New River Gorge National River June-September 2007

This was my home for three months. Dun Glen was the name of the area. It's an ugly looking house, but it was free. FLETC paid for it. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center also paid me $15 a day for food. $15! And here I am eating whether they pay me to or not.



Dun Glen was near the old Thurmond train depot, a historic town that revolved around coal mining and the railroad. My house was also maybe a 100 feet from the New River. The park loaned me a white water kayak and I spent a lot of time on the river by my house. I'd drive myself and the kayak up the road to Stone Cliff and ride down to my house. Then I'd pedal my bike to my truck and drive home. The whole thing took about an hour, so I could easily squeeze in a paddle before work.

Here's what my roommate called a fire lilly. My roommate, Don, was an invasive plant guy. He spent his days killing kudzo (the plant that ate the south) and other invasives. The fire lilly, though not native to West Virginia, is left in peace. The kudzo is more sinister and must be killed. The lilly just looks pretty and doesn't take up too much space.
























Here I am at Long Point, one of my favorite short hikes. I also jogged out there a couple times and even played my bagpipes from the end. I wonder how far the sound carried?

The New River Gorge Bridge is in the background. Every October there is one day (Bridge Day) set aside for people to legally parachute or rappell off the 876 foot tall bridge. I didn't get to stay for Bridge Day, but while I was there I did catch an illegal base jumper. He led us on a four hour long chase in the dark woods, but in the end our fine-tuned woodsman skills lead us right to him (or he stepped on a stick as we were getting ready to call it off).

Unfortunately, while I was there we also had two people jump from the bridge without parachutes. Hollywood and rated-R movies can't compare to real life. Or real death.

I will always fondly remember most of my time at New River. I met and got to work with some extraordinary Rangers. They taught me some amazing things. One lesson that I'll never forget is that even the old grizzled veterans are allowed to say, "That was a bad one," and to admit that they'll carry it with them forever.

One of those suicides I'll always have with me. It took us 8 hours to clean up the mess. 8 hours! My whole shift. And I'll never forget that awful smell. The next day in church someone was talking about tithing, how we give 10% to the Lord. My mind started to wander. If I work 10 shifts in a pay period, then one shift pays my tithing. So one shift out of every 10 I'm working for the Lord. And I wondered which shift it had been out of the last two weeks. I figured it must have been the day before. While I was pulling that mess into the body bag and trying not to think too hard about what I was seeing or feeling, it occured to me that none of us were getting paid enough. Especially not the GS-5 River Ranger. But I didn't think my GS-9 salary covered it either. So I guess I was just doing it because no one else could.

It was one of my hardest days, so I decided that was the day out of the last 10 that I would pay my tithing with. That's the day that I worked for the Lord. And just like 10% doesn't even begin to cover what the Saviour did for us, neither does $23 an hour begin to compensate me for what I had to do. But I did it anyway, because of my love for my coworkers and my concern for the innocent people who would have to see it if I did nothing. But even that days work isn't enough when compared to the blessings we receive everyday and the chance that we have to live again in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Really, what is 10%?