The Narrows

So, I was supposed to do the Narrows in Zion National Park the first weekend in August...but I didn't get to go. Apparently my body decided it would be an awesome time to relapse. I developed a sore throat and my pink eye came back. I was very unhappy to say the least.

I was supposed to meet my husband and two of our friends, Nick and Kelly, down in St. George Friday July 31st (they had to go down early to secure an overnight camping permit), but before I got very far I noticed my left eye was looking really red and it was oozing greenish fluid. Yeah...it's pretty gross. Unfortunately it began to fog up my contact and I couldn't see well enough to drive, so I had to turn around and go home. I can't even begin to describe how angry and frustrated I was. I had to cancel my Yellowstone trip and now my Narrows trip because of one ailment or another. I was not happy, in fact I pretty much hit my breaking point. I was tired of being sick, and tired of being held back because of it.

So I spent that weekend sulking instead of doing the Narrows. Not exactly what I had originally planned, but maybe next year I'll have another chance to go. At least Peter, Nick, and Kelly had a good time.

The first day of their trip they got their camping permit and then hiked Angel's Landing. Kelly was a champ and hiked all the way to the top even though she's deathly afraid of heights.

Angel's Landing

Nick, Kelly, and Peter

Kelly hiking to the top

Peter and Kelly

Nick, King of the Mountain

The next two days were spent going down the Narrows. I wish I could tell you more about what it was like, but I didn't get to experience it first hand. Peter tells me it was pretty awesome though...and I'm still just a little bitter about it.

Don't they look like they had a great time? I really wish I could have been there. Especially now that the summer is over and I won't get to see Nick or Kelly very often anymore. They're a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to know them over the summer.

Now I need to go do something else for a while to take my mind off of the Narrows before my bitterness starts to fester...like start unpacking all my stuff back into my apartment in Logan. Joy.

Amethyst Lake

Being confined to my house because of Swine Flu for a whole week was not fun. By the time my quarantine was up I had such bad cabin fever that I just wanted out. I didn’t care where I went; I just wanted to be out of there. So when Peter and his coworker Kelly decided to hike to Amethyst Lake on July 26th, I decided to tag along. I thought it would be a good way to gage how well I was and how much energy I had regained after being so sick. So, merrily I joined Kelly and Peter for what I thought would be no more than a four hour hike. Well, I misjudged the distance and most especially, my capabilities.

The hike started out pleasant enough. It was fairly level and we passed many beautiful meadows and streams. About a third of the way into the hike we came upon a very pretty waterfall in Ostler Fork.

The pretty little waterfall.

Peter and me.

The day was sunny and warm and I was elated to be out and doing something active after having spent most of a week in bed. Shortly after the little waterfall the trail got a little more technical. It went from level to practically straight up. After a couple miles of this I was pretty pooped, but I wasn’t ready to give in and call defeat just yet.

Well, things only went downhill (figuratively speaking) from there. We got caught in a small rainstorm and had to seek shelter under some pine trees. Kelly was about ready to call it quits at this point, but I thought we must be close to the lake and so we should press on. Later, I wanted to eat my words. A little damp from the storm, we soldiered on.

“The lake is just over this next ridge. I swear!”

A couple of miles later, including more elevation gain, we made it to the lake. We were tired and sore at this point, but we did it!

Kelly and Peter are both so happy to have made it!

Amethyst Lake with part of the ridge line going up to Ostler Peak.

Peter and me at Amethyst Lake.

Pretty little stream feeding the lake.

These wildflowers were all over the meadow.

Our joy was short lived, however, when we noticed the ominous looking clouds that were rolling in. The thing about the Uintas, which we should have known better about, is how quickly the weather can change. In the morning it can be beautiful and sunny without a cloud in the sky, but by mid-afternoon it can be dark and stormy, and the temperature can drop significantly. We decided it would be best if we didn’t stay very long at the lake. Just long enough to take some pictures, and maybe we could make it out of there before those clouds opened up. It had taken us four hours to hike to the lake, but hopefully it would take us half that time to get down since it was all downhill.

Peter and Kelly heading back down the trail.

Our impending doom.

We didn’t get too far before it started to rain. And boy did it rain. It was pointless to try and huddle under a tree, besides it was dangerous. We had lightning going off overhead, and at times it seemed terrifyingly close. So we kept moving. Then the rain turned into hail, and not just slushy hail, but big pelting hail that stung whenever it hit you. It was awful, and none of us had come prepared to deal with wet weather. Soaked to the bone and shivering we plod along. We didn’t dare stop for fear of hypothermia setting in.

Aside from being drenched and cold, my legs were bothering me. They had started to ache by the time we got to the lake, but now they felt like dead weights. I had underestimated how weak I still was. It took all of my focus and energy just to put one foot in front of the other. The entire time I kept thinking, you have no one to blame but yourself for this. Kelly was completely miserable, too. She was freezing and suffering a little from altitude sickness. All she wanted to do was keep going at a very fast pace to try and get warm, but it was all I could do to just shuffle along the trail, and I quickly fell behind. Peter looked panicked. He was torn between protecting two women who were in dire straits: one being his work superior and the other being his wife. I obviously won out, and he stayed by my side, helping me to get over rocks and mud puddles, but I know he felt badly for Kelly, and so did I. We were all miserable.

Finally, the sun came back out and lifted our spirits, making the last two miles of the hike much more pleasant. We started to dry off and warm up. I was still completely worn out, though. It took everything I had just to keep moving. By the time we got back to the car I was about ready to collapse, but I made it! We were all still alive, and we had made it out before the sun had gone down! In celebration we drove into town to get some dinner and we gorged ourselves on fatty, fried food. We figured our bodies could handle it after having burnt up so many calories on the hike. After sitting down and taking a good look at our map we figured the hike had been a little over 12 miles, round trip, with an elevation gain of 2,000 feet. Certainly more than what I should have tried to do. Sure, it was stupid of me, but I felt a great sense of accomplishment that not even Swine Flu could stop me for too long. I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I lived with only a few stiff muscles to remind me of my foolishness.

The Piggy Flu

Last week, Peter and I spent a few days in the lovely little town of Midway, UT at the Homestead Resort along with Peter’s family on his father’s side. All of his immediate family was there, except for his eldest brother who had to work, as well as his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. We all had a wonderful time and a lot of fond memories were created. I enjoyed every minute of it up until the day I woke up with an infected eye. From past experience I figured it to be conjunctivitis, or pink eye, as it is more commonly called. I had to throw out my contacts and I didn’t have my glasses with me so I had to spend the rest of the reunion practically blind. It was frustrating, but I wasn’t going to let it spoil my fun. The next day however, was worse. The infection had spread to my other eye, and I was running a fever. I had spent the entire previous night tossing and turning and moaning in pain because my entire body hurt. I didn’t get a wink of sleep, and I don’t think Peter got much more than I did. I remember that night as being one of the longest nights of my life. At this point I figured I had finally come down with the flu that my husband had had about a week ago. So, while I lay wallowing in misery on the bed, Peter packed up all of our belongings and we made a hasty retreat from the reunion. I felt bad because Peter hadn’t seen some of his extended family in several years, and I was dragging him away, but that day was practically the end of the family reunion anyway.
Once we got home I crawled back into bed and spent the rest of the day there. I had called into work the day before and had my shift on Saturday covered because I didn’t want to gross people out with my infected eyes (plus it’s really contagious). Sunday and Monday are my normal days off, so I figured I had a couple of days to get plenty of rest so I could be better enough to go back to work on Tuesday. Well, Sunday I woke up and I still felt like I had been beaten within an inch of my life. Plus I had a new symptom: a very, very sore throat. My throat felt like it was on fire and every time I swallowed it felt like I was swallowing shards of broken glass. When I discovered blisters on the back of my throat I suspected I didn’t have the flu but Strep. By midday Sunday I was completely miserable. I was in a lot of pain and I was still running a fever. I was burning up and yet I felt like the temperature in my house was 30 degrees. Plus I had completely lost my voice at this point, too. I wanted to curl up into a ball and die. So, in tears because of the pain I told (or whispered rather, since I couldn’t speak very well) Peter I wanted to see a doctor. This posed a couple of problems, however. First of all, we don’t have insurance. Second, the nearest town was Evanston, WY and they don’t have an Instacare or some other kind of clinic, only a hospital and emergency room. We also don’t hold a lot of faith with the doctors in Evanston, either. So Peter packed me into the Jeep and drove me two hours to Logan and the Instacare there. I spent most of the car ride curled up in the fetal position shivering even though we had no air conditioning in the car. That was a horribly long car ride. Those two hours seemed to stretch on forever.
Finally we made it to Logan and the doctor’s office. We signed in and I donned one of those lovely masks that made me think of photos I’d seen of Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) visiting a foreign country…or maybe he was just having a bad nose day. Any ways, I finally got in to see a doctor and he took one look at me, asked me a few questions and then fled the room. Peter turned to me and said, “You scared him off!” He came back a few seconds later wearing his own mask. He went through a series of questions, looked at my eyes, ears, throat, etc. The usual doctor poking and prodding. Then he took a culture from my throat and my nose. A few minutes later he came back with the lab results: I had Strep just like I suspected, but I also had Swine Flu and my conjunctivitis was viral and not bacterial. Most likely a side effect of the Swine Flu. So he sent me on my merry way with a prescription of Tamiflu, an antibiotic for the Strep, and a narcotic-based cough syrup to help me sleep at night, as well as instructions to quarantine myself for about one week. The worst part of all is not that I was sick but the fact that before I had any idea I was ill I had been with Peter’s entire family. The time you are most contagious is the day before you start developing symptoms. I had no idea that while I was having a grand ol’ time and hugging every single member of Peter’s extended family I was subjecting them all to a big dose of Swine Flu. Worst of all I exposed several of his cousins who are under the age of 5 to it, as well as his pregnant sister, and his grandparents. It still makes me cringe just thinking about it. Worst possible time ever to have Swine Flu. I had no idea, though. I had no reason to even suspect Swine Flu. Peter had been sick the week before and it had wiped him out for a few days, but he was practically over it by the time the reunion came along. We figured he had caught the flu from his coworker who had had it a week before him. She had actually gone to see a doctor about it too, but they told her it wasn’t the Swine Flu, just the normal flu. Well, the doctor in Evanston didn’t even bother to do a culture and just gave her a prescription for high-strength Ibuprofen for the body aches. So once Peter and I found out what was ailing me, we made a few phone calls to spread the news and warn family that they had been exposed to “the piggy flu” as Peter and I like to call it.
So, a week later I’m now finally feeling a little more like my normal self. For a while there, I wanted to die, though. I have never felt more miserable in my life. I think it hit me so hard because my body was battling two very different infections. At least I survived it, though. I’m so happy to be back at work and interacting with people again. I love Peter and I appreciate everything he did for me while I was sick, but he was gone at work every day and I had nothing to entertain myself with while he was gone but books, and although I love to read it gets old after a few days. It was incredibly boring. We also had to reschedule our trip to Yellowstone because I was sick. I swear I’m never going to get to Yellowstone. Every time I’ve tried, something has come up. We’re going to shoot again in September for our Anniversary, but I won’t hold my breath.
I’m just glad that I was exposed to Swine Flu now instead of in the fall or winter during the normal flu season. It’s frustrating to deal with, and I felt awful having people cover for me at work. I feel like I’ve been a burden, but at least with this job I have sick leave so I don’t just have to eat it if I’m sick. Plus if I had gotten sick in the fall I would have missed work and school and it would have been a lot worse. So I’m counting my blessings that if I had to get sick, at least I got sick at a time when I could afford the trip to the doctor, and the time off.
But seriously…Swine Flu sucks.

It Just Keeps On Coming...

I just can't seem to escape dealing with crazy situations at the ranger station. Peter says I'm a magnet for them.

Two Saturdays ago I had just gotten home from a long day at the "office" when there was knock at my door. I figured it was one of the other seasonal employees popping by to say hi or give us a message, but instead there was a young man who I did not recognize. He introduced himself and told me he had been fishing at Butterfly Lake when he found an older man in the parking area who seemed to be suffering from dementia. The older man, who I hadn't noticed until this point, walked around from behind my Jeep and said, "I don't know where I am or how I got here." His voice kind of trembled as he said this. He was obviously upset, and with good reason. I would be, too. So I asked him if he knew who he was and where he lived. He remembered the former but not the latter. After explaining the situation to Peter (who joined me later at the ranger station due to the fact that he was taking a shower when the men showed up at my house), I took them both down to the ranger station to see what we could figure out. I listened again to what the younger gentleman told me and got his name and contact information, then I started again to try and get some kind of information from the older man. He honestly could not remember a thing about how he had gotten there or why. Luckily he had his cell phone with him. You don't get service up in the forest, but he had contact information in there. So after speaking with the man who I will refer to as "Bob", we called his ex-wife. She informed me that his brother had picked him up and taken him fishing that day. So our next question was, where was the brother? The ex-wife gave us the make/model/color of the vehicle the brother was driving and I then called our local law enforcement officer (LEO). I've had to call him a few times already this summer and his exact reaction on the phone when I introduced myself was, "*sigh* What is it now?" I laughed because I knew he was mostly joking...mostly. I explained the situation and he told me he would be there in about 45 minutes. So Peter and I (the younger man had left at this point) spent the next hour babysitting this man who was obviously not all there mentally. He had some pretty crazy stories though. He could remember his past pretty well, it was just the present that was full of holes. He told us about how he used to work in TV and radio and used to be incredibly successful (until of course his brain turned into Swiss cheese). He was apparently big into the drug scene back in the 60s (which explains a lot). He did everything from acid and pot to peyote. He also used to hang out a lot in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco back in its hippie hay-day. He told us lots of colorful stories about the women he had dated in his life, too.

Occasionally, throughout the evening he would stop mid-sentence and say, "Where am I? How did I get here? Am I in trouble? Am I in the mountains?!" We would have to explain again what the situation was, and that he wasn't in trouble and that we were trying to get him help. At one point he put his head in his hands and started to cry. It was really hard to watch and rather heartbreaking. I hope I never lose my mental faculties like that. There was a rather amusing point in the evening when he asked me and Peter if we were "going together". I told him we were married and he promptly shook Peter's hand and congratulated him on having such a pretty wife. That made my night. Although 20 minutes later he asked the same question and congratulated Peter again.

Finally our police officer arrived and started asking "Bob" all kinds of questions. He started checking a briefcase that "Bob" had brought with him looking for any prescription drugs that he might need to take. Instead he found a couple of ounces of marijuana. Peter and I had actually discovered it earlier, and would have informed the LEO about it if he hadn't found it. "Bob" was distraught over being caught with weed, but I highly doubt they would press any charges against a man who probably couldn't even remember buying the drug. Finally "Bob" was taken away back to his home in Salt Lake. It was 9:30 p.m. at this point and Peter and I were exhausted, but for the next few days we couldn't stop laughing about the whole thing.

In other news, I had an injured Great Horned Owl in the basement of the ranger station for a day. Some campers found it and brought it in. It had somehow broken its wing, so we had to look after it for a while until our wildlife officers could come pick it up. It was really cool to see such a beautiful creature up close. I felt bad for the poor thing, though. I'm sure it was in pain. Unfortunately its wing was so badly broken and it had lost a lot of blood, so when the wildlife officers showed up they had to euthanize it. It was depressing, but part of life. At least it's no longer in pain. My coworker was pretty shook up about it, though. She loves animals probably more than I do, and is actually planning on going into zoology or wildlife biology.

My family and Peter's family came up for the 4th of July and we had a really good time hiking and fishing. I didn't get to go because I had to work, but I got to join up with them later for a barbecue and volleyball. It was nice to spend some time with my family and I hope they all had a good time.

I'm sad that's it's July, though. It means my summer is half over. It's going by so fast! I love my job and where I live. I'll be really sad when we move back to Logan, but at least I have school to look forward to. I'm finally getting back after a 6 year hiatus. Woo hoo! It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well, that's all for now from my neck of the woods *snigger*, and remember kiddies...don't do drugs...or you'll end up like "Bob".

Never a Dull Moment

Holy crap this month has been crazy! Brace yourselves for a long one, folks.

A lot has been going on. I turned 26 on the 8th of June. I am now closer to 30 than 20. It’s kind of depressing. I spent my birthday with my family which is always the best way to spend it, in my opinion. Peter and I drove down to Bountiful and went to Hogle Zoo with my parents, my brother Danny, my sister Michelle and her one-year old, Riley. I haven’t been to the zoo in years so I really enjoyed myself. Riley seemed to be enjoying the zoo a lot, too…at least up until she had a bad experience with an elephant. There’s a new exhibition for the elephants at the zoo, and out in front is a big elephant statue. It makes snoring sounds like it’s asleep until someone moves in front of its trunk. Then it starts emanating a noise that sounds like a trumpet, but in a rhythm to resemble sneezing, after which it sprays water out at the person who happens to be standing in front of it. Well, we didn’t know that it did that, and my father put poor Riley’s face right up in front of the trunk so she could touch it and hear the noise, and well…I’m sure you can guess what happened. I’m not sure who felt worse: Riley or her poor grandpa. My dad felt horrible because it made her cry. The whole situation was kind of funny, though.

After the zoo I met up with my in-laws who took me and Peter out to dinner. We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square. It’s one of my favorites and I was having a craving for Mezythra. I always have a lot of fun with my husband’s family, especially his brothers. They’re a riot.

My mother turned the big 50 on the 10th, and unfortunately I had to miss it. I had to spend her birthday sitting in seasonal orientation meetings all day. That was not so much fun. Orientation is a lot of bureaucratic drivel with emphasis on safety and appropriate/inappropriate behaviors while working for the Forest Service, and everyone has to attend. Not only was it boring, but it was really cold. It has been raining just about every single day up here, and because of that it has been exceptionally colder than usual. Orientation was held at the fairgrounds but the little building we were in had no heat. Bernard, one of the permanent staff and a really nice guy who looks like Grizzly Adams, must have noticed me shivering because he gave me the liner to his hunting poncho to keep me warm. It actually helped quite a bit, because like I said, it was COLD. I did have several people giggling at me because I was the only person there bundled up in a camouflage poncho, but at least I was a lot more comfortable.

The one nice thing about orientation is that you get to mingle with lots of people who you would normally not interact with. Not from a personal choice, at least on my part, but because it’s a big forest and everyone has different jobs to do. All I have to say is that there are a lot of characters working for the F.S. That’s one reason I love my job. I get to meet some really interesting people.

Thursday night after the last day of orientation we had a little mini-potluck at my house. We had a few of the seasonal guys over who live in the bunk houses and we ate all kinds of tasty food including road kill.

Yeah…I’m not kidding.

One of the guys on the rec (recreation) crew brought some stew that he had made, and it was absolutely delicious. I was happily through half of my bowl when he announced that the meat in the stew was venison from a fawn they had accidentally hit with one of their trucks. I of course had just put a big spoonful of stew in my mouth when he said this and it took some effort to swallow it down without gagging. I finished my bowl of stew so as not to offend him, but I didn’t go back for seconds. He got a big kick out of feeding us road kill, I think. Like I said…we have a lot of characters on the forest…and that stew really was the tastiest stew I have ever had…even if it was a little redneck.

In other news, Peter now has his red card (and his $400 smoke jumper boots finally arrived too, happy birthday, Peter) so he can help fight forest fires if we ever have one on our district. The way the weather is going, though, it seems unlikely. We have a lot of dead pine trees due to the mountain pine beetle epidemic, but everything has been so wet that the threat is low. The only thing I can see happening is if later in the summer it gets really hot and all the lush green plants, which are growing now because of all the rain, dry up. That could be a problem.

Speaking of the ranger station…I’ve had quite a bit of excitement recently. First of all we had two bear sightings that I had to call the district ranger about, and then last Sunday there was an unfortunate incident that I had to call the police about. I won’t go into specifics here, but the phone call I made had to do with accusations of child abuse. Not a fun phone call. I got an hour and a half of overtime because of it, too. I couldn’t close the ranger station at the normal time because I had several officers using it as their base of operation where they took statements and such. Then later that day, after I was finally able to close up and work on some paperwork to turn in my money for the week, I heard a knock at the backdoor which was really odd. The only people who use the backdoor are employees and they all have keys. So I cautiously unlocked and opened the door to see a woman about my age holding a fawn in her arms.

My instant thought was, “Oh dear (no pun intended) here we go…”

And what did she have to say?

“Hi! I found this baby deer by my cabin!”

*sigh* Instant headache.

I had this very same thing happen last summer when a Boy Scout leader brought in a fawn he had found out in the woods. I told this woman the same thing I told him. Deer often leave their fawns lying in grass or vegetation while they forage for food. Go put it back where you found it.

I don’t think the woman realized that she had signed the poor little baby’s death warrant. Hopefully the mother deer will find her baby and will still accept it even though it has human scent all over it. I doubt it though. The woman had good intentions, but unfortunately her ignorance probably killed that deer.

This Saturday was just as crazy. I had several opportunities to use my first aid skills. The first incident was a young man who came into the ranger station and the first thing he said was, “Is there someone here who could drive me to the hospital?” That’s usually not a good way to start a sentence. I asked him what was wrong, and then noticed his hand that was wrapped up in a shirt. He then told me he had cut his hand pretty badly when he fell on his machete. Luckily for him he hurt himself on the same day we were having the annual Over the Top bike race that starts in Kamas and ends in Evanston, and there were a couple of ambulances already up here. He had driven himself to the ranger station but was in no condition to drive himself further because he was feeling pretty shaky and woozy. So I drove him up to the ambulance that was sitting conveniently two miles up the highway. Later that afternoon things got even crazier. The weather turned pretty ugly during the bike race, and I got a radio call telling me they were sending several hypothermic cyclists my way. You’d think that the 20th of June would be a nice sunny day, but no…it was raining and sleeting with temperatures in the 40s. It was cold. So I had several wet, shivering cyclists in my ranger station trying to warm up. I scavenged towels and blankets from my cabin for them to use and gave them all warm beverages to drink until they were picked up and taken into town by shuttles, Forest Service employees, or police officers. What a great way to celebrate the first day of summer, eh? I'm pretty tired of all this rain we've been having. We've had only one day this month that was sunny and warm. Most days its been in the 50s and 60s and raining/hailing/snowing. It's been insane!

Aside from all the craziness and weather I'm still enjoying myself. There's certainly no end to excitment around here, that's for sure!

Hurray! It's June!

I don't have any pictures this week because my camera is being stupid and keeps telling me my battery is low when I put brand new, fresh batteries in it. I guess I need to invest in a new camera this summer. I really wish it was working because we've had these crazy thunderstorms every day for the past week or so and the effect of misty clouds in the mountains, and wet green leaves made me want to take pictures of all the beauty I am surrounded with this summer. I am so lucky to be where I am.

I've been working at the ranger station for about two weeks now. It's been awfully slow. It's still a little chilly up here and the highway is closed because of snow. I can't tell you how many people I've had come into the ranger station and ask me whether or not the highway was truly closed. I bit my tongue and withheld my snarky comment, "No...the dozens of signs you passed coming up to the ranger station saying "Highway closed!" were there just to mess with you. We lied. Go right ahead and drive yourself into a snow bank!" I'm not a mean person, or at least I don't like to think I am, so I would politely tell them that it was indeed closed further ahead because we are at a higher elevation (the Bear River Ranger Station sits at 8,444 feet above see level, and the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway reaches somewhere around 10,000) and there is still snow on the highway further up. They'd then get annoyed like I purposefully put the snow there just to spite them and mutter, "I drove all the way from Salt Lake for nothin'!" Well, that's your fault for not planning ahead. Not mine. I have no control over the weather, nor do I have control over UDOT and when they plan to plow the highway.

My supervisor told me a story about a man who had called her and told her about a beaver that was building a dam in the Stillwater Fork up by Christmas Meadows. He then asked her if we just let the beavers build their dams wherever they want to.

No. the beavers must first sign a petition to receive a permit and then submit their blueprints for their plan.

Of course the beavers can build their dams wherever they want! As long as they're not flooding any buildings or campgrounds they can do whatever they want! They're beavers!

People sometimes don't think before they open their mouths.

This last week I've been busy training the new girl who will be staffing the ranger station along with me. She's 19 years old and I unfortunately don't have much in common with her. She's easily bored and fills up the empty time with lots of chatter about whatever comes into her head. I find myself saying things like, "Uh huh...yeah...alright...huh" a lot. She's a nice enough girl, though, but I miss Sharon who I worked with last summer.

Peter has been busy with all kinds of odd jobs. I call him their Random Task Man because they send him off to do random things all the time. Last week he was looking for Northern Goshawk nests. These birds look like this:

They're mean birds and they will let you know if you get anywhere near their nest because they'll either attack you or shriek at you. They're an indicator species though and so it's important to know if they're in your forest. Peter found three in one week and showed me one that was actually occupied. The female had eggs she was incubating so she was trying to go unnoticed but she had her red eyes focused on us the entire time we were there.

So Peter hasn't actually done anything "timber" related yet this year. This week he's in Huntsville, UT going to fire school this week. He left me to fend for myself in the woods. It's kind of lonely up here without him.

We've had a lot of couples move up this week. One young married couple is occupying the cabin next to ours and we've made friends with them. We've had barbecues a few times and last Sunday we got together with them and another retired couple, who are volunteering for the Forest Service, and played games. It was a lot of fun. One nice thing about this couple is that they're from Logan, too. So hopefully we'll keep in touch even after the summer is over.

That's pretty much all that's going on right now. We're still alive and doing well, and so far this summer looks like it's going to be a blast!

Back to Bear River!

This weekend's move to Bear River went really well! My little brothers came up and helped me finish packing and then drove up with me to our cabin and helped me unpack. I was really surprised how nice the cabin is! It's a little small, but still bigger than anything I've ever lived in before. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and basement. It is also completely furnished. All of the floors are hardwood which I think gives it a really nice touch. The style is a little outdated, I think the cabin was built in the 80s, but it's still nice. The best part of all is that Peter and I don't have to share it with anyone. It's all ours for the entire summer!

I took a few pictures of the place just to give you an idea of what I'm living in.


As you can see it's a rather humble looking place, but I love it! The exterior paint needs a little help though...that will probably be one of our projects this summer. The forest around is still looking a little dead because spring is always about a month behind up here. By the end of June all the trees will be green and there will be wildflowers all over the place.

We also found out that we have an unexpected neighbor that moved in. Here is a picture of its home.

That hole is nearly as wide as my shoulders and is the entrance to a badger's burrow. I haven't seen him yet, but hopefully it won't decide to jump out at me one of these mornings as I head to work.

After my brothers helped me unpack, and I had a chance to reunite with Peter who I hadn't seen for about five days, we drove back down to Evanston to grab a bite to eat. On our way out of the forest, a yellow-bellied marmot jumped out into the road. I screamed thinking we'd hit the poor thing, but it managed to stop itself just before the front passenger-side tire rolled over. It then tried to jump out in front the truck my brothers were driving, only to narrowly escape death once again. Apparently my youngest brother, Jacob, nearly had a heart attack and he screamed when the marmot jumped out in front of them.

After eating some hamburgers we said goodbye to my brothers and then headed back home. The next day we spent cleaning the cabin and waxing the woods floors. Holy crap that is a pain in the butt! Actually, more like a pain in the knees and back! That is some hard labor! The floors look much prettier now, though. :) We then had to chase some guys on ATVs off the property because they thought it would be cool to drive around on government land. They somehow failed to notice the no trespassing sign.


Idiots. They tore up the lawn around the ranger station too. I have to say, I hate ATVs and the people who drive them. ATVs are loud and destructive. There's no getting around it. They tear up trails and anything else they drive on, and people who drive ATVs tend to think they are entitled to drive anywhere they want. They really piss me off. I know there are responsible people out there who actually respect the rules and regulations and are conscious where they drive, but they are few and far between.

In other news, it turns out that Peter is going to fire school the first week of June. I guess it's a good thing we decided to buy him a pair of smoke jumper boots this year. Friday he has to take his pack test. He has to walk/run 3 miles in under 45 minutes while wearing a 40 pound vest. I don't think he'll have a problem completing it, but I bet he'll be really tired afterwards.

It also turns out that the timber crew this year consists of Peter and...Peter. He is the only person on the timber crew this year due to budget issues. Normally they have about 8 people on the crew. I think he's going to have his work cut out for him.

Today I drove back down to Logan to grab a few things I forgot (like the boots to my uniform). It's kind of a long drive, about four hours round trip. I also had to turn in the keys to our apartment since we're putting it on storage for the summer. So I'm snagging the Wi-Fi from a little cafe here in town.

I love being back at Bear River. It's so beautiful and peaceful. At night I can hear the rushing of the river and the frogs that sing on its banks. Occasionally I can hear the Sand Hill cranes that are migrating through. They have a very distinct call. Not like anything I've heard before.

Wednesday I start work and I'm excited to be working for the F.S. again. I'm really excited about this summer and all of its prospects and I'm happy to be in one of the prettiest places in the world. I feel like I'm home.