First Week in the Books!

Hello everyone!

My first week at the Santa Monica Mountains is officially wrapped up.  To sum up my experience so far in one word: INCREDIBLE! I'll give everyone a little play by play to give an idea of what my week was like.

First, I flew in on Monday at around 4pm and was picked up by my supervisor Ranger Brandon Brown.

Brandon took care of me and introduced me to my first In-N-Out when I was hungry after the flight!

He was extremely nice and drove me to get everything I needed to be able to sleep and eat that night. Brandon then gave me the next day off to recover and get situated which I am thankful for because the jet lag got the best of me. However, I eventually felt more rested later on Tuesday and I had a chance to get my living arrangement situated and then explore the area.  The first thing that I did to explore was go for a hike outside my house and it was gorgeous!

After 5 minutes of hiking this is the view that I am fortunate to be able to have 

After the hike I was able to go bike riding on the trails because Brandon was nice enough to go out of his way to supply me with one. I was in awe looking at the beauty around me while I was riding.

I enjoyed the views so much I ended up biking all the way to the beach!

The next few days is when things really started to kick into high gear. On Wednesday, Brandon took me around meeting people for almost 10 hours. I met such a variety of people. I met people who were involved in law enforcement, land encroachment, administration, maintenance, interpretation, education, contracting, agreements, fire fighting, supervising, and even chief Trooper Snow. It was a hectic day to say the least and I can't wait to get to know everyone better during my time here!

On Thursday, I specifically shadowed people in the administrative division. I shadowed Iliana (who I actually room with), Zandra, and Kristina. The amount of work that they do is astounding and I have so much respect for these three people. I would say their titles but it would honestly be a dis-service because they do so much more than their title states. The people in the administrative division keep the park running and are the backbone of the entire operation.

On Friday, Brandon trained me and got me ROV (off-highway vehicle) certified. If you are unfamiliar with an ROV picture a golf cart on steroids that can go extreme off-roading. The rangers at Santa Monica use these vehicles to patrol areas that a normal vehicle would not be able to such as canyons. This was great because one of my goals for the internship is to get as many certifications as possible and I already have one down!

On Saturday, I essentially did maintenance work and helped clear out junk from a big closet at the fire station. I also helped organize a supply closet which ended up taking the entire day.

This was one of the items in the closet (WHERE IT BELONGS!)

This week was action packed and a lot of fun. The area is beautiful, the people that work here are kind and helpful, and I am enjoying learning about what everyone does to contribute to making the Santa Monica Mountains a great place to visit. I only scratched the surface of knowledge about the park and the people and I cannot wait to dig deeper!