Ranger Training Day 6

 

Lake Kabetogama (Lost Bay)  from Cruiser Lake trail

This week continues our training at Voyageurs Natl Park.  Yesterday's training took us to Ek Lake (an interior lake just off Lake Kabetogama) for field experience on habitat, invasive species, climate change, etc.  The second half of the day was a crammed course of Geology 101 on Voyageurs Natl Park.  I think I retained about Geology 0.025 - it's a bunch of history stuffed into half a day.  Great stuff, but a lot.

That's Ek Lake in the background

Today was all employees day of training.  I thought the conference room was packed with a huge crowd (75 to 100) of interpretative rangers, park rangers, maintenance staff, etc.  The lady setting next to me commented on how small this year's staff was for the park.  After talking with a few people at lunch, most think it's a small staff this year.

A better view of Ek Lake

The leaves are finally out.  We can no longer see the truck when it's parked in the volunteer site next to us.  Temperature wise, we're getting lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s.  Rains every few days.  There's so little soil here that if it doesn't get rain that often, the forest turns into a fire hazard. 

Anyway, we finding it an awesome experience to be working here & recommend it to everyone. 

We believe this is a Columbine

Don't know the name of this flower plus I had a hard time getting the white balance correct so you could see its colors.  We'll have to get back to you on it.

Later, David