Sunday, August 28, 2016

The people

So after a nice long summer spent guiding in the beautiful and ever inspiring Glacier National Park I think its time to get back to some writing and maybe sharing some of the topics that have been on my mind this summer and also some pretty cool things ive learned to top things off! But in honor of the 100th anniversary of the national parks service I’m gonna do a little piece and the parks and the people who have protected and preserved them for the last 100 years.
As any good backpacker will do I love to watch how other people conduct their excursions into the outdoors. From their gear choices and how they utilize them to how they view the very outdoors their venturing into. Now this summer I have not only had the chance to see many a interesting piece of gear but also many an interesting outdoor enthusiast. Most notably a few rangers and volunteers who have dedicated over half of their lives to Glacier. One such ranger is a guy called Bruce. Bruce has lived in a cabin 6 miles from the nearest trailhead with his wife, who is also a ranger, from april to october every year for the past 7 years. Bruce has stories upon stories from a moose destroying a couple hundred pound fence to where he thinks Joe Cosley hid his million dollar ring. He also has a Tom Selleck mustache (that me and many others think is the key to his awesome rangering abilities) and the demeanor of a rugged old cowboy. Throughout the summer Bruce and his wife patrol and maintain over a hundred miles of trails and get to be surrounded by, in my opinion, the most beautiful parts of the park.
So what is the point of me telling you all of this besides making you jealous of our slightly less interesting lives compared to Bruce? I suppose its just as a little reminder to us all about the individuals who over the years have helped protect and preserve our great and many parks. See when I see men and women like Bruce and his wife I think of people like John Muir and Aldo Leopold. Individuals who dedicated their lives not to a job but to a set of ideals and beliefs that manifested themselves in the form of a park, Glacier National Park to be exact. In some of my future blogs I hope to talk about some of these ideals that the park was founded on and that it continues to follow when so many others have strayed.
So as you enjoy our beautiful parks and the 100 years of the parks service don’t forget the people like Bruce who have given much so that these precious and spectacular places will continue to be protected and preserved for a multitude of generations to come!

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