I am a Wilderness Ranger

Mt. Whitney Ranger Station, Lone Pine, CA – 1971-1972

I politicked, I pleaded, I begged. I wanted a different job when I came back to work in the Mt. Whitney Ranger District in 1971. I did not want to be in the front country with the campgrounds, day use areas, and driving to get everywhere. I wanted the back country. I wanted to hike in the wilderness. I wanted to be a wilderness ranger. That season they decided on a brand new position in the Cottonwood Lakes Basin, south of Mt. Whitney, under the watchful mass of 14,026 foot Mt. Langley. The southern most 14,000 foot peak is the backdrop for a basin with over twenty lakes and ponds, Jeffrey pine and Englemann spruce, and the spawning grounds for the golden trout. I was ecstatic. I would be the first wilderness ranger to patrol these lands.

At the time I was in my next to last semester at California State University at Long Beach. I finally declared a major; geography – the study of humans as they relate to the world they inhabit. My professor for physical geography was Dr. Jean Wheeler. She herself had done studies in the wilderness and showed me that a degree in geography could lead me towards my career goals. I felt like I had a direction in my life.

Once a week in the evening, the college started up a non-credit backpacking course. Various topics were presented by different guest speakers on equipment and the art of backpacking. After taking the course I went out and purchased Lowa Civetta hiking boots, The North Face Ibex down sleeping bag, an Ensolite sleeping pad, and a Camp Trails dark green external frame pack. I also purchased a Stetson rancher cowboy hat which I steamed so as to turn the brim down. Better to shield my face from the high altitude sun and create a more Clint Eastwood look rather than a Roy Rogers. That hat would go on with me my next six years as a wilderness ranger as well as on my personal travels and my two years in graduate school at the University of Idaho.

And so in the summer of 1971, I had a coming of age. I was living a dream. I was hiking in one of the most beautiful spots in the Sierra Nevada and I was getting paid to do it. What people planned their vacations or a long weekend to do, I was able to do all summer. The next five years I would be living a life that I wanted to go on forever. But right now, right here in the John Muir Wilderness, I was living and loving my life.