 |
Hi. I’m Ben Benton from Flagstaff, Arizona. I believe that you will enjoy my daily journal from Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 1999. I left downtown Flagstaff with my saddle and duffel in early July and lighted in the horse corral at Mammoth Hot Springs. My journal will continue through September 20th, unless the weather shuts us down earlier. You’ll read about adventures on the back country trails, Yellowstone history, people I meet, and anything else I can think of to write about. I’m the author of “National Park Employment Data,” a guide to working in national parks, which is available for purchase on my web site at www.gorp.com. I’ve been working in national parks and ski areas off and on for over twenty years. Because I want the data in my book to always be fresh, I continually test the concepts, employers, and tips that I provide. Right now, I’m working for Amfac Parks and Resorts. They are a top notch concession company because they place employee training, morale, and amenities first. |
 |
|
Previous |
Sunday, 7-18-99My second day on the job got pretty Western during the 4:30 P.M. trail ride. Here’s some excerpts from my “incident report.” Please describe, in full account, the details of the incident you witnessed: “I was guiding the 4:30 pm trail ride from the front and Russchelle was wrangling around mid-center of the string. Ahead at 10:00 to 11:00 o’clock was a large stand of spruce. At 12:00 ahead, approx 1/2 mile, was the road from Hot Springs to Norris. From 12:00 to 6:00 to our right was the open hilly sage leading to the horse corral. In the above setting, at approx 5:00 pm, a mature black bear was spotted directly ahead on the trail. Russchelle came forward and asked me to radio the corral with the information. I complied, and said that we would be taking a detour. Russchelle then took the lead and guided the string over a ridge to the north of the trail and resumed the trail just short of the last bridge, approx 1/2 mile south of the corral. I entered the dude string in front of Nacho because a small gap developed as we went over the ridge. As wranglers Jett and Matt approached the dude string — they came loping to the site of the bear sighting as is company policy — Nacho pulled out and around me and trotted up to the horse he was previously following. As he turned a corner in the trail to the left, Nacho’s rider, a Japanese lady in her 60s, leaned right. The saddle slowly twisted to the right and gently deposited the lady on her back in a tall stand of grass at the side of the trail, close to the wooden bridge.” Well, the lady got up and looked around and then laid down and wouldn’t move. Park rangers came, and she was carried out. I always carry hobbles and a King rope even though I seldom need them on dude rides. Today was an exception. The wreck happened in sage brush country and there was nothing to tie to, so Apple got a quick lesson in hobbles. Later, I ponied four horses back to the corral while park rangers and wranglers carried the lady. Accidents like that are rare and I was impressed that Yellowstone
National Park Lodges has such a good policy manual in place.
You’ll notice in my account above that the head wrangler
for the day, Matt, was on the scene BEFORE the accident happened
because of a policy for him to get to the site of a large animal
sighting as soon as possible to help clear the trail. |
|
|