The Spark That Changed My Life--Part 2 {RT}

Ranger Trainer

April 30, barely two weeks before I left for Philmont, I received an email from the Chief Ranger, Matt Nutt, asking if we could set up a time for us to, “talk about an opportunity that had opened up at Philmont.” As I read that line, I froze. I had applied for Mountain Trek ranger only to find out that that position was no longer going to be a hired position. Instead, I had agreed to be a 3rd-year ranger. My biggest goal was to be a Rayado ranger and either position would give me that opportunity so I was perfectly happy with another year as a ranger.

This email could mean a few things. Either they had decided to bring Mountain Trek ranger back, which I would be super happy about. It could mean they wanted to move me to another department, not something I wanted to do and fairly unlikely. Or, I was about to be offered a Ranger Trainer (RT) position. I quickly replied, giving a few options of times that I could call.

I sat back, in a mild panic. I was hoping it was the Mountain Trek option but deep down, I knew that wasn’t it. What would I say if I was offered the job as a Ranger Trainer? It had never been a job that appealed to me. I hadn’t even put RT as an option on my application. I just wanted to spend my time with the crews in the backcountry and take out a Rayado trek. RT just sounded like a lot of basecamp time and paperwork to me.

The phone call time came. I was already pretty set on my answer but I still asked a lot of questions. For over 50 minutes, Chief explained all of the RT responsibilities and perks that he could think of. Yes, paperwork and a lot of time in basecamp, but also a flexible schedule, an impact on even more crews than one ranger has, plenty of time in the backcountry observing rangers and visiting liaison camps. When he was exhausted of everything he could give me, Matt asked if I had any idea if I wanted to take this job but also assured me that I didn’t need to answer right away. I was still torn but I had made up my mind. I knew I needed to follow through. “This is a hard decision,” I said, “but I’ll take the job.” I was willing to give up my current ambitions and find out why this opportunity had been given to me.

So there I was, 3 weeks after that phone call, finishing up WFR and about to jump right into my new job. After our final classroom discussion of the sim, I hurried to the shower to wash all the fake blood off. I was under the impression that I wasn’t going to start my RT training until the next day but as I went to return the clothes I had borrowed for the sim, another RT informed me that training started that evening. My mood fell. After 8 days of constant going, I was exhausted and ready for a night off with everyone else. Oh, how silly of me. I had agreed to this job and I was going to enjoy it.

And enjoy it, I did. It was an easygoing evening with all of ranger upper leadership and the RTs. We drove to Rocky Mountain Scout Camp down the road and sat in the dwindling sunlight under a pavilion tucked away in the woods. “We meet here for the first night of RT training so we can get a taste of the backcountry right away,” Chief explained. Happiness rolled over me. This was hardly the backcountry but it was close enough. It was good to be back and surrounded by so many familiar faces.

We were each assigned our Training Crew number and subsequently, our Associate Chief Ranger (ACR) aka boss. My crew number was 12 and Harrison was my ACR. Each ACR group broke off and got to know each other. I knew most of the people in my group to some extent already but no one too well. I could tell we were going to get along.

Still no break for me. Training continued in basecamp for several more days, mostly going over all the administration that was part of our jobs. One memorable activity was when the RTs and CDs met in the dining hall to do a speed dating activity of sorts. During that, the RTs and CDs got to know each other and got an idea of who they wanted to be their liaisons. The liaison program helps the ranger and backcountry departments get to know each other and be more unified. After that activity, each RT let their ACRs know which camps they wanted to be liaisons with. I had quite a few that I wanted but we had to wait until after training trek to see who we were assigned to.

Consulting the spool.

For several years, I had dreamed of celebrating my birthday at Philmont and I finally had that dream come true. The morning of my birthday, I headed into the backcountry with my training crew. No fanfare, just a blissful day in the wilderness where I was happiest. Turns out, training trek as an RT is so easygoing. We meandered across the familiar landscape of south country, for the most part without looking at a map. At the beginning of the day, we would consult our “spool”. It was the plastic spool that a length of paracord had come on and we joked that it was what guided us.

We practiced teaching skills but because of our experience of leading crews through the backcountry, there wasn’t a whole lot to go over. Instead, we were the crew unit a ranger only dreams of. Well, most of the time. We still crewed pretty hard here and there. But when we put our minds to it, we got things done quickly and easily as our many summers of combined experience went through all the backcountry procedures with little effort.   

Our itinerary started at Zastrow Turnaround and went to Carson Meadows the first night, Aguila the second night and to the Stockade for our last night. We had spent a leisurely morning hiking over Stonewall Pass to Lovers Leap before getting to the Stockade in the early afternoon. We had very little crew training left so we just messed around as the other crews began to show up throughout the day. We were planning on crashing on the inside of the stockade so we didn’t set up tents.

The biggest problem was that we were nearly out of water and the one water source in the camp, we had been told, was not ready to be used. Upper leadership was notified of the situation and brought up a jug of water later that evening. We needed dinner before that though so we decided to see how bad the water there really was. One of the boys in my crew filled one of our cooking pots with the greenish water. The sunlight was fading so maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us but most of us swore we saw microscopic creatures creating weird formations on the bottom of the pot. To top it off, our freeze dried meal for the day was rice and peas. Between sketchy water and a less-than-favorite meal, all of us but two of the guys decided the snacks in the meals and extra food from other meals would be plenty for our dinner. Those two guys ate way more than their fill of rice and peas that night.

As the stars began to appear above, everyone spread out their dining flies around the courtyard to keep their sleeping bags out of the dirt. I crawled into my bag and drifted to sleep pretty fast. I was just over the threshold of not being aware of the whispering and laughing around me when a yell rang through the courtyard and there was a flurry of movement around me that jolted me awake. The first thought that crossed my mind was that it was raining. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky when I had closed my eyes but I didn’t know how long I had been asleep. I dazedly rolled to the shelter of the overhang nearby before I realized it wasn’t rain that was causing the ruckus at all. It was a sneak attack of the nightcrawlers. I looked across the courtyard as a couple people were initiating a game of nightcrawlers by rolling and wigging in their sleeping bags across the people who were scattered across the courtyard. It was a popular thing for rangers to do, especially during training trek, while crashing with a group of people. I rolled my eyes and went back to where I had been laying. It took awhile for me to fall back asleep so I stared at the thousands of stars sparkling above me as the sound of people shuffling around in their sleeping bags and squealing continued.

The morning brought Search and Rescue (SAR) training. The infirmary and logistics staffs joined us for the day so we could all work together in this training. Everyone was split into two groups to get everything done. The group I was in started with the mock emergency carry in which the infirmary people cared for the patient, the rangers lead the carry, and the logistics people assisted so they could watch how the process worked. We started by hiking up to Stockade Ridge camp where our patient was being evaluated by a medic who was already there. After helping the patient into the litter and attaching the wheel to the bottom, we began the slow walk back down the trail. Each ranger got to take a turn being the litter boss by guiding the carrying team. We were all under the impression that we had to make it all the way back to the Stockade but thankfully the ACR in charge of the training let us stop the scenario about halfway down and just hike the rest of the way.

After lunch, we sat through a lecture (that I may or may not have seriously struggled to stay awake through) followed but a written test and practical skills test. Both tests were fairly easy. The skills test was easier than the ranger skills test. And just like that, I was certified to participate in and even guide a SAR.

We wrapped up RT training in the morning and got a half day off. It was such a relief to get some time off to play catch up with my personal chores just in time for ranger arrival. May 28th had previously been the day I had arrived at Philmont with other rangers. To be on the other side of it was almost as exciting. It was only the day before that I had received the list of rangers I would be training and I was anxious to meet them. I found that ranger check-in day was a lot more laid back for RTs than I expected. I had things I needed to get done but otherwise, I was free to do what I needed. I took my shift of checking people in, prepared skits for that night, planned for my trek, and helped my friend Katie move in when she got there that afternoon.

Katie and I had been in a training crew together the previous year and become friends through that. We were both from Missouri which had made seeing each other during the offseason very reasonable. In fact, we had seen each other about every other month since the last summer and become even closer because of that. We now had grand plans for the summer starting with her being my tentmate. I was so excited to have a tentmate that I knew ahead of time without the risk of being put with someone random and not enjoying it.

That evening, I met the 10 rangers I was assigned to train and supervise for the summer. I had an even mixture of first-year and experienced rangers who were all eager to start the summer sure to be full of exciting adventures. With the exception of one of the boys who I had met the previous year, we were all but strangers to each other, but in no time we became friends and all got along very well. Although many of these people were not people I would have picked out of a crowd to meet and become friends with, I quickly came to love them as my own. I felt an almost motherly dedication to my “kids.” I wanted to do everything I could to help them succeed in their jobs.

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Part 3