Ranger
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
That's a thing you learn when you're a woman who works alone in the backcountry.
You don't hand out your biography to people you just met, even nice ones.
He asked, again, what time my check-ins were.
I said, I told you, 8 and 6.
He said, right, right, I thought so.
I wasn't sure if I'd remembered it right.
He stayed a little longer this visit, maybe 30 minutes.
He kept looking at the fire finder.
He kept asking about the layout of the district, where the nearest trails were, what the terrain looked like between the tower and the various trailheads.
I answered the basic questions and I deflected the more specific ones.
I said I didn't know the detailed topography as well as he might think I did.
He seemed a little surprised at that.
But he let it go.
Then he signed the log again.
He left.
He hiked back down the south side, not the east side.
I watched him go.
I stood at the fire finder after he left.
And I thought, okay, that's weird.
Not bad weird.