Bordeaux Mountain

Ranger Horner installing the trail camera
 near Salt Pond Beach,

Week 4 was spent with Ranger David Horner and also fellow Philadelphia Eagles fan if might add. That is completely irrelevant but I just thought I'd mention it :). Going back on topic, my week started out on the east side of the island. I had to drive out there which is about a 45 minute drive through an hour to start my shift with Ranger Horner. Ranger Horner received word that there were some people unloading some items onto Salt Pond Trail right before the beach as there as there no cars allowed on that trail. Visitors must hike down to the beach. As a possible solution, Ranger Horner and myself started to look for a suitable spot to place a trail camera to catch the culprits. A suitable spot possessed a good vantage point, was reasonably hidden, and well placed where activity would be the most. Still no word back on those people unloading items onto the trail. It was interesting to see the other side of the island. The National Park Service owns over 60% of St. John's land but due to short staffing, office duties, and things related, the rangers never get an opportunity to patrol the east side of the island. Ranger Horner lives on the east side so he usually starts his day by trying to make a presence in the area before heading to HQ.

Bordeaux Mountain Road and the treasure we found...

Later that week, Ranger Horner and I decided to tackle a project VINP rangers have been meaning to get to but never could. Bordeaux Mountain stands at over 1200 feet and is the steepest incline on St. John. Rarely patrolled because it is off the beat path and not really populated. There is a road that goes through the mountain and about halfway through, Ranger Horner spotted a heap of random broken house appliances thrown over road down the mountain. This was a team effort in trying to retrieve the trash. Ranger Horner descended the mountain and we hooked each item of trash onto a carabiner attached to a line where I stood at the top so I could pull each item up. The items ranged from detached washer appliances, tires, coolers, dry wood, buckets and everything in between. Truly random. Some were heavy so that was definitely my PT for the day. It was definitely fulfilling to retrieve all of that trash we found. If we hadn't did it, it would've never gotten done. One would say that might be a maintenance job but historically, being a protection ranger is an all inclusive duty job and this is just another example of that.  Ranger Horner and myself definitely went the extra mile to make the park just a little more cleaner. That goes a long ways.

Your favorite ProRanger conducting a finger print test on one
of the items we retrieved so we could trace it back to who did this vile act.