The life of a wilderness ranger is not your typical 9-to-5 job. It’s not about dress clothes or boardrooms. Nor are you tethered to a desk, a phone, or a computer.

It’s a life filled with adventure and discovery. There’s also the humbling realization that nature --- in all its glory --- is totally in charge. You are only a visitor to the great American landscapes designated by Congress as wilderness.

The hours are long. You are often up before dawn preparing a tried-and-true breakfast on a one-burner stove. Once the sun breaks over the horizon, you pack up for the trail.

Your assignment for the day might be cleaning water bars so the rains won’t wash out the switchbacks you built last season. Or you might be collecting native seeds to replant at a camp spot that has lost its groundcover to thousands of footprints. Maybe you’ll come across some visitors along the trail. You’ll share how to enjoy these fragile landscapes without causing harm.

Depending on the wilderness you work in, you may not see another living soul for days. You must be willing to camp, hike, ride horseback, pack a mule, lead llamas, row a raft, or paddle a canoe or kayak on ;your own. You must relish the oneness of it all. You must feel totally comfortable in the vastness of the outdoors and confident that you can handle the elements: thunderstorms, mosquitoes, chiggers, black flies, snakes, and the howling wind. You must be backcountry-smart, using all of your senses to taste the air, smell the danger, and know when to stop.

As a wilderness ranger, you are master of a thousand skills, from orienteering to operating a crosscut saw (chainsaws are prohibited unless under certain circumstances). You are a naturalist, an interpreter, and a researcher. You are a cloud observer and stargazer. You are a member of the search-and-rescue team.

You do it all, and you do it with a love for the land and all things wild and free. The best rangers retain a childlike wonder of the awesomeness of nature. While on patrol, you constantly ask: What’s over that mountain pass? Where does this waterway lead? Only when you know your wilderness like the back of your hand are you equipped for the job of being a ranger.

Yes, you serve the public, and you do it with pride, dignity, and honor. But you also serve a higher order. You serve the wholeness of wild lands, trying your best to not allow yourself or others to take the wild out of wilderness.

To be a wilderness ranger is to live the life you dreamed about. The land needs dedicated wilderness rangers to watch over it. And those best suited for the job find that they need wilderness too. Only when they get lost in wilderness do they truly find themselves.