There was a
power failure some time during the night.
I don’t know
what it is, but this stuff falls off the trees. Those are tiny white flowers.
There was an
enormous cooler sitting on the picnic table bench in Site 1 this morning. They
had wrapped tie-down straps around it, I suppose to keep the bears out. I shook
the corner of the tent to ask if anyone was home, the way I saw Ranger Tim do
it, as politely as possible. No one was home. I wrote up a courtesy notice and
then went to get the cart; there was no way the two of us were going to carry
that monstrosity.
The dog was
loose in Site 6. Andy spoke to the dog and the woman came around the tarp to
grab him by the collar. I told the woman that she needs to keep the dog on a
leash. She said she had to let go of him to pack something and I countered that
if she had the dog on a leash, she would not have to hold him by the collar.
The second woman said they know the rules. I rephrased it and said the rules
are that you need to keep your dog on a leash. I must have repeated that two or
three more times before I walked on shaking my head.
We finished
walking around the campground and I checked my tally. I told Andy we had four
vacancies. That reminded him to turn on
the radio to be ready for the morning vacancy report. (He had it turned off to conserve the battery;
the charger was not working well.) The instant he turned it on, dispatch called
“Abrams Creek” and then “Big Creek”. I
responded and she announced completion of the morning vacancy report. We made it in the nick of time.
I think the
reason I have not seen any touch-me-nots, or jewelweed this year is that
something had been eating the tops of the plants. Maybe deer.
Even though it
was a dark, wet morning, the leaves over the bridge were bright.
I took pictures
downstream and up.
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| Big Creek |
 |
| Big Creek |
I spotted this orange fungus along the trail
to the horse camp.
I went off the trail for a closer look.
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| Orange Fungus |
I made a
blueberry cobbler for Heath today, to make up for the peach cobbler he missed
on Monday and Tuesday. Boss Larry arrived while the cobbler was in the oven,
but left before I took it out. He was waiting for Heath to arrive so they could
take the money out of the iron ranger, but Heath called to say he would be at
least an hour and a half. We took a lot of pictures of each other. I took 15 pictures
of Spence, Linda, and Larry. I loved them all because they were clowning around
and smiling.
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| Spence, Linda, and Larry |
Spence and Linda
came to clean the toilet buildings and waited for cobbler. Spence said he does
not like blueberries, but was having seconds just to keep it from Ranger Heath.
And, he asked me to make sure I told Heath that.
Clyde and
Debbie, the Cosby hosts are going to replace us here for July. They stopped by to check out Big Creek and we
gave them what we considered good advice.
They may take it or leave it.
Ranger Heath did
arrive later in the evening. I served him cobbler and gave him the rest to take
home.
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| Ranger Heath Soehn |
We were still
talking when he got a call from dispatch about hikers who had not come off the
trail when expected. The caller was at the ranger station. Heath left to talk
to them.
We saw Heath’s
truck in the parking lot with a group of people as we walked to the campground.
There was another missing hiker on the Big Creek trail. We went on to the
campground.
An empty money
envelope was hanging on the Site 7 clip. Andy went to Site 7 to figure out what
they were doing. I was doing the evening head count at the registration board.
A couple came up looking for a campsite and I directed them to Site 5. When I
joined Andy in Site 7, I noticed the woman in Site 6 putting a rope on her dog.
The man in Site 7 had a lot of questions. This was the first camping trip for
his two boys. We said “good evening” to the folks in Site 6, but they just
glared at us as we walked by. Another couple came up looking for a site as we
passed Site 10. We decided to put them in Site 6 in the horse campground. They
walked with us to the registration board and were filling out a pay envelope. The
couple from Site 5 offered to share their site with the latest couple. They
declined, thinking the horse camp sounded better. Then a man came up with two
small boys looking for a site. We all decided that the man with the two small
boys would fit better at the horse camp and the couple would camp with the
couple in Site 5. My head was spinning and I hoped no one else came in looking
for a place to camp.
Ranger Heath was
still in the parking lot when we walked through. All the missing hikers had
come off the trail. I said he is a hero and he struck a Dudley Doright pose. Heath
says that if he takes long enough getting ready to go rescue someone, they walk
off the trail before he starts out. Everyone was getting in their cars when a
thin black man with very poor English walked off the trail. He said his friend
was hurt up Big Creek trail. He broke his toe and the bone was sticking out.
Ranger Heath moved his truck to the trail head and we walked back to Sao. We
could hear Heath on the radio with dispatch. At first, the injury was worse
than he expected and he wanted to get permission to use Spence’s Gator to bring
the man down the trail. Then he decided that the man could walk well enough. He
asked dispatch to get the phone number and address for a hospital ready for him
to relay to the party when they got off the trail.
On the radio
Several rangers were looking for and finding a white
jeep. Dispatch said that the tags were registered to a different kind of car
and were listed as “no longer on vehicle”. Andy noted that they must be stolen
tags.
There was a lot going on in the park, but I was too
busy to listen to the radio most of the day.
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