Almost Home
Friday we hiked Centennial Trail and finished replacing the trail
marker stickers with the new 89 logo. It was extremely hot,
especially with the dead calm air in the morning. The breeze finally
picked up and provided some relief from the burning sun. It felt
great to finally get that trail done. And I was so happy that Friday
finally arrived, so I had the weekend to enjoy myself and organize a
few of my things. That Friday evening was a park relay that one of
the interp, Swedish Tom, had organized. Everyone gathered on my
porch, since it looked out over the VC parking lot where the race
was to be finished. We sat around talking and laughing, just waiting
for the 3 teams to show up. After awards and pictures, we enjoyed
some brownies and watermelon, provided by the park staff. It was a
really great time.
Saturday was another hot hot day, so Matt and I headed over to Cold
Brook in the afternoon. I unfortunately got sunburn. Ouch. Oh well.
It was a long weekend without Tom. He left for an 8 day work trip to
Sioux Falls, chopping and trimming trees with chainsaws as part of
his EPMT program. Sunday night finally arrived though, and as the
stars began to just appear in the bluish-black sky, I took my ipod
and just lay out on my porch watching the random meteors that
streaked across the sky. I didn’t stay up long enough to see the
real show, but I got to see a few.
Monday was 105 degrees out and it was sweltering, but it wasn’t as
bad as I thought it was going to be. We stayed close to Moby, our
water reserve, by cutting some more regen. Around lunch time, we
packed it up and headed in to cool off a bit before going back out
in the afternoon. We stopped in to the Fire Cache to load up on some
more ice for our cooler, when we found most of the maintenance guys
swarming around the ice machine as well. As we walked over to them,
Matt Hornfeck laughed and said, “It’s like animals around a watering
hole!” which was completely true. The maintenance guys at Wind Cave
are hilarious. I came in and of course they stood back to give me
the first chance at scooping out some ice. I didn’t want to take too
much and not leave them with anything, so I only took 3 scoops. They
all starting jeering, telling me that I should take another, so I
did. Then, guffawing, they told me to take just one more, so again,
I did. Just as the ice slid from my scoop, one of them shouted “Oh!
Too much! Now look what you’ve done!” haha. They were just messing
with us. We joked around with them some more and by the time we came
out of the Fire Cache, my stomach ached from laughter. It was great
and definitely made my day a lot better.
Tom finally came back Monday night, so I took Tuesday and Wednesday
off to spend with him. He had to leave again on Wednesday to see his
family and attend a bachelor party that he planned for his best
friend, seeing as how he is the best man. It was tough to see him
leave because when he comes back, I’ll be home in Maine. But I’ll
see him again soon.
Thursday was a fairly relaxing day. We were all anxious about going
home, talking about our families and friends. Things are beginning
to wind down. We hiked a little bit of trail, explored some rock
cliffs and just enjoyed the scenery because most of us won’t be
coming back to this area for a while. We came back to the VC in the
afternoon to get some SCA paperwork filled out. After work, the two
Matt’s and I went on Kristen’s Garden of Eden Tour, which was great.
It seemed fitting to end the summer in the cave. We came out
starving, and headed over to Dew Drop for some ice cream. On the
way, we saw a huge herd of elk – the biggest I’ve seen all summer –
just off of 385, heading south to Hot Springs. I’m glad I was able
to see that. They usually begin to form herds once fall hits because
they move together in hundreds during the winter. Just before it got
too dark, a group of us played our last game of volleyball. We
hadn’t played for a while because of the heat, but it’s been cool
enough at night lately that it was fine. We finally stopped when no
one could hit the ball anymore because we couldn’t see it and
decided to head over to Kristen’s Campfire. She put on a bat program
that turned out to be really interesting. Then I said good-bye to
Tyler who left early Friday morning, which was really sad. He was a
great guy and crew mate and I will definitely miss his weird, but
funny wit and humor.
Friday morning, with only 3 of us left, we finished up our paperwork
and went into town to mail our SCA exit forms. We cleaned the
equipment room and took inventory, hiked Cold Canyon Trail for the
last time (where we found some awesome quartz crystal formations off
the trail) and finally cleaned out Moby. Parking Moby where we first
picked him up felt somewhat eerie or deja-vu like because it almost
seems like yesterday Mike Henry was dropping us off with the keys in
front of Moby. We barely knew each other then or what the summer
would bring each of us. And yet, here I was, staring at Moby that
represented so much of my summer experience, and having to say
good-bye. I know it’s just a truck, but it symbolized something more
because it was our truck for the summer. I am just sentimental, I
know, but I like it that way. I spent the rest of the afternoon
starting to clean and pack, knowing the Saturday I would be on my
hands and knees scrubbing every inch of my house in preparation for
departure.
It’s amazing to me that the summer is over and that today was my
last day working for the park service as an SCA intern. I am going
to be on a plane early Sunday morning flying away from these
beautiful rolling hills to a place I call home. I wonder how I’ll
feel once I get there. I will fall into loving arms, of course, but
will I slip back easily into my lifestyle at home or will it come as
a shock? I’ve made a comfortable world for myself here, but I have
another world waiting for me in Maine. I absolutely love Maine, even
though this summer has been great. I cannot wait to start school
again and be with my amazing friends who I always have a great time
with and make my college experience the best.
I have learned so much out here. I have definitely grown more
confident, independent and interested in conservation. I have made
many connections with some terrific park service staff that I hope
will help me in future opportunities. I climbed the hill for the
last time this afternoon and just tried to soak in any last tidbit
of South Dakota that I could before being consumed under the
overwhelming amount of cleaning and packing ahead of me. Taking in a
deep breath filled with fresh prairie air, it finally sunk in that I
was leaving this place. And though it was a bitter-sweet moment, I
knew it was time to move on to better and greater things. This
experience has brought knew aspects of my life into perspective and
I cannot wait to share my new self to my family and friends. I am
ready to take on some new adventures. This year is looking to
be the best yet.
I also just wanted to thank all of those people who followed my
adventures this summer. I hope I provided you with some
entertainment and I am so happy that you were interested in sharing
a part of my life with me.
