Memorial Day Weekend

We got everything organized just in time, because our first weekend was a holiday! There were a lot of people out in the park for Memorial Day weekend. Saturday and Sunday were really busy, and Marc and I took turns staffing the visitor center while the other roved outside, talking to visitors at the overlooks and on the paths. Monday it was just me working at Miner’s Castle, so I had to close the visitor center to take my lunch break.

There was still a lot of ice out on Lake Superior, and it kept moving around! Even though it had been pretty clear when the four of us were out there earlier in the week, now there were a lot of big floes that had blown in. It still wasn't as thick as that first day Dad and I were there.

A lot of things have been changing, as spring arrives in the Upper Peninsula. A week ago, there were no leaves on any of the trees. Four days ago, there were bright yellow-green leaves on the birches.

Back in Uniform

(Sorry, no photos in this one!)

On our first day back in uniform, we didn’t have to be anywhere until 10:30, but the four of us met at Headquarters at 9 a.m. to start our day. We sat in the break room reading through the material on the park, and still had a lot to go through by the time we had to get moving.

We spent the day helping Ronnie and Judy, who work for the Northeastern Parks Association – the cooperating association that runs the sales of books and souvenirs in the park. We had to sort a bunch of them, load them into boxes and load those into the cars, and drive out to Miner’s Castle. The information center/bookstore there is a very small space – we will each be working there some of the time, and Munising Falls some of the time.

First Tour, Part 2

As planned, Whitney, Rudy and I met at Headquarters and drove out to meet Marc at his cabin in the northern end of the park. We walked down to the beach just across from his cabin – like so many beaches around here, it’s a combination of fine sand and smooth, polished pebbles that are dull when dry but vividly colored when wet.

 

First Day

Today was my first day on the job at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but it was pretty easy. I am one of four new Visitor Services Assistants. We all met at park headquarters, which is just down the road from my house. Whitney, my roommate, and I walked over and met the other two, Marc and Rudy, and I got to meet Amber, our boss. The other three are all from Michigan, and graduated from the recreation program at Northern Michigan University at Marquette. Amber had scheduled our first day but then couldn’t be there for most of the day, so after a quick tour of headquarters and the interagency visitor center in town (both National Park Service and Forest Service staff work there) she checked out a car to us and told us to go explore the park on our own! We went to Munising Falls, and with our new keys were able to get inside the visitor center where we’ll be working.

 We walked back to the waterfall, and the big chunk of ice that had been standing behind the falls on Saturday was almost gone – it had fallen and only a short ridge remained.

 

It was a chilly, cloudy day, and all of the yellow trout lilies were closed up tight! The cowslips, or marsh marigolds, were just starting to open.

Moving in

I had a long two days! Sunday morning I checked in and moved all my stuff into the house where I will be spending the summer. I’ll be sharing it with four other people, including a roommate, and it’s not really a big house! The main issue is likely to be kitchen space. There are two refrigerators, at least, but cabinet space is limited. I brought some yaffa blocks and was able to set them up in the kitchen, which leaves more cabinet space for the others to use; I’ve got plastic containers on one shelf, baking supplies on the next, and canned goods and cereal on the bottom two. The top shelf has my fruit bowl, loaf of bread and sugar bowl. (It is Very Important that I be Organized in the Kitchen! Even if I’m not organized anywhere else!) I still have a lot of dishes and utensils to go through – I will want to keep some of them out but not all of them, and the rest can stay packed in their box.

First explorations of Pictured Rocks

I felt like I saw quite a lot on my first day at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but it really was just the tip of the iceberg. Literally.

We had spent the night in Marquette, MI, about 45 miles from Munising, the town at the edge of the park, where I’ll be staying. We drove to the airport, where my dad picked up his rental car, and then we had to drive the rest of the way to Munising separately. We planned to meet at the visitor center in town – luckily it was very easy to spot! We picked up a bunch of brochures and trail guides, and one of the rangers at the information desk turned out to be Pam, the woman I had talked to on the phone about checking in the next day. This was when we learned that the weather was indeed behind by several weeks – about the same amount of time as in Missouri.

We went to lunch, read through all the material we had collected at the visitor center, then went and checked in at our motel, where we crashed for a while. Finally we ventured forth on our first explorations of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

We decided to drive out toward Sand Point first, and make sure we knew where headquarters was so I could check in the next day. First we stopped at the Munising Falls Visitor Center, where I’ll be working. I knew it was going to be small, but it was still a bit of a surprise! No wonder they only have one park ranger at a time staffing it! But it’s only a short walk from there to the waterfall, and that makes up for a lot.

Of course we walked out to the waterfall, but even an 800-foot trail takes us a long time, especially when we are both taking pictures! I had to get a lot of photos just so I’ll be able to see, later, how things have changed as spring and summer proceed.

(Photos are behind the cut here...)

Driving back in time

Several days ago I began driving with my dad from St. Louis to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I will be spending the summer working at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, on Lake Superior. I have worked at several other National Parks, but this is only the second time I have been an NPS employee wearing a ranger uniform – most of my previous experience was as an SCA intern or as a volunteer. So I am excited to be wearing the Smokey Bear hat again!

We left on Wednesday, May 14, after a day and a half of frantic packing on my part. Even with my previous experience, it is hard to decide what to bring for a summer away – and even harder to figure out how to fit it all into the back of a Chevy Malibu! I will be sharing a house with four other people, including one roommate, so there is limited space; the kitchen is supposed to be fully equipped – with dishes and everything! – but I love to cook, so there were a number of things that simply Could Not Be Left Behind. There were several large boxes/crates, so everything else had to be in smaller portions that could be shoved in the spaces around the edges. It’s like a game of 3-D Tetris, but I got it all in! And even room for a very small bag for Dad…

(I am extremely grateful to my Dad for driving out here with me, as he has done almost every summer since 2005. Regardless of the fact that for him, it’s an excuse to take a trip to a beautiful National Park! – it would be a very long way to drive by myself, and I also love that I mostly get to just enjoy the ride… Thanks, Dad!)

Testing...

One of my resolutions this summer is to write more about what I’m doing, and post photos more often - as I take them, rather than waiting to go through them later. I originally started a blog on another website, but they changed their settings so that I couldn't post photos easily, which defeated the purpose! So I'm moving my posts here. This is also testing to see if I can backdate posts, since I was a little behind in my entries already!

Here goes!