An Alaskan Send-Off

I am quite sad to say that this was my last week at Denali National Park and Preserve.  I learned a great deal from a fantastic team of rangers and met many cool people along the way.  While I would be happy to stay a while longer in Denali, I know that I am one step closer to becoming a Park Ranger myself.  And who knows, maybe I will be back.

Though I only worked three days, this was a pretty eventful week.  On Monday, Ranger Page and I were making our usual morning rounds when we were told about two young enlisted men who were late returning from the backcountry.  They had failed to report to work and were therefore AWOL, so the military and their family members were calling the park trying to find them.  Ranger Page and I searched for them on social media to see if they had made any posts suggesting they had returned from the backcountry, which they had not.  We looked for their vehicle in the parking lots and found it, assuring us that they had not left the park.  While they weren't yet that long overdue, the fact that they were in the military and had failed to report to their post and that one of them had a life threatening, exertion induced medical condition were causes for alarm.  The rangers began poring over maps of the backcountry units they had gotten permits for.  Their plan involved crossing the Muldrow Glacier, something reported to be quite difficult.  After determining some potential routes they may have taken, the helicopter was called in.  Ranger Page and I prepared recovery kits for those who would be responding.  The helicopter refueled and took on the gear and personnel. 

During this time, Ranger Page and I responded to a bus leaking fuel at the visitor center bus stop.  It was a slow leak, and the private company already had their own mechanics en route.  We provided some oil absorbent pads and waited for the mechanic to arrive, also calling in one of the park's mechanics to come and help.  While there, we saw the helicopter take off and head west into the park. 

The helicopter wasn't quite in the air for two hours when we received a call that our missing persons had walked into the Eilson Visitor Center.  It turned out that they had crossed the Muldrow Glacier as planned, which they found incredibly difficult.  After camping on the other side of the glacier, they decided that rather than retrace their steps, they would hike back to the road on the far (west) side of the glacier, where they would have to cross the McKinley river (fed by the Muldrow) to return to the road rather than the Thorofare river.  They reached the river, and with the past two weeks or so of unseasonably high temperatures, found it too difficult to cross.  After making several attempts, they decided they would be forced to return the way the came, thus resulting in their delay.  It was really a best case scenario for this kind of thing.

Later in the day I helped Ranger Pilot Brett Nigus with some work on one of the planes.  I got to sit in the cockpit and move the stick back and forth while Ranger Nigus made sure everything was in good working order.  The plane's elevator was sticking a bit, and he wanted to make sure it was just some tightened bushings and not a mechanical problem.  Everything seemed to be in good shape.

Later that evening there was a huge moose jam right at the park entrance.  Dozens of people were out of their vehicles, crossing the highway on foot in order to see the largest member of the deer family.  Ranger Page and I responded along with Ranger Stack.  We got people back to safe distances, slowed down traffic, and instructed poorly parked vehicles to relocate.

The action did not stop on Tuesday.  Nearly first thing in the morning there was a medical call just up the hill from the ranger station.  A maintenance employee suffered a possible stroke, and was taken to the nearby clinic in the ambulance.

Then Rangers Page and Beheller and I took a pack test with a group of other park employees.  They all needed to take the test to renew their red cards for wildland firefighting.  Since I am not yet red carded, I took the test to lend moral support and to see how it was.  For those unfamiliar, the test consists of walking 3 miles in 45 minutes while carrying a 45lb pack.  You are not allowed to run, meaning the test is rough on the shins since you have to power walk the whole time (the average person walks a mile in around 20 minutes).  Ranger Page was a little nervous that she might not finish in time, so I walked right behind her to make sure she didn't slow down too much.  It turned out that she didn't need my support at all, finishing with plenty of time to spare.  Everyone else taking the test finished quite quickly as well.

After resting for a bit, Ranger Page and I headed out to the Savage Cabin to check out a possibly vandalized broken window.  We took some photos and poked around.

We went out to the Savage Check Station, where we were given an old chewed up tent found in the backcountry by some day hikers.

On the way back east we drove onto the scene of a motorcycle accident.  There were two vehicles stopped in the road, with the drivers moving the motorcycle off of the road, after appearing to have already helped the driver, the only one involved in the accident.  At first, the driver appeared completely fine, as he was sitting up and talking.  After coming over to talk to him we could see that he was probably injured.  Ranger Page called for assistance and began conducting a medical assessment while I wrote down the information.  She determined that he probably had a broken collarbone.  He described going over the handlebars, luckily, he was wearing a helmet.  Medic one (the ambulance) arrived along with several other rangers.  I began directing traffic along with several maintenance employees who stopped to help while the rangers finished the assessment and loaded the man into the ambulance.  He remained in good spirits throughout and we drove him to the clinic.

Wednesday was Safety Day at Denali.  There were some presentations in the morning in the theatre in the visitor center and then there were stations that everyone rotated through.  The presentations included an overview of the day and a video about mental health resources. During one presentation, Mountaineering Law Enforcement Ranger Chris Erickson gave a captivating account of a rescue he was on of a man who had fallen into a crevasse near one of the camps on Mount Denali. 

The stations consisted of: Active Shooter, Road Lottery, Stretching/Dancing, Fire Extinguishers, Radio Communications, and Sexual Harassment.

This is not me, but it was the first time I used a fire extinguisher

After all that there was a very nice staff bbq.

In the afternoon, I sat in on a fire refresher with several of the rangers and other park employees. This included an overview of the 2017 firefighting season, expectations for the current season, a discussion of margins (as in creating greater safety margins by mitigating risks, having backup plans, etc.), an in depth look at the Nuttall fire (in which backup plans were quickly eroded by unexpected fire behavior, injury, and poor communication), and a fire shelter deployment test.  We had 25 seconds to open the packaged up shelters, shake them out, get inside them, and get on the ground with the edges sealed and as much air as possible inside. Pictured below are practice shelters.

Later this evening I had dinner with some of the Law Enforcement Rangers who were not working.  I think they were sad that I was leaving, but perhaps they are all very good at masking their relief.   

I was off for the last few days I had in Denali.  I headed out into the backcountry for one last hurrah.  I cut the trip short because the weather wasn't the greatest, but it was still a nice excursion.  I went to the backcountry unit on the east side of the Muldrow, near where our former missing persons started out their trip.  I did not cross the glacier, but rather I tried to get up onto a ridge to follow back to try and see where the Muldrow makes its sharp turn.  I camped up on a hill overlooking the glacier the first night, but the next morning it was so cloudy I knew I wouldn't be able to see anything more.  I headed back to the road, and just as I reached it the rain started.

View south across the thoroughfare river valley

Looking northwest towards Kantishna and the two of the Muldrow, covered in sediment and plants

Closer to where the Muldrow turns, covered in sediment but few plants

Glacier Creek

My campsite for the night

Socked in

                           

After my trip, I had a little bit of time to pack up and clean my cabin.  It was a bittersweet time in over in C-Camp cabin 552.  Meaghan came over and baked me a cake to wish me farewell.  We went into the Shaffer to share the cake with the Rangers who were on duty and the dispatchers in the Comms Center.  While there, we learned about the sight seeing flight that crashed in Denali on 8/4.  The dispatchers were busy coordinating the emergency response.  The pilot had reported injuries, but that himself and all four passengers were alive and had emergency supplies. At the time, the weather was too poor to get a helicopter in there, as the plane had crashed on a 10,000 food ridge.  

The next day I finished packing and cleaning and Ranger Beheller gave me a ride to the train station.  I took the Alaska Railroad back to Fairbanks, flew to the twin cities, and then to JFK.  My travel was very smooth, and I am pretty sure I saw the northern lights from the plane.  With the right brightness and angle you can see a greenish shimmer above the light on the planes wing.  It was not the most dazzling it could have been, but it was something I definitely did not expect to see during my time in Alaska and amazing nonetheless.

Since I have been home, I am saddened to hear that responders reached the plane crash site on 8/6 and discovered that all five people had died.  As Ranger Erickson noted in his safety day talk, you can only do the best you can while focusing on your own safety.  

Badlands: Attaining New Heights

Badlands: Program Visit and Scenic Naps

     Over the course of the summer I have done my best to learn the resources to increase my own knowledge, and now was the ultimate test of what I have learned so far. Keeping Vicki entertained, and she just came from Denali in Alaska so John has definitely set the expectations very high. For this I made sure to bring out all the scenic overlooks possible paired with my own knowledge interspersed as we progressed through the park. The first day we did a magnificent tour of the north unit seeing wildlife and capturing awesome photos.

   After a long day of travelling and seeing the first half of the park, we decided to call it a day and made sure to get well rested and get ready for the next day. On day two we spent the first half of the day touring the less visited, but especially beautiful south unit of the park. Though the furthest overlook is a full two hours away it is totally worth the drive. Make sure to stop by sheep mountain table, the school of mines canyon, and red shirt overlook.

 View of School of Mines Canyon

Presenting the ProRanger Plaque

Sunset: Awesome intern benefit

     After visiting the south unit we made a tactical lunch stop to help refuel and continue our tour. At this point we went for a hike on the castle trail where we ran into some big horn sheep and adventured through seeing the park from a different angle. Afterwards we took a drive to the famous town of Wall and got dinner before heading to the night program held by Ranger Brad who gave a talk going over all the Badlands Bats.

     The next day we headed over to Mount Rushmore to continue the tour and see one of the most famous monuments in the country. Through the day we toured the monument, the visitor center, and areas of the Black Hills surrounding the monument. A different type of landscape than the Badlands the views are still breathtaking. 

     After visiting Rushmore and getting some time I made sure to get some sleep, some if it was while peacefully enjoying the Badlands scenery.

A Wonder-filled Week

Sean, Jake, and Merrill 

I started off this week by spending a day with one of the wildlife technicians.  It turned out to be Jake, who I went on my backcountry trip with.  My roommate Malik joined us as well.  In the morning we reported to the wildlife offices, located in a building that used to be the communications center and also once a bathroom.

It was another gorgeous day for seeing Mount Denali

Then we headed out west.  Jake explained that a big part of the job is simply being a presence out on the road, and being able to respond in a timely manner wherever a need arises.  This can be difficult if only two are covering the 90 mile road.

Sow with yearlings, identifiable by their golden color

While driving, we saw two sows each with two cubs.  Two were yearlings and the other two were spring cubs, just five or six months old.












On the way back east one of the bear families had moved very close to the road, and there was a group of cyclists stopped and unsure if they should continue past the bears.  Along with a bus that was also there, we ferried the cyclists past the bears in our vehicle.  We also moved some unattended coolers at the Teklanika campground into one of the food storage lockers.

Caution: Investigator at work

Near savage river we found a wallet in the street.  I took it into the ranger station to see what should be done with it.  While looking for a way to contact the owner, I noticed the New Jersey town on the license was familiar.  After a few minutes I realized it was because I had seen the license the day before, when Ranger Stack and I had the contact with the couple who were in the wrong lane during a moose jam.

After looking for the owner on social media and some more digging, I found a receipt from their accommodations.  I called the hotel, which gave me his phone number and called him.  They were on their way south to Talkeetna and didn't even realize the wallet was missing.  They came back to get it, and I was feeling quite proud of my investigatory skills.

This is the board where the rangers write down all the incidents that have happened during the week.  After I wrote down that I returned the wallet, Ranger Page wrote "(Hero!)" Ranger Stack later changed the exclamation point to a question mark.

The next day I was back with Ranger Page, and it was pretty quiet.  I took a criminal justice information system security and awareness training.  We made a traffic stop of a Canadian motorcyclist who claimed he was speeding because his speedometer was only in kilometers/hour.  I was surprised to find that Ranger Page's patrol vehicle only had the speed in miles/hour, as my car and most cars I have seen have both.  After a quick crunch of the numbers we gave him a warning and informed him of the maximum speed he should be traveling in kph.  Later in the day we supported Ranger Stack on a traffic stop.

We also saw this wholesome moose family up close

Wednesday was a day full of meetings, but I got some good training as well. We made a stop for speeding in the morning.  Officer Page went over Standardized Field Sobriety Tests with me, since I had seen them performed the other day.  There was an all employee meeting, but I must admit I spent the whole time reading an article about a bat study done in Glacier National Park.  The park discovered it has way more species of bats than it thought, and it is still free of white nose syndrome, thankfully.  Ranger Page also had a meeting about road lottery.  For one week at the end of the season the park opens up the road to 400 private vehicles a day that are chosen by, you guessed it, lottery.  The park uses the Incident Command System to manage the event.  This year, Ranger Page is in charge of operations, and Ranger Dave Olson is the Incident Commander.

A Ranger (Olson) pointing at something in the evidence room

It was Wednesday training day, and the topic this time was entering evidence into IMARS.  Ranger Olson lead the training, as he is some kind of go to IMARS person for the Alaska Region.  The example case he used was for the traffic stop I was on with Ranger Syvertsen with the methamphetamine and paraphernalia.  The training involved some of the physical parts of logging evidence as well.

On the way back from part of the training the rangers were in near perfect formation (except for rangers Shore and Beheller) 

During my usual weekend, Thursday and Friday I checked out the glacial erratics on the hill behind headquarters.  If you looked at my previous post you saw a couple pictures of the bigger erratic.  They are huge, the size of houses, and pretty striking sitting up on that high grassy hill all by themselves.

A depression formed by small rocks and water over time
This must once have been the top of the rock

Also top of the rock

I spent the next two days at Wonder Lake with Ranger Shore.  I finally made it to the end of the road as well, Kantishna, Mile 92.5.  Again, I realize I put up some of the pictures from this in my last post.  I probably should have waited until after this one, but I was pressed for time and wanted to put up a post as I hadn't made one in a while.

We arrived in the Wonder Lake area, and Ranger Shore showed me around.  In the area is the Wonder Lake ranger station/visitor center, maintenance shop, campground, and a few other park buildings.  There are also all of the private inholdings in the Kantishna area.  They are all former mining claims, though no mining is allowed in the area anymore.  Several of the claimants have begun tourism enterprises; there are three main lodges in the area.  Guests come in by bus and by air, as there is an airstrip in Kantishna.  The owners and workers have rights of way to drive the park road out to these properties.  The park has proprietary jurisdiction in these inholdings.  Due to their remote nature, however, if there are any legal issues, the state of Alaska usually grants the Rangers permission to handle it.

View from the Ranger Station/Visitor Center

Ranger Shore takes a nap (off the clock of course)

I got pretty lucky, as my first and only time out to the end of the road was during a time of exceptional weather.  Mount Denali was clouded up when we arrived, but by the evening it had cleared up and was out in full glory.  After my tour and some patrolling in the area, Ranger Shore and I had eaten dinner and were relaxing on the porch of the ranger station.  Following something in our conversation he demonstrated a control tactic for me, but in the process I got a splinter.  It took me nearly two hours to remove the splinter, but by the time I did the clouds had cleared and the wind had died down.  With my foot free of foreign entities, I took a kayak out on Wonder Lake for an evening paddle.

Unfortunately, Ranger Shore and I were only scheduled to be at Wonder Lake for those two days, so the next day we had to head back east.  Before that, we went on a foot patrol on the McKinley Bar trail, which goes down to the McKinley River.  It was another clear and beautiful day and the mountain was out again.  After hanging out for a bit, we began to make our way back east slowly, in case any incidents should occur out west.  Part of this involved watching the short film they play at the Eilson Visitor Center about climbing Mount Denali.

When we had reached the Savage River area, we saw that a whole bunch of cars were parked pretty much right in one of the lanes leading to the parking area.  Ranger Shore issued 13 warnings.   

This may be the best photo I have taken or will take here in Denali or anywhere