All. Dudes.

I was 400 miles away when my new boss called and asked if I was going to be in to work the next day. What? I wasn’t supposed to start until next week! I hyperventilated for somewhere between five and seven minutes, then immediately started driving. Destination: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I was going to be a Ranger, a Trail Worker – Manual Labor. Yes. This is going to be a good summer.

Chris, my boss, had told me to camp behind the maintenance yard. In the dark and in a state of disorientation, I pitched my tent. When I awoke at 6am, I realized I was camping on the front lawn of the headquarters building. Oops. I tore down quickly and got back into my car to search for the real maintenance yard.

I finally pulled into a gravel parking lot full of extended bed, extended cab trucks with diesel engines and, duh, a HEMI. I parked my little station wagon in the employee parking lot and nervously made my way up the dewy grass hill, slipping on my worn hiking boots, feeling more and more insecure about not having an olive and green uniform that I was certain everyone else would be wearing. I opened the door with the hand that wasn’t holding my sack lunch of carrots and a veggie wrap, and stepped into the break room.

All. Dudes. Fifteen middle-aged men stared back at me. They were just as surprised to see me as I was to see them. Immediately they made to pull up their pants and smooth their hair. The banter I had heard only seconds before had ceased in an instant. I would come to find later that I was the first female trail worker the park had ever seen.