For Rachael

I am pretty excited about this picture I snapped today of Middle Cave Lake. Hubby said, "Wow!!!"

Um...so these slabs have to go up on the exit trail for the new shelter project. Each one weighs 400-800 pounds (I've heard both figures, not sure which). The puzzle now is figuring out how to get them up there. That's a lot of helicopter trips, just sayin'.






These are a few of my favorite things...






J. giving his conclusion at the exit. See? Not as much snow as usual. Can you believe how clear those steps are??? Me neither.






Packrat Poop and LOTS of it. You can't even beLIEVE how much packrat poop is at the exit. At first, all of us rangers were like, "What IS this??? Do you see this?" And then we would walk further toward the exit and rangers would keep commenting, "It's EVERYWHERE!!!" I've never seen anything like it before. And speaking of poop, there were piles and piles of moose poop all over the trail below the gate. Ranger N. had a lot of funny references to it and even began talking about how things change for her when she switches from eating more meat and protein to more plants and produce...if you know N., then you know how she just mentions this stuff while hiking.



Special note! BIIIIG rock at entrance. Mike and Andy tried to move it and they couldn't quite budge it an inch. I'm so glad Heavenly Father takes care of this business in the off-season!






See? Not nearly as much snow as last year (and no ice!). What snow was here in these photos no longer exists because many rangers plus many shovels make clear trails.






Shoveling on the downhill. Shovel. Step. Shovel. Step. Like a fire line. Do you recognize any butts or biceps?






Water running down from Swinging Bridge. The pics aren't great, but all of us rangers sure took notice from Kodachrome!






Getting through the quarter-way slide at four in the afternoon. Same instructions every year: "One ranger at a time! If this thing goes, we'll need everyone else to help shovel that person out!" The new LE was spotting on the downhill and Mike was directing traffic at the gate. When I got down on the other side (steps up, steps down), Mike yelled, "No running down the trail, Kyburz!"





This post is for Ranger Rachael. She and Brad and I all started together, with others, in the class of 2003 and now Rachael and Brad, who were still with me last summer, have dropped out and I am left alone this summer at the cave. Not really. There are tons of great rangers (I miss working with my husband the most, and then Arlo...), but I have been thinking of Rachael and Brad a lot this week. Especially Rachael. So, all of the captions I have made by any of the photos were for Rachael's information. The little details were for her. I missed you today, Rachael, but fortunately I didn't need you the way I did last year. The place was downright tropical today compared to last time! Cave said to tell you "Hi!"