June 12, 015 - Little Raccoon Caught

There were five vacancies in the campground this morning, but I had trouble reporting them. The woman in Site 11 and I admired this beautiful moth on the ladies room wall.

 

She said she had been an interpretive ranger in Philadelphia and now lives in Asheville. Then she said she was going to submit a comment card about this campground needing a law enforcement ranger on site. She has been observing the park visitors for the past several days.

After we walked around the campground, we walked across the bridge and I looked all around for the raccoon.

Boss Larry dropped by with reservation reports while I was cooking dinner. We talked about the trouble we had reporting our campground vacancies this morning. Then we told him about the raccoon. He had heard me reporting it yesterday and, after hearing our details, decided to call “wildlife” about it again. Bill Stiver (340) said he would send someone over as soon as he was available. Larry said he was going to look for the raccoon. He came back while we were eating with the raccoon following him. He found it following the Cocke County sheriff down the Big Creek trail. It had apparently followed one group up the trail and another one back down. The maintenance crew from Cosby followed it to our site. It is so adorable that everyone is charmed by it. Maintenance Man Tom followed him in.

 

When Larry stopped walking, the raccoon came to his feet.

 

When Maintenance Richard squatted down, the raccoon climbed into his “lap”.

 

Boss Larry and the Cosby maintenance crew left us with the raccoon.

Bill Stiver called back later to say that someone would be here in an hour and fifteen minutes. He asked us to keep an eye on the raccoon until the wildlife guy arrived. It was a curious and busy little creature. It was busy inspecting everything including the car tire.

 

Andy leaned some boards and sticks on the stack on cinder blocks and the raccoon climbed up a few minutes later. Something else caught its attention and it walked down the other board.

 

He got into a bit of trouble, just like a kitten.

 

Walking sticks are for walking on.

 

Again, just like a puppy or a kitten getting Andy’s attention.

 

Maybe it smelled something and headed over to the group site to inspect the many coolers and bins.

 

It walked under the long picnic table where the many children the past few weeks have dropped bits of food. It was cute sitting there chewing on a cheese doodle. Finally, the wildlife guy came with two cages. He set them on the ground and was opening a can of sardines. I said, “Come on” to the raccoon and it followed me over to the wildlife guy. He was shocked, “Are you kidding me? That is not a wild raccoon!” He set one trap on either side of the picnic table and baited them with the sardines. The raccoon walked in and the man closed the door behind it. He was amazed how quick it was to catch the raccoon. I didn’t get his name, but here is his picture.

 

He set the raccoon down to go retrieve his other cage. The raccoon was busy eating sardines. Then it stopped and turned around to leave. It seemed to realize it was trapped and then, went back to eating more sardines.

 

On the radio

We had trouble hearing Dispatch calling for the morning campground vacancy report today. She seemed to skip Big Creek at first. The second time we heard her say “creek” I responded with our five vacancies. She did not acknowledge me, so I was not sure whether she heard me or not.

A child was stung numerous times by yellow jackets. The ranger was standing by to make sure he did not have any serious reactions.

Dispatch called a ranger to say he had the lat and long for a lost party of a woman and three children. How could they be lost if they knew their lat and long? The ranger replied that those coordinates put them off trail near the Rainbow Falls Trail. I guess their GPS did not tell them how to get back to the trail. They were not willing to move. The ranger in the area was shorthanded and called the lead ranger at Cade’s Cove to borrow someone to cover their section while they searched for the lost party. The ranger hiked up the trail and found them at 1826. He said he was leading them back to the trail, hopefully with a good educational lecture along the way.

A mother and four children were locked out of the car at the Porter’s Creek trailhead.

A ranger called in for a tag a license check for a road rage incident.

At 2050 dispatch called a ranger to check on a single vehicle accident in the tunnel, blocking one lane. The ranger headed that way, Code 3. I looked it up last year; that means lights and sirens, and may ignore traffic laws with due regard to safety. (I take that to mean he can speed.) A few minutes later dispatch called to say he had more calls of vehicles getting rear-ended behind the first car. I did not figure out how many cars were involved. The ranger asked dispatch to call Gatlinburg police to approach from their side of the tunnel. Then dispatch called to say a woman in a mini-van who was rear-ended was stopped and called from outside the tunnel. A male left the car that hit her and took off on foot, leaving a female in the car. They didn’t say whether he was the driver or not. The ranger asked dispatch to forward his description to Sevier County. Pigeon Forge had a canine out looking for the individual on foot. The wrecker could not get through the traffic backup. The ranger said he would get one lane open in a few minutes. Some driver’s licenses did not come back as valid in the computer system. I presume that was the two people in the car from which the man took off on foot. At 2310 the ranger asked dispatch to call Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to be on the lookout for him. At 2342 the ranger reported that they were transporting the female. A man was seen on the spur near a pullout walking to Pigeon Forge at 2347 and a ranger was going to make contact. Dispatch said “Pigeon Forge is on the way”. They were in foot pursuit at 2356. At 0011 Ranger 411 called to say that he was talking with some people who were in the accident event. They said the driver that hit them was intoxicated and gave him a vehicle description. Dispatch was forwarding the information to Pigeon Forge.

There was a disabled vehicle at Collins Creek with a child on board. Dispatch called a wrecker to take them back to Cherokee.

A ranger called and asked dispatch to call Swain County to send a unit to the Deep Creek Parking lot. Discussion on that episode was a bit cryptic and I could not figure out what it was about.