Today was much different because I was riding with Ranger Spraggins, who came for me at about 6:30. The day was calm for the most part. I spent most of the time trying to learn as much from Ranger Spraggins as possible, particularly about FLETC. Ranger Spraggins is going to be transferring to FLETC to become an instructor, so chances are I’ll see him when I go. I asked Ranger Spraggins what he thought made a good Ranger, and his answer was incredibly thorough. He said that every Ranger needs to be resilient because so many things can happen to you and it's important to not take things personally. He explained how important it was for a Ranger to have patience, which goes hand-in-hand with being resilient. You’ll deal with all sorts of people and all sorts of situations. The most important trait a Ranger should have is compassion, because above all things, Rangers exist to help people. They are civil servants as much as they are law enforcement officers. You need to be able to understand that sometimes the best way to do your job is maybe not writing someone a citation. For example, if your contact has their dog off a leash but is willing to cooperate when asked to restrain their dog, perhaps issuing that person a citation is overkill. Ranger Spraggins told me he was grateful that police officers have discretion because it gives him the ability to do what he believes is the right thing in every situation.
Wednesday, Thursday and today I was back with Ranger Cooper. We were fortunate enough to have a calm week. After stopping at Zuma Canyon for a few minutes Ranger Cooper decided to show me Arroyo Sequit, a park unit that was burned in the Woolsey fire and hasn’t been reopened. It’s a secluded and small area. The brush was very overgrown and the trail was almost invisible. Ranger Cooper told me that there once was a housing unit there until burned, eventually it was revamped into an RV pad.
Ranger Johnson agreed to take me out for a half day. Ranger Johnson is not only a law enforcement Ranger, he’s the coordinator for the horses. SAMO has three horses; Gunner, Cache, and Blue. They are former police horses but Gunner and Cache are too old and Blue is too young. SAMO has a network of volunteers that care for the horses and Ranger Johnson oversees everything.
We started our day at Rancho Sierra Vista because Ranger Johnson wanted to check on the horses before patrol. While we were exiting the parking lot, I spotted a car with expired registration stickers from 2020. I pointed it out to Ranger Johnson and he went to investigate. The woman who owned the car was standing nearby, so he went to ask her about her tags. The woman told him that her tags were completely up to date and showed him the license plate on the front of her car where she placed them. She didn’t know that the registration tags were supposed to be on only the rear license plate. Ranger Johnson advised that she swap her license plates to avoid getting fined.
Ranger Johnson took me somewhere I had never been before, the Palo Comado Canyons, they are attached to Cheeseboro. We went to check out the fire road at the Doubletree access trail but we couldn’t get very far because there was this massive gulley in the road. Ranger Johnson didn’t trust that we could get the patrol car across safely so he reversed back out the way we came in. We drove down Chesebro Road, which has a gated entrance restricted to the public, and we entered Palo Comado that way. We drove part way down the Cheeseboro Canyon Trail until it intersected with another trail. We decided to do a brief foot patrol on the Modelo Trail to inspect it. It was my first foot patrol so I was excited. Ranger Johnson and I noted that the trail was very overgrown and it was hard to see the trail at times. Ranger Johnson said he would report this to the roads & trails team so they could find time to work on it.
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