Thursday, March 20, 2008

Spring!

Hey Folks,

Today is the vernal equinox, meaning equal day and night. From now on the days will get longer. Spring is here! Winter kind of sputtered out here in Flagstaff with some snow flurries that did not amount to much on Sunday and Monday. I had hoped for a bit more so there might be one more day for cross-country skiing this winter. There is still an outside chance of some Spring snows but it is not looking good for that.

It will not be too long, a little less than 6 weeks, before I will be heading north to my other mountain retreat, the Tetons in Wyoming. My spring/summer/early fall ranger job takes me away from my own form of winter hibernation and back to work in one of the most beautiful places in the United States.




This ranger season I will be looking at some new challenges. The first of which is my new duty location, Jenny Lake Visitor Center. Although I loved my nine years at Colter Bay VC (and will still reside there), Jenny Lake is where, before I became a ranger, my youngest daughter and I always camped on our visits to Grand Teton National Park. We loved it there.


Picture above is Colter Bay Residense in May!

The second challenge is my new position as "Lead Ranger." Having been what I call a "grunt" ranger all these years, just doing programs and talking to park visitors, I have not had supervisory responsibilities. Now that has changed. A new duty station and job brings with it what native peoples of North America have always symbolized Spring as representing, a form of rebirth.



As does every Spring, this equinox opens up new possibilities for all living things. I hope this is true for all of you.

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