Adventure Attempts in Sucky Weather

Okay so let’s catch up here for a second. Saturday was rec trips for the students and I took a group up Avalanche Peak, which is a pretty strenuous 2 mile, up-a-mountain hike. They absolutely crushed it and I was so proud of them! I had a great group of youth and they all had fantastic attitudes, even when there was a crapload of snow covering the trail (surprise). Afterwards, since we had enough time leftover before we needed to be back to the YCC, I took them to go get ice cream as long as they promised not to tell anyone else—so pretend you didn’t just read that…

East from Avalanche Peak

North from Avalanche Peak

SW from Avalanche Peak

Jonah, Lexie, Connor, Ellie, Matthew, and Nora

Sunday was rafting day and field games, then the normal Sunday clean, them—meeting, us—pack food for spike, then dorm check. Rafting was a ton of fun! The river was super high and the water was great. Our guides were fantastic and I thought they handled our students really well! This session we went with Yellowstone Rafting Company. Second session we’re with Flying Pig, so we’ll see how that goes. We played a bunch of games afterwards at the MCC before we had to get back to camp, so that was good also.

Fun fact—Monday night I went into Gardiner to get some allergy medicine since they’re so terribly miserable right now----I got the second to last box on the entire dang shelf of allergy medicines. Our rafting guide says that sometimes when he’s finished, his eyes are so red and puffy that he can’t see. Seriously people, they’re terrible.

Another fun fact—On Monday, Kyleigh—one of my college roommates—and her boyfriend Kolter got engaged! Hip hip hooray!!!!!!!!! :D I’m really excited about it! Jacquelyn, Ali, and I all knew it was coming though and we had bets on when he’d propose. Unfortunatley Kolter done goofed and let Ali win… :P

On my Tuesday adventure, I wanted to scout out my backpacking trip for the weekend before I take the enrollees there—so I day-hiked it. It was only 19.7 miles, so it really wasn’t a problem for me. Obviously I don’t expect them to do that. Our entry point is the Grebe Lake trailhead. The 3.3 miles to Grebe Lake is super easy and doesn’t have a lot of elevation gain, so I was there in less than an hour. Once you get to the lake, you get this awesome blanket on you…a blanket of mosquitoes. Everything is super muddy and you’re covered in mosquitoes and it just really wasn’t a good day to remember sunscreen and forget bug spray. Terrible life decision. I wore my rain jacket in the morning solely so I didn’t have to keep swatting at my arms also. Holy heck.

Anyways, from there after checking out our campsite (4G4) I headed up to Observation Peak. Honestly, the trail to get there wasn’t super challenging either, just super muddy and mosquito-y by Cascade Lake. Well I thought I had avoided the morning storms by hitting them all while I was driving to the trailhead, but once I got to the top of Observation Peak I discovered I was wrong. The storm rolling in looked absolutely awful! I ended up trail running back down the peak after scarfing down my pb&j because getting stuck up there during a thunderstorm would’ve been a really poor decision with not-so-great probable outcomes. (This area was all hit by the 1988 fires, and there’s still not a ton of tall vegetation left.) By the time the storm actually hits, I’m all the way back to the open meadow next to Grebe Lake. Yes, I am in an open meadow next to a lake during the massive storm with lightning and thunder and scariness. Did I stop running? Nope. Kept right on going until I got to the other side of the lake and only had a few miles left to go to get to my car. Did I finish almost 20 miles in under 6 hours? Sure did… (I’m aware that I’m crazy, thank you.)

South from Observation Peak

Cascade Lake from Observation Peak

Fire watch tower on Observation Peak

Wednesdays are typically my short days for the week since I have EMS review on those nights in Mammoth and I don’t want to risk being late. I planned to hike to Fairy Falls (down in the Old Faithful area), but from the other trailhead since the actual Fairy Falls trailhead is closed. That puts it at about 8.5 miles if you do the loop. So the first stretch is also a bike trail and it’s really flat and straight and super boring. Where that ends is typically a trail to the Grand Prismatic Overlook, which is currently closed due to construction. There are two signs at the trailhead stating that it’s closed. How many people did I pass on the trail either on the way there or back that had no idea that it was closed and were super disappointed? Over a dozen. How many of them read the signs at the trailhead? Zero. Silly tourons.

Fairy Falls itself was okay. I didn’t really feel like it was that spectacular, but hey—there was a bench where I ate lunch. A chipmunk wanted my lunch also. Pesky little fellow kept trying to get my food out of my hands or from my backpack. Not a chance. My food is mine.

Little twerp just kept surrounding me

Fairy Falls

The trail back to finish the loop was only slightly more exciting in that I had to balance on wooden planks across this giant meadow area that was practically underwater. That was where the excitement ended on that one. Back to the trailhead I went. Snoozeville. There were tons of people fishing in that area though and the parking lot was gigantic, so clearly some people like it there.

On Wednesday morning, I had gotten a call from Dan and Bonnie Forry who were going to be in Mammoth that night on their way back from the Arctic Circle. I know—aren’t they awesome?!? Anyways, I met them for supper at the Mammoth Dining Room and had a really great time talking to them! I was really excited that they were able to stop by on their way back from Alaska to Colorado to see some of their family members. If you ever want to be an awesome retired couple, you should take lessons from Dan and Bonnie.

Wednesday night, immediately following our EMS review, Joe, Lloyd, and I went on a call that we ended up transporting to the Livingston hospital. We didn’t get back to the ambulance bay until after 12:30 and I didn’t go to sleep until almost 1:00. I don’t really have much to say about the call except that there were no noticeable life-threatening injuries and the patient should be a-okay once they receive a diagnosis/treatment. On the way there I was doing patient care in the back with Joe, who’s a paramedic, and he showed me how to use their specific computer system for charting (my EMS Charts access actually came today—Thursday). On the way back, Lloyd taught me how to drive their ambulances and gave me the low-down on the park-specific driving rules. This was my first call that wasn’t during my clinicals, so there’s that.

This morning, Thursday, I woke up just dead tired and didn’t want to do anything but roll over and go back to sleep. But, me being me, I just can’t do that so I got up and carried on with my original plan of hiking Mt. Washburn and taking the trail down the eastern side to Sevenmile Hole. The weather forecast showed clear skies and cool temperatures in the upper 40s/ low 50s. LIES! It’s only 3.1 miles to the top of Mt. Washburn and for the last mile or so of the hike I was getting snowed on. There was a complete blanket of fog covering everything so you couldn’t see at all. By the time I got to the top, I was in blizzard conditions and couldn’t see anything. There’s an observation tower at the top that visitors actually have access to (an NPS fire employee lives in the top story), and there were a bunch of people crowded inside trying to warm up. Ugh, it was miserable. The view might’ve been nice on a clear day, but I could barely see anything except a rare occasion when the clouds broke.

I don’t know how many of you would want to hike down to Sevenmile Hole and then back up again in that kind of weather, but I sure didn’t. I waited in the observation tower for about 45 minutes trying to see if it would clear. I didn’t want to ruin the rest of my hike and I was really excited to go to Sevenmile Hole! Alas, the level-headed Bethany prevailed, and my fatigued self not wearing a hat or gloves in the blizzard returned down Mt. Washburn to my car.

Before the snow started swirling and I could still see...

Great view...

Storm clouds over the mountains

Fun fact—on the way down I passed about ten NPS employees, including Lloyd, who were headed up for various reasons. Lloyd and I talked about how hard it was to get up this morning haha (he actually had to work though…I didn’t).

So instead of a 21.4 mile day, I had a 6.2 mile day instead. Then I went back to the YCC, drank cider, ate warm food, and watched a movie with my coworkers (aka I took a nap during the movie). I also did laundry. Boo hiss.

If the weather is as crappy for my student’s backpacking weekend as it was this week, I’m going to be very disappointed for them. :( Hopefully the sun will come out! (It’ll come out tomorrow…the song says so.)

Mileage count: 190.5

P.S. I would’ve posted all of this last night (Thursday), but I went to sleep at 9:45… :D

Sky Rim/Rescue Creek & Lava Creek/Yellowstone River Trail

Today (Tuesday) I decided to be super ambitious and go hike 27+ miles including two summits at a trailhead that was 2-3 hours away. But as usual, my plans don’t always work…this time included.

Let me back up a little. I was honestly in bed by 2145 so that I could get up when my 0340 alarm went off. Not surprisingly, I woke up at 0328…before my darn alarm went off. Oh well, still left by 0400—stupid Mammoth to Norris is closed until 0700 so I had to tack on an extra 45-60 minutes and go through Tower and Canyon to get to the trailhead which is in the very far NW corner of the park—that section that got added in 1929. Anyways, I was at the Daly Creek trailhead ready to go by 0630 to start my wonderful day. The area is gorgeous!!! I knocked out the first 7 miles in 2.5 hours.

Hiking east from the trailhead during sunrise

Along the western portion of the Sky Rim trail

Then the next four miles took me 3 hours. You know why? Here’s a little quiz for you:

What is the technical terminology for the white stuff pictured below? Also, please picture brown mucky stuff everywhere that there isn’t white stuff and name it as well.

If you answered snow and mud, I’m sorry—that’s incorrect. The proper terminology is “exhausting” and “time-consuming.” (Their roles are interchangeable.) If the word that you used to describe me was “impatient,” then you’re correct. Shoulda waited until July…but I wanted to go now!

So by the time I got to the top of Bighorn Peak, there was a very small chance I’d make it the extra ~8 miles RT to Sheep Mountain (the one with the giant rectangle on it). Bighorn Peak was awesome though and you can see so much!

view east from portion of Sky Rim trail

view southeast from Bighorn Peak

Bighorn Peak

Sheep Mountain...4 miles too far away

I did partially attempt the trail east from Bighorn Peak to Sheep Mountain, but by that point in time (about 1300), the snow was super mushy from all the sunlight and I was sinking up to my waist with every step. There was absolutely no way that I’d be able to do that for 8 miles, then still do 8 miles back to the trailhead before dark. By this point, I’d already wrung my first pair of socks out twice and let my boots sun during lunch, then switched to my second pair of socks before this attempt. Unfortunately, even using my pack towel didn’t help dry my boots or feet (which had gotten massive amounts of snow in them), so the second pair of socks didn’t stay dry very long. Continuing would’ve put my feet at serious risk. If I didn’t get back during daylight hours, I also would’ve been in unfamiliar territory with only a headlamp to help with the trail. Keep in mind that I had no overnight gear, as I packed for a day hike and left spares of things in my car at the trailhead. Also, my allergies are destroying me. The smart choice (regrettably :P ) was to turn around and plan another hike to Sheep Mountain later in the summer.

^See, sometimes I’m good at decision-making.

Also, I invited all the other rec rangers (and my supervisor—Alicia) to come with me today—here are two of their responses:

·      “That’s a bit much for me, but I’m super excited to hear how it goes!”

·      “I am glad you are doing it so I don’t have to…”

:( Wimps totally could’ve made it. But I doubt any of them would’ve liked to wake up that early. :D

Also, per tradition, I bought post-hike ice cream in West Yellowstone. I had Caramel Waffle Cone Crunch or something like that from the homemade ice cream place. It was yummy of course! Just not a free sundae from my friends at the Coffee Corner in Yosemite. ;)

Minus the snow, this really was my kind of trail and I’d totally give it a 10/10 or a 5-star rating or whatnot. Just make sure you hold off until the snow is melted, and if you bother to read the backcountry ranger trail condition reports…actually follow what they say. If the campgrounds in the area are closed due to too much snowfall à the trail is probably covered in snow as well. *shakes head at self*

Yesterday, (Wednesday), I hiked the Rescue Creek/Lava Creek loop starting from the Blacktail Creek trailhead. I made the wise decision to put sunscreen on pre-hike. I made the unwise decision to leave said sunscreen in my car during my hike. Darn Bethany, always messing up. To say the least, the trails were extremely wide-open and sunny—and my skin almost everywhere is a few shades darker than it was prior. The shoulders are red.

Lots of pretty flowers.

So I knocked out the first 8 miles in 2.5 hours, and then I had to walk on the road for 2 miles to get to the next trailhead. I was going to grab one of our hi-vis vests from the gear cache before I left…but I forgot. Luckily, I didn’t get run over by one of the tourons. So after those lovely two miles of road-trekking, I get to the trailhead for the Boiling River—which is all blocked off because the water is so high right now. Well, I’m a ranger so I can do what I want and………….nah, I took the road again after I went around the barrier and read all the signs and let myself into the bathroom. But then, as I’m looking down at the trail from said road—there’s nothing wrong with the actual trail—the river isn’t high enough to be over the trail; it’s just too high for swimming. So over the guardrail I go and down to the trail. Honestly the trail at this point even if there was a bunch of water over it would have been safer than the tourons driving around those curves.

Check out this sweet bridge that I just had to take a picture of because I knew my mom would totally have freaked out. It’s one of those cool ones where it moves every time you move. ;)

 

Never seen the underside of this bridge before (Mammoth to Tower)

The rest of the Lava Creek Trail was peachy. Nothing too exciting to report besides Undine Fall, which I got to be on the north side of—instead of the south side like all the tourists in their cars.

And then after the Lava Creek trail technically ends and the Lava Creek Spur trail takes you back to the Blacktail Creek trailhead…that’s where things get interesting. One second—the trail is crystal clear, the next—the trail is gone. So those last two miles would’ve been a bushwhack. However, that area by Blacktail Ponds is currently closed (south of make-believe trail) for some bird’s nesting season and vegetation restoration. So after a ways of me not finding the trail, I went over to the road and tried not to get hit by any cars for the last mile of my journey. (I succeeded.)

Went to the Employee Rec Office and turned in my mileage log. The dude was surprised at how quickly I finished the 100 miles and I joked with him that my coworkers want me to finish the 500-mile lifetime club by the end of the summer. He said no one has ever done that before. You know what that sounds like? A challenge.

Fast forward to today (Thursday) and I started at Hellroaring in the morning and hiked the Yellowstone River Trail, so through the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. This Hellroaring experience was much better than the last, mostly because I turned off the trail shy of the USFS part of the loop that added 11 miles and a bear to my last adventure there. I did have to add 3 miles to my trip in order to take the stock bridge across the creek instead of attempting to ford it (which would’ve been suicidal in it’s current state). Speaking of good decisions, I not only applied sunscreen before I left, but I also brought it with me. And I brought bug spray. Now how much better can it get? (I’ll tell you later.)

Why hello Yellowstone River!

This is a pretty well-traveled area, so picking out the path wasn’t an issue the entire day—which I was extremely pleased about. I also saw a lot more people than usual and talked to almost all of them. Good times.

My lunch spot--a rock on the edge of the river

This rock had three trees growing out of its cracks. Gotta be a metaphor for something.

After I passed Crevice Lake, which is super great, I got to see an additional waterfall where Crevice Creek goes into the Yellowstone River, so that was an added bonus. There was also a really cool rock right there that basically had a seat carved out of it, so I laid there and basked in its glory. :)

Crevice Lake

still Crevice Lake

falls on Crevice Creek

So then after the makeshift falls, I came to Knowles Falls, which are really wide and not very tall—but very noisy.

Knowles Falls

So as I was getting ready to get ready to exit the canyon area, there was a great view of Electric Peak—so here it is.

Western portion of the Yellowstone River Trail, view of Electric Peak

That whole last portion of the trail bounces between USFS and NPS land, but it doesn’t really matter. I was supposed to end up at Eagle Creek trailhead in Gardiner, but I wasn’t entirely sure where that was. (My coworker Caleb was coming to get me.) Seeing as how the last trail junction I had passed was 8.5 miles from the trailhead, I gave him a super rough ETA of 4:50 +- 7 minutes, leaving myself a 15-min. window to make it there. I did not, however, account for the bazillion switchbacks to get up out of the canyon, so that was absolutely miserable. Who does that on mile 20 and 21 of a hike? Uphill switchbacks…c’mon man! Also, the trail deposited me on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere…no bueno. So I walked along said gravel road until I discovered that I was near Eagle Creek Campground (run by the USFS). Magic—Caleb came and got me. (I owe him ice cream; he also drove me back to my car at the Hellroaring trailhead.) Okay, but here’s the great part—guess what time I got to the Eagle Creek trailhead?!? 4:51. How fantastic is that?! Darn right, I know how fast I hike. ;)

Oh, in regards to me being super prepared today—guess who hadn’t done laundry and didn’t have any of her favorite hiking socks to wear? Me. Guess who wore a pair of non-hiking socks that were tall and a pair of liners though? Me. Guess whose feet are absolutely terrible right now—in regards to pain and blisters? Mine. Guess who ordered more hiking socks via her pro deals yesterday and already got a shipping notification? Also me. So they’re on their way. Guess who’s excited to get more socks? ME!

Mileage count = 151.9

Week 1 with Enrollees (Part 2)

Boy oh boy, that was interesting. This whole 40-hour work week in a little over 2.5 days is sure different. Not necessarily bad because now I have Tuesday-Thursday to do whatever I want…but definitely a little draining.

This weekend was park tour, so we loaded four burbs with enrollees and headed our own directions to go explore/esplain the park. My burb started out with Sheepeater Cliff, then headed to the park ranger museum in Norris, Norris Geyser Basin, Canyon Village Visitor Center, Lookout Point/Red Rocks trail, Fishing Bridge, Lake Village, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Grant Village Visitor Center, and finally—Nez Perce, where we also stayed for staff park tour. There the groups were all back together and we had them go through different stations on Leave No Trace, bear safety, hygiene, and kitchen stuff. Throughout the whole day, most of my students were more interested in the general stores and gift shops than the actual visitor centers, so I always gave them a certain number of fun facts they had to be able to share with the groups after we were done. It worked out pretty well for the most part, but at the Canyon Village General Store, over half my burb loaded up on junk food while I was waiting outside for them. Lesson learned.

The next morning our burb battery was dead. No, I did not leave the lights on. I have a guess as to what happened, judging by the guilty looks from two of my enrollees, but I won’t throw them under the bus because I don’t know for sure. Anyways, I had to jump a vehicle for the first time, so that was fun. *eyeroll* Actually, the battery placement made it super tricky to try to attach the negative terminal end because it was too close to the edge and under the part that isn’t very open. But don’t worry—Alicia and I got it. We also go to Old Faithful just in time for the enrollees to gather their two fun facts and then walk out the door of the visitor center to watch Old Faithful erupt 12 minutes early—which is out of their +- 10 minute range. We also got to see Grand Geyser erupt, which doesn’t happen very often—so lucky us. We headed out to Morning Glory pool, then stopped at Old Faithful Inn quickly, then hopped back in the burb. From there, we went to Madison Junction, Dunraven Pass, Tower Fall, and finally back to the YCC facility—arriving at 2:58, not last for our 3:00 arrival time. (That was Uma’s burb…getting back around 3:30.)

Because we had used so many supplies over the weekend, we had to redo Friday Drill—so tents, KP, cars, and tools/gear. We also had to do Sunday Clean, where each of the enrollees is assigned a specific job around camp to do. Apparently cleaning the Hobart (our dishwasher) is one of the most detested jobs, which I did not know when I assigned them all tasks, so I gave it to Elijah—one of the youth leaders. Oops. Should’ve given it to a student that we wanted to punish. ;) It took Elijah and I a total of three hours between us to clean that darn thing. Part of that was simply figuring out the instructions for deliming it. Most of the time was spent scrubbing the crap out of all the pieces. Jeepers creepers. Hopefully it will go smoother next Sunday though now that the knowledge is there.

After supper and after the all-camp meeting is this weird YCC Sunday Dorm Check tradition, where we tell all the students that we’re going to inspect their rooms and we want them super clean. Then one rec ranger goes in and pretends to be upset with one of the rooms because it’s not clean enough, then all the other rec rangers come in and have a mini dance party. Then we move to the next room…etc. til we’re all in the common area together. Last night was beach theme, so we had inner tubes and I had water guns that I shot all of the students with. :D

Oh, also at the camp meeting (just enrollees and Matt and Alicia—no other staff), they do a compliment box throughout the week and then read them at the camp meeting. I got one from Avery that said something about how excellent my tush-sliding was. J hahaha so proud

This morning all the enrollees left for their spikes for the week. It’s super quiet right now and I am very thankful. I have a long to-do list and I need to plan my hiking trips for the next three days and my rec trip for next Saturday for my enrollees.

Sorry there weren't any pictures this time. They all get taken on a YCC camera, so my youth leader—Lexie—was responsible for picture-taking.

Until next time…

Week 1 with Enrollees (Part 1)

On Monday I decided that since I didn’t work until 1500, I had plenty of time to hike up Sepulcher in the morning after breakfast. My plan was to do the Sepulcher loop starting from Snow Pass in the clockwise direction—about 11.5 miles. It was pretty rainy in the morning, so I took all my rain gear with me, which I later ditched to my backpack after about the first half hour of rain—then sunshine (and wind) the rest of the day.

So first of all, the Snow Pass trailhead isn’t even labeled; it’s just a pull-off on the side of the road. After that, it was pretty much smooth sailing until I hit all the snow. I was in a “stop and smell the roses” kind of mood today, so I didn’t actually get up there that quickly—it took me about 3 hours to get to the top. Honestly, if Julie Andrews had been there, I could’ve filmed “The Hills are Alive”. The scenery was perfect. I compared the long switchbacks with the wooden poles at the edges to a giant slalom, which is exactly what it felt like I was doing, except slower.

View South on the way up to Sepulcher

From the top of Sepulcher, you look down on Bunsen Peak to the southeast and you have a fantastic view of Electric Peak to the west. It’s super pretty. You can also see Gardiner, MT to the north. Unfortunately from the top I couldn’t seem to find the trail down to continue my loop, and not wanting to get lost and be late for work, I decided to cut my losses and go down the same way I came—the south route. That means I slid down all the snow I had just walked up and then meandered down the giant slalom switchbacks and passed the Julie Andrews meadow…etc.

Electric Peak from Sepulcher

View west from Sepulcher

Gardiner and a couple of the rock formations that Sepulcher was named for

The good news was that it only took me two hours to get down, even with my lunch stop, so I still had two hours to kill before work. I went into Mammoth and signed up for the 100-Mile Club (which I added another 10.6 mi to today). She said that once you fill that up, they give you a 500-Mile Club thing that you can work on forever; the 100-Mile one has to be done by the end of the season. Don’t worry guys, I’m already at 81.4. :D

Whoops, forgot to mention that I took the Youth Leaders hiking at Beaver Ponds near Mammoth on Sunday before all the rest of the enrollees got here. The area had a ton of flowers…but other than that…it was ponds. Yay. It was cool though because the Youth Leaders are pretty awesome.

Unknown Flower #1

Unknown Flower #2

Unknown Flower #3

The past couple days have been a little crazy. Tuesday sucked because it was snowing and raining all dang day, so I couldn’t go hiking before work at 1500. On Wednesday I hiked the Agate Creek trail over in the Tower area. I saw a ton of wildlife! There was this one bison that was being a royal pain in the butt and just kept moseying along the trail in front of me, going unreasonably slow. Then he headed up the hill to the side, only to get in front of me later. Brat. I am quite confident the one lady that I saw on the trail who was also avoiding said stubborn bison thought I was way too close, even though the rule for bison is 25 yards. I’m 99% confident that I was >25 yards away, so she was probably one of those confused tourons who thinks all animals are 100 yards away. Silly. Although I do prefer that to the stupidheads that think it’s okay to go try to touch all the bison and elk they see. NO!

I also saw a gazillion pronghorn antelope. They run really fast. And really far. And they’re just way cooler than me haha

The problem with all this wildlife was that they also make trails, and their trails happen to look practically identical to the human trail. And when you’re hiking on rolling plains with little to no trail markers and there are intersections of trails everywhere, it makes life pretty tricky. There are supposed to be these poles in the ground with a rock pile at the base of them, but it’s so windy out there and there are so many bison that almost every single one that I found was just lying on the ground—not visible until you get right next to it, which completely defeats the purpose. I really just went with my gut the whole time on the way there, and doing so I was heaving grounding my feet (aka stomping sometimes) in the dirt so that I’d be able to identify my bootprint on the way back. Analogous to a trail of breadcrumbs. (Spoiler alert: it worked great—I made it back.)

Tourons being tourons...stacking bones.

Anyways, after all that meandering across the plains and seeing all the wildlife, the trail enters the treeline and you trek down many, many feet into the canyon and arrive at the campsite at the end of the trail next to the Yellowstone River. Bam. Lunch spot. Great view.

I left the campsite at noon to turn around and head back to the trailhead because I had to be back in Mammoth for bear safety training by 1600 and traffic is crazy. I didn’t have near as many problems on the way back; the bison had mostly dispersed, except when I got closer to the Specimen Ridge trailhead—they were out in full force and there were two rangers there, essentially making sure none of the tourons did anything stupid. Because there were lots of tourons crowding the area!

Bear safety training again confirmed that over 50% of bear attacks happen to solo hikers…blah blah blah “Do as I say, not as I do.” I’m fine. Thanks. Also, I’m now at 94.2 miles. On Wednesday nights, they have EMS review down at the Mammoth Community Center, so my coworker Bobby and I went to that, along with two other people from the YCC that were just interested in learning things. It’s only an hour and a half, and it’s a great refresher of skills that you might not do all the time, or just things that are common in the park. I spent all dang day on Thursday in Lake at the clinic in a Yellowstone EMT Endorsement class. It’s the class you have to take before you’re allowed to practice in the park. I also have to fill out some kind of “white card” application that acts as my state license while I’m in Yellowstone (because it’s not a state…). Honestly, the class wouldn’t have been as bad if I hadn’t been told the wrong time, the wrong place, and the wrong amount of time it took to get there. I left the YCC facility around 5:30 to get to Lake by 8:00—because I was told it would take almost 2.5 hours to get there because of the road closure between Mammoth and Norris. I got to the Lake Employee Mess Hall by 7:00. I took a short nap in my car while I waited. Then I found out that they moved it to the Lake Ranger Station because the mess hall got double-booked with trainings today. So at the Ranger Station I found out that it was actually at 9:00 and they moved it to the Lake Clinic because the Lake Ranger Station wasn’t heated and didn’t have quite enough space. So then I went to Lake Clinic and didn’t leave there until about 1745, arriving back at the YCC facility at about 1930. Ugh, what a way to spend a day off. Oh well, hurray for continuing ed credits…

Also, I know you guys probably don’t get to hear about this kind of stuff outside the park, but EMS in Yellowstone is stretched super thin right now, and often times all of the ambulances are being utilized. There have been five deaths in the park in the past week—and one of those was the giant SAR that used up a ton of resources. Yesterday in Lake alone, they had two. Also, Boy Scout troops are wreaking havoc on Yellowstone Lake—“group one” had a capsized kayak and a rescue necessary last night (Wed.), “group two” had capsizes and rescues needed last night, and then “group one” had another rescue this morning. The rangers brought the boys all back in a boat because they didn’t want to go get them anymore because they clearly sucked at kayaking. Moral of the story is, if you’re coming from SoCal with a group of Boy Scouts—maybe practice kayaking before you decide to come to Yellowstone Lake…it’s pretty dang big. Merit badge fail.

We did, however, just get funding for 14 Lucas automated CPR machines, which are super cool! Once you get the hang of learning how to use them (aka what we did for 2+ hours today), they work really slick. And they don’t stop when you have to move a patient, so they could come in really handy in a lot of situations in Yellowstone. The park is also getting two new ambulances—one to replace the ‘95 Chevy in Lake, and the other as an addition to the fleet in the park.

Well, that’s my life-in-Yellowstone life update right now. For the record, I only fell asleep in class three times today. Not bad at all. And the one time we were in small groups and our paramedic guy jokingly called me out on it, I was able to recap everything discussed to him satisfactorily enough that he didn’t even think I was sleeping. Winner winner chicken dinner. :)