This week was another week packed with new experiences! I got to work with two new rangers, got to work a totally different job, and had new experiences on my ride along.
The first day of work was great because I got to work with the horses which was totally new for me. If I am being honest, before this day I sort of feared horses. After spending the day working with them though I created a bond with each of them and now I love them. The law enforcement ranger that works with the horses is named Mike and he helped introduce me to Bayberry, Blue, Cache, and Gunner (all of the horses). There was also a trainer named Edgar who helped me conquer my fear of horses. I started out by just standing next to them while Edgar explained how horses behaves and how I should behave around the horses. Then I graduated to touching the horse. After that I learned how to bend down, lift up the horses leg, and check the shoes for damage. For the final step I actually walked the horse (Gunner) around the site (sort of like a big dog) and felt completely comfortable with contact. This experience was incredibly awesome for me and I enjoyed every second of it!
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| Gunner being silly and rolling around. The stables for these horses is right by my house so I see this often! |
After being introduced to the horses I watched as Edgar and a volunteer named Sabine trained one of the horses (who is named Blue). While they were training Blue, Mike would explain to me what they are doing and why they were doing it.
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| Edgar and Sabine training Blue. |
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| Bayberry getting ready for the vet. Excitement is at an all time high |
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| A nice view of Bayberry's mouth |
When I was done with the horses I still had a few hours left in the day which meant I had the opportunity to ride with, former ProRanger, Jess Cooper for a few hours. All we did was patrol a place called Circle X and talked. She actually just transferred here permanently so it was fun asking her questions about the transition.
The next day I got to work with Jess the whole day. We started the day off at headquarters and she helped me write a practice ticket which I appreciated. We then sat in on a training about radios because SAMO recently reprogrammed the whole operation. I then got to sit in on a meeting between Jess and Eric (the LE ranger I worked with last week) about an ongoing case which was fascinating (if I could elaborate I would but I am not allowed). After all of that was done I got to ride along with Jess the entire day. It was a relatively slow day with very few contacts. The one exception was that Jess wrote a warning for an expired plate. The only reason she didn't write a ticket is because the woman already had a ticket and had to appear in court anyway. After the slower day we went back to the law enforcement headquarters. There we joined forces with Eric and ran traffic. This was my first time running traffic and it was a cool experience. We ended up pulling two people over for running stop signs in the hour that we did it. I got to witness totally new experiences which was very cool.
The next day I was back with my supervisor Brandon. On this day we patrolled an area called Zuma. Zuma is a massive trail within the park. We were making sure that the trail was drivable and found a couple spots where if you were to run over it your car would sink and it would not be a good time. So whenever we see a place like that one of us would take the iPad and drop a pin where we are so people know about it.
The last day of work I rode along with Brandon again. The first thing on our agenda was drive to Solstice Canyon and to set up a camera because people just do not stop jumping in the waterfall. The idea is to have the camera there as a deterrent. Right before we were able to complete this goal however, we had an interesting contact. As we drove up to one of the gates at Solstice and we heard some commotion which sounded like someone messing with a door. We walked over and saw a man by a NPS storage room. Brandon went over and approached him to ask him what he was doing. Brandon ended up getting all of his information and gave him a verbal warning for trespassing however he plans on getting more information so employees can keep an eye out for him. After this contact we were able to make it to the waterfall and set up the camera.
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| Brandon climbing up to drill in a camera |
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| Hopefully this stops people from jumping in the waterfall! |
After this we were patrolling Zuma because we got a call from a PSRM employee that there was a marijuana plant by the trail head. Sure enough we found the plant and Brandon thought this would be a good teaching moment for me when evidence is found. We bagged it and took it back to test it as if we found something we thought was drugs in the field. It obviously came back positive for marijuana. Since we didn't need it for any reason he also showed me how to dispose of evidence. He needed two witnesses (Eric and I) to sign that he cut up and flushed the marijuana. It was all an interesting process and I am glad that Brandon took the time out to show me everything. After this we just did our driving patrol for the rest of the night and it was fairly quiet.
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| As you can see a positive test for marijuana shows up as purple on top and clear on the bottom |
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