was 25 degrees F). Yesterday Liz was on a bear jam and told me it snowed on her. So I think everyone can feel the end of the season creeping up on us.
Which also might be caused by the fact we had a goodbye party for Connor and Liz, (and later I found out for myself too 0_o ). I spent all of yesterday in the BCO finishing Liz'z and Connor's "going away awards", and everyone signing their cards and gifts. Liz got a walking stick that said "Anti-Slip Stream Crossing Aid" because earlier in the year she tried to cross a creek, slipped, and sprained her ankle for a good month. Connor got a key chain with a board of wood that was about 6 x 10 in. He has a habit of keeping the car keys to one of the cars in his pockets and forgets to put them back. Now when Sara or I wake up and see that the car keys are missing when we come into work, Connor is usually still asleep. So we have to sneak into his house and rummage through his pockets until we find them. So this "Memorial car key chain" ensures that he can't slip it into his pocket.
So after we give Liz and Connor their going away awards, Colette surprises me with my own award. And it really was a surprise, because I was half in charge of the Liz and Connor gifts and I truly wasn't expecting anything, especially since I am here for two more weeks. I received a "golden needle" because I had altered the safety vests for the Female LE rangers, (every other vest was too big). I also got a "golden pen" because a while back, I had started drawing comics of the Tower rangers. They had also made a copy of every single one of my drawings and bound them up and signed them. Sara made a cover page with a poem about me on it.

*Sniff*

....I swear I didn't cry....

I am still trying to remember what happened this past week

It's like the title says. Getting behind on blogs is somewhat frustrating because unlike the Law Enforcement (LE) rangers, I do not keep patrol logs. However, I do remember what happened on August 1st. It was one of my rare backcountry days and I decided to go and check out Slough creek (pronounced "sloo"). I keep telling people how beautiful the second meadow is along the trail, but I am only basing it on what Gabe says. I had personally never seen it before. So I went and check out the first two meadows and the first three campsites. My goal was to get to one of the patrol cabins, Elk Tongue cabin specifically, to look at that. But at the end of the second meadow I ran into a bear and ran out of water. So I turned back.

Speaking of bears as Slough creek. Right after the first meadow, I came across two bears, a mother and her cub, not fifteen feet off the trail. It was a blond Black Bear. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Black bears coats can range from black to blond. And I had never seen a blond Black Bear before. It would have been nice to look at, except for the fact I didn't know she was there until I was parallel with her: which meant that I was fifteen feet from her. Yes,a little bit nervous once I realized the sound was a bear not a ground squirrel. What I did was not make any noise or stop walking or stare at her intently. She didn't have any aggressive behavior towards me or come near me.

Day two of family visit and more

So the next day, my mother and I met up with my dad, my brother Robert and my grandpa. We went to this thing called "coffee with a ranger" which basically talked to a ranger at 8 in the morning. We did the grand loop, from Mammoth Hot Springs to Old faithful to Lake to Canyon and back to Mammoth. We had dinner at Roosevelt lodge where we met up with Craig McClure and his wife Dayna. Craig is a now retired ranger who used to work at Mammoth. He is the one we went through when we volunteered here two years ago and he is also the one who helped recommend me for this position. Much thanks to him.
The next day we went down to Canyon, and my brother and I did some horseback riding. We went down to lake after that and did an hour lake scenic cruise, where we learned a bit about the history of lake. There is one big shipwreck on Lake which we saw and I got a picture of too. We then had dinner at the Lake Hotel which was pretty good. I had lamb. I love lamb and usually only get to eat it on Easter.

The next day was goodbye morning. My family came up to Mammoth and I went there to say goodbye to them, bringing my Grandpa's car and my little brother with me there. The only problem was I had to give back my Grandpa his car, so I had no ride back. The only lucky thing was that my family had made me wear my uniform so I had a better chance of getting a ride back with a ranger with it on. I went to the visitor's center in Mammoth to see if they had any ideas to whom would be going in the direction of Tower. Luckily, a ranger in Mammoth named Russ, kindly gave me a ride to the Mammoth/Tower border at Geode creek. I had talked to Sara earlier that morning and she said that she would be able to head in the direction to pick me up. Unfortunately right before we reached Geode Creek, I tried calling Sara, but she was on Dunraven and didn't hear me. John M. did and he came to pick me up at Geode Creek.

Well, being the workaholic that I am here, and I am, because I can not get enough of this place, I decided to work on my day off. I took out the ambulance for a run to a possible woman falling off cliff, but it turned out to be just her backpack or something like that. Then bear jams for 3 hours.

Hello again

It is as the title says. I haven't been posting for the past....well, I guess it has been a week now, due to my parents coming and invading my house and my time (which I was absolutely ecstatic about!).
So my mother came on Sunday afternoon. This was the beginning of the visit of my parents (My father, grandfather, and little brother came on Monday but I didn't see them until Tuesday.)
She came while I was still in the Back country office (BCO), so she got to see me at work for an hour an a half. She said she was impressed with all the stuff I knew. Honestly, I'm still impressed with all the stuff I know. After I finally got off work, we went to my house (she took an hour nap), and then we went out to go to a ranger program. Before we left, I introduced her to as many people as I could. I think she met Liz, Kate, and John Kerr. I had planned on taking her to Roosevelt lodge for dinner but the wait was about an hour so we went to the Tower Fall general store instead, (and looked at the Fall while we were there).
The Ranger program was at Canyon and was about the geography of the great Yellowstone river. It was kind of buggy, but once my mom took out her 50% Deet bug spray and we soaked ourselves in it, we were fine.
It probably wasn't the best idea to bring my mom over Dunraven pass to Canyon. Let me talk about Dunraven pass for a second. It is a 17 mile drive that goes up a mountain, through that mountain and another mountain and back down the other mountain. Most of the way there are no side rails. It takes a few times to get used to it, I admit, but other than that, personally the side rails are not needed. My mother disagrees. Anything that has a slope of more than 10 feet down needs a side rail. So driving back over Dunraven (in the dark) I can see why she might be a bit nervous. So it might have been a bit of accidental evil on my part. (I couldn't drive because it was a rental car. Eighteen year olds can go to war for our country, but we can't rent a car until we're 21 or 25.)
The next day, we did the upper loop. I'll post a map of the park on top of this post. The upper loop is extremely obvious (I hope).
We went to Mammoth, tried to go to Norris (but got hailed on), and Canyon again. (At this point, my mom took a nap while I hiked a mile and a quarter down and up to the bring of the lower falls at canyon. By the way the lower falls are HUUUUUGE!!! At LEAST 500 feet tall. Talk about vertigo.)
We left for Lake, and the Lake hotel to go hear a string quartet and to meet up with Connor, who personally knew them and introduced me to them. On the way to lake we got caught in a pretty big bison jam, to my mother's excitement. And again on the way back. We also managed to see some pelicans and a sand hill crane which was pretty cool. And then home over Dunraven again.

More posting will come soon!