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.

The ESAR Plunge

ESAR - Explorer's Search and Rescue, that's King County Search and Rescue. One of 9 branches of the search and rescue family in the county, Explorer's is the most active, involved in urban searches on up to bigger scale searches in the mountains and searches at local hiking trails in between. Due to the vast amount of outdoor recreation activities available in the county, I guess it makes sense that there are more people getting lost or hurt out in the great outdoors.

I was at a friend's birthday party this last November and met a gal who had started search and rescue training. It was interesting to talk with my new acquaintance about her search and rescue training. She described the training and it sounded challenging but rewarding - the final test was being dropped off in one place outdoors on the beginning of the weekend, and then having to find your way back to a certain point by a certain time on Sunday. It sounded like something up my outdoors' alley, and since I was involved with outdoors ministry, I got the ESAR website from her for more information.

I remember being impressed by my friends who hosted the party and how they had befriended several friends outside my normal realm of socializing - my church. It seemed they were doing what I was reading about at that time in my pastor's book - 'Radical Reformission'. This is a book about living a Christian life (and being a church) in the culture, not seeking to completely change the culture (and in turn not believing culture is completely evil), but to seek to redeem the things in the culture that are truly sinful. As I was reading the book, I felt convicted that I wasn't doing alot to get out into my community - the community outside my church. Sure, I'm involved in ministry at my church, but primarily these ministries were to folks who were already on track to Jesus. What about those who don't know Jesus - those people outside the church? I was challenged to get out - get outside the church and to live more 'reformissionally'. (So yes, I recommend the book)

So I hopped onto the ESAR website and saw that training only happened during the winter, and that the last round of training began very soon. This meant I had to make a decision very soon on whether or not I wanted to take the ESAR plunge. Navigational training was the majority of the training course - which was something I felt I was lacking in. Sorry to say it, but even though I am an engineer, and had a fair amount of outdoors experience, I still didn't have a practical understand the workings of a compass. This seemed to be yet another of several reasons to begin Search and Rescue training.

And so I did it. I took the ESAR plunge. I went to the intro 'Course A' training course on a Thursday night. I was excited but I think also nervous at the same time, not knowing entirely what to expect.

Next up was Course B...

Home for Christmas 2007

Christmas is a time I have spent with my immediate family each year of my life. There has been a random Thanksgiving that I have spent without them, but Christmas is the traditional time I go home to Eastern Washington. I thought I'd write a little about my home trek this past Christmas.

I left Seattle on the Friday before Christmas, driving over Snoqualmie Pass, not quite breaking land speed records thru Central Washington. Driving by myself is something I kind of look forward to, it's nice to be able to think or pray as the landscape goes by. I think I remember a nice sunset in my rearview mirror that day. It's kind of fun to tune into different radio stations along the way, usually there are more country and hispanic stations as I travel East. Not long after Ritzville, I take a left, and head North up to my home town. My folks live about 3 miles outside of this small rural Northeast Washington town.

My home town has maybe 100 people living in it, but there are several more folks who live in the area. The town boasts a school - preschool, grade school, junior and senior high all combined in one campus, a post office, a senior's home, a feed store (that's feed for animals - the store building used to be a church), a convenience store, a bar and one or two other random stores. It's small, very small. It doesn't seem like a whole lot changes, but there are changes I see when I come back. People change, sometimes there are new buildings, or different stores.

I was able to leave work earlier that day, so I arrived home around 7pm, all total about a 5-6 hour drive. It was cold outside, and there was snow. I was greeted by my family, including my little nephew, Isaiah. It was great to finally reach my destination. We were able to enjoy a meal of grilled chicken together.

That evening, I got to talk with my Dad for a while sitting in the living room near the wood fireplace. They have a fireplace where you can watch the flames. It was nice to sit in a comfy chair and converse.

Saturday came and we got up for breakfast - my dad's sourdough pancakes. He has made those everyday, except for Sundays, I think for most of my growing up at home, and then after I've left, too. I think my younger siblings (I'm the oldest) both grew tired of them growing up - probably me too, but I think I'm old enough I've forgotten how I felt about Dad's perpetual pancakes back then. I enjoy them now - they're a good hearty breakfast - whole wheat (my Dad even grinds the grain in the hand grinder at home).

My brother, Luke, my brother-in-law, Adam, my Dad, and my uncle Tom bundled up to go outside and help my Dad run his cows and calves thru a chute for their regular vaccination, inventory and miscellaneous stuff. Adjacent to my folks' house are several buildings and pens used previously when my Grandpa and my Dad's family used to run a fairly large ranch. The cows (female cattle) were separated from the calves. We ran the calves thru the chute first. The calves went thru the chute (a long skinny passageway with fence on either side) into a chute house, where there is a metal chute contraption that the calves or cows can be held in while they are being worked on. My Dad had to vaccinate the calves, brand them, and some of the little bulls (male cattle) were castrated. Needless to say, those little guys wouldn't be having such a good day. I was designated note-taker, so I was with Dad while the calves were being worked on. I think my country upbringing has faded somewhat because I was a bit squirmy watching some of that stuff. Uh, hopefully no one is eating while they read this! Anyways, after the calves were finished, the cows were run thru the chute. Sometimes the cows are stubborn, not wanting to walk thru the chute, so we have to encourage them to move along. This time, the cows decided to push their way into the chute and literally stack themselves on one another. Cattle can be pretty stubborn at times, and sometimes aggressive (dangerously so). One of the cows got stuck at the bottom, and somehow upside down. Cows can die if they are upside down for too long. I'm not sure the whole anatomical explanation on that, but it was serious for a while, as we worked to get the cow unstuck, right side up and standing. Drama in the cow chute! Finally, the cow was able to stand up on its own, which was a relief!

Meanwhile, snow was falling - varying sized flakes. Beautiful.

I headed up fixing dinner that evening for the whole family - my grandparents, who live less than a half mile from my folks, my folks, my uncle, and my sister, brother-in-law and Isaiah. Thanks to Trader Joe's, we had some Indian food.

Church was Sunday. My folks still attend the small community church that I grew up in. The 'town', (if you can call a store & a church a town, ok, maybe a couple of houses too) is even smaller than my home-town . There may have been about 100 people at church that day. I still know quite a few folks that go there. My folks and my uncle are very musically talented. My Dad plays the piano at church, and my Mom leads worship (sings & plays her guitar). My uncle is a very good trombonist, so he played 'O Holy Night' as a 'special' during the service.

Sunday evening we watched 'Amazing Grace', a movie about William Wilberforce. He played a key role in the abolition of the slave trade in England many years ago. I recommend it - the movie was inspiring, and had a sweet love story. It made me want to be like him - someone who's life made a difference for justice, for God.

Monday was Christmas Eve. Adam, my uncle Tom, my Dad (Lee), and my brother, Luke headed out in the morning after my Dad snowplowed the gravel driveways to go snowshoeing. We drove up to a highway pass (at a higher elevation which meant more snow) maybe 20 minutes from the house. We parked the car alongside the road, geared up, and then snowshoed up a logging road. We went for probably a couple of miles along the road, alternating who broke trail. The snow was around a couple feet deep up there, so it was definitely harder to break trail than follow after a few people who had packed the snow down a bit. We came to a point along the road where it opened up for a larger view. I snowshoed up to it, and the view opened before me. I love it when it does that! Photo opportunity. It was fun to be out with my family in the outdoors. At one point my Dad fell in the snow. As some of you know who have snowshoed before, it is sometimes rather difficult to get up in snowshoes. It was kind of funny to see my Dad struggle a little bit - don't worry, my brother was already trying to help him.

It's tradition on Christmas Eve to go to my grandparents house, have dinner together, then spend some time together opening presents and such. We congregate in the living room, where the Christmas tree is. My Grandpa reads the Christmas story. Each member of the family present, from youngest to oldest, gets up and lights a candle and says a little something about their year, maybe what they're thankful for, or something along those lines. It's a neat time to share with my family. My Grandparents, uncle, folks and siblings are all Christians, so I feel pretty blessed. We open presents after. Usually, at some point in the evening, someones starts wadding up wrapping paper and throwing it at some one else. Sometimes it's been a full on barrage of paper balls going back and forth. Fun stuff. Isaiah was constant entertainment throughout the evening, but he did get pretty tired towards the end. Still cute as a button tho. (Buttons are cute?)

Christmas day arrived. Indeed, it was a white Christmas - yes! Since my Grandma hasn't been feeling as good, my Mom has took over most of the Christmas dinner duties, so the morning involved quite a bit of preparation for that. We also had a nice breakfast.

Then it was time to gather again for more presents. But first, my Dad read a portion of scripture, I believe this time from Psalms. We had a time of prayer together.

Stocking time. Tradition is that stockings are hung from the staircase railing, and someone puts stuff in them Christmas Eve... hmm - I wonder who that is!?! Each one of us got a stocking with little knic-knacs.

And then presents. I was excited to give my sister and brother-in-law a baby backpack carrier. Adam tried it on with little Isaiah in tow. I had found it at REI for about half-price. It's fun to give gifts that you know people will use and enjoy. For my Mom, a framed picture of Isaiah, for my Dad, a framed picture from our backpacking trip, for Adam, books, for my sister, Hannah, my old SLR camera, and for my brother, a book (with a check). Isaiah was still the main attraction - quite a good distraction. He was able to rip some of the paper off his presents, and I remember him smiling when he saw one of the presents.

It was a bit of a rush to get the rest of Christmas dinner ready and shuttled down to my grandparents place. It was a huge meal - there were twelve of us. One of the neighbors joined us with her son.

Then it was food coma time, well, not really, but after turkey and a full stomach, it was a great time for a nap. We at least took a break between dinner and dessert. We also watched 'Ratatoille' - the newest Pixar film. It was fun.

Adam, Hannah and Isaiah headed out the next day. Hannah had to return to work on Thursday. Mom and Dad drove them back into Spokane to catch their flight back to Chicago. It was sad to say good-bye to them, to little Isaiah. He smiles so easily at you, and it was alot of fun to play with him. He laughs too. Mom was video taping quite a bit, trying to catch the fun moments. Adam and Hannah had brought Isaiah's little Johnny Jump-Up. Isaiah would sit in it and have a merry time bouncing up and down, up and down. He had it down. It was fun to watch him swivel when he heard a noise. Amazing what the addition of a little one does in a family. Isaiah was constant entertainment.

While Mom & Dad were taking Adam, Hannah & Isaiah to catch their plane, Luke, Uncle Tom and I went snowshoeing one more time. We went back to the same highway summit, but from there, took a different logging road. I think we made it to a higher elevation this time, because the snow appeared to be sticking to the trees much better where we stopped to turn around. It was very pretty.

Later that evening, my Dad alerted us to an amazing sunset. The sky had brilliant pink clouds, and some of the snowy mountains viewable from the house were glowing pink. Awesome.

The next day, Thursday, was time for me to head back home. I decided to head back then so that I would have a day between getting home and my next Search and Rescue training weekend. I wished that I could have stayed longer - it was a good trip. I felt a little lump in my throat as I said good-bye to my family. Back to Seattle I went.

The trip was full and busy. Usually when I head back home I have more down-time. But it was nice to do more things at home and with my family. There is much to be thankful for.

This is a little movie of my nephew showing off his Johnny Jump Up skills:

And another movie - my Mom and my nephew dancing up a storm. (It's kind of long...)