Kids

I officially lead/taught my first group of kids in the program that I am now an employee of. Basically, the kids come for three or four days and rangers take them around the park and teach them stuff...i.e. "Yellowstone is super cool because of (insert unique aspect of Yellowstone's ecosystem) so you should work to protect it and other places like it. I was skeptical at first that the kids would assimilate this attitude, but I've been very surprised at how large an impact both the program and Yellowstone have on them. Usually, the most wild/misbehaved kid ends up loving the park. Last week, one of them declared that he would rather be in Yellowstone than at home playing video games! Chalk one up for the home team. The kids aren't the only ones having fun. I've come to realize that I am having a really good time with the kids. Some of the reasons...

1. Kids always want to give hugs.
2. You never know what they are going to say or do.
3. The younger kids are really eager to participate - none of that "I'm too cool for school" b.s.
4. I get to wear my ranger hat.
5. Two nights a week I get to stay in the Lamar Valley. The Lamar Valley has been the wallpaper on my computer for 4 years because there's nothing else I'd rather put there.
6. The kids have to cook for the rangers (fortunately I like hot dogs and nachos).
7. Kids laugh at all my stupid jokes.

The respite of autumn

The summer craziness has finally left the park. I can now breathe a little easier and find time to actually blog once in awhile.

I am no longer working in the visitor center. I am staying in the park until Thanksgiving as an emergency hire in the education program. I will be leading 4th through 8th graders through the park on hikes and doing activities. It should be a fun job. Plus I will work 4 ten hour days, thus giving me some extra time. I've put some pictures up on flickr which will highlight the summer better than me rambling on about it. Overall it was a great summer. I stayed busy with work and trying to be outside as often as possible to enjoy the park. But the change in seasons is a welcome one.

Big List

I've finally found a little time to do a little blog posting. Instead of my usual claim of being busy when I'm really not, I actually have been busy the last three weeks. I'm getting settled into Yellowstone and the job. I've designed three programs, and have one left to design. I giving talks on bears, and bison, and leading walks on the geology of Mammoth Hot Springs and the history of Ft. Yellowstone. I'm really looking forward to the Ft. Yellowstone walk because, of course, it's history focused. Living in Yellowstone has been exciting. Even in Mammoth you never know what wildlife is going to show up. I've had herds of buffalo and elk within arms reach of an open window, a black bear hunting newborn elk in the neighborhood, and uinta ground squirrels in the yard. I've also watched from my living room window on three separate occasions, herds of buffalo crossing a road bridge to avoid having to walk down in a canyon and ford a river then climb back up the other side of the canyon. The rivers are really high and muddy so I haven't done much fishing yet. In fact, the snow melt in the high country has hardly begun. It has snowed off and on for the last few weeks throughout the park.

I've put up some Chile pics on flickr, but my internet connection isn't cooperating at the moment so some are missing and a few seem to have reverted to their original sideways orientation. Hope you enjoy the ones I did post.

Home again, home again

The siblings and I made it safely back to the states on Friday night. Since then, I've been packing, satisfying a month long craving for peanut butter, French toast, and ketchup, and battling an annoying head cold that caught up with me. Today I drive to Yellowstone and jump right into work tomorrow. I'll post some pics of the trip when I get settled into the new job.

The Armpit of Chile

So, if you ever decide that a slow paced wander up the coast of Chile toward Valapraiso sounds like a good idea don´t start your voyage in Cartegena. The guide book claimed that Cartagena had a special ¨soul.¨ I think they meant ¨sole¨as in the sole of my shoe afer I just took a run through a dog park. Seriously, don´t go to Cartagena.* Why you ask?
1. The town hobby seems to be rubbernecking at tourists, especially blonde and red haired ones.
2. The restuarant promoters are far more persistent even though their establishments are more shabby.
3. The town is small, but packed with taxis constantly honking at you in hopes you want to go somewhere.
4. The populace seems unable to understand simple directions, such as ¨dos noches.¨
5. The whole town has a feel like and X-files episode where the outward look is a facade to cover up some devlish cult that will eventually entrap you in order to use your body to incubate their alien overlord.

I could go on, but I won´t. The one day we spent near Cartagena was a few miles north in Isla Negra at the home of Pablo Neruda. This town had a great vibe. Our arrival today at Vina Del Mar has been a relief, even the weather is better. Our taxi cab driver gave us a discount and the hotel guy spoke slow enough so we could understand what he was saying for a change.**


*Cartagena is in no way representative of the rest of Chile. In fact it seems to be the exception to the rule that the Chilean people are welcoming, friendly, and the country is a pleasure to travel in.
** He informed us that people named ¨Mateo,¨in Chile, the Spanish version of Matt which I quite like, are nerds and when asked to go out and party say that they have too study.

A bit more relaxation

So the volcano climb went well, especially since our guide Klaus the German was quite a character. I think the ride up to the volcano in his white van was more dangerous than anything on the volcano. There was no liquid magma, just a lot of noxious smoke. We also did some good old fashioned relaxing in Pucon, where the volcano was. Fortunately it is offseason here, so happy hour at some places runs from 7:00-1:00am. The best deal going is the 2 for 1 ¨schop grande¨or big draught beer. Plus I enjoyed some of my first pisco, which is an alcohol made from grapes that tastes somewhat less sweet than rum, but without the bite of whiskey. The drink of choice is the pisco sour, but with its high price, the piscola (not pronounced piss cola, but with a long ï¨I found out) is a better option. Yesterday, B and I headed north for the next leg of our journey. We spent 9 hours in a bus, and were eventually just let out on the side of the interstate at our scheduled stop. Apparently it was not a scheduled stop at an actual bus station. We eventually found our way to the bus station and caught another bus to the coast. This bus was packed, and I had to stand for part of the trip. Fortunately there were TVs that played Ël Mariachi¨and some kickin´Buce Springsteen live performances. He really hit his stride with ¨Born in the USA.¨ We arrived in Pitchelemu at 10:45 and found a place to stay. We are right near the beach, which is great. We surfed for 2 hours today. I should say that I tried to surf. I did get up on the board once or twice, but as B put it ït´s all survival surfing for us.¨ Most of the time I spent trying to avoid getting thrashed by waves. It was fun, though because it is so novel. Plus we plan on drinking 40´s on the beach this evening, and the thrashing from surfing will make the beer taste better. And more relaxing is on the way in the upcoming week. I´ve been extremely happy with the first month of my 29th year on this planet spent traveling, but I´m feeling my age a bit. I think I´ll be able to predict the weather with my right knee when I get back. Sweet.

I can´t resist

I just can´t resist, it is chilly in Chile. At least down south. The bro and I are in a town called Pucon. It´s kind of the epicenter for outdoor pursuits. Almost every business in town is a combination Internet cafe and guide service. Most of the guided trips are for fishing, climbing, rafting, hot springs, biking, caving, and my personal favorite the ¨hidrospeed.¨ The hidrospeed is described as a ¨water sleigh¨that you ride down churning rivers. Basically it is a foam board of sorts three or four feet long and a couple wide that you lay on with your upper body. Your lower body hangs off the back and you wear fins. You then ride this thing down rapids. We are actively looking into going on this guided trip if for no other reason that it sounds so random and I want to say that I´ve been on a ¨water sleigh.¨ We are also planning on ascending to the top of the local volcano Villarico with Klaus the German. We´ve heard that there may be liquid hot magma at the top. Fishing may also be on the docket.

The first 10 days here have been good. The main event was our 8 day trek in Torres del Paine national park. We attempted to do a trail called the ¨Circuit.¨ The trail was officially closed, but that doesn´t really mean much around here. We got three days into it but were then unable to make it over the pass to the other part of the trail. The snow was waist deep, it was raining, and our progress was so slow that we had to turn back. Fortunately we found a shack at one of the closed campground with a fireplace in it made out of an old 55 gallon drum. We managed to put the chimney back together and light a fire so that we could dry out in relative comfort rather than be in the tent. We then headed the 2 days back toward the trailhead and did a great day hike on day 7 to the Towers, or Torres. There was apparently a flash flood in the lower part of the park while we were attempting to cross the pass. So, we had to cross lots of engorged streams that had washed out their small foot bridges. We made if over these with little problem outside of wet boots. Overall we accomlished our goal of getting out for a good backpacking trip and having a true Patagonian experience (meaning intense weather of all sorts...lots of rain, snow, sleet, really strong winds, and a little sun)