Firsts

I can't believe how fast time goes by here! It's already been a month! Some firsts during my first month:

First baby bear

On my way back to the barracks on Friday I saw a bear in the road. Momma bear was in the road and baby was off at the edge. Mom ran a few steps down the road when she saw me but baby just froze. Mom looked back, ran a few more steps, looked again, and finally baby turned around and ran into the wooded area off the side of the road and mom followed. When I first saw mom bear my thought process was “Giant dog! No. Bear! Eek!” I never really expected to see one so close to where I live, it was just up the road. It makes sense though; it’s still part of the National Forest.

First raptor in hand

So far I’ve held a western screech owl named Frodo, a burrowing owl named Thor, and a great horned owl Maxine (Max for short). I will try to get a better picture later but for now I have this:

Me and Frodo, the western screech owl

First flat tire in a car I was responsible for

The Forest Service vehicle I drive got a flat tire last weekend. It was a little flat when I went to sleep on Saturday, but when I woke up on Sunday it was completely flat. I slowly drove the limping car to the work center where I was hoping to find an air compressor or somebody to help me change the tire. There was no one there so I was going to do it on my own but I couldn’t find the spare! I looked everywhere and it was nowhere to be found! I had to call the main office to ask someone to bring me a car. About 45 minutes later one of the recreation guys arrived saying that there are no extra vehicles today so he will be my chauffeur/I’ll be his helper. He drove me to Princess Campground with just enough time for me to give my program. I next helped him give campers warnings for leaving campfires unattended. Then we drove around for a while and I helped him clean some of the bathrooms and take out the trash in various Forest Service areas. Eventually he dropped me off with another of the interns at Buck Rock fire lookout so she could drive me around for a while.

A few days later the car still hadn’t been fixed so my supervisor and I drove up to check it out. It turns out she had had to deal with this before and knew exactly where it was. She chastised all of us because no one thought to check the owners manual. At least seven people (including myself, a few firefighters, and various other personnel) looked for the spare before M—came up and did it. It turns out it was stored under the front of the vehicle with a plastic cover over it so you couldn’t see it if you looked under the car.

First time being called ma’am

A visitor said that to get my attention. I’d had “miss” “ranger” “hey” and “Lindsey” but one gentleman felt the need to call me “ma’am”. So that happened…

First wild tarantula sighting

It was crossing the road as I drove by. I parked the car to go take a look but once I got close it turned around and started walking towards me shaking it's abdomen. When I backed off a few feet it turned right around and went back to the previous path. Not a terribly friendly tarantula. I did briefly consider catching it to take back to the barracks because one of the boys here who likes to be really tough is super afraid of spiders. One day he got a package and a spider had stowed away inside. Instead of just killing the spider or having one of us deal with it he took the whole package and locked it in the tool box in the back of his truck.