Last Day of Rangering

My last week of work was unfortunately disappointing. I went into the doctor on Monday to get some warts on my toes removed. He just went off on me. It really froze the hell out of my toes. I got third degree frostbite including the most wicked blood blister ever. So naturally, the blood blister took me out of commission. I had a great plan including an already packed backpack to enter into Deep Creek continuing through the Narrows. That did not happen. Instead, I got to spend most of my last week at the desk. Finally, on Saturday, my last day, the blister had popped and I was starting to feel much better. I picked Wildcat Canyon considering it was the one trail that I had not hiked this season. It was just perfect weather out. Seventy-two degrees, sunny and fall colors. The trail was much shorter than I remembered it. I only hiked to the Wildcat Spring and back because I had to get my evaluation and finish my checkout procedures. There were a lot of folks out though and I was able to have some good conversations with a couple groups. Its nice to go on trails like this because it is a bit away from the populated areas so the people out really appreciate being out there. My toe did well also when earlier in the week I questioned whether I would be walking at all by that point. Now it is time to hang up the green and gray for the season. I still plan to spend many days in the backcountry, just now I will not be cleaning grafiti, picking up trash and other waste, and checking permits. Now I can ramble off the trails and explore those places that people would not be and thus not warranting me to go there for work. We'll see what the future holds, but we do know one thing, I will no longer be wearing a collared shirt to hike in.