So it seems I have a bit of catching up to do…no surprise
there—I’ll split it into two posts.
(I meant to get them both done this morning, but a 4-hour EMS call
changed that plan at 0445.)
Well after I got back from Glacier, it was
Session 2’s last weekend here in Yellowstone. We had group summit on Saturday
(Mt. Washburn again). This time it wasn’t nearly as painfully slow and we got
to go up the good side—however we had some really crummy attitudes with us on
the trip that made it a bit of a pain in the butt. On the way back down, Alicia
sat everyone down and had a talk about leaving our negative emotions and stuff
on the mountain. Effective? I don’t know but it was worth a shot. From there we
went to Arch Park in Gardiner and played some different games. I had a grand
old time using a 2x3’ charcoal grill to cook hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggie
burgers for 50 people. It took me 3.5 hours—and that’s with Elijah and Nick
making all the patties. Nuts. I did have one student who ate 6 burgers though,
so they couldn’t have been all that bad. ;)
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| Re-creation of Session 1 photo--Bethany, Nick, Elijah, Maggie |
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THE COOLEST YOUTH LEADERS!!!
Back: Avery, Nick w/Matt, Lexie and Front: Sarah, Elijah |
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Maggie, Nick, Lexie, Sarah, Avery, Elijah, Bethany
Matt |
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| You couldn't ask for a better supervisor than Alicia!!! |
Then on Sunday were the last rec trips of the year, so
earlier in the season I had talked to the youth leaders about them each getting
to choose what rec trip they wanted to do. Naturally, being the awesome youth
leaders they are, they each chose hikes that I would consider awesome…but maybe
weren’t a wide enough variety of difficulty levels. So some of them backed down
and chose either shorter or easier trips. I went with Avery to the Thunderer
area. Given an unlimited amount of time, we probably could have gotten to the
top of the Thunderer from Chaw Pass, but since we had a deadline to be back at
camp, it just couldn’t happen. Chaw Pass was awesome though, and we could see a
ton from there—including Republic Peak, where Matt and Sarah’s group was. On
the way back down, they stopped a bazillion times to eat berries, and I
honestly thought we were going to be late due to all Avery’s berry-picking
shenanigans. P.S. we weren’t late. We also had time to stop at the Tower
Junction Service Station so I could get everyone ice cream.
Haha also on the way back to the trailhead, I accidentally
managed to do something really stupid. On the way up, we had passed a bison
that was probably 30ish yards to the west of the trail. So on the way back
down, we were looking for the bison in that area. Well, I was talking as usual
and seemingly distracted when I hear Jade from near the back of the group, “Umm
did you guys see the bison?” And I turn around and then realized that the rock
ten feet off the trail on the east side was indeed a giant bison that was just
staring at us. So we hurriedly got away from the bison and I apologized a
gazillion times. What a good ranger teaching her students to stay 25 yards away
from wildlife…whoops.
Ooooh I almost forgot, on the way to our trailhead, we had
to go through part of the Lamar Valley and there was a bison carcass kind of by
Soda Butte Creek and when we drove by their were black wolves feeding on it AND
IT WAS SO COOL!!!!!!!!! Sorry—no pictures, I was driving. Fun fact: As of the end
of 2016 there were 99 wolves in Yellowstone.(ß
learned that at the service station).
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| View South from Chaw Pass |
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Aubrey, Elaine, Hailey, Avery, Morgan
Marta, Jade |
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Aubrey, Elaine, Hailey, Marta, Morgan
Avery, Jade, Bethany |
All in all it was a great last rec trip. Which brings me to
my next point…the students all left on Wednesday morning. :( On Tuesday night
after the banquet, we all went stargazing on Swan Lake Flats, then they didn’t
have to go to bed until 11:00, which meant I worked until midnight. And then
right after I got off work, I got paged out to the worst epistaxis case I have
ever seen in my life in Gardiner…so by the time I was done getting back from
Livingston, it was after 0400 on Wednesday. The first group of students left
after a 0630 breakfast, so I got a little less than two hours of sleep and then
had to say goodbye to people. It sucked. (Also, if you’ve never seen golf
ball-sized coagulated blood clots come out of someone’s nose—you’re missing
out. :P ) Within the next few hours, all of the students left—including all six
youth leaders, which I am still terribly bummed about. Honestly, I would trade
them for most of my coworkers. I cannot describe to you how fantastic each and
every one of them is. Their work ethics are unmatched and they constantly do
what needs to be done, without being asked. I will miss every single one of
them so much. There were a lot of tears on Wednesday, and although none of them
were from me, I came really close while reading the student eval forms. One of
the questions asks students what motivates them to be their best at the YCC. We
get answers such as parents, grandparents, personal drive, etc. Elijah wrote
“Bethany.” I almost cried. No matter how much I impacted each of them, those
six students impacted me more and I wish them all the best in whatever their
future holds. (Hopefully it involves road trips to visit me. :D)
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Unfortunately the photo quality isn't better, but beggars can't be choosers when they hand their camera to someone.
Back: Maggie, Nick, Caleb, Elijah, Uma, Loring
Front: Maria, Matt, Lexie, Bethany, Sarah
Front front: Avery |
I don’t remember anything exciting happening at work on
Thursday besides cleaning, so I’ll skip to Friday. I had the day off and wanted
to do some hiking for head-clearing purposes, so I decided to go to the Bighorn
Pass. It starts from Indian Creek Campground and it’s roughly 8.5 miles to the
pass (I believe…I don’t remember right now.) Especially if you’re doing this as
a day hike, keep in mind you’ll need to ford Indian Creek and Panther Creek a
few miles west of the Indian Creek Campground. So I’m hiking along, hiking
along, minding my own business, and oh hello grizzly bear. He was just chilling
by the trail; I got out my bear spray and started backing away and then he saw
me. My least favorite part of bear encounters is when they stand on their hind
legs to assess how big of a threat you are to them. I don’t like it when they
do that…it’s freaky. So I decided to cut my losses for the day, even though I
was only about a mile from the pass, and turn around and go back. It was still
a nice hike and I didn’t need any trouble. Not today. I passed a couple on my
way back and made sure they had bear spray and were aware of the bear presence
before continuing. I stopped and ate lunch by Panther Creek on the way back and
talked to this nice older couple that was back in the area for the wife’s class
reunion in Gardiner. Her dad had worked for the NPS in Yellowstone while she
was growing up—they were pretty cool people. I got back to the trailhead a
little after 2:00 and spent the rest of the day doing I don’t remember what. I
think it was that night that all of us went into Gardiner and Melissa, Jillian,
and some Bio Dorm people went to a rooftop bar and played games. This guy named
Matt and I smoked everyone in bags—and I mean smoked. We won 21-4, 21-8, and 21
to something else small. Then we all played lawn Jenga. Good times.
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| Meadows east of Bighorn Pass |
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| Bighorn Pass trail |
On Saturday, Ricardo and I went to the Bozeman Airport to
pick up some groups of Groundwork people. Pretty much all of Saturday was spent
introducing different Groundwork trusts to the YCC. Then on Sunday was their
one-day park tour. They were all super excited about everything and it was a
really refreshing feeling honestly after some of our last enrollees. We did
tons of stuff on Sunday that I crammed into one day and then we all camped at
Nez Perce, per the usual. After supper, somehow traffic separated us all (not
surprising with the eclipse right around the corner), and Loring’s and my burb
got to Old Faithful just as it was erupting…and the rest of their students
missed it. Yay and bummer.
Now I know it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but
exactly 0% of me wanted to sit in traffic all day to drive to the Tetons for
the eclipse. So, being the Bethany that I am, I talked to Alicia about it since
honestly I don’t think my muscles would’ve held up worth crap trying to sit
down all day, and she arranged it so I could drive the truck full of gear back
to the YCC and just spend the day working there. Alicia’s a lifesaver. No joke.
So I spend Monday with the crew leaders and we watched the eclipse from the
hill right across from Bunsen Peak. We were in 96% totality and it got pretty
dark and fairly chilly. “That’s pretty neat.”
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| Ricardo, Melissa, Jillian, Bethany, Schmitty, Maureen, Alicia, and John watch the 8-21-17 solar eclipse |
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| Melissa and I |
Mileage Count: 480.1
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