New Record

I broke a new personal record today and I am proud of it. I went out in the mountains this week on a multi day hike. It was boring. I didn’t see any wildlife. It didn’t take long to learn why. The mosquitoes were out in full force. Since I was the only idiot in the area, all of the mosquitoes easily located me. I was very murderous today. I killed hundreds of mosquitoes and let them drop to the ground. That’s ok. The ants have to eat too. The ants had a feast today.
My personal record of killing 5 mosquitoes in one swat is now history. Today I killed 8 in one deadly swing of the hand. OK OK. It was a slow day in the wilderness. I had to do something to occupy myself. The insects are taking over the world.

Swearing In

Swearing In

I have experienced a couple of opportunities to swear people in recently in special ways that I want to share with you.

Yosemite Junior Ranger


Part of my duties as a Ranger is to train and award badges to Junior Rangers. Last year I had a family from Israel attend on of my guided nature walks. During the walk their children fulfilled all of the requirements to become a Yosemite Junior Ranger. When I award the Junior Ranger badges and swear in the new Junior Rangers, I like to draw a big crowd and invite all of the visitors on the sidewalks in the area to participate. I sometimes can draw in over a hundred visitors or so to listen to the proceedings. We had a very large crowd when I swore in the Israeli family children. The mother was taking lots of pictures as I swore them in.

Well, this year the family returned to Yosemite and they looked me up. It was great to see them again. The mother who took all of the pictures told me that she entered the best picture into a national photo contest. She said many Israeli people viewed our picture. I thought that was cool.

Swearing in a new military officer


I was roving the point one day in my class “A” uniform when a couple of military officers entered the point in their class “A” uniforms. They approached me to ask where they could conduct a short military ceremony. I lead them to an ideal location and asked them what they were planning to do. A USAF Captain was going to swear in his brother as a new second lieutenant in the US Army. I asked it I could participate in some manner so they asked me to hold the US flag for them as a back drop. I was eager to assist in any way I could.

The ceremony was short but very professional and definitely military quality. Many hundreds of people had gathered to listen to the proceedings. Following the ceremony I announced the new officer to the observing crowd and the officer received a huge and lengthy ovation. It was a very special impromptu event that was very well received. I was just proud to be part of it. I love my work as a Park Ranger.

Yosemitescapes

Half Dome, Yosemite as viewed from North Dome.

North Dome and Illilouette Fall, Yosemite

More Yosemitescapes

Mount Conness, Yosemite. Named after a politician who was instramental in developing Yosemite National Park.

North Peak, Yosemite

North Peak, Yosemite

Still More

Tenaya Lake in Toulumne of Yosemite National Park. Notice the smooth glaciation on the mountains.

Toulomne Meadows near Tioga Pass at 10,000 feet.

Tioga Lake, Yosemite

Tioga Lake, Yosemite

Trail Patrol

Part of my duties as a Ranger is to patrol hiking trails. We do this for many reasons. We look for repairs that need to be made, we make visitor contacts and we offer medical aid when necessary and more. It is always interesting going out for a few days, because you never know what adventure lies just ahead around the corner. Things can get crazy sometimes.

This last patrol took me up the 9,000 feet. It’s a different world at that elevation from even 7500 feet where I live. It is just now the beginning of spring at 9,000 feet. I saw little wild flowers everywhere. Check the wild flowers post if you like wild flowers. I have posted several pictures from my patrol trip.

I travel light. I don’t carry a tent and many other common camping items that you might think necessary. I sleep in a hammock off the ground. Usually, I don’t even carry a sleeping bag, but this trip the temp was supposed to be in the 30’s at night at 9,000 feet so I thought I had better this trip. I filter my own water as necessary from creeks and lakes so I carry almost no fluids. I cut a lot of other corners to trim down the weight and then I pack in a big heavy high resolution digital camera and all that I just gained is lost. Oh well, at least you have some pictures to view.

My campsite at Ostrander Lake on night number one.

This is some of the area that I patrol.

Eagle Friend

While on my four day trail patrol I kept hearing an eagle calling. It sounded like a young eagle because it didn’t have that deep guttural sound that mature eagles have. I noticed that the eagle seemed to be staying close to me and out in front of me. I looked for him with my binoculars but I could never spot him. I thought he might be preceding me in hopes that I would stir up a meal for him. When I was cutting a lot of grass years ago, a hawk would hover behind my bush hog waiting for me to stir up a mouse or snake or some tasty morsel. I was already familiar with this strategy.

On the morning of my last day out, my walking on the trail caused a little chipmunk to run for home. This was the eagles cue. I didn’t hear it coming and I didn’t see it until the last second. The chipmunk didn’t hear or see it coming either. The eagle swooped down and snatched the little guy off his feet and they were both gone. Not a sound was made. It was amazing.

I didn’t see or hear the eagle for the rest of the day until about 30 minutes from the completion of my itinerary. The eagle spoke very loudly and perched on a tree top just in front of me. He just sat there looking around and occasionally looking at me. We talked to each other for a few minutes then he spoke very loudly and silently few away. I’ll never forget it.

Wild Flowers

I have included some pix of a few wild flowers for those of you who may be interested. There are over 1,000 speces of wild flowers in Yosemite. Everywhere I look, I see something new.

Manzanita - A hardy chaparelle that is named after the spanish word "manzana" meaning "little apple". In the spring after the flowers fade away fruit resembling little apples appear. Local Miwak indians used to use the leaves to quense their thurst as the traveled the mountains.

I know it's difficult for most of you to imagine it, but it is just now early spring here at 10,000 feet. The flowers are beginning to pop.

Mariposa Lilly - This is one of my favorite flowers in the mountains.

These are called "Shooting Stars". That's becuase they look like shooting stars.

Marmots

Marmots are friendly little guys. Every Marmot I have ever seen allowed me to get very close. Those of you who live in the east may have never seen a Marmot. They are a very large rodent, like a really big ground squirrel. They eat whatever they can find, but really like trail mix. There is a Marmot on Half Dome that will steal your bag of trail mix right out of your pack if you turn your back for a moment. There are Marmots in Mineral King, a remote village in the Sierra Nevada’s that will eat through your radiator hose with their big beaver like teeth and drink the antifreeze. It doesn’t kill them because their metabolic rate is so fast and they burn it up before it becomes toxic. I always thought if they could drink enough antifreeze they wouldn’t have to hibernate. Here are a few pix for you.

Pesty Insects

Mosquitoes
Just like every other place in the world, there are lots of mosquitoes in the high country. Except, these mosquitoes don’t have as much opportunity to draw blood as other mosquitoes that live near more warm blooded creatures. So when I hike in the mountains many times I am swarmed by mosquitoes. Sometimes I have layers of dead mosquitoes on my arms.


Now if you were a mosquito and you saw layers of dead mosquitoes on my arms, wouldn’t you stop and think? “Whoa. Maybe I shouldn’t bite this guy. Look what happened to all of those other mosquitoes.” It doesn’t work that way for a mosquito. Their instinct to draw blood in order the breed overwhelms any logical rational thinking, even if it means sudden and certain death. They are all like kamikaze pilots. It won’t hurt long.


Ear Bugs
What’s up with these big noisy bugs flying into my ears? Do they just like small cavities? Do they like the smell of ear wax, or are they just really bad drivers. That’s not right!


The Bee Fly
As I was hiking through a meadow, I heard what sounded like a thousand little micro chain saws.  After closer inspection, I realized it was many little Bee Flies. They were everywhere gathering pollen from the little flowers in the meadow. In the high country, flowers are too small for the hummingbirds so God made a smaller version of the hummingbird, the Bee Fly. They have a very long proboscis, a large body for counter balance and wings that move like a hummingbirds wings. Up in the high country, the life is small…small flowers and small insects.