ADVENTURE 8: Cactus Cha-Cha and Rappin' With the Ranger (Saguaro NP)

Sunday, 15 May 2022, flying

Air travel is no fun. The 3.5 hour delay on my flight to Phoenix marks my fourth consecutive flight delayed more than an hour, dating to my last parks trip - a total of ~10 hours delay and counting. 'Nuff said.

Monday, 16 May 2022, Tucson AZ

When I started organizing this challenge last summer, I quickly assigned adventures to most parks. As planning continued, many of those adventures disappeared, evolved, or migrated to another park. For Saguaro, the original hope was to do a ride-along with a ranger, to see what their workday looked like. (This idea honors my mother, who for years arranged Citizen Academy ride-alongs for the Boulder CO Police Dept.)

As Chief Law Enforcement Ranger Kelsey told me later, the park service used to do those, but it got shut down in the age of COVID, and has not restarted. She also pointed out that since they do get border activity (illegals) in the park, having citizens 'in the way' could cause problems.

Ranger Cam ran point on my request, seeing if they could make it work, but ultimately came up with a safe alternative: he could arrange for me to interview Kelsey in her office, if that would work. Done! Cam made the arrangements, and offered to meet with me also.

I showed up at the West Unit Visitor Center (Saguaro is divided into the Tucson Mountains (West) unit and the Rincon Mountains (East) Unit an hour's drive apart, with Tucson in the middle) at opening time (9:00) only to find Cam had drawn parenting duty to care for his 'sick kiddo'. "Could we meet tomorrow on the east side?" he asked. With Kelsey busy in meetings until late afternoon, I took the opportunity to explore this park (one of 16 I had never yet visited). I cornered Ranger Mike and asked him, "What hike can you recommend? Especially considering that it's already 90 degrees out."

He sent me to the Sendero Esperanza trail, a 3.5 mile round trip to a ridgeline with expansive vistas. On the short drive over, I noticed some active wildlife, even in the heat: a desert hare hopped along on the roadside, looking comical with his long but skinny ears; there's a roadrunner - oops, more like a roadwalker. Any slower and he would have been a roadkilled.

The sandy, rocky trail started with a mild but steady incline. Saguaros abounded all around me, with their arms twisted helter-skelter.

According to the display in the center, they grow very slowly. A 5-year-old cactus will only stand a half-inch tall; a teenager may stretch almost to a foot; at 35 they may hit six feet and finally produce flowers; but they don't hit 16' until they hit our retirement age - which is also when they begin sprouting their arms.

I certainly noticed the heat - I know, "it's a dry heat" - but it didn't slow me. Often I could see tiny lizards zipping across the trail to a hiding nook - moving too fast for me to photograph.

Every several steps I would look behind me at the vistas opening up. Once I got two-thirds of the trail underfoot, I hit the steep climb to the ridge's saddle. Switchbacks now littered the trail - I counted twenty on the way up. Now when I would look around, the vistas grew dramatically.

At the saddle, I took a few minutes to savor the views heading both directions. Looking at one ocotillo bush, I noticed a bird perched on a prickly vine. Amazing how animals adapt.

As I descended on my return, I passed two other hikers pushing their way up in the heat. "You've only got seven more switchbacks to go!" I told them. Couldn't tell whether they were excited to hear that news.

As I plodded toward the car, I tried to slow my pace - do some cactus-forest bathing. I shied away from feeling the needles, but I did take time to note the bursts of color in this dusty, dusky landscape: the prickly pear cactus with yellow and red blooms;

the white flowers beginning to break out on the saguaros.

On the drive back to the Visitor Center, on Ranger Mike's recommendation, I stopped at Signal Hill. Here, a short quarter-mile hike takes you to a jumble of rocks containing several pictographs. Scientists concede that they don't know whether the carvings are ritual in nature, or recording details of a hunt... or maybe just someone's shopping list.

These stops got me to noon, with the temperature already approaching 100. No more hiking today! Instead, I drove into town for lunch, then over to the east unit. I had a few minutes to look at their dioramas before I got Kelsey's text at 3:15: "I'm outside."

I went out to meet their 'top cop', and thanked her for making time for me. After the obligatory photo, we walked to her office.

Small talk ensued as she asked about my project, and we swapped tales of parks. Soon I turned to the interview questions Sue and I had collected.

What got you interested in working for the National Parks?

"In high school, I got to work at Petrified Forest, and continued when I went to college. I really appreciate the park rangers who helped me progress in a career with NPS. I started out working in the museum, then became a fee collector, before getting promoted to dispatcher. During college I considered going into teaching, but found that I really felt I was destined to be in the park service."

I know many rangers will move from park to park. How many parks have you worked at?

She paused to count them up. "I've had permanent positions in seven parks - this is my seventh, and I've only been here nine months. I'm still learning my way around. Now I have worked in several other parks, as need arises. Sometimes a park has a crisis and they need extra hands for a short time - people are expected to help when the call goes out. For instance, I have pitched in at both White Sands and Guadeloupe Mountains. Because the NPS only has 1100 Law Enforcement Rangers (they're trying to get back to 1400), there's always a shortage somewhere."

What is your day-to-day work life like?

"Any more, I am really in administration, so my duties have changed. But as a rule, you never know when you get to work what your day will be like. Will someone need help on a trail? Do we need a search and rescue? Has a fire broken out that we must address? You try to head to wherever your presence could make a difference.

"Generally, the first step is to make sure everything I might need is in the car. Over my twenty years in Law Enforcement, I've learned what I need on the job, and all of it goes into the car."

So your car's like the junk drawer in the kitchen?

She laughs, "You got that right. For instance, once - only once! - I ran out of water. Now I always carry extra."

What's the biggest challenge with the job?

"Budget limits and staffing. We never get the funding that we need, so we keep falling further behind. We constantly struggle, trying to do more with less."

What are the biggest perks of the job?

She quickly replied, "Working in all the natural beauty." A slight pause later, she added, "I really enjoy the feeling I get when I help someone - you can't beat that emotion."

What advice can you offer anyone - especially someone in school - considering a career with the parks?

If it's your passion, go for it! Finish school first - maybe start working in a park while you're in school. Call up a park ranger and ask for their advice. Look for jobs on usajobs.gov. If you get turned down, ask that person turning you down how to improve your resume or your interview skills. Oh, one important point - ignore what they tell you in the business world to keep your resume to one or two pages. This is the government - they like to make things complicated. Put down EVERYTHING on your resume. 'I can chop wood with my right hand. I can shop it with my left hand.' Trust me - we want to know you have the skills you need out there."

Any law enforcement stories you want to share?

"There was one person I pulled over, he had two people with him in the truck. As I walked up to the car, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck raising: this guy reeks of evil, I thought. I asked him for his license, and he started giving me an attitude, so I quickly said, 'Don't give me any problems - because any second now, three or four other officers are going to be coming around that bend in the road!' He sort of threw his license at me, and when I stepped back to run a check on it, he drove away. Well, I took chase, and I called the state patrol to intercept him from the direction he was going. I was never so happy to see other officers take over! After they stopped him, the word came down that all three people were felons with warrants. Just a day or two ago, the driver had assaulted another officer and really banged him up. So I went to the guy and asked, 'Why didn't you assault me back there?' He replied that he panicked that the other officers were going to come around the bend at any moment. Of course, there weren't any others coming - and I still don't know I said that!"

Can you tell me about an incident in your job that comes to mind, something you'll always remember?

"Positive or negative?"

Either. Or both.

"Okay, negative: As a Law Enforcement and EMT officer, I sometimes have to deal with death. It tears me up when I have to tell someone their family member died. I try to be compassionate when I deliver the news, knowing that I'm about to change their lives forever. Sometimes I'll even stay in touch with them, checking in later on to see how they're doing. That is the worst part of my job - but someone's go to do it.

"For positive, I love it when I can help someone. I played a part in a stop once, four or five students. We found meth in the car, in one girl's purse. I pulled her aside to talk to her. 'Is this yours?' She nodded yes, and apologized that she didn't know what she was doing with it. 'What do you want to do with your life?' I asked her. She admitted her dream was to go to nursing school. So I went to bat for her - I talked to the prosecutor, said she was a good kid that simply made a mistake - why not give her a chance? So they did - she pleaded guilty, but they gave her a year to stay clean and then expunged her record. She continued in school, made the honor roll, and turned her life around. Her mother thanked me for getting her straightened out. I really feel we were destined to meet."

Can you sum up what being a park ranger means to you?

"It gives me a chance to help people. I can pull someone over in the park, and within minutes they're showing me pictures of their grandkids, or asking me to take their picture. I give them water, hand them a map, get them on their way.

It rewards me to know I'm protecting people, protecting wildlife, protecting nature. Currently, we focus on reptile poaching and cactus poaching. If we don't look after these things, they won't be here for future generations.

"Also, working in administration, I have to take care of my staff - sometimes it feels like I'm in parental mode at work. But I learn something new every day here - and I wouldn't want it any other way."

All told, our talk lasted over 90 minutes. As the time approached 5:00, I thanked her for her time. "Thank YOU," she replied. "And I hope you can connect with Cam tomorrow. He's far more entertaining than I am." With that, I left to drive the east side's scenic drive. Saguaros, saguaros everywhere. Later, I came back to see if any sunset photos presented themselves.

All in all, a good (if hot) start to trip 3.