Yellowstone Standoff Read Free

up, the grizzly had split.”
    â€œThey tried to track it, from what I read,” Chuck said.
    â€œYeah. But it rained later that day and they ended up losing the trail.”
    â€œThey haven’t spotted it in all this time? Even with that notch in its ear?”
    â€œThey’re still trying.”
    â€œIt’s been two years.”
    â€œGrizzlies cover a lot of ground—and there’s lots of ground out there for them to cover. Lamar Valley alone is forty miles long, almost all of it roadless. It’s not like civilization starts right up at the park boundary, either. At this point, everyone figures the griz is so deep in the Absaroka wilderness east of the park no one will ever see it again.”
    â€œThat’d be fine with me.”
    Justin gave Chuck a calculating look. “I’ll bet. I hear your wife and kids are coming with us tomorrow.”
    â€œAnd my research assistant, my wife’s brother. My contract calls for a quick recon, a few days at the site. We were planning to backpack in on our own from the south, over Two Ocean Pass. Then Hancock told me about the research teams basing out of Turret Cabin this summer, everyone together.”
    â€œGrizzly people and the wolfies and geologists and meteorologists and the new canine-tracker guy and the Drone Team—and now you, too.” Justin’s mouth twisted. “Going to be a whole herd of us out there.”
    â€œThe site I’ll be working, at the foot of Trident Peak, is only five miles from the cabin. The timing turned out to be perfect. I was glad to join in, to be honest.”
    â€œSounds like a peachy little family vacation for you.” Justin lifted an eyebrow. “Assuming the killer griz is as long gone as everybody says it is.”

3
    A ll of you will use Turret Patrol Cabin as your base of operations for the summer,” Chief Science Ranger Lex Hancock announced to the three dozen scientists seated on folding chairs in the Canyon meeting room.
    A collective groan rose from the researchers.
    Chuck sat in the back row beside Clarence, who’d slipped into the room behind Lex, just after eight. Justin sat a few rows ahead and to the left, with the other Grizzly Initiative team members.
    Clarence shoved a length of black hair behind his ear, revealing the thick silver stud set in his lobe. He cast a questioning glance at Chuck, who shrugged, waiting to see how the ranger would respond to his disgruntled audience.
    Lex stood at a podium at the front of the room, flanked by American and Wyoming flags, his appearance as crisp as Chuck remembered from the years they’d worked together during Lex’s climb up the ranger ranks at Grand Canyon National Park. Lex’s gray hair was combed back from his high forehead, his mustache neatly trimmed. Despite the jowly cheeks framing the sides of his wrinkled face, he stood erect, shoulders straight, aging body fit beneath his pressed, green and gray park service uniform, brass badge shining on his chest. As chief science ranger, Lex oversaw Yellowstone’s scientific research operations while his boss, Park Superintendent Cameron Samson, served as Yellowstone’s public face.
    Lex waved his hands for quiet. “Now, now. I know this comes as no surprise to any of you. And I don’t necessarily blame you for your complaints—which I’ve been reading online.” He furrowed his bushy eyebrows at his audience. “Rather thancomplaining, might I suggest you instead welcome the opportunity to work in the backcountry at all this summer?” The room grew still as the ranger went on. “As all of you are well aware, last year was a dark time for our research efforts here in the park. After the attack the previous fall, Superintendent Samson and I made the difficult but prudent decision to end all backcountry science operations and, instead, limit research to only roadside activities for the duration of the summer