Ranger Rendezvous

Yes, we had an unofficial midwinter ranger meeting at Paradise Bakery. Pictured above are three lovely ladies, but the one on the right never worked at the cave (her sister, brother, and father have all been rangers, so we let her come to the party!). The other two are pretty tight and I admire them both greatly. The one on the left lost her husband to a car accident after only three months of marriage. I'm so impressed with all that she's accomplished since that tragedy. The one in the middle married a guy who was battling cancer. They recently celebrated his last chemo treatment. Rangers are such amazing people!

This particular ranger brought her son who is pictured left playing games under the table. When you work at the cave and show up in the morning and sort of notice who is on duty that day...you get this vibe about what kind of a day it's going to be. With this ranger, I knew it would always be a good day, and if it wasn't, she would fix all the problems! She has raced up steep slopes to help rescue, she has performed CPR on the trail, and she has had my back during many rockfall episodes. All the rangers have taught me a lot and I don't want to diminish what this one has taught me, but sage advice friends, learned from her, and I'll share it now: "Always stop at Last Chance (the restroom near the cave entrance) when you hike by, even if you don't feel like it--you never know how long it will be before you get another chance!" She was so right! You don't know if you're going to be helping someone with a medical emergency or if you're going to be trapped in the grotto due to bad weather or if you're going to be shoveling rocks at the exit or cleaning up body fluid spills in the cave...you just never know when you'll get back to the restroom again.

Such a humble, generous fellow...

And we'll end with a blurry profile of the Queen of Resource Management! Many, many people from her family have worked at the cave...and she's taught me a lot! And in this case, her dates with another ranger did work out--another happy wedding thanks to Timpanogos Cave.