VaFo Weeko 5 Eric Morgan/Lexus Ocampo

Hello again everyone!

Gas Mask test

Inspecting a trail obstruction

 Week 5 flew by especially since part of it encompassed our trip to Fort McHenry. During the week we went on two separate hikes with two of the Rangers here. The first day we helped the new safety intern, Heather, with a project dealing with the gas masks. Everyone has to go through an automated test with the gas masks to make sure that they are fit enough to wear one if they ever had to. A machine was attached to the gas mask which described what you should do such as breath in and out heavily or touch your toes. We also had to go around and help clean up some dead gophers that, unfortunately, were run over in the park. The next day on Wednesday we went out with Ranger Quinn to some unauthorized trails to look for any illegal marijuana growing as some rumors were going around that growing was occurring by those trails. After a couple hours of hiking and look we came across nothing. We also hiked the Chapel Trail to look for a tree that had pipes coming out of it that Park Watch stumbled across. This poses a danger for anyone using the trail while on horseback because the pipes stick out and are hard to see if one is not paying close attention. Ranger Quinn also took us to the Montgomery County dispatch and there we got a tour of the dispatch. This is the dispatch VaFo uses and it is state-of-the-art with the latest technology. 

MontCo Dispatch

Illegal Structure before taken down

The next day we went out with Ranger Tim Oh to check out Mt. Misery. There was an illegal structure, a ti-pi, made out of resources from the park that needed to be taken down.  Even with three of us it took over an hour to completely take down. No one is sure who built the structure. The following day was a short day with bike patrol in the morning since we had to depart for Fort McHenry. Saturday was our first shift for the detail and we were lucky enough to be stationed inside the Star Fort. Here people paid to get into and our job was to make sure everyone stayed behind a certain line ontop of the Star Fort because if they did not, there was the chance they could fall. Also our job was to make sure no fighting or confrontations occurred because drinking was allowed inside the Star Fort and if anything was to occur we were supposed to contact LE ASAP. Thankfully, the day went quite smoothly and the people visiting were very friendly, always offering us water throughout the day. We got to see the Air Show which was pretty cool. Also, myself (Eric) and fellow ProRanger Jay Copper had the great opportunity to raise the Star-Spangled Banner, the 15-star flag that is an exact replica of the one theflown over the fort in 1814. It was a feeling of great pride to be able to take part in that. The rest of our Fort McHenry trip will be in the next blog as it fell into Week 6. -

 ProRangers Eric Morgan and Lexus Ocampo

Eric and Jay raising Star Spangled Banner