End of week one

Apr 26, 2014 | 0 comments

Alaska: home of epic rainbows

As week one of training comes to an end, so too does the beautiful sunny weather we had all week. Gone are the crisp, blue skies and glimmering sunlight that bathed the snowcapped mountains in luminous warmth. For the next week it looks like it will be all cloudy and drizzly, though as I sit at the library to type this, the cloud ceiling is still high enough to see the distant peaks. So maybe it won’t be so bad.

Evenings are my favorite 🙂
My bunkhouse in the rare sunlight

The rest of my week of training involved safety and interpretive sessions, intermixed with some cultural workshops. On Thursday during OL, we took a hike along the unsanctioned “social trails” out in the back of the park, which was very eye opening. These are trails through unmanaged areas of the park that people create by frequently cutting through for partying, hanging out, drinking, or drug use. There’s not much the park does to mitigate the use of these trails, other than making sure the rangers have a strong presence there and that we’re checking frequently to keep it clean of trash and reporting any incidents we find.

Yesterday we began transitioning more into preparing for our upcoming visitor programs. I shadowed a tour of the totem trail and began writing my program outlines, of which there will be roughly half a dozen throughout the summer. I’ll be giving totem trail tours, Russian Bishop’s House tours, discovery talks, battle walks, and possibly a couple evening programs and informal talks as well.

Become a Junior Ranger today!

In the afternoon we were back in uniform again to help out with the Sitka Parade of Species. I’m beginning to find that Sitka loves parades. They seem to have one at least once a month all summer! Fortunately, at this one all I had to do with staff a booth at the end of the parade to help  kids become Junior Rangers. They were all dressed up as different species. It was pretty adorable. 🙂

I haven’t quite decided what I’ll do this weekend. Hopefully get out to explore a new trail, but I think this time I’ll try to go with someone else now that I’ve refreshed my bear safety knowledge. I spent a little bit of time exploring downtown again today. I wandered to some of the farther fishing docks, an area of town that reminds me a little more of Nome, and then went to a little cafe that someone recommended for a snack before the library opened. They have the BEST cookies ever, no joke.

Needless to say, I’m stoked for next week. We have more interpretive training coming up, plus a trip to an island, hopefully some whale and puffin sightings, and a place called Fortress of the Bear. What wonders to look forward to!

0 Comments

Leave a Reply