40 Days in the Desert

An excerpt from my journal February 23rd, 2009:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So it began for me this morning, stepping outside my front door into the mild Seattle air.
I leave what is familiar to go to what is unfamiliar.
This will be an adventure - I am excited. But I am also a bit anxious because I'm not sure what will transpire.

Here at SeaTac [airport] - watching the sun come up.
Goodbye Seattle... Hello to adventure.

________

I returned to Seattle April 9th, 2009, early morning, after about 6 weeks on the North Slope of Alaska working as a construction inspector on a bridge construction project in the Prudhoe Bay area. During my time there, I worked each day, seven days a week, covering a shift from 6am to 6pm, except for a few days that I traveled to Anchorage for more training.
It's kind of funny to think about, but 6 weeks roughly correlates to 40 days - kind of like Jesus' 40 days in the desert - only it was 40 days for me in a frozen desert. The correlation doesn't end there; I think it was also a time of testing for me on several levels.
Am I glad I did it? Yes. But would I do it again? Well... not in the near future at least. It was hard - challenging and draining physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Initially, the trip was only supposed to be a week and a half. Thru a series of events, it turned into a solid six weeks away from home.
Home. I am glad, very thankful, to be home. But I am also thankful for the opportunity to taste life up there and thankful for the experience.

Dinnertime in Delta Junction

So I’m sitting here on the couch at the Tanana Loop Country Inn Bed & Breakfast near Delta Junction, Alaska, waiting for my co-workers, aka ‘the boys’, to gather up and go grab some dinner. I’m not sure if it will really happen, though, because there is dissension in the ranks. Some of the guys are warming up their ‘Hungry-man’ TV dinners in the microwave, and another has decided to skip dinner and stay at the cabin after claims that he is the most out of shape he’s been in in a long time.

It will be 4 weeks tomorrow that I’ve been up here in Alaska. It looks like I’ve got another couple weeks to go. Honestly, though, I’ve enjoyed this trip quite a bit. The folks I’ve gotten to work with have been pretty cool. Several of the guys on our crew have quite the sense of humor – very sarcastic. Maybe I mentioned this before, but pretty much everyone on the crew has been ‘fired’ several times, which usually go something like this: ‘uh, yeah, I just got off a conference call with (insert boss’s name(s) here) and we’re going to have to let you go’. We have a few running jokes amongst us. All this makes for a lighter work environment to say the least. Combine that with an easy going project, and this feels more like a vacation than work. I think it will feel weird to go back to Seattle and start regular work again.

I’m back in the Lazy Boy now, and yes, dinner finally did happen.

Alaska Photos

So here are a few pictures...
The road between Tok and Fairbanks.

An iris at one of the sites we worked at.

Me and the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline (TAPS). It's big.

A shot of the clouds at a site we were at.

Some of the vegetation we've encountered alot as we hike thru the woods to the sites.

I've taken alot more pictures, but I'll stop there... I think there's some frisbee in the works with the co-workers. Adios from Delta!

A Tale of Tok

I am now in Tok, Alaska. Tok is South and East from Fairbanks by a couple of hours drive, and West of the Canadian border by about 90 miles. There is a Denali Gasline Office here in Tok, so we’ve been in more contact with other people working with other companies on the gasline. There is a company investigating the archaeological aspects along the route, another company is investigating wetland sites, another company is investigating contaminated sites, another company is providing guide/bear guard services and of course, we’re providing the hydrology and survey investigations for the proposed gasline stream crossings.

Things are different here in Tok than Fairbanks in many ways. Definitely not a large metropolis – you can drive thru in about 5 minutes. There are a few hotel/motels, RV parks, souvenir shops, a DMV, a few restaurants, all pretty spread out along the main highway. No Fred Meyer across the street here as we had in Fairbanks. The buildings are set off the highway quite a ways, and between the buildings and the highway are several 4-wheeler tracks paralleling the highway. 4-wheelers are another main mode of transportation around here. There are so many RV’s and motor homes that go thru this part of the world. If it were not for the tourists, I’m not sure how much traffic Tok would get – probably not much at all. There are several native ‘villages’ in the area. So there are several native folks that live in the area. From the highway in Tok, you can see mountains to the South-ish.

We’re working with more PND folks here in Tok. More surveyors and engineers – all of them guys except for one gal who was here briefly, she is a survey intern with PND. The guys like to joke around a lot. Some of us have been ‘fired’ several times, others have been forced into public service, all for the sake of sarcasm and having fun. Needless to say, we laugh a lot, so I’m thankful for the laughs when we’re working 7 days a week.

Some of our weeknights we gather with other folks from the other companies working on the project and play some ball games – one night we played kickball, another couple of nights we’ve played ultimate Frisbee or soccer, last night we played basketball (unfortunately one of our guys sprained his ankle pretty bad), and then one night we invented a new game – ‘Foccer’. A cross between ultimate frisbee and soccer, complete with rules – needless to say we had fun with it.

Work is pretty laid back. Our day usually starts about 8am, we meet the rest of the guys and figure out what and where we’re going for the day. Us engineers divide up with the two survey teams generally, and play hydrologist. The surveyor’s work usually lasts longer than our hydrology work, so we usually have some down time at each stream crossing. There has been quite a few hours logged driving to and from our stream crossing sites as well. For several of the stream crossing sites on native land, we have a native guide with us, so sometimes we had to drive further than our stream crossing sites to pick up our native guide, then drive back to our stream crossing site, then drop our native guide off. Compound that time with some road construction and a few 10 minute pilot car waits, and this adds up to a whole lot of driving fun. But actually, it’s been cool driving thru the country here. The area we’ve been working in the most has some beautiful snow covered mountains off in the distance, with some foothills that fade into some wonderful blue shades and some green valleys and water ways in the foreground – so I’m really enjoying the scenery part of work. Also, the down time we’ve had in the out of doors provides some great time to take a few pictures, so I like that part too. We are planning to move to Delta tomorrow since we’ve pretty much wrapped up the stream crossing investigations from the Canadian border up to Delta. Our client is still working on getting permission to access additional proposed stream crossing sites, so we’re kind of waiting on getting access to more sites so we can do more work.

Quite honestly I feel like this is a vacation. My room and board is being paid by the company, I get to be outside exploring new country I’ve never been in before, plus meet some new folks, some of them quite the characters.

I'll have to post more pictures later - my SD card reader isn't with me at the moment.

Peace y'all.

The Beginning of an Alaska Adventure...

This last Tuesday my Alaska adventure began with a very (very) early morning flight to Anchorage. After arriving in Anchorage, I walked a few gates down the concourse and hopped on a plane to Fairbanks. At Fairbanks, a co-worker of mine picked me up and drove me to meet a few of the other workers on the job here in Fairbanks. Trevor left that evening to work in another location, but I also got to meet Kyle, Ryan, Logan, Jimmy, Bill & Mike. Bill & Mike are the surveyors on our team, the rest of us are engineers (or almost engineers). So far it's been a fun crew. Ryan reminds me of my younger brother - he's the same age - and also a church goer like myself. He just got engaged July 4th.

Our work consists of following our surveyors to proposed gasline stream crossing sites, and conducting a few tests on the stream & noting several different observations. Usually, we wrap up our part of the stream crossing work before the surveyors, so we have a good amount of hang out time. But we're in some beautiful country here around Fairbanks, so I've gotten to take a few photos, and enjoy the scenery. The stream crossing sites have been parallel to the Alaskan Pipe Line, so we've been able to see that, and are also on an air force base. Sometimes we see jets fly by, or at least hear their rocket roar.

It's been a nice change of pace here... I'm enjoying it...

Ok, here's a few photos...

Our first day out in the field we saw a mama moose with her baby...

I set the camera down on the ground and took a quick shot - this is what I got:

I took this shot today as we were walking thru the woods following the surveyors Mike & Bill back to our vehicles.

And here am I...

Feel

There's a feeling I feel

When I stand alone

Out under a bright starry sky,

Or before the wide expanse of a sunset


I don't feel alone, but feel small

When I stand on a mountain with a valley spread out before me,

I don't feel scared, but awe

When I sit in a meadow kissed with wildflowers,


Or listen to the ocean waves crashing on the beach


It is a feeling that is sometimes fleeting but at others long enough to savor

A feeling of being close to my Creator, close enough to whisper,
engulfed in the beauty of Creation.

ESAR Course B

The morning dawned... dark. It was early, and tough to crawl out of my warm bed, but it was the weekend for ESAR Course B. Needing to be up north of Monroe by 7 in the am, my alarm clock raised its noise much earlier than what I was used to.

Previous nights had been spent gathering up the items on 'the list' provided to us at Course A. Most things I had already - the major items like a backpack, sleeping bag, etc. I rounded up several items to put together ESAR's recommended med kit. I now know more about drug stores than ever - I recommend Bartell's.

I grabbed my loaded backpack and headed out the door. I settled in for an hour and a half drive. Arriving in Monroe about 6:30am, I was pleased to think I was on schedule for arrival at 7am. I turned off on the back road for Camp Brinkley into unknown territory.

The road before me was windy and unfamiliar. Back at Course A, the ESAR staff guy said to stay right if you were in doubt. So, I began taking all the right turns that I could, but it still didn't feel... right. I was praying, Lord help me find this place, and at the same time thinking - yah right, you want to be in Search & Rescue, but you can't even find the training location! So finally, I decided to try to track someone down to ask directions - a little tough early on a Saturday morning on the backroads of Monroe. A truck appeared, and for some reason turned around in front of me. I waved the guy down, and stepped out of my car to ask him directions. He hadn't heard of Camp Brinkley, but he'd heard of the lake nearby it. He gave me directions there, which I mentally recorded and desperately tried not to erase on the way. At last, I found the right road. I had gone the long way around. I think I finally arrived at the Camp around 7:30am. I parked, found my way to the ESAR van/ambulance looking vehicle, and checked in. One of the staffers reassured me on my lateness, recounting the story of another trainee that had initially headed down to a boy scouts camp near Mt. Rainier, realized his mistake and then headed all the way back North to make it in time to join the rest at Course B. Outside the van, people were tossing frisbees around, kicking kickballs around, and just hanging out waiting for the activities to begin.

And it had begun to snow.

The staff gathered us together and gave us a quick run-down of the what-tos and do-nots of the weekend. One of them included a what-to when encountering members of the group 'Mortal Tears', a group of role-playing folks who were sharing the camp with us that weekend. The ESAR staffer told us to 'ignore them' if we encountered them in their sometimes extravagant, sometimes rather scary looking, costumes while traipsing about the grounds. Apparently one of them told the staff member that would be the best way. ESAR meets 'Mortal Tears.'

We divided up into teams with leaders. I was in team 4 (whoop!) with our team leader, a highschooler from Bellevue. Although young, our leader was knowledgeable and led our team well during the weekend. There were five or six of us in a team.

Throughout the course of the day, we went to various stations learning about several different things. First we we learned how to work with a litter, a fiberglass basket type thing that is used to carry people. We strapped a staff member into the litter and carried him around for a while, even flipping him upside down in it (but not dropping him), over a nice puddle. We went to another station where we learned about our brand new compasses. We set our declination, then practiced reading bearings on marked trees in an area. Determining our pace was another station. My trail pace was 4.5 feet for two of my steps, and 5 feet for for two of my steps on flat terrain. Lunch was spent randomly talking to a few of the staff about their pet chickens in Fremont. For post lunch festivities, staff gave talks on water purification systems, pooping in the woods, and methods for searches, specifically evidence searches. Next was learning about different ways to build a tarp shelter, including different knots that are useful in doing that. I think this was possibly my favorite part of the weekend - learning about shelter construction - maybe that's why I'm an engineer. After our knot/shelter tutorial, we put our knowledge into action, building our tarp shelter for the night. Another gal in my team, Anna, and I combined forces to build a pretty sweet tarp shelter. The thought of sleeping in an un-enclosed area (not a tent) was kind of creepy to me (so much so I carried my own tent around in my backpack that weekend!), but the way we set up our tarp, it felt like we were pretty well enclosed.

Darkness closed in, but training continued. We practiced a quick evidence search, then also a mock search, carrying a 'subject' out in a litter, with our backpacks on - quite tiring. By that time it was later in the evening, and the snow had kept falling. It was getting fairly deep.

One of the staff members had built a fire back near where we had built our shelters. Once back to the shelters, we made our dinners thanks to our small stoves, and then several of us gathered around the warm fire. The staff began asking trainees around the fire their names and how they had joined ESAR training. It was neat to hear stories from different folks while enjoying the warmth of the fire. Three of the trainees had decided to join ESAR because they had witnessed firsthand ESAR's work in the search for their friend who died in an airplane crash this past fall. Throughout the day, and around the fire that night, staff members told stories of searches past. A feeling I got was that the ESAR staff represented there were a community that enjoyed being together and had fun together. I also felt community being built as we, the trainees, worked together and learned things together. A neat feeling definitely.

Then it was time for sleeping. I think I stayed fairly warm that night. Anna and I woke up about 7am the next morning, and the goal was to be completely packed up and ready to go by 8am. If I remember right, I believe we pretty much accomplished this goal plus maybe a few minutes. I even had a quick hot oatmeal breakfast.

We walked down to another building at the camp where we had lectures on hypothermia, the workings of ESAR, and hands on work in planning/organizing a search mission. Afterwards we went outside again and practiced more compass work. We were given three bearings with distances, and starting at one point, we were to 'triangulate', going in one direction for the allotted distance, then another direction, then the final direction and distance and theoretically back to a specific 'post'.

The weather had warmed up, so no longer was it nice soft flakes coming down, but rain. The nice snow that had been there the evening before had begun to turn to slush. I remember telling a staff member, 'I'm cold', and she in her rain drenched coat replied said, 'Me, too!'

Finally we gathered again to learn about 'the wheel' that you can attach to the litter to carry people out on the trail. The wheel is attached to the underside of the litter, and four people, instead of six without the wheel, are able to 'chauffeur' the subject in the litter.

As the wrap-up, more of the staff talked about the next steps in the training process, specifically Course I. We still had Course C to complete, but Course I would be our next outdoors training weekend.

And then we were done. It was a full & good weekend. Onward to the next training... Course C.