Last Days of Rangering

I got to end my season with an overnight trip on the West Rim. Derrick and I needed to do some campsite monitoring, so we were sent up to the West Rim on one of the coldest nights of the year. The colors were changing so the West Rim was a good place to be. We were able to take our time because the day was rather short as we only had to get to campsite five. Campsite monitoring, though, is quite tedious, so it wasn’t a fast moving trip. We destroyed another shelter in site six. I am really getting sick of people building shelters in campsites. That is what you make a purchase of a tent for folks. We made it to site five and set up for the evening. We had a great view from the campsite looking down into the area of the technical section of the Right Fork. There were even some rock chairs set up that I did not have the heart to take down. Just an amazing sunset from there. The next day we woke to a very chilly morning. Derrick had a bit of a rough night in his bivy sac, while I slept comfortably in my tent, which really has seen the end of its days. The zipper broke on that trip and I was not going to keep suffering with trying to erect that structure with broken poles anymore. After not too long, it began to snow on us. I did not get any pictures of it because unfortunately the cold froze my camera and cracked the screen. Kodak digital cameras, while cheaper, seem to only make it a year before they are kaput. Derrick finally accepted my offer for the extra pair of gloves that I brought. We got our campsite monitoring done and were able to make our descent through the snowy conditions to the canyon floor. It was a most excellent way to spend my last two days of the season as a backcountry ranger.