[CINC] The Bad and the Good mostly good

[Catherine French]

Here is my report to fill out a bit on Paul's comments about the four-day weekend at Scorpion Ranch. Also, I think Paul meant he was working at the TNC or The Nature Conservancy part of the island for the newbies in the group. Paul has been helping out at the old ranch in the central valley of Santa Cruz for many years and has lots of great stories to share about his experiences even before the east end became part of the CINP. Paul and I spent a week on the island in the central valley and on many ridge tops looking for a fox-hungry golden eagle!

I was the overnight volunteer to support the ranger activities and provide interpretation - formal on hikes and informal around the island at Scorpion for the 4 days. This includes checkiing on the visitor center, helping with the coordination of loading and unloading passengers and gear from boats, assisting the rangers with a variety of duties with which they may need help.

Friday was pretty casual with just two arrivals and two pick ups and not too many people. We all thought, though wrongly, it might be a mellow weekend. Not. On Saturday, we had 4 boat arrivals with both day and camper visitors as well as picking up folks four times as well. Marty Flam was there to help, thanks Marty.

Rangers Tim and Merrill were busy educating and then writing ticktes to visitors who insisted on feeding the foxes. It was a huge problem all weekend, and I had people from my orientations telling me about individuals doing this. So, please in your orientations, let it be known how it is really bad for the foxes who have just recovered from near extinction. I am sure David will be reminding everyone about this important message. Tim came to most orientations to reenforce the "no feeding the animals" rule. Saturday night we listened to Carolyn Greene's kayak ordeal and all I could think was, "it seemed like deja vu all over again." Same crazy mistake against all advice to the contrary. Thanks Carolyn for noticing they weren't back, no one else may have.

Sunday, was busy with 100s of campers and day visitors. Thanks to Bart Francis for taking a huge group of hikers from the 9:00 boat, as I was already taking many others on a hike. As the final pick up was in progress at the pier for a 5:00 departure, we noticed a small cabin cruiser that had been anchored at Scorpion was drifting, obviously draggin anchor. I alerted ranger Tim and he and Merrill who had just returned from hiking over from Prisoners, to go out in the patrol boat to retrieve the wayward vessel. Mike Lipoma from maintenance took off in a vehicle to find the owners who had skiffed ashore hours before. The swell was mixed from west and south and the wind was blowing from 20 to 25 knots.

They saved the boat, yeah, but as Merrill came back to the pier to pick up one of the boat owners, I mentioned that we had a missing person. He and Tim finished up and by the time the boat left at 5:15, 4 friends of the missing person had gone back to wait for him on the mainland as Tim and Merrill began the search with support from their supervisor Mike Morales who was technically off duty for the weekend at home.

We all got our marching orders from Mike, and the search was I. I stayed at housing with phone and radios to monitor, etc. Two kayak guides Tony and Andy were part of the search team. The search was called off at dark. Next morning, the guys left early, I started putting up notices about the missing person, and later a photo and speaking to everyone I met about being on the look out. The first boat arrived and part of my orientation was to provide 125 visitors with a description and last known whereabouts of the hiker which was 2:00 p.m. on Montanon Ridge on Sunday.

Two of his friends came back out to be on the island and help if possible. I monitored radio chatter, they set off on a short search area and I started loading 117 campers, 25 day visitors (thanks Paul for providing gear loading support on the boat) as Danny had arrived from NPS to help with the search. Anyway, after noon hit, Mike was hovering over the ridge with Vta. Co. Search and Rescue. By then Merrill had found the hiker, in good condition. He had been following the sound of his voice for about 2 hours at that point. He was in the bottom of a ravine, but no injuries "just thirsty" he said. Two and a half hours later, they were back at Scorpion Canyon. It took a long time for Merrill and the hiker to get out of the deep ravine off the ridge near Smugglers and get back to the road to a park vehicle. Merrill and Time worked very hard for two days to find this guy with Danny's help and Mike superbly managing the process.

I was so relieved as the call came in from Merrill that the hiker was fine and it was code 4, that's ranger speak for all is fine.

All's well that ends well. The hiker was so glad to see his friends and they him and so sorry he had decided to hike further. He said, "next time I'm going with the smart people (referring to his two friends) and heading down the hill with them when they say, "'this looks too strenuous'", I'll agree!"

It's always a pleasure to be on the islands, no matter what happens. I feel extremely blessed to be part of such an amazing team of people who are working to educate the public, manage and restore the ecosystem and share our love of the park and the oceans with everyone we meet.



Calm Seas,
 
Catherine French
Writer, mentor, naturalist
805.570.0432
To own is to have; to share with friends, is to enjoy.




-----Original Message-----
From: paul jr petrich <ppetrich39 at me.com>
To: channel_islands_ naturalist_corps <channel_islands_naturalist_corps at rain.org>
Sent: Mon, Sep 5, 2011 8:51 pm
Subject: [CINC] The Bad and the Good


Hello and Happy ending to Labor Day,
I was a TC work detail on SCI this weekend. I am certain either Catherine 
rench or David will update us on the latest hiker mishap on the island, which I 
hink ended better than expected, as he was found a day after going missing 
uring a hike to Montanon Ridge. 
On the good news side, I heard over an LA radio station on the way home that 
lue Whales were feeding the last couple days a mile or two off of Redondo Beach 
ier! Unheard of in the past 80 years!    Krill is in abundance there right now!   
aul
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