Park Employees should know SOMETHING abo ut parks!

“**** GRIPE ALERT ****

When Thinkbubelz & I headed to our local Metro park to go snowshoeing yesterday, I couldn't believe the lack of knowledge displayed by the young woman (either in high school or recently graduated) at the desk of the PARK OFFICE....

We asked where the best place would be to go snowshoeing at Stoney Creek metropark.

She looked at us with a blank stare and said, "What's Snow Shoeing? I've never heard of that."

To which, after the shock wore off, I replied, "Haven't you ever seen it on TV? You know, in old movies where it looks like people have rackets on their feet... It's a way for people to hike over snow in the winter..."

Her Response. "No, I've never heard of that..."

On top of that, the guy at the toll booth didn't know where to snowshoe in the park, but at least he knew enough to direct us to the cross country skiing area.....

That's where we finally found out that not only are there snow shoe trails, they RENT snow shoes in the park as well!!!!

GRRRR.... I think it's time to send a note to the Metropark and let them know that if they are going to have employees work in the park, they should at least be aware of the amenities and activities available!!!”

“Was she doing her nails?”

“And huffing the fumes...”

“Was she pretty?

Was she a blonde?

Maybe you should find out if she attended school and where. Then attack that school board.

Direct her to TT. One can get a real education here!
last edited: 1/10/05 9:38:58 AM”

“I agree pink - the girl should have at least been able to direct to the rental place. One would hope that THEY would be able to tell you where the trails were.”

“We all sterted somewhere.”

“Well, Thinkbubelz told me that she was probably from the local area, which is suburban & borderline rural... and that the girl had probably not had much exposure to much more than her own neighborhood....

But that still doesn't excuse the fact that she didn't know that the rental place existed!

At least the older fellow in the Toll booth was able to direct us somewhere! The girl in the office didn't even stand up to look at the maps-- she just pointed to the wall (where they had a small map of winter activities, but no rental information on either the X-country Skiing nor the snow shoeing....)

In fact, when we asked to buy a park pass, she also assumed that we wanted an annual pass (which we did) vs. even asking us if we wanted a day or annual pass ($4 vs. $20)

Someone needs to put the service back into customer service.... I understand that she's probably being paid only minimum wage to work at the desk, but this is ridiculous!”

“Excellent point!”

“I'm actually more upset with the park than her--she was obviously not trained in doing anything more than taking money for the park passes...”

“What's a "metropark"? How much should she know for minimum wage? We had a "problem" in Glacier with this young, hot blonde behind the counter. She couldn't give us any current/relative info for our trip.

We found a Ranger at the station for that. All I wanted to know was whether or not she'd like to share my tent.”

“Was her reaction something, "Ewwww! Not out in the woods!"”

“That's disappointing, pink. It prolly wouldn't hurt to mention it to the powers-that-be.

I, on the other hand, have had pretty good luck w/ the folks at the MetroParks. But, I've never been to Stony Creek, specifically.”

“Where do you go snowshoeing Tarabull? We happened to be on that side of town running another errand, so we decided to make that part of our drive... :-)

Have you snowshoed at Kensington? I was wondering if the local West Bloomfield parks might be good places--or do they clear the paths of snow during the winter?”

“The WB park is good for snowshoeing. And, if there's fresh snow and you can get there early, it's wonderful for xc skiing as well. They don't do anything to clear the paths there. Tho, the rail-trail gets pretty packed down w/in a day of a fresh snow fall cause so many ppl use it.

I don't do much snowshoeing locally. I usually get out of town for it. Pontiac Lake, Proud Lake, Kensington, etc... would all be good.

Highland Lake has some great xc ski trails, too.”

“Bearmagnet--
a Metropark is a network of local parks in the metropolitan Detroit Area. They are bigger than the county parks, but my guess is that they are run on local tax dollars and their annual/daily passes, vs. that of the state....

I understand your point about what a person should know for minimum wage, but to not know basic information about the park (or even TRY to look for the information somewhere...) is not good. I don't want to get the girl fired, but I do want to let her supervisors know that they need to train their employees better--had Thinkbubelz and I been the type of people who would just walk out frustrated, without trying to further look into the facts, we probably would have left and never come back to the park... (It's way on the other side of town from us).

We were pleased to be able to find the trails, but by the time we finally got our snowshoes strapped on, it was 5:30 pm and starting to be dusk. We figured, however that since you can see snowshoe and ski tracks in the snow even when dark, we'd go ahead anyways (even though we didn't have our flashlights.) So, we managed to get about an hour and maybe a mile of snowshoeing in... :-)”

“Tarabull-- how much snowshoeing do you do?
We'd be up for a Saturday Morning or Sunday day trip sometime... :-) I've decided to try to go every weekend if possible, to help build my stamina for the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk.”

“Most of my snowshoeing is done w/ an overnight pack.

I'd be up for a local snowshoe excursion, tho.

My weekends are gonna be full cause I'm getting ready for another (maybe) half-marathon in a couple months.

Email me and we'll get something figure out, tho.”

“Very cool Tara!
We just took out our little water packs and a fanny pack with goodies.

I was quite surprised at how quickly I got "overheated"....

Was only wearing long (wicking) thermal pants, with thin gramacci pants. A summerweight wicking short sleeve T-shirt, a long sleeve button-down shirt, a running jacket and my wind jacket, plus a fleece hat and fleece gloves. We just wore our hiking boots in the snow shoes...

I got way too hot, so I took off the running jacket... (still kind of warm, but I figured if I took off another layer, I might be too cold....My legs were fine... I must just overheat or something-- Thinkbubelz had a longjohn shirt and a fleece and then his wind jacket and he was fine-- I would have been too warm in a fleece!”

“yeah, you really work up a sweat in snowshoes - and the less packed the trail, the harder you work.”

“BTW-- how far down are the snowshoes supposed to sink in the snow? We aren't sure if there are special adjustments to be made in differing conditions?”

“I tell my employees they're not expected to know all the answers to every single visitor question, but their response has to include, "I don't know, but let me find out for you!"”

“depends on the trail pink. on packed snow you may not sink at all, but would bust thru without the shoes.

On powder, you might sink 4 or 5 inches - depends on your weight and the consistency of the snow.”

“I've got my own gripes about the Metroparks. They buy up land in some of the most beautiful and environmentally sensitive areas of the region and then build golf courses and wave pools on them. Most are crappy for any type of hiking.

But, I've always found the ranger type people to be pretty knowledgeable. The ranger at Lake Erie Metropark told me about the location of a bald eagle's nest one time.

The Toledo and other Ohio Metroparks systems seem much more into preserving nature.”

“Bearcrossing-- that is the response I would expect ("let me find out") at least that shows some type of initiative and willingness to help. It's extra important when the person is the first one encountered at a company. Even if the person is a receptionist and not a park ranger, they should at least be able to assist in some way.”

“Hey Pink, next time you head out to Stoney let me know that is where I usualy go. I went snowshoeing on Saturday and went running the trails early Sunday.”

“Oh! We were wondering if some of the tracks might have been yours Eveningred! We were on the trails by the nature center... didn't have your number or we would have called...”