The Start of Patrols

The last week was very busy and full of great learning experiences from the training I did on Monday to a lesson in patience on Friday. I was also all over the park and got to see many new places I have never been while also meeting more Rangers who have the task of patrolling this beautiful park. The week started out in El Potral which is where a majority of the workers who work in the valley, doing the basic aviation training which had practical information that I know I will get to use in the future. Halfway through the training I found out that the road back to the valley that I took out to the training had suffered a rock slide which closed it down for the rest of the week. That is not something I am used to, coming from Michigan, so having the commute back home go from 30 minutes to 3 hours was quiet the surprise.

Glacier Point

Tuesday I spent the day with the Rangers in Wawona and got to be part of their Search and Rescue refresher for the seasonal ranger which took up most of the morning. After that the Ranger taught me the how to conduct a traffic stop and explained the legal reasons behind why he is allowed to stop vehicles for different offenses. Soon after starting to run traffic though we got pulled up to glacier point so that we could do some traffic control and allow for the parking up there to clear out. We did this for an hour and finished the day with a trip up to glacier point to see the beautiful views for that area.

Spray off of O'Shaughnessy Dam

Wednesday I spent the day with the Rangers out at Hetch Hetchy, this is the district with the least amount of activity, but they have the most important thing to protect in the park. In this district they have the O’Shaughnessy dam which is what holds back the water which is used by most of San Francisco. Here I was able to see how they access the dam to clear it after every alarm code. We also did some walking patrol out on the trails system there to make sure the backpackers had the proper permits.

Helitack Near Crane Flat

Thursday I was up in Crane Flat which right now is all road patrol due to the massive amounts of snow that accumulated in the Tuolumne meadows. This day was full of traffic stops, with the ranger explaining more about what gives them the right to pull over vehicles and how he treats traffic stops. On this day I also got to learn about how the state of California deals with suspended licenses and what to do when you have a subject who has a suspended license and had been driving. Thursday ended with a trip to the jail that is located in the valley, getting to see how to book the subjects and how to write up the report for the judicial side of our government.

Friday I was in the valley on patrol with the rangers who have a very busy district and deal with all sorts of calls. This day was surprisingly slow, until the end of the day when we were pulled to camp four to deal with a dog in a tent. All I can say about this contact is that I applaud the ranger on the high levels of the patience and professionalism he showed during the time we were in contact with the individuals.

Starting Movement of  Traverse

My weekend was spent on the boulders, learning new moves and pushing myself to complete the climbs. Sadly, this meant there were many falls and my hands and legs are now all scratched up and sore from the bouldering. On a good note in bouldering you can see yourself getting better each time you start the problem.