Big Sky

A favorite drive of mine out West this summer  (and, yes, the jeep is holding up just fine) has been from the Teton Range through West Yellowstone to Big Sky, Montana. 

On the return trip this past Thursday evening through West Yellowstone, a late setting sun heightened everything.... its already golden colors, the dark blues of its rivers, the steam from geysers and the unpredictability of its wildlife.

Grizzly West Yellowstone

Geysers and Sunset in West Yellowstone

Just around the west river bend were fly fishermen waist-deep in their craft and a large grizzly feeding off vegetation near the stream. I stopped for photos, mindful of the 100 yard distance we advise others to keep.  It was a moment to just take in. 

I was in awe of the vastness of space that the grizzly both had and needed.

Further out there were herds of elk and a bald eagle perched on what remained of a conifer. 

As the night sky opened up I opened up my jeep's moon-roof, turned up the heat and drove under a half-moon that lit up the Mountains and its valley below.  I tossed the map.  Everything ahead fell under a dark blue.  All I had to do was follow the strong sillouettes of the Teton peaks and let them lead me home.

There was a purpose for going to Big Sky. 

Thanks to an invite from Scott Kuipers, Wilderness Survival and Skills Instructor and Guide, I had the chance to participate in the 26th Annual Wilderness Medicine Conference in Big Sky - which draws outdoor enthusiasts and people in the medical field from all over.  It was an opportunity to learn and practice wilderness medicine and an exposure to the medical and outdoor expedition communities.

Scott and fellow instructors, Philip White - Fire Chief of South San Francisco Fire Dept and FEMA instructor, as well as Gary Kibbee, Navy Seal and Special Forces Survival Instructor,  asked me to assist with the instruction of Wilderness First Aid to kids ages 6-12.  The hope is that teaching and repetition of hands-on material to young children will help establish a basic foundation of medical emergency awareness, vocabulary, and responsiveness to others who are in need.

The opportunity was mine to take in Big Sky - applying last year's Wilderness EMT training, my love of outdoor expeditions, and years of teaching.

Helping Teach Wilderness First Aid in Wilderness Medicine Conference Big Sky, MT

Philip White, Fire Chief S. San Francisco FD and FEMA

Scott Kuipers, Wilderness Survival and Skills Instructor

The Nature of Relationships

Afternoon Yoga
at the National Museum of Wildlife Art
Jackson Hole, WY

A day off.

It brings a gentler focus in the Tetons...and a warm, July afternoon at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole.

A summer series of free afternoon yoga classes on the Museum's newly built three-quarter-mile Sculpture Trail drew me in that Thursday -  allowing me and others an opportunity to connect to the uniqueness of this place and to forge our own connections between nature, art, and health.

The class was designed with a mindfulness to overlook the National Elk Refuge and the distant Bridger- Teton National Forest, just East of the Tetons.

In 1984, 10 founding trustees chose Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with its abundant wildlife, amazing mountain setting, and proximity to National Parks as the stage for art that focused on images of wildlife.

It was just as easy to get lost inside as it was outside.

The Jackson community itself with its old western flare ("Cowgirl Up"), its wild natural access, it's powerful hold on outdoor health and fitness, and the obvious draw toward arts and culture forges relationships between all of these resources.

The concept of that interdependency carries over.

What defines our communities?  What resources exist within them?  Can we see the potential of linking these resources to benefit our existing communities and local economies?

I live in a Town and a State that is rich in local, state, and natural resources and strong in tradition. With exposures to the Maine ocean, lakes, and mountains, as well as extensions into farming, fishing, the arts, conservation, healthy living and outdoor recreation - my home seems ripe for such a formation of partnership.

Is yours?

Healthy Living
Outdoor Trail

Wildlife Art Museum - Jackson Hole, WY

Time Off and 
Hiking through the Tetons

The Newly-Designed Sculpture Trail 

A Perfect Specimen

No sunset is Ever the Same

New Altitudes

GTNP Badge

That first step was all about precision.

My first week of induction into the Federal Park System meant learning to press my Park Ranger uniform correctly, centering my badge, and aligning my nametag a nickle's width above my right pocket.

Step two was getting "comfortable" being in that ranger uniform - assuming authority to patrol a "bear jam", instructing kids chasing two black cubs for photo ops at Signal Mountain to get back into the Suburban, suggesting an equally clear message to their parents.

Then there was a "rise" to learn to field visitor's questions - being familiar with the hiking trails, historic Park landmarks and correctly identifying wildflowers of Columbine, Sticky Geranium, red patches of Indian Paintbrush and delicate lavender Harebell.

My first patrolled hike I covered three miles of trails at Phelps Lake.

Stepping up meant "signing up" for the Exum Mountain Safety Class offered to Park employees.  By saying "yes"to a challenge it gave me an amazing opportunity to reach new heights, plunge, and practice self-arrests.... several of them head first, bracing with an ice-axe, in declining snow fields.

Exum Mountain Safety Class for Park Employees
June, 2012 - Tetons

No one said any of this was going to be easy.

Another participating ranger, with an adventurous gleam in his eye, reminded me, without ever telling me, to not over-think those self-arrests.  Thank you, Justin, for letting go of my feet before I even had the chance to say "release.   I performed a near-perfect stop at subalpine heights.

Indian Paintbrush on Phelps Lake Trailhead

This week I think I reached a new height -  an elevation of 9035 feet.

The 16-mile RT trek to Lake Solitude through Cascade Canyon was amazing.

The ascent could not have fallen on a more perfect July day in these Mountains....75 degrees, blue morning skies, cumulus clouds to cool off under on the return.

More impressive was the experience of depth and dimension I had being in these Mountains and in that canyon - something you cannot fully appreciate until you "step into" the Grand Teton range.

Five weeks ago I wasn't sure I could do any of this - never even scanned the topographical map for anything considered strenuous level.  A flatlander covering a 3000 feet elevation increase to close to 10,000 ft and sixteen miles in 7 hours?

The bull moose that day in Cascade Canyon at the base of a waterfall, me kicking through a melting snowfield, identifying sub alpine flora of Moss Campion, Subalpine Spirea and Sulfur Paintbrush, and the one-hour nap at Lake Solitude - where nothing could stir me (although the Marmots got close)...were amazing.

These are "ascents" I will always remember....and they are ones that go well beyond the climb.

Cascade Canyon

Wild Columbine

July at Lake Solitude

Hiking the Tetons

Global Awareness

Twenty-three Ambassadors visit GTNP

Experience America 2012

With their love of politics, I am pretty certain our colleagues Beth Mylroie and Ted Jordan will appreciate this entry and the opportunities the moment I experienced presented.

While working at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor's Center this past Satuday morning, I met 23 ambassadors from five continents visiting Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. 

The trip was arranged by the U.S. State Department as part of the "Experience America 2012" program with the intent of educating other nations about our country.

The aim of this program is to generate cultural exchange, international good will, and can launch mutually beneficial partnerships between businesses, organizations, and local governments.

I took advantage of being on the clock that Saturday morning and, in uniform, greeted several of the ambassadors.  I introduced them to Grand Teton NP, explained my position as a Teacher/Ranger and the educational and personal exchange this TRT program has created between National Park Programs and students and adults from the town I live and teach in.

With a brief description of lobstering and kayaking ocean waters and Portland Headlight and our own Acadia as well as my jobs as a Cape Elizabeth teacher and an LL Bean Outdoor School Instructor, Maine was hopefully embedded in their memory and geographical maps.

Featured in the photo below is Ambassador Dhanojak Obongo, the first Ambassador of the Republic of South Sudan. 

My immediate thoughts about this experience?

I now have even a stronger conviction that our "educational systems" need to believe in the value of outreach, exchange and professional opportunities to benefit both teachers and students and to enhance our public schooling.

I need to ask  - from both this brief window of summer opportunity I have to serve and teach and develop curriculum in our National Parks, from this random Saturday morning exchange with 23 ambassadors -  what good, what value, what ideas and consideration of standards have potentially been created - for me as a person and teacher, for our classrooms, for our children, and for the conservation of our National Parks?

I know the answers.

Ambassador Dhanojak Obongo from South Sudan

Elaine Brassard Teaching in GTNP

A Favorite and Newly-Inducted Jr. Park Ranger - Sammy!

The Unexpected

Delta Lake GTNP

Time is always limited it seems.

In the moments I take to write this Sunday morning, when I should be writing my curriculum ideas for Grand Teton National Park, I want to talk about this phenomenal hike I went on this week to Delta Lake.

It is kind of a sacred hike to Park Rangers here - partially marked on the topographical map and partially unmarked.  I would not have been able to find it on my own - but with the help of another ranger and the cairns (mounds of rough stones piled as a landmark) we were able to get there.

Delta Lake is about a 10 mile hike with an elevation increase of over 3000 feet.  It starts at the Lupine Trail Head and has over a dozen switchbacks.

It was truly amazing - sub-alpine setting, turquoise blue water under the Grand Teton Glacier - with a water temperature cold enough to make my calves ache within about 5 seconds.  To submerge the rest of my body was unfathomable, though others have done it.

Most interesting to me was the pretty extreme turn of morning mountain weather we experienced by 11:30 am at the Lake.  We had arrived by 11:00 am, in almost full sun, but quickly winds turned and a churning dark cloud bank came from behind and the South of the mountain along with a humidity level that talked of change.  By 11:30 we were in a pretty decent lightning storm.

Our choices were to hunker at fairly high altitude, just under 10,000 feet, in clusters of pines or to descend and scramble over boulder fields.  We opted to descend and to get over the rock fields before they became slippery from rain.

Ultimately, it was a good decision - and a lesson on powerful mountain weather and preparation needed for the unexpected.

Home on the Range



Pioneering Spirit



I am dying to add a little western barbeque rub to my blog. 

The challenge is how to do it in a tasteful and educational way.

Appropriate for living in the "Tetons", for days I had been missing my Calvin Klein undergarment. (I would be remiss not to thank my dear friends and Cape colleagues, Joni and Tara, for rationing my jeans, skirts, and undergarments when helping me pack so efficiently for my trip out West).

Bison in Antelope Flats GTNP

I searched all over - my locker at work, my shared closet, the community laundry room at Beaver Creek.  Finally found it dangling over my kayak paddle shaft in the back of my jeep.
I laughed.

I have come to learn I can make home wherever I am - whether it be in my jeep, in shared park housing, or an ocean-view bungalow.

In addition to the essential clothing in my Jeep, I have my brother's cooler stocked with his ideas of survival gear (ie mosquito netting and fishing lures), firewood, sleeping bag, tent, camp stove, fishing pole, Cliff bars, and water.

I officially live in an area called Beaver Creek, part of Grand Teton National Park employee housing.  It is three miles from work and easily accessible by the Park's Bike Path, which runs about 25 miles from downtown Jackson (one of my favorite towns) to the southern side of Jenny Lake.  It offers great vantage points of the Teton Range and the meadows below them.

Cunningham Cabin - Historic Site
with Mountain Views

I realized while listening to another park ranger sing some western love ballad from his porch last night,  that this two-bedroom, two-bath cabin I live in is also starting to feel like home.  I purchased pretty table mats the other day, even though I have only three weeks left, and with the pioneering spirit of my roommates, set up a 20' clothes line with bungee cords and a staple gun.

In the photo, my Calvin Klein garment is hanging safely on this make-shift clothesline.  Zoom in for a closer look.

On the topic of homes and habitats, the other day I designed and taught a one-hour "Family" program on four of the six "Natural Communities" found in Grand Teton National Park.  Communities are often based on dominant vegetation type.  These plants reflect environmental conditions involving soil, sun, water, and elevation.  The Sagebrush, the Forest, the Wetlands (aquatic), and the Alpine communities, with their own distinct features, are habitats for specific vegetation and wildlife designed to live in them.

The exchange between these communities is important to note.  Relationships form between and within them.  There are no fast rules or hard lines where animals might live.

In the program I had a young girl stage herself as a Sagebrush, demonstrating both its deep and shallow root systems allowing them to thrive in dry, rocky soil conditions.  In these Sagebrush communities live deer-like Pronghorn, running speeds up to 62 mph, as well as Bison, reaching speeds of 35 mph and jumping 6-feet fences.  They are easily found in the Antelope Flat and Gros Ventre southern areas of the Park.  In first morning light, it provides a beautiful photo opp, with the rising sun illuminating the barn on Mormon's Row.

For the moment, the Tetons are home.

The Ranger at Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitors Center

Change

A Day Kayak Fishing on Jackson Lake
One of the Highest High Altitude Lakes in U.S.
at 6,772 ft above Sea Level
Up to 438 feet Deep

This place is full of adaptations.  From strong seasonal shifts to temperature fluctuations to elk herd migration between winter and summer ranges the Tetons remind us of constant change.

My own adjustment to this wild and ever-changing place seems on-going.  A month into this assignment as Park Ranger and Interpreter I see signs of  my own adaptability....slow to come at first, with an early and strong onset of resistance.

Let's begin with basics -  connection and the comforts of home.  Had to let go of many things.... familiar friends and family, my ever-faithful yellow lab, the privacy I woke up to every morning, my constant access to the world -  internet, texts, news, facebook.  

I now live with 3 other roommates - (was it when I was in grad school at UCONN when I last had to time my shower or designate shelf space in a refrigerator)?   I drive 20 minutes into Jackson to have any East Coast conversation.  Television?  I only seem to miss the Weather Channel, updates on the Celtics or Redsox (and, yes, I heard about Ray Allen) and episodes of The Bachelor.

In both the simplicity and complexity of this place I have learned how to carve out what I need.... the porch at sunset allows fantastic views to think out the bigger picture, Wednesday afternoons, when the others work, I find my nap, Jackson Lake Lodge has internet, and the parking lot at Smiths allows great text.  Let's not forget to maximize time not working and to get as much work completed as I can when I am working.  Makes for more balance - and room to explore these Mountains.

The Snake River - Inside Grand Teton National Park

Today I shadowed a park ranger-lead hike to Taggart Lake - listening to a visitor's experience of a "bluff charge" from a grizzly up around Bradley.  Pretty interesting to learn about the protective posturing a bear presents - usually giving people ample opportunity to interpret and give space, leaving and respecting what naturally belongs.

On the return I photographed this Fireweed flower in its mid-summer bloom.  It gets its name from the fact that its tall, bright flowering stalk resembles a flame and because it quickly invades areas of burned forest.

Another example of how change brings new life.

Fireweed 

Fire and Rain



After the Storm
Photo from my employee housing inside GTNP



Finally, it rained.  

Not a soaking rain - but enough to quiet and drench everything.  I stepped completely into it - unloaded the kayak off my jeep top, put on rain gear and biked down the Teton bike trail out to Jenny Lake and hiked.  Yup, still held tight to my bear spray with reports of a grizzly half way into the trail.  Hearty mountain folk (ie the people I work with) just grin and shake their heads. 

As the rain fell reports quickly surfaced of a climber who slipped on "The Grand", largest mountain in Grand Teton National Park with an elevation of 13,770 feet, (have I mentioned yet what it's like to acclimate from sea level)?  Jenny Lake Rangers, established in 1929 as an elite group of climbing and Search and Rescue rangers along with EMS Park Service short hauled the climber, a 28 year-old male from New York, by precise helicopter maneuvers, to an area where he could be transported.

The Sign Outside the Jenny Lake Ranger Station

After a hot shower, the rescue, and the sweet rain I stepped outside into this orange glow and took this picture - opportunities for photos like these only last a few minutes.  They are humbling and beautiful. 

I thought in that moment - the mountain is on fire. 

Risk

Photo - Jenny Lake Park Rangers - GTNP

Fires are burning out West.  Today they announced in Jackson Hole that all public fireworks, typically held at both Teton Village (ski resort) and downtown Jackson, are cancelled.

The fire risk is extremely high here.  I am entering my 3rd week in the Tetons and there has been no rain - not one drop.  Every day is hot and sunny -often with temperatures in the high 80's, and nights cool off quickly, dropping into the high 30's and low 40s.  I said to someone I feel I have a fever - learning to acclimate to fluctuating temperatures. 

As a result of this extreme between hot and cold, strong winds develop around the canyon and lake regions in early evening.  It is interesting, and the fire risk - along with the fires burning just east of here in Bridger Teton Forest, are somewhat concerning.  There are advised alternative routes - and all emergency and park service employees are on pretty diligent watch.  In fact as I type, there are emergency scanner reports that smoke cover is becoming more visible -  from the Bridger Teton Forest as afternoon winds gust. 

Jenny Lake Rangers - Photo of Rescue

Risk seems to be part of the culture here.

There are the mountaineers who attempt, and often succeed, in climbing these Mountains to the Jenny Lake Rangers, Park Employees who, in times of need, are called upon to assist them.  These Rangers are part of the elite.... humble and strong in nature.  They tell their stories through there courageous deeds and service -  consisting of training and operations involving search and rescue within the Park.

There have been two climbing fatalities in the Tetons this summer - higher than average.  When not on duty listening to the Park dispatch, you can hear of potential rescues or recovery through the sounds of helicopters in the mountains.

Climbing History of Grand Teton National Park
On Display at CTDVC

Today I delivered my first public presentation called "Map Chat".  As a Park Ranger Interpreter, I must develop and turn in curriculum for each program I give - complete with goals, lesson objectives, materials, activities, intro and closure - forcing a strong reflection on the practice of teaching. 

There were 43 adults and children in my program.  It focused on giving orientation to Grand Teton National Park and an oversight of wildlife, safety, and adventure, both historical and current. 

Ranger Brassard Delivering Park Program

I, too, am on an adventure of my own.