Moose, Marmots, and Bears...OH MY!

I've officially completed my first three days of work and my first day off! I am sitting in Denver, CO after a spur of the moment decision to visit here with my roommate, but it's been a fun few days!

My first day of work, I reported to the BCO (Backcountry Office) around 7:45 to make sure I wouldn't be late for my first day of work. I went in and started introducing myself to people and immediately felt at home. Everyone was joking around with each other, and I didn't stop laughing all day. We loaded into two vans and drove to the cabin of an older couple who volunteer in the BCO--Janet and Rob. All of the 15 BCO employees were there for possibly the only time all summer. We discussed what brought us here, and then learned some of the basic procedures and/or changes for this year from what some of the old people might have learned. Janet made us an amazing lunch, and we all started to get to know each other better and continue the jokes.

The second day was another TOD (Train Out Day), meaning volunteers took over in the office again while the staff went out. This day was a tour around the whole park so we could familiarize ourselves with where the trailheads are. We drove to the NE side of the park and stopped for the world's BEST cinnamon rolls. Seriously. If any of you ever come to visit me, you can count on me taking you there. What's even better is that there is 25 cent coffee! (BTW, I started drinking coffee the day before to stay awake through the meeting because jet lag was a killer and I might enjoy it by the end of the summer!)

After the NE side, we went to the SE area, by Long's Peak. Fun Facts: This is the tallest mountain in Colorado and the only 14er in the park (mountain 14,000 feet or taller). Also, this mountain was discovered by Long, but he never hiked it and instead climbed Pike's Peak. In similar fashion, Pike never climbed his peak, but climber Long's. :) Anyway, after there, we drove back towards the main park entrance on the E side, by our office, and drove across Trail Ridge Road which is the 50 mile road connecting the E and W side across the Continental Divide (the area that differentiates between the water that flows towards the Atlantic v. the Pacific). The whole ride was gorgeous and we stopped occasionally for more information between the two vans.


On the W side, we saw some cars pulled over and found a moose! I looked into the bushes a little bit down and saw a dark shape which turned out to be another moose! A little further down the road, we pulled over because we saw two more. In total by this point, we had seen four sows. We finished the drive to the BCO West and Grand Lake to see other trailheads, and began the 1.5 hour journey back to the E side. On the way, we found a mama moose with a baby that couldn't have even been a month old because of its size and how wobbly it was. So in all, that was a 6-moose day which is UNHEARD OF in the park, and we got to see all around.


The third day was my first day in the office. I worked with Walt, Vic, and Lyle (a volunteer) and it was lots of fun getting to shadow all three of them to learn the ropes. By the end of the day, I was able to completely work the computer reservation system and was getting an idea of some of the trails and ways to plan trips. I also took my hour and a half government privacy computer test, and passed. Go me! I had walked to work that day rather than the cruise in neutral the whole way, and had to walk back afterwards. On the way, I crossed between a herd of about a dozen elk bucks which was quite intimidating, but I made it home without any problems. We actually have three bucks that live in our front yard, so it's been nice to see them every evening when they come out to eat.

That night, Kendall's boyfriend who had been visiting had a few friends come up from Denver to spend the night with us. The five of us went downtown to explore some nightlife and came home to play boardgames. We learned the hard way that there is only one taxi cab for all of Estes Park, and he uses those grounds to charge an arm and a leg to drive people home. After our $20 ride home, we determined that might not be the best plan in the future. The boys invited a guy we met there home too so he played Apples to Apples with us and crashed on the couch. He works for the YMCA camp and was only there one more day before returning to Denver too.

This morning, we woke up and Kendall and I took the boys for a tour. First, we drove to Glen Haven to eat the amazing cinnamon rolls. After that, we drove to Sprague Lake and walked the whole way around and then drove towards Bear Lake and saw a bunch of people out of their cars on the side of the road. We pulled up and asked what was going on and they said it was a bear and her cub. We pulled up to park and immediately called dispatch to report the bears to send an LE (Law Enforcement Officer/Ranger) to take care of the situation. We then drove to the AVC (Alpine Visitor Center) on Trail Ridge Road which goes up above 12,000 feet and saw lots of snow and a marmot! After returning home, the Denver boys took off to go home so Kendall and I could shower. We then drove her boyfriend to Denver by way of dinner in Boulder so she could have one last night with him before he heads back to Flag in the morning.

So far, Colorado has been great! I am still a little anxious or nervous? (I don't know the word) about things back in Flagstaff, but I'm hoping things will work themselves out. I know that I am a strong enough person to hold my ground and not let things get me too down. These new experiences with starting completely from scratch in a new living situation, with a new job, a new state, new friends, and new directions to go are only showing me how much stronger I am than I thought before and if the moose, marmot, and bears are any sign of this summer, I am excited to see what is yet to come.

Home, Home on the Range

I am finally here.

Every uncertainty I had about being here this summer was completely washed away last night after I dropped Aaron off at the airport and looked through my windshield. As the sun was setting through the clouds, the snow-capped peaks were just staring at me, beckoning me home. The way the sun sets like that--through the clouds--always makes me smile. It's the kind of sunset where you can see the beams and it's almost as if someone up there is shining down the light to let you know everything is going to be ok.

The car ride was quite eventful. We woke up at 5am so I could shower and finish loading the car. When we got out to it, Aaron noticed the tires looked low so we checked the pressure and it was down to 10psi in a few of the tires. After figuring out how to get the bike on the rack, we drove to Conoco to fill air only to find out the hose leaked. We had more luck at Varsity Gasser, and were on our way by 6:15am. Lunch was in Moab, UT...one of my absolute favorite places I've been. I drove the entire six hours from home to lunch, and we only made one other stop in that time to get gas in Bluff, UT.

After lunch, I crashed for an interruted hour when Aaron woke me up to see the fire on the side of the road, the state line, and then our next gas stop in Grand Junction. I couldn't really sleep after that but the hour definitely helped. We held our breath through the tunnels and stopped at No Name Rest Stop aka the most gorgeous rest stop I've ever seen. We stopped there last summer on the way to Denver for the International Horn Convention, and I made sure we found it again. If you are ever travelling E on I70, it's definitely worth the stop. Aaron drove the rest of the way to the airport and I dropped him off without crying and went on my way for the last two hours.

I managed to get lost twice, but finally made it to Estes Park where Kendall was waiting for me in a parking lot. Kendall is a girl I met and sat next to in my second forestry class last semester. She got a job in Dispatch at RMNP this summer, and she texted me while I was still in China to tell me we are roommates! She met me and we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant where she bought me a beer :) then we went to Safeway to get basic groceries like lunch stuff. I followed her to the house after that, and got stuck twice on our driveway because it breaks off into a long dirt road.

By this point, it was 10pm so I couldn't see anything around me like what the yard looked like. We parked the cars though and I went in to take a look around. When you walk in the front door, there is a deep closet on the left that has a dirt floor with bones from SOMETHING in the back. To the right is a one-car garage that we probably won't use because there are also rat turds all over the floor that are freaking us out. One of the four bedrooms is also downstairs and the only way to get to that is through the garage, so we probably won't use that.

Straight ahead are the stairs, which lead to the other three rooms, kitchen, pantry, living room, and deck. I'm getting kicked off the computer right now because I'm at the Estes Park Library. That's another thing...no internet at home and these computers don't allow Facebook! I'm going to have to start bringing my laptop for the free wifi.

I'll try to write more tomorrow after our drive across the park. My phone usually works though, so keep in touch people!

The house in daytime...

Packing Up, Getting Ready to Go

I can't believe it's almost here. I've spent the past week moving everything from my room into the tiny cubicle we call "the shed" on the back porch, but there's something mildly upsetting about seeing all my favorite things crammed into the space next to the water heater. As RMNP gets closer, I keep getting more and more hesitant about what is lying ahead this summer. I know I will be fine once I get there, but I keep thinking about how much I am going to miss in Flagstaff as life moves on without me here, but maybe this is just a taste of life after graduation next year?...

Yesterday, Bekha and I drove around town to try and find her some furniture since she is finishing moving in as our third roommate for next year. At a second-hand shop downtown, we found the perfect desk for her, but it definitely wasn't the perfect desk for my car. The main desk part was too big for us to even think about carrying and fitting into my car, but the shelf-section came off and was light enough for us to carry. From our eyeball-analysis, we figured the section would fit into the car, so off we went. The sight of the two of us crossing the street and walking to my car with half a desk was quite amusing, and we got a few laughs from some cars that drove by. Once we got the car, I unlocked it and we tried to get it in from all sorts of different angles, but it was NOT working. A man dressed in typical downtown fashion (tie-dye shirt, torn-up pants, scruffy face) was walking by and immediately stopped to help us. He told me to go around to the other side of the car and help guide while he positioned the furniture piece to go into the car. The whole time, he reminded me to be careful not to scrape the roof of the car, and somehow he managed to get the thing to fit. When we finished, he wished us a happy day with the beautiful weather, and disappeared down the street. Bekha and I looked at each other in amazement and mentioned how we could have ended up in a completely different situation if we had been in either of our hometowns (Phoenix or Bakersfield). There's just something about Flagstaff that makes people go out of their way to be nice to one another, and I really hope I can find that atmosphere in Estes Park this summer too.

I have been watching my "TO-DO" list grow and shrink the past three days as I complete tasks and then remember more things I need to do before I go. Now, I'm down to a phone call, bank stop, oil change, gas in the car, and packing.

Packing.

It's not that I don't want to pack, in fact I usually enjoy the spacial organization aspect of fitting things into a small area, whether it be a suitcase or the trunk of a car. The difference this time is that I am not coming home for much longer than usual. It's hard to look around my room right now and realize that everything I see that is left in here has to fit into my car one way or another for that fourteen hour drive that's coming faster than I think.