This week Umar spent his time working with a variety of Park Service Rangers. Here's what he had to say about his work in the Visitor Center, and with Bear Patrol.

10.21.2002
Monday I got to job shadow a Ranger named Shelton. Shelton is also from Detroit. When He lived in Detroit he lived not far from were I live now. He said that we were going to stay in his office and I would watch him clean out his office but that would not be any fun. So instead I would work in the visitor center for a few hours. I was really scared at first because I'm new here, and I don't know where stuff is. So Shelton showed me where all the maps were and stuff like that. The visitor center was empty at first, but as soon as I got behind the desk it seemed like people came from everywhere.

I was talking with people from Germany, Japan -- I mean from everywhere! It was good for me to talk and interact with people from different countries. People would come up to me and say things like "where's the bus stop at?", and "where's the bathrooms at?"--stuff like that. This one Japanese man came up to me and was asking me questions. Man--I could not understand him.

10.22.2002
Now last night I went out with the bear research people. I went out with two guys named Matt. Yes, both of them were named Matt. One of the Matts came and picked me up at the Ranger Club in a big, huge, white truck. After that we headed over to meet the other Matt. I thought this would real fun because I might get to see my first bear in Yosemite. Both Matts were in their mid 20s.The first Matt was telling me that he worked from 7 to 5 in the morning. They patrol the campsites to make sure people put their food in the bear boxes. Because when people leave their food out that is what attract bears.

So we headed down to El Capitan meadow to hook a camera to a tree to watch a deer carcass. They were hooking the camera up to the tree to see what animals would come to eat the carcass. As we arrived there we saw a bear walking away. That was my first bear in Yosemite. It was eating the deer I guess. After we hooked up the camera we took off. We headed down to do a sweep of the campsites. On the way down there I was able to play with the night vision scope. When I looked thru the scope I didn't see anything at first, then I realized that it was not on. So after I turned it on and looked thru it was like green, but very clear. I didn't see any animals or anything so I was kind of mad but that's okay. So at about 11:30 they dropped me off at the Ranger club and that was it. What I liked about that job is they get to chase bears away from the campsites. That is very cool not only because it's fun, but also because it protects the bears from becoming habituated.

October 25, 2002

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September 20, 2002

11.04.2002

Last Friday I took a climbing class at the Mountain store in Curry Village. I was kind of nervous at first about climbing - a fear of heights and falling. I saw this as a good way to get over this fear of heights. So I met with a climbing instructor whose name is Kevin. He seemed like a very nice person , and his experience climbing helped ease my fears. He was (I think) in his early thirties and was also from Detroit. It was cool to meet another person from Detroit because we had something in common, being from the same place. There were also three other teenagers out that were going to climb with me. They had climbed before and were from Indiana.

So we headed off to where we were going to climb. We arrived at a big rock called Swan Slab. It was about 60 feet tall. First we practiced some free climbing on some smaller boulders to get us ready for the real climb. The practice was easier than the real climb because the rock was smaller and closer to the ground. It was easier because it was less scary, and I didn't have to worry about falling. Kevin said that climbing is fun and safe, he showed us how safe it was by teaching us how to tie knots. We also learned how to repel, which is how climbers get down from their destination. That was scary because it felt like the rope would break and you would fall. It helped to have an experienced person there that knew what they were doing.

When I was climbing, I was thinking to myself I was going to die, that the equipment was not going to be that safe. The person that was belaying me also gave the rope I was on too much slack, which made me nervous. I never fell though, and didn't need to rely on my harness to catch me. It was harder than I thought, it required patience and balance, and it was hard to find hand holds in the rock. I got to the top of all of my pitches that I tried. It was a good experience, and I think I will try climbing again.
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