Our island, just freshly released from a blanket of snow and ice, breathes and welcomes (we hope) each new set of boots that steps lightly off the Ranger III, up the wooden steps, and back onto the dock. We’re a symptom of spring in this ecosystem; buds crowd branches, tiny violets and hepatica flowers cluster along the trails, ice chunks on the lakeshores dwindle, loons prepare their nests and babies are born high and low – and the National Park Service arrives again. If the moose had textbooks, we’d probably be in there as “hibernators; emerge in spring.”
It feels good to be back, am I right? At the end of last season, I didn’t know if I’d be returning, but here I am again, and so happy to be walking the trails (or at least trying to walk on the trails; damn trees everywhere), chilling on the Tobin Harbor docks, cooking dinner in the Ben East. Our Snug Harbor crew is already almost complete. In the Ben East, we’re still awaiting our new SCA interps, but one of them, Sam, is on the Ranger as I write this. Most everyone here has been here far longer than I have, getting our water and power and sewage lines up and running. Snug Harbor is getting back in the groove: the only clues to the fact that it’s still so early in the season are the enormous piles of cut wood at the docks, cleared from the trails, and the distinct scarcity of backpackers and lodge guests in the vicinity. It’s peaceful.
So here we are again, folks, and here we will be, as the buds flush and explode into verdancy, as eggs hatch and calves grow, as the water warms and flowers come and go, as berries ripen and fall. I’ll be keeping you updated, near and far, with the events of Snug Harbor, so stay tuned. From the cozy V.C. to our new Command Central in the auditorium (I’m here now, sitting next to a cardboard box labeled “Pollock Beer Batter;” what other Command Central can boast that?) I will bring the stories, the jokes, the mishaps, the wonders.
Here we go –
Yours,
Liz Dengate
Snug Harbor Reporter
It feels good to be back, am I right? At the end of last season, I didn’t know if I’d be returning, but here I am again, and so happy to be walking the trails (or at least trying to walk on the trails; damn trees everywhere), chilling on the Tobin Harbor docks, cooking dinner in the Ben East. Our Snug Harbor crew is already almost complete. In the Ben East, we’re still awaiting our new SCA interps, but one of them, Sam, is on the Ranger as I write this. Most everyone here has been here far longer than I have, getting our water and power and sewage lines up and running. Snug Harbor is getting back in the groove: the only clues to the fact that it’s still so early in the season are the enormous piles of cut wood at the docks, cleared from the trails, and the distinct scarcity of backpackers and lodge guests in the vicinity. It’s peaceful.So here we are again, folks, and here we will be, as the buds flush and explode into verdancy, as eggs hatch and calves grow, as the water warms and flowers come and go, as berries ripen and fall. I’ll be keeping you updated, near and far, with the events of Snug Harbor, so stay tuned. From the cozy V.C. to our new Command Central in the auditorium (I’m here now, sitting next to a cardboard box labeled “Pollock Beer Batter;” what other Command Central can boast that?) I will bring the stories, the jokes, the mishaps, the wonders.
Here we go –
Yours,
Liz Dengate
Snug Harbor Reporter
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