2012 begins...

Once again I haven’t updated in forever!! Its New Years day, 2012. I’m working in the Cincinnati area for awhile. I had been working in North Dakota for several months prior to this.

For a few reasons 2011 has been one of the tougher years of my life, I have mixed feelings about it being over, but I’m ready to move forward. I leave 2011 stronger and more reflective than when I started.

I’ve had a hard time putting in to words the way I feel about relationships ending and life changing. Its hard to let go, but at the same time I’ve always felt that things are exactly the way they are supposed to be.. Regardless of how painful it is, or how hard it is for us to accept, we really don’t need to be upset about it, I feel its more important to be thankful for the experiences, good and bad that we have taken from a relationship. What happened was exactly what was supposed to happen. Really.. That’s the way life is. We can try and blame this or that, or say “if I would have just done this differently” but in reality the only true way to understand it is to be thankful for everything that you had, and appreciate how it made you grow as a person. I’ve always been fond of the saying “thats just the way it is….”

Now as I move forward in to 2012, I’m excited about the future. I’m putting together  plans for moving to the Pacific Northwest. I don’t feel like I have much choice with that, it’s a place that tugs at my soul daily..
I haven’t fully decided on which city I want to live in. I’m leaning towards Bend, I always feel at home there... Like much of Oregon, It’s a dreamland for a person that loves the outdoors. One thing that I really like about Bend is the amenities that the city actually offers. Being in such an isolated place, several hours from the nearest freeway, (think about that for a minute, how far are you from a freeway??) I wouldn’t expect it to have most of the higher quality offerings of a much larger city, but it does and yet you can be in the wilderness in 5 minutes...

People in Bend are happy. They really want to be there. I have visited Bend many times, and everytime I go I am impressed with how happy most everyone I meet is. Bend is a city of transplants, transplants united by a love of the outdoors, physical fitness and quality of life. The passion of Bends residents as a whole contributes a lot to the vibe of the city. People are so willing to say hi and start talking to you randomly. In a lot of cities it seems like people are unwilling to expand their ideas, or the social circle that they have always had/been in and it tends to make for a vibe of overall depression.
The biggest thing missing from Bend in my opinion is any sort of urban grittiness. I love cities, and I’m not sure how I will feel in the long term about being in a wonderland that is in the middle of nowhere. I suppose I can always take my trips to Portland!! Here is a little blurb that someone else wrote about Bend, I think that most everyone that goes there falls in love.

I miss you all and I hope that everyone has a great 2012!

Pipe is all finally in the ground!

Finally got my first day off in over a month of 14 hour days. All the hard work has paid off because as of yesterday, all of the pipe is in the ground. I started working on this project in January 2008 trying to figure out how we were going to route it the 675 miles from Wyoming to California. Several accidental deaths, Four billion dollars,  and Three and a half years later, the pipe is in the ground. There is still a lot of testing and clean up work to do before it is operational, but that is coming along quickly. I honestly never thought I would see this day.

Now apparently I am pushed along to another much smaller project in North Dakota. I'm not sure when I will be going, whenever I leave Oregon sometime in the next few weeks is the best guess. The worst part about that is that the only town in the area is Minot, which if you have seen the news would know that it is currently under water. We are trying to figure out how we are going to live there and right now the discussion seems to be leaning towards building a camp because the already limited housing is obviously even more scarce now. It's only supposed to last 3 months, so I guess I can handle that. I'm kind of looking forward to being in the wide open prairie lands for awhile. As long as I'm outta there before the winter hits than everything is good. I'm possibly going to be going to another large multi-year project in Texas and other parts of the South later this fall, but I'm not really sure if I have Texas in me. A few other possibles are Southern Indiana/Ohio or Pennsylvania/New York.(Mountains!) As always with my job though, I won't know for sure until it happens..



Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks.

Here is the last convoy of pipe being delivered on a nice rainy foggy typical Oregon morning.

One thing that I'm not gonna miss is hauling my awkward equipment up mountains to set it up.

This is one of the last stretches of pipe, strung out waiting to get welded together.

After the pipe is buried, one of the last things we do is place pipeline markers over it. This is one of the final stretches just as it turns South to California.  Thats Shasta in the background. After we set the markers, the ground gets seeded with native plants, so in a year or two it will look a lot nicer hopefully.

And this of course is the California/Oregon state line. The end of the line for now. There is a big receiver station that has been built that other pipelines are going to tap in to.

Still alive!!

The past couple of weeks have been pretty slow still. There is a lot of opposition to the project that is still  holding us up. We are already several months behind schedule and that is gonna make this rapidly approaching winter  "fantastic"... The "Axe Men" have moved in and started logging some of the areas that we have permission to begin working in. My job since they have moved in is to work with a biologist to survey and keep track of any raptors "Eagles and Hawks" that are in the area, and make sure that they aren't being disturbed or becoming too agitated by all of the commotion in the area. We have also been marking noxious weed areas, noxious weeds are plants that are invasive and can take over an area.  We have to make sure the weeds aren't spread by any of the construction activity. So anyways, I've been learning a lot about birds and weeds the past couple of weeks. It's pretty neat I guess...

I have been getting in a good bit of running also. I am finally feeling really good, I have been battling a foot injury and a groin strain for over a year and it has really limited my running during that time. But slowly over the last 2 months I feel like I am back, and I run virtually pain free now. Its actually pretty weird and almost feels like something is wrong.

Here are some pictures from this morning's run. Remember to click on them to view them fullsize, they look a lot better that way.

Can anyone tell me that this isn't a beautiful lake??

Here is the view from higher up.

Normally you would see Mt. Shasta in the background here, but there are some fires in the area and it was too smoky this morning.

Here is part of the Gnarly trail that I took on my 15 mile run to be able to enjoy these views. I didn't see one other person. I love days like that.

We had a new slate floor installed  in our kitchen over the past 2 weeks. Rebecca applied the final coat of sealer last night, and our next door neighbor helped her move the appliances back in this morning. I can't wait to see it in person. It looks great Rebecca!

Here is a close up, I see my Jeep is still happily waiting for me in the garage!

Slow week.

This past week hasn't been particularly interesting, mostly everything that we need to do surveying wise for this project to take place has been done. Mostly we just spend a lot of time in the mountains double and triple checking things.

We did finally get a bit of good news yesterday morning. The Obama administration has issued us a Limited Notice to Proceed. What they have done is given us permission to construct approximately 50 miles of the 675 total miles of the pipeline. The 50 miles is all broken up in to little chunks. A half mile here, a 1/4 mile there. This is kind of a big headache that is just going to make this project last even longer because instead of starting in one spot and working all the way through, we have to keep jumping all over the place. Given the terrain out here, that takes a lot of time.

I am happy that we can finally start, but the government regulations are making it a pain. I understand why people are opposed to pipelines. I am very opposed to pipelines... I've heard all about the Enbridge pipeline that just leaked in to the Kalamazoo river. Everyone wants to drive cars and have heat in their house in the winter. Pipelines are part of that equation... I can only do my best to make sure that the route is the least environmentally harmful as possible.


Here is a cattle drive that was taking place on the main road coming in to Lakeview on Thursday morning.


Here is a picture of some cool horses on a ranch just east of town.


Here I am this morning leaving to go on my run. This is the Deschutes river trail as it leaves downtown Bend and heads out towards the wilds.


Here is where it actually branches off in to a single track.


And a picture of my shadow as I run up the trail through the backyard of one of the lucky residents of Bend, oregon.

NorthWest

Ahhh, Sunday morning again! My favorite time of the week. I am sitting here, icing my aching legs and drinking my 2 large cups of coffee searching the internet for quotes about Oregon. Here is one that is relevant to where I'm at....

Before the Cascade Mountains give way to the high desert along the south-central edge of the state, they leave parts of their green, wet selves scattered across the borderlands. Forests and dunes, lakes and playas, grasslands and sagebrush stand almost near enough to nuzzle each other. The result is a mingling of open spaces and timbered slopes, of freshwater lakes and alkali flats in a world straddling such vastly different geological and historical eras that only a strong imagination can reconcile the contrasts.-Mark Highberger ("South Central Oregon" in An Explorer's Guide to Oregon)

Its hard for me to put in to words how completely fascinated I am with this region of the country. The Pacific North West. Northern California and Oregon specifically. I have spent enough time here to know that it will be hard for me to ever stay away. Last time I left here, I was away for about a year and a half and I thought about it everyday.

Early this morning I ran the Klamath Lakes trail on the outskirts of Klamath Falls. I completely lost it when I got to the top of a mountain and alone I could look in any direction and see something beautiful. In one direction I had a stunning view of Mt. Shasta, in another I had a gorgeous view across Klamath Lake of the South rim of Crater lake (the 2000' deep lake is the deepest lake in America.) In another I could see the Snowy peak of Mt. Mcloughlin and in another I could see Klamath falls far below.

I consider Minneapolis a very beautiful place to run also, but it is different. I think Minneapolis possibly has the most beautiful urban running routes in America. I can't get enough of the downtown lights reflecting off the frozen lakes at night. Often times, even though I live only 3 miles away from the bustling downtown of a major American city, I will see deer and occasionally Bald Eagles adding to the overall experience. Still there just isn't that sense of discovery and overwhelming emotion that the Northwest has on me.

Its very conflicting to me. Minneapolis is such a nice and stable place to live. But I don't think I will ever be completely happy there. Rebecca thinks that she ultimately sees owning a small boutique hotel and living back in Michigan. Traverse City or possibly the Frankfort area.
I don't know. The Pacific Northwest has gotten in to my blood. I don't know if it will ever go away.

Here is a song that I am really in to right now, I had it on repeat while I was on my run this morning. Its by Minneapolis area singer Bon Iver.

...

Maybe I'm not really meant to be a blogger, it seems like I'm not really good at sticking to my schedule of posting every Sunday.

So not a heck of a lot has been going on, we are still preparing for construction. I think we are actually getting pretty close.

Since no one has seen me in quite a while, here is what I'm looking like these days. LOL. Pretty much like a desert rat in my opinion.


This is the view that I see most of the time. Just my shadow as I stare at the ground while I either march across the desert, or climb a mountain.


I've been doing a lot of river and stream crossing too. This is the best way, but it only works for the smaller streams. Most of them you just have to take your boots off and wade across. Some of them are really deep and cold. We have actually gotten chest deep in freezing water a few times. I live for stuff like that!!



I do have one or two good stories from the last couple of weeks. Last week I was climbing up a rock face and my guys were a couple hundred feet behind me when all of a sudden the all started screaming hysterically. JACK!! COUUGGAAARRR!!! WATCH OUT!!! Yeah, I almost got eaten by a Mountain Lion. And then I almost had a heart attack and fell to my death. Anyways, I was almost near the top when the guys spotted a huge cougar slinking along the top of the ridge towards me, maybe 20 yards away. All the screaming sent the cat scrambling for its life, but it was definitely a scary moment for me. I can think of a lot worse ways to die I suppose.

Here is an abandoned gold mine that we came across. I love stuff like this. We probably spent an hour looking around. Its hard to say when this place was last occupied. Late 1800's maybe?


Here is baby Mule deer crossing the road with a nice view of Mt. Shasta in the background. If you click on the picture, Mt. Shasta will stand out a little better. Mt. Shasta is somewhere over 14,000' in elevation at the top and I believe has more vertical gain than any other Mountain in the lower 48. I think the base of the Mountain is at something like 3000' so if you climb from the bottom, its around an 11,000' climb. A lady died while climbing it last week.


Here is a nice picture of some of the terrain that the pipeline will cross. It comes up off the desert floor you can see in the distance and makes its way up and over this and many other mountain ranges.


Look for another post from me in the next couple of days. I can do better than one post every month!

This Week.

So. Sunday is always my favorite day when I'm on the road. Actually Saturday is pretty good too, its always a lot more relaxed and everyone is kind of excited that we are on the verge of a day off. I always try and get done a little early so that I can can get wherever I decide to go that night before it gets dark out. The past two Saturday nights I have spent in Klamath Falls, mainly because its only 2 hours away and I have been too tired to attempt anything farther.

Today I'm kinda sad because its fathers day, and I miss my Dad I just want to hang out and go fishing with him, but that has pretty much been impossible with this job given that I can't get any time off and I'm 2,000 miles away.

I'm really in love with Northern California and Oregon, and I am pretty hopeful that I will be moving out here. When I do, I can get my Dad out here to do some fly fishing for wild Salmon and Steelhead in the incredibly rugged and beautiful rivers that seem to be everywhere in this region.

This past week we started staking some of the Right of Way for this pipeline, whenever they decide to build it. In Oregon, there are a lot of trees, so often using GPS is not a possibility so we spend a lot chopping through the trees to be able to see where we are going.

Telling my crew where to "cut line"



Towards the end of the day, doing my notes and watching my crew work.


There were 4 Bear sighting and one Cougar sighting this week. I didn't see anything, but my crew saw 2 of the bears.

Melting snow days...

The Mountain snow is really melting now, its mostly gone and I'm thinking in another week or two it will all be gone except for the snow on the highest peaks.

Here is a cool snow tunnel that I found on the side of a mountain.



Here are some "roads" that we will be using as access roads when the snow is all gone.





All of the melting snow is creating some ferocious looking streams.






And some cool little water falls.


And a lot of little ponds.

Boring week

Progress on this project has been really slow thus far. There are still a few major hurdles that we have to make before we can really get going, in the mean time we have been busying ourselves by marking roads that we can and cannot use for access on this project. There are a lot of rules and a heck of a lot of people/agencies monitoring everything that we do in regards to this project. Which roads/trails that we use is one of the things that people are currently making a big deal about.

Here is an example of a nice road that for some reason, someone has decided that we can not use.



Here is an example of a decent road that we can use.




The biggest hazard that we are running in to while staking these roads is getting our vehicles stuck. At least daily, one or more of us will get our truck stuck. It can often turn in to a pretty big task to get the truck unstuck. Due to the remoteness of where we are working, it is not uncommon at all for a truck to be stuck overnight or longer.

Here are two trucks that I helped get unstuck this week.

This one we got out at about 10pm, it made for a long night.



This one had to stay overnight and ended up getting out the next afternoon.



I'll need to knock on wood, but thus far I am the only Surveyor on our part of the project that hasn't gotten stuck yet. I'll chalk it up to luck for now, but I suppose having plenty of past experience in the mountains doesn't hurt either... I know when its best to just stop driving and start hiking...

Two days off.

By Saturday night, Lakeview can tend to start filling me with the dread of Sunday. Lakeview isn't a bad place if your out of town working 12+ hours per day. But having to spend your day off in this town can be really depressing. You can judge for yourself based on this picture of downtown that I took last Sunday. I'm sure a lot of people love this town. Not me.

You can always click on the pics to make them bigger.



So Saturday after work I didn't waste any time on washing my truck before I drove the 3 and a half hours North West to Bend.



Bend, Oregon is one of my favorite cities in the country. I seriously love this town. Its a bit pricey and it is really hard to find a job here because the main industry I believe is tourism. But every time I come here, I get the vibe that this is a place that I could easily call home and be 100% happy with that decision. Rebecca has yet to visit Bend, but I am kinda thinking she is gonna feel the same way. Unfortunately for some reason I don't have any snazzy pictures of Bend, I will work on that tomorrow. I did take a picture of some Geese that I saw on my run this morning.




Being that this is a holiday weekend, Bend is packed full of people right now. On the way back from my run, I stopped at The Crepe Place.
On a typical Sunday morning, I order, they make my Crepes and I leave. Today there was a pretty big line and it took over 30 minutes. It was a little embarrassing because I was wearing running cloths and I was drenched in sweat but I think people around here are used to seeing that though because it seems like this is the land of the uber fit. After getting my order (it is worth the wait!) I walked next door to Starbucks to get myself 2 large coffees. No, one isn't enough. The line was out the door! Bend really gets a ton of people coming in for holidays I guess.

I did make a wonderful discovery today. Bend has an outdoor Olympic 50 Meter swimming pool!! It should go without saying that after I finished my breakfast I headed straight for the pool. It was nice to get in the water. Its been about a month since I last swam and I could really feel it. I'm gonna try and get here every Sunday, at least until I end up at the Camp. That way, I can possibly maintain a shred of fitness.

Since I now know for certain that it will be several months before the camp will be built in Vya, Nevada I am moving from a hotel in to a house. Housing in Lakeview is very hard to come by given that its a small town and it only has a couple of motels. A lot of people are trying to figure out ways to make money off of this pipeline project which is going to bring approximately 800 workers to their small town. I found an older couple that is renting out two rooms at their house. They own a small restaurant in town, and they raised 6 children so I think I will be fairly comfortable living there. I talked to them for a little while and they seem really nice. Its about $1200 a month cheaper than the hotel I was staying at, so hopefully its a win win for everyone. It will be a little weird, but I guess I will get used to it. I will just be waiting for Saturday night to roll around so that I can head back to Bend!


By the way, I saw that train wreck again on Thursday, still there but with a fresh coat of snow!

Inspiration.

This morning I thought I was in the middle of nowhere. I took a picture of the last sign that I passed. It wasn't referring to the direction that I was heading. If it were, it would have said "No services next 200 miles" I was heading in the direction of Winnemucca, 200 miles East but the sign referred to Gerlach, which was 100 miles South.



Sometimes, when you think you are in the middle of nowhere, a shark jumps out at you. I was kind of looking around thinking to myself that probably very few people have been here

and THEN...




I guess I wasn't too surprised. It's very hard to find anything in nature that hasn't in some way been touched by man. It is pretty cool looking, and the fact that it is where it is adds to its charm. Its probably 20' tall, so whowever did it put in some time.


I did see something that was a little more interesting this afternoon.



I haven't seen a derailed train before. I don't know why they left it laying there. I guess out here it is just too much trouble for them to clean up.


So I did it. I hope this will inspire me to actually start posting with some regularity. My goal is every Sunday. I think its a good way to sort of keep in touch. I have no idea what communication will be like when I get to the camp. Right now I am using a satellite phone for the majority of the area on this project, but I have heard talk of installing some sort of cell tower at the camp. But nothing is for sure. No one even knows when the camps will start being built for sure. No one even knows when this project is going to start for sure. The only thing I know for sure is that I am going to be here for a long time.

The Runner

The last few days on my double digit below zero temperature runs I have been thinking a lot about what drives me to do the things I do, what makes me the way I am, why I am motivated by certain things. Now I am not trying to get deep here but I am just thinking, and wondering about this song.

Manfred Mann - The Runner


I remember as a little kid that I actually taped this song off of the radio (you guys remember doing that right?) and it was one of my favorite songs. This was long before I ever started running. I still love the song to this day and it is one of my favorite songs to listen to while running. I know the video is pretty sick, but it was the early 80's and I guess that was cool then. I just wonder if this song has had an actual subconscious influence on me?

I mean what if I had taken a liking to this song instead

Weird Al Yankovic - Eat it

Would I have turned out different?? I think maybe....

If simple things like this do by chance have a life long influence over us, whats gonna happen to the video game kids of today??

excited about christmas break!!

So.. Rebecca and I both have time off from December 25th through January 5th and I can't wait.

We have absolutely nothing planned except that we are not going to be visiting our families.

Sorry family.

Its been a long time since we have really been able to spend a good deal of time together without anything else going on. We were considering planning a vacation, but we kinda backed out on that idea. There are some things that we can do around the house, plus I think I've probably spent 340 nights in a hotel already this year, and I really prefer my own bed.

However if we do get the urge to fly to San Francisco to climb hills and eat dinner or down to Savannah to eat Beignets on River street we will probably do it.... Thats how a life of temporarily having no responsibilities should be.

It was 27 below zero this morning. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer!! It is actually supposed to get above zero, that wasn't supposed to happen until Friday but I am happy that its coming a little sooner. I kind of wussed out the past couple of days and went to the YMCA to run rather then back out into the cold after having spent the day tramping through the forest in 2 feet of snow. I'm sure I'm not alone in despising treadmills, I usually only run on them a few times a year because I pride myself in running outside regardless of the weather and now I remember why. First I hate not going anywhere. Second its really hot because there is no wind resistance and Third I sorta wonder if people think that I'm weird or showing off because everyone else is either walking or maybe getting on and running for 5 or 10 minutes. I don't feel like I can run like I want to. I just feel out of place I guess, Running is supposed to make me free from everything. I want to run and not be restrained by the "dreadmill". So ya, I'm just gonna save the treadmill for double digit below zero days!

Todays Random animal picture.
A Funny looking goat.

Sorry bout the lapse!

Wow, hard to believe its been over a month since the last time that I posted. Being back in Minneapolis, time goes a bit quicker. I've been pretty busy since coming back from out West, dinking around with my house and what not. I've been to Michigan 3 times in the last month, its been good to see my family. Now I am just ready to stay home for awhile. Hopefully starting next weekend I will be able to. I think Rebecca is getting a little sad thinking that I was gonna be home for awhile, but still ending up out of town most of the time.

At the moment I'm on the road again working in Northern Minnesota sitting in a hotel room and sorta figuring out a preliminary racing schedule for next year. Its kind of complicated because I really don't know where I'm gonna be at a particular time of year, so it's more of a wish list of races I want to do and then sorta wait and see what happens. I know I will do the Lifetime fitness triathlon. And my "A" running race for next year will be the Xterra trail run Nationals . I really want to do the Steelhead Half Ironman as well, but that is only 2 weeks after the lifetime triathlon, so it really depends on where I am working as to whether or not I will be able to get back for that. On top of those, there are a bunch of other races on my wish list including a bunch of small local races that I would like to do.

My running has been going pretty good, and I'm happy with the progress that I have made over the last year. I am really excited that I have gotten back in to trail running, I haven't been injured since last January so I'm gonna knock on wood and hope it stays that way. I'm gonna hit the pool hard over the next 3 months now that I am in town and see what I can do in the water. I guess as far as the bike goes, haha!! Serious riding outside this time of year in Minnesota is fairly dangerous, so I'm looking forward to more spin classes and a lot of time on the trainer.

Oh- a cool story. Yesterday while working I saved a fox!! I found a fox that had been caught in a snare, the wire was wrapped around his neck and there was no way that the poor guy could get out. I think he had probably gotten caught yesterday morning because he was in really good shape and didn't appear to have any injuries other than the snare around his neck. I was wearing thick leather mittens and thick boots and clothes so I wasn't too scared of being bitten, and with the help of my crew I managed to pin him down and use my leatherman to cut the snare off of the tree and then slide it off of his neck and release him unharmed!!

Anyways-
We got a pretty decent storm today and tomorrow the temperature is supposed to drop to 41 below zero, actual air temp! thats not including wind chill. I can't wait. After working out in it all day, if I still have fingers and toes I am considering going for a run in it...

The Beauty of the Section Corner..

I suppose that maybe it is only something that a boundary surveyor can appreciate.. But this is essentially what my job boils down to.

(the pix are prettier if you click on them!!!)

Finding section corners.

Our entire country is divided up in to one mile squares. And at the corners of these squares are section corners.

Surveying is a profession that is far from most peoples minds. But it is impossible to overstate the affect that it has had on our country.

This corner was on top of a mountain, the surveyor that originally placed it there had no way to drill in to the rock. So he piled stones around it to hold it in place. It has been that way for about 100 years.

I often find myself wondering about the original surveyors of this land. My job is to retrace their footsteps.

I wonder how they did it. They were away from home for maybe years at a time.

I wonder about their family, whether or not they were married. They didn't have phones in the 1800's when most of this was originally surveyed. Did they just get an occasional letter from home when they got near a town??

It must have been a tough life. I sometimes think that my job is tough, but I know it isn't. Not compared to what the original surveyors must have went through. They lived in tents or slept under the stars. This is not a forgiving land. I am sure that death was common.

I often wonder why they did it. Look at these pictures. There is nothing around for literally hundreds of miles. I often wonder why I do it. Does my job even make any sense? I know the answer. I love surveying. I feel that it is one of the greatest jobs that a man could be lucky enough to have, although I am often not sure that it makes any sense.

I hope that from looking at these pictures you not only get an idea of the vastness and loneliness of the thousands of miles of uninhabited landscape that I see, but you also begin to understand what I consider beautiful about my job.