Sweeping Chimneys in the Snow

So for those of you who may have been wondering, I did succeed in living through my trip to Jewel Cave on Sunday. It was a near thing though! We ended up spending ten hours in the cave, and during that time surveyed 694 feet of new cave passageway. It was a very very good day! For those of you who are not familiar with cave surveying, a really good day is going to yield 500 feet of surveyed passageway, so this was phenomenal! I came out of the cave looking very much like a chimney sweep, with a lovely layer of manganese covering absolutely every part of me. My caving pants also decided that they had had enough part way through the experience and when I came out I noticed that they had a lot more ventilation in the posterior section than they normally would have. So those pants may be on their way to retirement!

I didn't get to name any rooms, but we did find some exciting new passageways! And I ended up doing all the instrument reading for the entire trip. We only had one set of instruments so another guy went on point and established each survey point and I took the measurements from the previous point and then went to the new one and took the back sites as well. Normally two different people take the opposing measurements, but in this case I did all of it. So every inch of those 694 feet was actually calculated via my measurements!

We came out of the cave into a bit of a snowstorm. It wasn't too bad, but it was definitely snowing and it picked up as we continued on. It was the sort of snow that reminds you of taking off into light speed as you are driving along. It also brought images of sliding and slipping off the road to the forefront of my mind! But we did make it back safely. The snow had turned to rain before we got back to wind cave, so after spending a copious amount of time and effort cleaning myself in the shower I went to bed to the sound of rain utterly exhausted and feeling like I would never move again.

When I awoke I discovered that things had changed during the night. I opened the curtains next to my bed to discover a winter wonderland, a land completely covered in a soft blanket of snow. It had a magical quality to it, much like the classic image of awaking Christmas morning to find a similar coating surrounding you. The snow has since mostly melted, but that first snow was rather magical. Now I am hoping I don't get too much of it in the next month that I am still here!

The Final Countdown

Did anyone else hear the beginning of the song when they read that subject line? I think that Jason and I used that music a little too often in video projects because now it is firmly etched in my memory!

Anyway, the point of this email is that I found out a little bit more in regard to an ending date and that sort of thing. I actually talked to both Ted and Mary today which resulted in some highly useful information! The first thing is that if I were to use all of my allotted hours now I could work through November 23. So that is the last day that I could be here before I would have to leave on account of my hours running out. However, Mary wants me to leave before that because she wants me to come back and work EE (Environmental Education) in the spring. I think that would be pretty fun. :) It would be pretty crazy and very very demanding and tiring, but also fun and exciting. I would be teaching first through eighth graders about the environment through the park.

So all that is to say that Mary wants me to leave earlier now so that I can come back earlier in the spring, which does work out fairly well for my own plans. I still don't have a defined end date quite yet, but it will be sometime between Oct. 24-Nov. 8.

My thought is to go to Colorado to see Kristen, Corey, Brandon, and Lisa once I leave and then make my way over to California where I will move out of the house and head to Phoenix just in time for Thanksgiving. And depending on when I actually leave I will hit up some other scenic and interesting spots along the way. :) Something like that anyway!

A Colorful Discovery

This past weekend was once again blessed with some colorful adventure! I headed up to the northern black hills where I had the opportunity to visit a good friend and spend some time in her world before heading into the glorious spearfish canyon. I had heard the canyon was beautiful, but what I had heard did not do it justice! It was magnificent! And it was an excellent time of year to see it because the Autumn colors are beginning to be visible, but many of the green leaves are still present as well. I had a chance to do some hiking in the area and discovered an incredible overlook where I stayed for quite a while simply looking out at the canyon. I also found two different waterfalls and some glorious pathways alongside the little spearfish river. I was keenly reminded of the poem "the road not taken" by Robert Frost. One of the attached pictures even shows two roads diverging in the yellow wood. We are surrounded by beauty and wonder, if we will but only stop and take the time to see it!

In addition to the pictures I have attached to this email, I do have quite a few others that I have just uploaded onto facebook. Many of my pictures are on facebook if you are ever interested in seeing more of what I am writing about!

On my way out of the canyon that night I passed a group of bikers attempting to pull a bike up out of a gully so I stopped and asked if I might be of help. I ended up getting my rope out and rigging it to the bike and then tying it to another truck that also happened by (I was planning on using mine, but he pulled up and conveniently had his tow hitch a few feet from where I had the rope) and helped pull it out. Without the rope and truck we would not have got it out, so it was very good that I happened along! He had been riding alone a few minutes behind his friends when I deer ran out in front of him. In an attempt to miss the deer he hit a rock which sent him off the road and down the gully. Scary stuff!

The weather is changing here! It is quite cold outside today and even spit snow this afternoon!

I spent yesterday surveying in the cave! I was supposed to be working, but I was able to arrange things to where I got to spend the day in the cave instead, which was way more exciting! I am very tired today though! We were in a different part of the cave then where I surveyed before and we didn't find any Alvin signatures this time, but it was still a grand adventure! And we did survey another 456 feet of passageway, which isn't bad! And most exciting, I actually got to help name two rooms that we found on this trip! The first is "Frontier's edge" (can you guess who was behind that name?!) and the second is "dragon's hollow." So now there are three areas of the cave that bear a name that I was a part of!

I am also probably going to spend all day Sunday surveying in Jewel Cave. And when I say all day I mean 10-12 hours. That is longer than I have ever been in a cave so far, so we will see how that goes!

As for now, I am off to go and watch episode five of "America's Best Idea: the National Parks."

Living the adventure!

One More I Forgot!

I forgot one other thing I meant to include in that last email! I received another visitor comment form today, which is always exciting, but what was especially exciting about this one was not what the visitor had written on the form as much as what my boss wrote on it. Every time I get a comment form it goes to my direct supervisor, the chief of interpretation, and to the superintendent of the park. They generally make some general comment such as "nice job" or "good work," but on this particular one Tom, the chief of interp who is also the one who has the final say about who gets hired and who does not, wrote, "Garrett, you were a great hire and we look forward to working with you again next year."

That definitely made me feel good about what I am doing! And it is also pretty close to a written promise of a job next summer!

The Unexpected Blessings and Gifts of God

I have received several wonderful gifts from God in the last few days. It has been quite wonderful and I wanted to share at least a little of that with you!

On Tuesday one of the other rangers called in sick. He has actually been sick the last three days, which has greatly complicated things since there are so few of us left, but on Tuesday it did have an unexpected benefit for me and that was that I ended up covering the elk program for him that night. I had thought that I was only going to get to do the program once, but I actually had the opportunity to do it again! The bad part of that was that I had to close the visitor center, which meant I was here until 6:30 and then had to start the program at 7:00 so it gave me basically no time to prepare. That meant I didn't have time to look at my notes or anything at all. But it still came off quite well. I had fun with it and received a lot of very positive comments about it. One in particular came from a lady who said she has been coming to the program and bringing friends for years and mine was by far the best she had ever been to!

We heard the elk some during the program, which is rare because they usually are not right by the campgrounds. So I figured we would hear a lot when we went out. But we didn't. :( We hardly heard anything at all! And of course I had 30 people come out there with me! So I was being very apologetic and several people stopped me and said it was fine, they were glad to be out there anyway. And I ended up staying out there with several people until 9:45 just being outside and enjoying the night and watching as the stars were slowly revealed as a layer of clouds was peeled away. So what appeared to be a disappointment actually turned into a gift. 

Another part of that story is a family of eight, including six kids who I met that evening. I talked to them at length in the Visitor Center earlier that day and again just before closing and then they stayed out with me the entire time. I also made four of the kids junior rangers the next morning and so talked to them even more. They are from New Hampshire but have been on the road traveling in an RV (with six kids ages 4-17) since December of 2007! The mom is homeschooling all six kids and they are just traveling around the country seeing all the parks. They had just spent several weeks in Alaska a couple of months ago. How awesome is that! I want to do that! But at least I got to hear about it and be a part of their experience. :)

Last night I finally got to go hike out into the prairie the way I have been wanting to for quite a while. I put together my pack, which was very strange because in included things like a full size pillow and an extra blanket, which is not usual backpacking fair! I then headed out simply walking from my house into the prairie. I want out a couple of miles and found a lovely ridge overlooking a large section of the rolling prairie and set up camp. It was so amazing! It was an absolutely superb night sky and I heard the elk all around me! A couple of particular gems included seeing an elk approach me in the dusk and bugle less than 40 yards in front of me! Then I just laid out under the stars for quite some time, taking in the majesty around me. I was already feeling peace and love descend upon me, but then I read a letter that I had received yesterday and brought along with me, and those feelings were only increased and abounded. It was a beautiful experience! 

It was quite cold sleeping out there, but I made it through to awake just in time to view a gorgeous sunrise over a nearby ridge. I was going to leave pretty soon after that, but then the elk started moving again and from my vantage point I watched five different groups moving around the prairie. I twice had elk come within 50 yards of me and got to see them bugle and heard the cows from a distance not much further than that. It was a gift. It was a gift that inspires the soul to sing and sour above the heavens.

How glorious is our God in Heaven and his creation here amidst our lives!

And to add one more thing today I also managed to arrange things so that I am going to be able to take an extra day off next Wednesday, which will allow me to go surveying in the cave again! So I will have another opportunity to venture into the unknown frontier!

I am in a very good, healthy, and peaceful place and am feeling very blessed indeed.

On a not as exciting note I did find out today that Tammy (a fellow ranger who also has a history degree and has 1.5 years of experience as opposed to my five months and who had actually had an interview whereas I have yet to receive a phone call) did not get the job at Death Valley, which means it is almost a guarantee that I will not get it. I also now know that Carlsbad is basically not an option for this winter and found out today that there were more than 100 applicants for the two open positions at jewel cave. So in a nutshell, the three places that were my best bets for getting a winter job all look like a no go. Which means that I have a very very low chance at this point of finding a winter job. But I am trusting that whatever happens will be an opportunity for me to grow, advance, and learn!

Resting in His Peace,

Garrett