Many things have and will be happening!

Hello and sorry for the absence. First of all, thank you for checking the blog anxiously waiting for another update; it’s here! Work is work and that is that. The days off in the Old Faithful area have been filled with much Disc Golf. I think I have played for about 20 or so days straight at a minimum and it brings back memories of the days when I worked in Whitewater and lived on a Disc Golf course while running the movie theatre there.

Due to a secret vow, I cannot post many pictures giving away the secret course or mention names of thermal features or even a river that may or may not be part of the course. It is mainly an employee course and we hope it stays that way. For instance, I was part of a group of six and three other people went ahead of us and we caught up to them twice and just decided to pass them. The course is 18 holes but we use the same stump or rock pile a couple of times, so when you get multiple people on the course, someone is bound to get hit by a disc and more importantly, slow our game down.

I will say that I have lost one disc to a water hazard and the likely hood of me seeing it again is zilch. Every other day we see at least one osprey flying around and looking for something to catch but we never have look as it flies, (down or up), a body of water that flows. (Like I said, I'm being very discreet here). I will say that it is the most beautiful Disc Golf course of all and the hazards are extremely more dangerous than any other.

One day I through a disc, unintentionally, five feet over a bison's head and to see that reaction is quite terrifying. It was if someone had shot him in his butt with a sling shot or smacked him on his ass. He started to buck for a couple of minutes and wondered even closer to the pin. A buddy of mine threw his disc and it rolled by the bison and the bison took his anger out on a 3-5 foot tree. Most of the time, when we see him down by the hole, we tend to skip it for obvious reasons, whereas, others, tourons, may decide to play as close as possible to him, which is just another reason to keep them away.

I have six more days in the park and plan on playing as much disc golf as I can. I hope to play the other course Old Faithful has to offer within that time but we shall see. The course I have been playing on was made in the 70's. I guess Grant Village has a course but no one knows where it really is, so perhaps I may just have NPB sponsor a new course...

NPB sponsor a course? How much am I bringing in? Enough to cover my costs. The tricky thing about running a blog by myself is the constant updates, keeping people's attention and just sticking with it. National Park Bum was founded in December of 2013. Before then, I was writing letters home to my parents, attaching pictures of the adventures and one day I was writing and a friend said you should send me that. Of course I thought for a moment or two, thinking to myself, "Do I want them to read what I write?" and so I sent it to them. They came back with all this positive feedback and a couple of months later I created NPB during the start of my fourth season.

Still being new to the park life, I thought about my blog name. It took a while and NPB came to my mind. There are many of us, in many parks, in my states and countries. NPB is no long just about me. It's about all of us. Sure we can create a Facebook Group for the friends we have met, but I just feel that there is a greater audience looking for the average Joe/Juliet to write about the experience they have, whether it be their first season or 20th.

With that being said, I am making an opening invite to any National Park Employee who would like to share their experience through word, video, poetry or any type of art. National Park Bum is no longer about one person, but a group of people who literally, "work to play" as oppose to, "work to survive". As park employees, we work hard; 5-7 days a week just to have one or two days off to explore what is our backyard. People from all over the world spend 1000's of dollars to visit for a week or two and we get to have it for free and that's special. That's why we're here. That's why I am here in Yellowstone National Park.

So if you would like to join National Park Bum, please contact me through a message via Facebook.com/NPBum or nationalparkbum@gmail.com

Thank YOU!

MacKeag Resh