This volunteer position is a bit different from any other we have held. Last summer we met with our supervisor, Jeff, who was interested in hiring interpretive guides. We told him our experience, discussed some of his expectations, and then continued to discuss options over the past year over emails.
Jeff has given us autonomy to develop our own schedule with our own programs. This seemed a little daunting, but we have received great support from staff here. Due to COVID, this park hasn’t had these kinds of programming for two years. Knowing that expectations were high and that we had very little direction made us a bit nervous.
During our very busy winter season, we really didn’t have much time to focus on a whole new direction. We were hoping we could use our two PowerPoint programs: Campfire Safety with Smokey Bear and the Bat Talk. These two programs go over well with the audiences we have presented them to. During our last summer in Champoeg State Heritage Park in Oregon, we did the Bat Talk on Tuesday nights to about 25 people each time. I gave the Interp Ranger the Smokey Program and later, after we left, she emailed me to say they were continuing to use that program as well as the Bat Talk. Both programs were also successful at Kartchner Caverns during March and April. These experiences gave us the incentive to use them again.
But Hells Gate has a Lewis and Clark Discovery Center – it just seemed appropriate to create a program about the Corps of Discovery. Doug and I have both read a few books about the journey, including Ambrose’s “Undaunted Courage”. We just finished “Lewis and Clark: Historic Places Associated with Their Transcontinental Exploration” by Roy E. Appleman. The Discovery Center does an excellent job with their signage, so it was hard to come up with something new and different. Plus, our program had to be more of an intense look at a small part of the Lewis and Clark experience. The broad picture of the cross-country trek is very well known.
After considerable effort I came up with the idea of talking about the food they ate on their journey. We went to the grocery store and bought items for a display. This program is done outside in the early evening in an amphitheater – no electricity. This program is a show-and-tell – a different approach for us. We have done it twice and it was fun to talk about the dry provisions needed for the long trip and how we still use the same food today – only with new packaging. We also discussed the animals that were shot and killed. Did you know that during times of plenty, each person ate about 9 pounds of meat per day? And then, we introduced the subject of Sacajawea and other native tribes and how they educated the Corps about the herbs, roots and other food that they could forage. We only had a few people attend but they seemed to be interested. They really liked the recipes I handed out – some eaten on the journey and some Three Sisters recipes.
We alternate the Food program with “Exploring the Full-Time RV Lifestyle.” We get so many questions about how we live on the road that we thought we would see if anyone was interested in exploring this topic with us. We have had 3 weekends of rain so we haven’t actually done this yet. We are curious to see how this is received.
Doug has taken the lead for the Junior Ranger programs. We do this on Saturday mornings and Sunday evenings. Doug introduces them to the Idaho Junior Ranger Program with their mascot Scout, the Red Fox. We take the children on a Nature Safari around this beautiful park – Doug identifies and explains the different trees and the cycles they go through each year. We discovered that local folks like to come to the Junior Ranger programs which means that we need to have multiple topics since the same kids will be coming over the summer. So we changed the program a bit – added a Nature Scavenger hunt which the kids loved. I created a Scavenger Hunt about the river which we hope to try out this weekend. Luckily, nature abounds here and there is plenty to discuss.
I took on a shift at the Jack O’Connor Center, which is located in the park. It’s a little out of my comfort zone. O’Connor was a journalist who wrote about hunting, and he hunted large game all over the world. The Center is filled with heads of the animals he killed. I have come to terms with this because with more research I found that O’Connor practiced and wrote about ethical hunting practices. So, for 4 hours a week, I greet guests and show them around the really interesting displays. I’m learning a lot there and so far, only one of the beasts on the wall bothers me – a lion whose eyes follow me around. I think this King of the Jungle is communicating something to me. We’ll have to see what I learn from him.
I added an additional program: Crafts from Nature’s Bounty. We’ve been rained out so I haven’t presented this one yet, but it should be fun. We gather leaves, twigs, rocks, grass and anything else we like and make a design with them. We advertise it for all ages so the challenge will be to keep everyone happy.
And to get to our 20 hours each a week, we rove – we help out during busy check in times in the Discovery Center. Greeting campers, giving them some instructions, turning on the movie when someone wants to see it and chatting about the Lewis and Clark inside and outside displays.
That’s our new job – Thursdays through Sundays.
This gives us three days to explore this new area, run our mundane errands and do what we love the most – spend time with our grandchildren! Jake and Julie and their three darlings are about 45 minutes away and we have already visited them a few times.
And they all came to the park for Memorial Day. It was a cold, damp day, threatening to rain all day. We had reserved a shelter and I made a typical picnic barbeque lunch. Although there was a playground nearby, our little ones spent hours down on the beach of the Snake River. Paisley, Griffin and even little Beckham were completely engrossed in skipping rocks and mainly just throwing them in the river. Their little hands didn’t seem to mind being icy cold. Jake took Griffin for a brief ride in his new inflatable kayak. The river was a little too swift for a comfortable ride but at least he got it in the water for the first time. We had a special treat – Amy was with them since she had flown in for Jake’s sister’s wedding. It turned out to be a great family day for us.
We also invited our volunteer neighbors to our picnic and got to know them better – Tom and Kaley and their two small daughters Ember and Rivlin. We are very impressed with this family. Tom and Kaley live in their large class C full time and have been doing volunteer work for a few years. This meant working while Kaley was pregnant and then with an infant, and now a toddler plus another infant. They are doing the landscaping/maintenance around the Discovery Center. It is amazing to see the two of them working with their pretty children with them. The Discovery Center is beautifully manicured thanks to their efforts, and the children seem to thrive here.
Our first weekend of programming work went well, we had some nice family time and now we can get into the groove of our new position. The weather was the worst problem we have had. For four weekends it rained. That is unusual weather here – by now it should be very hot and dry. After a long, cold winter in Arizona, I was longing for some hot bright sun. Hasn’t happened yet but I understand we could be in for a very hot summer.
As I write this on the first official day of summer, the weather finally changed. The sun has come out in all its glory. Finally, the ground can dry a little. We are very optimistic about this coming weekend and hope to present every one of our six programs. We know for sure we will have some audience because Jake and Julie and our three grandchildren will be camping here. I know they will like the craft program and they are already veteran junior rangers so they will be happy to work for another badge. Looking forward to having these boisterous darlings listening to me talking about bats.