Wolves, Bison, and Bears! Oh My!!!

Hello Everybody!!

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last installment. Things up here have truly begun to kick into high gear and I have been doing a lot of work outside of the gate.
Let's start from the beginning; after finishing my marathon week of 10 days straight I drove straight to Bozeman, MT, a very nice town 3 hours NW of my station. The next morning I got up at 4am to catch my 6am flight. From Bozeman I flew to Minneapolis, MN to Atlanta, GA and finally to Charleston arriving at 7pm. Side note, in the Atlanta airport I ran into my Chief Ranger from Fort Sumter who was suppose to be on the same flight as me! It was really great to see her and hear all about old FOSU. Back to the trip - in Charleston my Dad picked me up at the airport and drove me straight to the rehearsal. I missed the whole thing but that seemed to be okay with everyone. From there we went straight to the rehearsal dinner, then it was out for a drink with Bryan and Laura (as usual). In bed by midnight. I was up the next day by 8am for family pictures, then out to lunch with Dad and Bryan, then straight to the wedding (which was really great! Kudos to everyone who was a part of that, especially Sara and Jason! haha), then straight to the reception, then in bed by 12:30. Up again at 4am to catch my 6am flight, same flight pattern back, in Bozeman by 1:46pm, back to my station at 4:46pm and back in the gate at 6pm to work till 10pm. And that was my whirlwind trip to Charleston, so if anyone is upset because they didn't get to see me... I hope you now understand why!
Back to the gate - I believe I have mastered just about everything in the gate as of last week. I have dealt with plenty of interesting people; one guy flew into the gate and began cursing and yelling at me because someone had told him all of the campgrounds were open 3 hours ago and now they were all filled. You can see where he went wrong (waiting 3 hours for first come first serve campgrounds...) Anyway, I tried to defuse the situation but he decided to keep yelling at me with a few choice words and so I told I was sorry he was upset and wished him a pleasant evening and shut the window. Maybe I'm wrong, but when someone decides to curse at me I feel my duty to help them has ended. Another fun situation happened right after returning here from Sara's wedding (more on that later). A van pulled up to the gate around 9:00pm with a family of four inside. This was all well and good until I noticed the open bottle of Coors Lite in the center console. So after wishing them a pleasant evening, I called the comm. center and reported the make, model and license plate number then sat back and listened to them get pulled over on the radio. Cruel? Maybe, but I was also hit head on by a drunk driver three weeks ago. My sympathy has run out. Finally, I had a woman straight from France who took at least three photos of me while I was ringing up her pass, then she wanted me to "autograph" and date her brochure and then proceeded to play 20 questions with me while cars were backing up behind her. Of course I was a little dumbfounded and about 10 questions into it I had to ask my co-worker for help because I just couldn't get this woman to move along down the road. Plain and simple, people are crazy, but it is what make the job interesting.
This week I have gotten to do a lot of really cool stuff. On Sunday I was on campground duty, which pretty much starts at 10am and last till 1pm, then I'm on Bearjam duty. And on Sunday we had a big one. We were on this jam for two hours as a black bear walked along a creek just beside the road. At one point I was only fifteen feet away from the bear as I tried to get people away from the bear. A family walked down the road as the bear started toward the road. As I was telling the parents that they were way too close and needed to return to their vehicle, their little girl walked right past them and straight to the bear. It was the only point since I have been out here where I have drawn my bear spray and taken the safety off. Luckily, I was able to reach the girl before she got any closer and created enough noise that the bear decided to return to the creek. It was a very interesting experience I will not soon forget! Yesterday I was on utility which pretty much means I got to do whatever I felt needed to be done. First I chopped wood for about three hours (Last year on July 4th it snowed here! I was determined to be prepared.), then in the afternoon I cleared the rooting logs that were once our campfire ring and rebuilt the actually campfire pit (we are hoping to have a campfire/cookout on Saturday). Finally, today I had to drive to Jackson Hole, WY to pick up rifle lockers for our district. We left at 6am and got back at 7pm, a long day but we were being paid, so I was happy. Plus! on the way back we were asked to pick up the new patrol vehicle for the district. Let me just say two things: 1) I would go into Law Enforcement just to drive that Crown Vic again. 2) If you ever feel like you are going to run from the police, think twice. This car was the most powerful I think I have ever driven and it took corners like you wouldn't believe!
Anyway, I'm sorry this was a long one but I hope you enjoy. I will try to send more frequent updates so they aren't this long in the future. I hope all is well with everyone! Haven't heard from many of you and I would love to know how life is going in your neck of the woods! :)

Your Obedient Servant,
-- Brent Everitt
Visitor Use Assistant
Northeast Entrance Station
Yellowstone National Park