Hiking for a day job

Greetings from Carlsbad, NM. I'm here on my first pair of days off after starting my internship last week. So far I love what I get to do, which is basically answer visitor questions about the park. The location where I answer those questions will probably end being about 60/40 visitor center/on the trails, but for now I get to hike every day. I have to have the hiked the trails before I can answer questions about them, so my supervisor is sending me out on a new trail each day. This coming Saturday my job will be to hike up the highest mountain in Texas. That fact that I'm getting compensated to do this is awesome.

So far I've hiked all the easy trails and seen all the buildings in the park that people might visit, and I'm already feeling mostly competent answering questions at the visitor center desk. I've spent the evenings reading up on the region's geology, flora, and fauna. The geology is really cool, but really boring to people who aren't rock nerds like I am, but the short version is that mountain range is a fossilized barrier reef. The vertical relief today (see photo) is similar to what it was when there was water filling the whole basin during the Permian period 250 million years ago.

The living arrangements are interesting. The nearest gas is 30 miles away. The nearest grocery store is 55 miles. I have cell phone reception if I stand in a certain parking space at the visitor center, hold one arm up the pointing roughly southeast and stick a leg out towards the west. I live in a house with 2 fire rangers, and share a bedroom with one of them, but the place is spacious, and I have my own fridge (though I'd trade the fridge for my own room). The only people my age are the fire rangers, all the interpretation people I work with are older, either guys in their 30's to 50's who made a career of this and live in Carlsbad, or older retirees who volunteer. The fire rangers are all cool, but seem to have their own clique thing going, so making friends could prove to be difficult. At least I brought a lot of reading material.

The one key thing that has made the transition to living here much easier is the satellite TV. With no cell reception or internet, I'd have no contact with the outside world without that TV. With the TV, I've been able to watch all of OU NCAA tournament games so far.

More later as I get more settled in. Tomorrow I'm off to hike the Permian Reef Geology Trail, which I'm excited about. Finally, here's a couple photos of the mountains:


El Capitan and Guadalupe Peak (highest point in Texas at 8,749 ft).


Smith Spring (all the trees), with desert plants in the foreground and the limestone ancient reef escarpment looming in the background