Program Visit: SHEN

I planned our visits to COLO and SHEN so we could spend the weekend camping and hiking at Shenandoah National Park.

But first, we made a stop along with way at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  We spent the afternoon with Ranger Matt Roland and his family, touring the park and earning some patches!  

The Rolands and the McGarveys.

Junior ProRanger with the grave of Stonewall Jackson's arm.

I also got to catch up with ProRanger alumnus Eric Morgan who has recently returned from FLETC and field training at SHEN.

Ranger Roland, Dr. McGarvey, Ranger Morgan and Junior ProRanger McGarvey

Shortly after getting settled in Shenandoah NP at Mathews Arms campground, where I should note there is no cell service, I broke a crown on my tooth!  Fortunately I was not in too much pain and we continued with the visit.  I'm just glad it was only a minor inconvenience -- it does make a person think about how used to cell service we have all gotten!  

The campground is in the North district where ProRanger Dan Bussell was working.  After a coincidental meeting with Dan and his supervisor Ranger Jacob Wahler we decided to have an impromptu meeting at the ranger station.  Just then they got a call to back up another ranger and I almost followed them to the call!  After a quick grocery trip, we worked our way down Skyline drive stopping to admire the sunset at every pulloff!

Sunset along Skyline Drive

Sunset along Skyline Drive

One of many bears on or near the road.

We later saw them again as they passed through the campground and learned of a missing hiker from a campsite just across from us.  Later Dan told me about their search – they found him later that evening, lost and dehydrated but otherwise fine.  SHEN is a busy park on the weekends!

Aislin and I spent our weekend camping, exploring the park, attending ranger programs and getting started on our junior ranger badges.  We saw several bears by the roadside during our travels on Skyline Drive.

Dinner!

We ate s’mores for dinner (shhh!).

Lots of work to earn that badge!

Byrd Visitors Center at Big Meadows

Junior Ranger Program with Ranger Meredith!

Climbing is fun!

On our final morning, Dan met us at our campsite.  As I finished packed the car, I heard rustling the bushes and out emerged a smallish bear!  I scared him when I jumped in the car and slammed the door.  So, alas, no photos!  But, then I did remember all the rustling in the bushes that I heard from the tent each night.  I had assumed they were just deer - now I'm not sure.  I sure was glad that I had followed all of the park’s safety rules to properly store coolers and food items!!

Fun at the Dickey Ridge Visitors Center!

Working on the badge with ProRanger Dan Bussell.

Taking the junior ranger oath is serious business.

We spent the day with Dan on a hike, finishing our junior ranger badge and learning about Shenandoah NP and the law enforcement issues he has gotten to see this summer. 

ProRanger Bussell and Ranger Wahler.

We also moved back into cell phone range, so I made an emergency appointment with the dentist!  So, after a meeting with Ranger Jacob Wahler and presentation of the plaque, we hit the road for home!

Up next:  VAFO

Until Next Time...

        Leaving Shenandoah was a bittersweet moment. I don’t know how much more I could have gotten out of the park because everyone provided me with such great experiences and shared knowledge that I couldn’t have asked for more. There are always new scenarios to experience within the park but I left there feeling like I had seen so much more than the average visitor would ever see even if they visited the park each year. 

I had amazing mentors down in Virginia that I’ll be contacting to ask for advice or just to catch up with for the rest of my days. I’m already planning a trip to head back down there just to catch up with some of the Rangers and to see the park in a different season. I think it’s important to visit a park that you’ve grown to love and appreciate in all of its seasons. I look forward to coming back and heading up on the drive, this time as a visitor. I’ll do my best to not scowl at those going over the speed limit, or the ones who stop in the middle of the road and leave their car doors wide open to chase down a bear for a photo. Until next time, enjoy this sunset up on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.

South District

        I recently had the opportunity to sign up for a training called A-100 Basic Aviation. After taking the Basic Search and Rescue class, this was one of the other certifications that came along with it in order to help out on SAR calls. It was an interesting class taught by Shenandoah’s new Chief of Interpretation who came from Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska where they use planes just as a means of transportation, almost like we use a car to get around here in the lower 48. He had a lot of great stories and a wide variety of experiences with planes. The class went over the fine details of how we use planes during SAR calls and how to safely work around them.

South District overlook waiting for the storm.

I began working down in the South District of the park where I discovered the park moves in a different kind of pace down south. Many visitors don’t normally drive the entire 105 miles of the park from Front Royal to Rockfish Gap, but generally they will either start north in Front Royal and head back out that way, or they will head to Big Meadows at milepost 50 and leave the park at Swift Run entrance station at milepost 64. The south district is much more quiet, they do get traffic that will speed through, most likely assuming they don’t see any other vehicles so they have the park to themselves…until they pass a ranger at a high rate of speed and think otherwise. I finally get to say though that I have been through the full 105 miles of the park and even got a chance to check out the Blue Ridge Parkway. On our way out of the Parkway we made a stop for a taillight out on a vehicle, only to find out the driver had overstayed his visa in America and failed to have a operator’s license. You just never know what you’re going to get on what seems like a “simple stop” at first. 

The finished product.

Another day down in South District was a day filled with gaining knowledge of weapons. A ranger had me break down his AR-15, cleaning it inside and out and learning the different parts of it. This ranger is the park’s armorer, who has a wide range of knowledge of weaponry and gave me excellent lessons on them. South District was a great time filled with some amazing views that I had yet to discover in the park. 

After storm rainbow.

My Summer View: Shenandoah National Park

My Summer View: Shenandoah National Park

Most beautiful spot in: Shenandoah National Park

Here is just one of the many breathtaking views throughout Shenandoah National Park.

Keeping the Visitors Safe and Aware

       

A foggy Fourth of July hike.

        July 4th weekend came and went, along with the visitors. It was quite calm though luckily. I spent the 4th heading out to a couple of different trailheads to help keep up the preventative search and rescue in the park. Unfortunately though, the weather forecast called for rain and thunderstorms throughout the day. We waited at the trailhead for a bit of time and when little to no visitors passed by we made the decision to hit the trail. We passed few people along the trail, but those that we did we made contact with to make sure they were aware of the predicted weather for their trek ahead. All seemed confident and kept moving along to reach the summit of Old Rag. After taking lunch and enjoying watching the fog move in further through the trees we pressed on toward the rock scramble and then the rain came. We enjoyed the day even with the weather, making me appreciate the job all the more.

The day after the fourth, when the end of patrol was nearing we got a call of a reported missing person. Apparently, a college professor and a couple of his students were looking and studying salamanders as they drove through the park on their way to a convention in North Carolina. The students had stayed close to the trail, but the professor wandered a bit too far away from the trail. He was reported to be an older male, without any water or food on him. The one ranger staged herself up at the parking lot and she had me go and bushwhack down the hillside, our guess was he wouldn’t be near the trial. After 10-15 minutes of going downhill and calling his name an answer finally came back. He made his way pretty far down the hillside and when I got to him I provided him with some water and Gatorade. He didn’t seem to want to admit he was lost, but he was surprised at how far off of the trail he was and wondered where the students he was with were. We got him safely back up the trial and on their way, but before we left I explained to him how important it is to always let someone know where you are going when you're hiking together instead of just wandering off. 

Mary's Rock Tunnel all socked in from fog!

The bear technicians for the park came up to central district to put on a class going over various methods to haze bears and what we can tell the visitors to do if approached or come across a bear on a trail. We practiced using slingshots and used a cone as our target. Clapping your hands, loud and quickly can really help frighten the bear to get moving, but in the past rangers have deployed bean bag rounds and paintballs in order to get the bears away from visitors or out of campsites. Shenandoah has had a pretty rough bear problem this year. It has gone to the extent to even have to shut down several trails throughout the park. My stay in Central District went by quickly and I enjoyed getting to work with other rangers and seeing what goes on in one of the busier areas of the park. I’ll be off to South District in just a couple days now!

Studying the Central District map before departing to look for our missing person.

Central District

        It has been a busy year so far for Shenandoah National Park. I hear the fall season in October can be really stressful, but these past months since spring time has arrived and now summer, people are rolling into the park by the dozens. Whether it is a family packed in the mini-van for a weekend camping trip, the motorcyclists’ looking for a beautiful ride on Skyline Drive, or the bicyclists looking for an uphill challenge, along with the foot traffic of the Appalachian Trail hikers that come through the park you have to be aware when out on the drive.

View from Old Rag

 Organizing the SAR vehicle for the holiday weekend.

Practicing bear hazing techniques with slingshots.

I have been stationed in the Central District for the past week working with both the Law Enforcement Rangers and the Preventative Search and Rescue team. I spent my first day there hiking one of the more popular hikes in the park called Old Rag. A law enforcement ranger and myself made our way up the mountain stopping and talking with the visitors making sure they had enough water, food, and that they knew where they were going. It is a great way to help prevent those search and rescue calls that are received in the park. With its popularity comes a frequent amount of rescues off the mountain. Just a couple weeks ago when I was on White Oak Canyon running a SAR call, another call broke out on Old Rag for a hiker with a head injury who had to be flown out of the park. Needless to say, it is all hands on deck when it comes to a SAR call in the park. The radio traffic is kept to a minimum so the Incident Commander can coordinate his or her resources to get the call moving smoothly. Later on that week, I attended a Basic Search and Rescue class to help run more calls in the park and work efficiently with the SAR teams. 

Over this holiday weekend, the traffic was pretty heavy. Today, a ranger and I ran radar and conducted several stops out on the drive. I was in charge of communications over the radio during the traffic stops. I worked with dispatch to run license plates and driver’s licenses getting more and more comfortable speaking over the radio. The stops we conducted played an important role in the visitors eyes. It showed our presence but it also reminds people that the drive can be dangerous and busy. With overflow of parked cars at trailheads and bear jams, there is no reason to speed, pass on a double yellow, or roll through stop signs. We give the visitors a reminder that just today a bear was struck by a vehicle, and that wasn't the first time this summer. The bears are part of the reason visitors come here, so let’s keep ‘em safe too!

Keep 'em wild!

Shenandoah's 2016 Seasonal Law Enforcement Refresher Training

Vehicle Ambush Drills

       It has been a busy week here for me at Shenandoah National Park. I can’t speak so much for up on Skyline Drive, but more for the chance I had to learn and experience law enforcement by attending Shenandoah’s Seasonal Law Enforcement Refresher Training. Each year the park puts on a 40 hour or more refresher for their seasonal park rangers. It is an excellent opportunity for those who may not work a full year and allows them to sharpen their skills of law enforcement. We began the week with Defensive Tactics. We practiced cuffing, batons, thorough searching of a person arrested and worked on some essential fighting skills. The next day was less hands on, but a lot of information. We had a three hour training that discussed criminal law that went over legal terms and cases, as well as National Park Service rules and regulations. We discussed RM-9 and the policies identified within the manual.  Later in the afternoon, Chief Ranger Sikes came to discuss vehicle safety of officers and how important it is to be safe when out on patrol or responding to a call. After that, we had a great discussion on Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and how to administer them. We ran through the Three Phases of DUI Detection, and three different tests we can perform; the Walk and Turn, One Legged Stand, and a Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, all tests that would help an officer check for signs of someone impaired. 

The third day of training we went down to SHEN’s range and practiced some basic tactics with the red guns. This was a great chance for me to do some role playing as the suspect and see how officers would respond to certain situations. We ran through vehicle ambush drills and how to react when you are in your vehicle under fire. Later in the day we ran through drills with paintballs and how to utilize your cover. The last day of training we were back in the classroom for the morning to go over how an officer should respond to a victim and how we can handle those situations appropriately. We also got to practice using Stop Sticks in case there is ever a time when a vehicle is being pursued and spikes need to be deployed in a safe manner. Afterward, an officer with the Virginia Game Commission and Inland Fisheries came to teach us simple Law Enforcement phrases, but in Spanish! After that he discussed poaching and wildlife issues that we might experience here in the park and also how important it is for the National Park Service and Game Commission to work together and form a great relationship. Once the afternoon rolled around we headed back down to the range to practice Taser drills. I was used again for roll playing and dressed up in a padded suit to have inert tasers shot at me. It was a pretty fun time and a great opportunity again to really see how an officer reacts to a stressful situation and when pulling out their taser might be appropriate. All in all it was an excellent week for me to really learn and experience some of things I have to look forward to when I go off to the seasonal academy next August! 

Running Taser drills.

Playing the suspect.

The Value of Appearance

It's true, bears can climb trees.

      This second week has been busy with all sort of tasks the Law Enforcement Ranger has to perform at Shenandoah National Park. I began my week with the annual fire refresher for my wild land fire certification. We got a chance to dust off the motions of deploying our fire shelters and discussing L.C.E.S (Lookout, Communication, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones). The more I thought about how this applies to fire situations, I applied it to my law enforcement skills as well. As the summer goes on the park is getting busier and busier on the weekdays and weekends. I have had several opportunities to play the essential role of what a backup officer may perform for another officer when addressing a contact in a safe situation. I am looking out for any weapons that may be used to harm an officer or myself, I continue to communicate with the initial officer if I see anything, and if anything goes wrong I know I have a planned escape to a safe area. Those several chances to perform backup officer work has made me more comfortable addressing someone during a traffic stop. 

One of the important standards that a ranger should be held up to is the appearance we provide for the public. When you are in the eye of the public each day, it has been expressed to me how valuable that high standard of  our appearance we should keep, from a clean uniform to a clean car. Even when I had the opportunity to attend court yesterday morning with several of the rangers in Harrisonburg, they were in their Class A uniforms, shined boots, green tie, and a flat hat. As I continue my internship here at Shenandoah I continue to experience more law enforcement contacts and situations that occur allowing me to ask all the necessary questions to further my training with the National Park Service. 

Keeping the patrol vehicles clean.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

        Goodafternoon, my name is Daniel Bussell and I am happy to announce my arrival back down to Virginia this summer for my second internship. This time though I am honored with the opportunity to be working at Shenandoah National Park. After visiting the park numerous times last summer camping and hiking in the majority of the North District I had the chance to meet and talk with several of the rangers working here, and now I am excited to be working with and learning from them for the next couple of months. 

As I spent my first day out on patrol with Ranger Wahler, he introduced me to several employees throughout the park and familiarized me with viewpoints and trails as we drove along the Skyline Drive. As our day began to slow down we checked into the Piney River Ranger Station when just at that moment a Search and Rescue call came over the radio in the Central District on the Rose River Loop Trail. I quickly learned that working in a linear park with just the one road to access most points in the park can tack on a lot of travel time when responding to an incident. When we arrived we met up with the Incident Commander to see where we were needed and what we could do. The IC had us hike to meet the rest of the crew out on the call, consisting of the Preventative Search and Rescue team, Law Enforcement Rangers, and several other Shenandoah NPS employees. The patient had a compound fracture and was already stable and ready to be tied into the litter. It was a successful carry-out that took roughly two hours or so. It was great to be thrown into a SAR call on the first day and help the team with the carry-out. I look forward to sharpening my skills in the backcountry with the rangers at Shenandoah. 

Getting ready to hike out to the SAR call.

After the SAR call and on our way back to the Ranger Station, a visitors vehicle was stopped in the middle of the road, we immediately thought it was a “Bear Jam”, but a large rock had fallen onto the road as they were driving and they couldn’t avoid it, losing part of thevehicle’s bumper. We got the rock off the road while safely stopping traffic, and then gathered a witness statement for an incident report. My first day at SHEN was a busy and interesting one. It really set the bar for an exciting and great learning experience that I can’t wait to have this summer and already have had so far. I look forward to telling more about my experiences at Shenandoah National Park. Thank you for reading!

Removing the fallen rock on the road. 

A visitor one morning before I left for work.

Find Your Park: Spring Break

We are well into the Spring semester here at Temple University and our Spring Break just concluded. Classes have resumed and we are eagerly awaiting our Summer 2016 park assignments. For break, some students returned home, some worked, and others went on fancy vacations with beaches and hot weather. While planning what to do for Spring Break, my roommates and I were searching for a unique trip with a change of pace from North Philadelphia, while trying not to break the bank. Our answer? Lets explore some National Parks.

And south on I-95 we went...

The top of Brooks Hill
Monocacy National Battlefield

The Worthington House
Monocacy National Battlefield

I couldn't drive through Maryland without stopping at Monocacy National Battlefield. It was great to show my roommates and fellow ProRanger John Hesdon where I spent my summer, and it was interesting to see how the landscape changed through the months. After spending the day hiking around the park, seeing some old friends, and exploring downtown Frederick, we were excited to leave for our next destination the following morning.

Hawksbill Summit
Shenandoah National Park

For anyone who believes that you need to travel far out west to see the big and beautiful national parks, I encourage them to visit Shenandoah National Park. The views were breathtaking, the hikes were challenging, and the fresh air and environment reassured that we made the right choice for our Spring Break destination.

The Appalachian Trail was covered with ice and
made for an adventurous hike. 

John and I enjoying the view at SNP

Visiting Shenandoah only added to the anticipation of finding out where my next destination will be, and I am thrilled to continue on my ProRanger adventure. I encourage everyone reading this to go out and Find Your Park like we did.