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