What does a backcountry ranger do when the backcountry is closed?

Well someone freaked out and closed all of the backcountry in Zion. The fires burning all over the park out of control probably had something to do with it. Well, with the entire backcountry closed, what is a backcountry ranger to do? Well I guess my first idea was to hike the frontcountry. So I grabbed David and we headed up to Observation Point. He was a bit beat so we took it just as fast as normal. David amazed me that at thirty-seven years old he could stay out like a teenager and still function the next day like he got a full eight hours. I am not sure if I could live in that realm anymore. Observation Point was a good hike and there were not too many people to run into despite the rest of the park being closed.

It was a good view from the top because we could see the fire burning on the West Rim. We had a good hike, but it was only a couple of hours. I took the time I had left after lunch to hike the Emerald Pools Trail and pick up a full huge trash bag mainly of water bottles. Jacqueline helped me with this, as this turned out to be the only hike that we got to do together for work all summer long. The next day that I got to get out, I went with Brad, Mary, and Andrew over to the East Side to do rescue/canyoneering training. We did not get too much time on the rope before Ray gave us a call and wanted us to do a rescue in Hidden Canyon.

 This was exciting, because we got to be the rescue team. I carried the 35 pound drill up to Hidden Canyon, which Brad used to secure the main line. It was a sweet rescue, even though it was only a simple lower where we lowered Luke down to a fifteen year old kid stranded on a ledge and then lowered them to the ground. Jill was in charge and I got to run the main line. That was good stuff and everything went smoothly. On the way up there, we saw a ton of grafiti. Since Andrew and I had the next day off, we were able to go back up and clean it up. We spent the morning discharging the battery from the drill and then we were off. 

For everyone who thinks that working backcountry at Zion is all fun and games, they forget the days where we do stuff like pick up other people's poop, clean up garbage, or wash off grafiti. This wall had gone unnoticed for at least a half dozen years. There were over one hundred inscriptions. We went psycho on the thing using our patented water spitting than scrubbing technique. A lot of it was charcoal, so this technique was highly effective. We each went through two two liter bottles getting this wall clean. The finished product was not perfect, but it was definitely improved. 

Just another day in the life of a Zion backcountry ranger.