Wow, what a crazy week. Let me try and get you caught up. I started work last Tuesday and within 3 hours of showing up, I was on a train to Bennett, Canada for Rough Terrain Rescue Training with the Canadians. My park and the Canadian park that borders it work as one international park, meaning that the American rangers go over to Canada to patrol and the Canadian wardens come over the US side a lot as well.
Day 1 RTR: Myself and 6 other American rangers hopped on a train to Bennett after running around like crazy making sure we were all geared up for winter travel (ice axes, avalanche beacons, probes, shovels, snowshoes, gaiters, the whole nine yards). We took a beautiful train ride into Bennett, a historic gold rush town. When we arrived in Bennett, we were met by a few Parcs Canada wardens who took us to a boat, where we were able to drop our heavy packs. The 3 new rangers had to make a 7 mile hike into Lindemann City, while the rest of the staff took the boat up the lake to get there. It was a really nice hike and it was even better since we didn’t have to lug our heavy packs with us. We arrived in Lindemann City around supper time and we met the rest of our Canadian counterparts and began what became the food tour of Canada. I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten so many cookies in my life. The Canadians have these cookies called Mr. Maples and they are AMAZING. They’re like grown up Oreos with a maple filling. I may be in love with Canada for their cookies alone…
Day 2 RTR: We woke up early and got started on our first official training session (which ended up being a 12 hour long training session). It was a full day of emergency medical services refresher lectures and hands on scenarios. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a great day getting to see what the Canadian medical standards are and how our treatment and extrication options may vary for Canadians vs. other nationalities. For example, Canadians don’t have to pay for helicopter medivac, so it’s a much more feasible option for them vs. someone who has to pay the $16,000 bill for a flight to Juneau.
Day 3 RTR: We again woke up early and began the trek to the Chilkoot Pass, the border of Canada and the US. It was a long hike, 9 miles, where we were post-holing (breaking through the snow up to our hips) with heavy backpacks on. We finally made it about halfway up the pass to the Happy Camp Campground where the wardens put on some tea for us and we were able to warm up and put on dry socks before we made the big push for the pass. The snow had also become consistent enough to begin snowshoeing, which made a world of difference. We finally made it up the pass, despite the gusting wind that seemed to be blowing us back down the mountain. We all spent the night at the warden’s hut and played some great team-building games before we all passed out from exhaustion.
Day 4 RTR: This morning we were met with misting rain blowing sideways and the temperature reading about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (this is after we had some confusion over the Canadians saying it was 3 degrees outside, which as you can imagine lead to some reactions from the Americans. We quickly sorted out that it was Celsius and not Fahrenheit and that made a huge difference to our day). This day was our avalanche refresher day and we mixed classroom refresher lectures with scenarios outside. We all survived the morning, despite Mother Nature’s best efforts. That afternoon the full international staff headed over the border and down the “Golden Stairs,” a slope so steep we had to use ice axes to get down. We said good-bye to the Canadians after we inspected some search and rescue equipment that is stashed on the trail and the Americans headed on to Sheep Camp Ranger Station, my home for the summer. This place is the Taj Mahal of all backcountry ranger cabins. It’s a 2-story cabin where we have running water, hot and cold, lights, bunk beds, a full kitchen and most importantly a HOT SHOWER. I was completely blown away by this place. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. I really won’t mind going out on 8 day patrols now that I have a SHOWER! (pictures to come, I promise!).
Day 5 RTR: After getting a campground orientation, I hit the trail with another ranger to head back to the front country. It is a 13-mile hike out of Sheep Camp into Dyea, AK and let me tell you that I felt every step of it. This week I hiked 33 miles in 3 days and my city-slicker bones and joints were letting me know how they felt about it. Despite the aching joints, I was able to enjoy the trail, which is really cool because it’s littered with artifacts from the Gold rush. There are still shoes hanging out on the side of the trail from the late 1800’s. It’s crazy to think that stuff sticks around that long. It will be a great place to be for the summer. After surviving the long trek out, I went out for pizza at the Red Onion down in Skagway, with some of my fellow rangers. We had a great night out and I’m pretty sure pizza has never tasted so good.
Today I’m headed up to Whitehorse, Canada to meet up with one of the Canadian wardens to check out the local hot springs and do some shopping in “the big city” a huge town of 30,000 people. Tomorrow, on my time off, I’m going to swift water rescue training, which I’m fairly certain is going to be miserably cold, but I’ll hopefully survive and not drown.
I don’t have access to the internet where I live and I don’t get access to the internet all that often, so I apologize if I’m late on responding to you. I also don’t get cell service when I’m in the backcountry, so I’m totally out of contact, apart from park contact. If you need to get ahold of me, still feel free to email me or facebook me, because that will come directly to my phone, so hopefully I can get back to you sooner rather than later. I hope you’re all enjoying your summer and I’ll be back in touch soon!
Love,
Ranger Liz
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