Slammed!

Today was such a busy day! Just when I said not a whole lot happens here, I had three calls in one shift!

The first was a bus driver that called in a wolf kill site. I have to go investigate and close the area if the wolves took down something big like a caribou. It keeps hikers from disturbing feasting wolves. It turned out the bus driver had seen the wolf pups all piled on top of mom. From far away it was hard to tell.

While I was still hiking up from checking that out, I get a call of a possible illegal guiding racket going on. I did my little investigation while they were hiking around and was all ready when they got done. In Denali, you need a permit to take groups on guided hikes.

I'm scratching out my report when I got called for a bus taking off someones side mirror.

That's a busy day around here. ;)

The week in the life of an Alaskan Ranger

It's not "a day" in the life of an Alaskan Ranger because not much happens in any given day. Or maybe one thing. For instance, the other day I had a medical. What with getting the helicopter and driving the relative all the way to their rental car, it took all day. My advice for all visitors to my little corner of 6 million acres? Don't get seriously hurt or ill. It's a long trip to an ER.

Or the only thing that might happen all day could be catching a guy stalking a sleeping grizzly bear to get a picture. There actually are tickets for stupidity, they're just called "Violating Wildlife Viewing conditions."

Another day my sole responsibility was to find the Grant Creek wolf pups. No one had seen more than two in a while and there were supposed to be six. I managed to find four and since then, all six have been spotted. Sorry, no pictures, I was looking through a spotting scope. But they were adorable.

Sometimes, I just drive around all day, getting out to chat with people here and there. I stop for bathroom breaks, a lunch break, or a strategic leg stretching break. When no buses crammed full of tourists are around, I take pictures. This is the east fork of the Toklat river.
This is Sable Pass.

That's my job, in a nutshell. After hours, I work out, make dinner, blog, read, etc. And hassle the neighbors.

This is the juvenile Merlin I saw on the way to my outhouse last night. Notice the tufts of chick fluff sticking out of his head. He was going for the imposing raptor stare, but the baby fuzz kind of ruined it. Of course, I didn't say anything. The Merlin neighbors I have are a little annoying. I'm thinking of imposing some quiet hours because every morning this week they've started squawking at 0530. Have any of you ever tried to sleep through Merlin screeching? It's dang near impossible. And once they get going, they wake up the parky squirrels (arctic ground squirrels) that live under my porch. Besides leaving poop on my front stoop and dying in my outhouse when they fall in and get stuck, they also chew on my cabin. The constant gnawing reminds me of when I was a kid and had gerbils. Only I would put the gerbils in the bathroom at night so I couldn't hear them. I'm stuck with the rodents under the porch.

You'd think with a forest all around us they could find something else to destroy... And now, after 4 squirrels and a snowshoe hare, maintenance has screened in the base of my outhouse to keep the stupid critters out. While on the one hand, no more dead rodents means it won't smell quite so awful, it was good for population control of the destructive little beasties.

(I may talk tough, but who am I kidding? When I noticed the dead squirrels down there I was horrified and I built an escape ramp. The hare was too dumb to use it, but I tried. )

There are also bears running rampant in the neighborhood.

Last night I went for a bike ride. I went west from my driveway and spotted a bear in the ditch chewing up whatever bears eat in roadside ditches this time of year. So I turned around and biked the other way. When I got home, I found that a bear (probably the same one) had been attempting to wreck havoc with my trash can. There were pieces of trash bag all over my yard. Torn, shredded, and covered in bear slobber.
Just a little reminder that I need to be vigilant and awake when I head to the outhouse or stumble out to the truck in the morning to drive to my shower. Who knows who will be outside waiting for me?

Lest you think it's always raining

I have proof. Here it is, this photo. I took it last week. No, I haven't seen the mountain since. It's rained or been cloudy every day since I've been back, except for the day I took this picture. In fact, it's coming down pretty good outside. I'm glad I was only out camping for one night. But isn't it spectacular when it's clear?

My truck

Looking lovely in it's filthiness.

Backcountry

Since my last two posts were both gripes and complaints, this one will be moan-free. I had a great time testing out my new tent last night. I'm in the office now with my boots on my new boot dryer. I left from my house and walked down river (which is North). It took me three hours to get out of sight of the big bookstore at the road, but once that was gone, I felt like I was in the wilderness.
I saw more caribou, wolf, and bear tracks than human. Besides being easy walking, river bars are great for finding tracks. It's a major wildlife highway. Here's some wolf and bear tracks.

I found a nice campsite and took an afternoon nap (which coincided with an afternoon rain). I got up around 1930 and went walking down river some more. I went another mile and a half or so before I got hungry and came back to camp for grub. I was happy to find my BRFC (bear resistant food container) unmolested and my fuel can unpunctured by curious bear fangs. The rain had held off during my post nap hike, but it started coming down while I was cooking. In bear country, it's not like you can sit all warm and dry in your tent with the stove in the vestibule. I was 200 yards from my tent, cooking on the river bar without any shelter so I had a good 360 view of any approaching grizzlies. I didn't see any bears and I ate some lovely, warm, Pad Thai.

I crawled into bed by 2300 hours or so and slept peacefully all night. I noticed it was a little chilly and in the morning the mountains had a fresh dusting of snow on the tops. I know, it's July. I was lucky the snow wasn't on my tent!

The weather the first day might have been drizzly and damp, but I woke up to only partly cloudy skies. I had to strip to a t-shirt during breakfast because the sun was making me hot. My boots were only damp from all the river crossings of the day before, but I'd taken three pairs of dry socks, so I was ready for more.

I had a lovely hike back and it didn't cloud over again until I was almost home. And the mosquitoes Alaska is famous for? I saw two last night. And I killed them both.

Complaints

The bus drivers are complaining that Rangers are speeding on the park road. My boss has informed us that their complaints will affect our performance evaluations. That's great.

I think I'm going to start pulling buses over for speeding. Except for one thing. I don't have radar and the speed limit is 35 mph (for most of the road). When you come across a bus going 35 mph around a corner it looks like it's going really fast. But I doubt they're speeding. Just like me.

It's nice that the boss is so quick to threaten us with bad performance appraisals based on nothing more than opinions. I don't write tickets based only on my opinion. I have to have something to back it up.

I guess I'm not going to get a good performance evaluation. And that's lame, because I'm really careful driving on this road.

Soon to be homeless

Well, I guess it's not to soon. I've got a couple months.

When I took this job, my boss said my chances of getting park housing were pretty good. I should have known not to trust him.

My job is kind of tricky. It's a required occupancy position, but only May to September. If it were required occupancy all year round, this wouldn't be a problem. The park would provide the housing and I wouldn't have to worry.

The house I was hoping to get (and that my boss said I would get) is going up for bid. The bidding process is where every permanent park employee who wants to live there, submits a form. The housing officer picks who gets the housing based on how much money they make. The last time the house came up for bid it was given to a GS-5, but another guy put in for it then. I recently learned that he'll probably bid on it again. And he'll probably get it because he makes less than I do. That's fine, good for him. It's a great deal. $660 a month includes utilities and one nice roommate with a fairly well behaved dog. Even a garage.

Compare that to nearby rental prices. Eight miles away is the closest community. Gas is over $5.00 a gallon. The price of a rental cabin (without running water) is between $700 and $900 a month. Plus electricity and fuel oil. Fuel is the big one. It gets cold around here in the winter time and fuel prices are astronomical. And where would I shower?

I don't know how I can afford to work here.

Summer!

While I was gone, there were some big changes at the Park. The most substantial one was the appearance of green things. Leaves. Flowers. Grasses. On June 14th, when I left, the leaves had just barely started to unfurl and plants had raised tiny hesitant sprouts. There was also snow while I was gone, but luckily, summer came anyhow. I didn't miss it, it waited for me.
Also, while I was away, my ambulance came back from the shop and my long guns came in! Brand new, out of the box... they're beautiful. An AR15 A2 and a Remington 870 with an adorable flashlight mounted right on it. I also got 6 never been used before magazines for the AR. I go to the range on Sunday to break everything in.

I also came back to birthday cards. Stacks of them. And one of my mom's friends from the cheese state even sent me a box of cheese and sausage! A very nice treat since I'm over 2 hours from a grocery store. People would get upset if I tried to hunt my own sausage out here. It was fantastic to come back home to all those cards!
Asters and dwarf fireweed. There are flowers everywhere! It's nice to be back.

Where in the world...

....have I been? I just got back from three weeks on the beach. Denali had to send someone to Cape Hatteras National Seashore (in North Carolina) and my boss asked if I wanted to go. I'd never been, so I was happy to volunteer. Cape Hatteras needed extra help with some controversial beach closures to protect the nesting shorebirds. I worked all but one day in those three weeks. All 12 hour shifts, mostly noon to midnight. Working that shift, I got a lot of great pictures of sunsets. This is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest in the country. I had the most ridiculous medical call at the top of it. It was dispatched as an unknown medical problem. Another Ranger, a guy from the rescue squad, and I all charged up the stairs inside the stuffy, hot, lighthouse. We were met by the "patient" about halfway up. He'd choked on some water, but, unsurprisingly, was fully recovered. My eyes got big and my mouth snapped shut before I said something unprofessional as I panted and dripped sweat from every pore.

When I wasn't trotting up the lighthouse for fun, I was watching the beach closures and chatting with fishermen and women. People there are pretty ticked at all the beaches being closed, but I was surprised that only one person called me a rude name. I thought it would be a daily, if not hourly occurrence. I staked out some of the closures and ran around with borrowed night vision goggles (which was cool), but my prey was pretty sparse. I only found a couple people actually in the closures.

I had one day off while I was there. After 14 days, I decided to ask for a break. I went fishing and caught this little guy. It's a flounder. One of the guys I met there took me out on his boat. We had a great time fishing and clamming. We found 31 clams and made a nice Hatteras style chowder. I got a sunburn, as usually happens when I do anything outside. You may wonder how I managed that when you see me in that hat and long sleeved shirt. I foolishly didn't keep that shirt on the whole day. Swimming around after those cleverly hidden clams, I was in my swim suit and my poor back got scorched. But it was worth it; they were tasty clams.

By Independence day I was a little bored with watching the beach closures so I decided to get a drunk driver. How hard could it be? People are allowed to drive onto the beaches. They're allowed to drink (although there's a NC law against drinking spirituous liquor and fortified wines in public) on the beach. Do they finish their beer before they leave the beach? No. Do they drink responsibly so they won't drive away still buzzed? No. I could've gotten a drunk driver everyday if I'd wanted to. I would have, but I figured I should spend most of my time doing what they were paying me to do (watch the birds).

It was a nice case, the fellow I got. A bunch of charges. I think I'm the only temporary ranger to arrest anyone, but the bosses didn't mind. In fact, they seemed happy. One of the district rangers said if I ever get tired of Denali he'd love to see my application. He even offered to have me work at Cape Hatteras during my furlough. It's nice to have options like that and I'm glad I made a good impression. I think because they were happy with my work, they let me go up in the plane. Another Ranger went, he was counting cars on the beaches. I just tagged along to take pictures. Here's one.