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.

Some pix n stuff from the past week.

I have been busy as usual the past week. I put in 164 hours last pay period (2 weeks). So I really don't have a lot to say because all I do is work and run.

Today I was working in Nevada and look what I saw.

This is my friend wild horse!!

After we stared at each other for about 20 seconds, he decided that he had somewhere else to be. He stopped for one last look before disappearing over the hill. I doubt that he has seen very many other humans. This is near Massacre Ranch, which is about 190 miles North West of Winnemucca, Nevada. The nearest town.

I think that this is the only building left standing at Massacre ranch. There are numerous foundations and trails and other antique oddities. Its very eerie and kind of scary, given the name and the remoteness.

This is a forest fire that I saw near Bly, Oregon on Saturday. I think that it had just started earlier that day, because usually they are a lot smokier if they have been burning for awhile.

Random trail shot. This is a gorgeous trail.
I LOVE TRAIL RUNNING!!!!!

Vacation! sort of.

I took a quick overnight trip to Ashland, Oregon so that I could have sort of a mini vacation. I can't call it a real vacation because I had to work yesterday, and today I am taking a 12 hour OSHA safety class online. I'm not doing all 12 hours of it today, but a good chunk.

I went to Ashland because in the October edition of Trail Runner magazine, Ashland is named as one of the 8 best trail running towns in America. I stopped at Rougue Valley Runners when I got there and they pointed me in the direction of some good trails.

Oregon is full of great running towns. And I LOVE all of them! I really really want to live in Oregon or Northern California one day. Eugene, OR is considered "Track Town USA", and this past summer they held the Olympic trials there. Bend, OR is also a great trail running town, and has been called the #1 trail running town in America, they recently held the Xterra trail running national championships "which I competed in" there . All 3 towns are home to numerous world class runners and triathletes, and there is a fair chance of seeing an Olympian while out on a run "according to magazines". I'm not sure if I have seen any, although I have seen a lot of runners out and about.

Minneapolis by the way ranks right up there with them, and in my opinion actually has a better system of trails within the city. The only thing lacking in Minneapolis is mountains, however there are lots of lakes and woods not to mention the Mississippi river that help bridge that gap. I think that being below zero for weeks at a time might take away some points though for many people . Our new house essintially borders Theodore Wirth park, which is a large urban forest that has many running and Mountain biking trails that connect to all of the Lakes and the trails all over the city. I can't wait to be able to stay at home so that I can tear those trails up!!

I took a few pictures while I was in Ashland, unfortunately I forgot my camera on my mountain run last night, but I took it on my run this morning and got a few pix.

Here is a picture on the road coming in to town, to give you a general idea of the terrain.

And here is "town"

Hopefully the neighbors aren't scared of spiders.

Here is the entrance to the stunningly "really" beautiful Lithia park. I know it looks tame, but trust me the trails get very wild. There is a half marathon here every summer that starts right at this sign and gets over a mile of vertical elevation gain.

Random trail shot. You can sorta see it drop off.

A store that Rebecca would like.

All in all I loved Ashland. Its a very artsy town, there are a lot of neat shops and restaurants. It's very clean and safe like all Oregon towns. Plus its home to a Shakespeare festival that lasts ten months every year, and a large part of downtown is built in dedication to that which is kind of neat.

Thursday night babble.

Usually I don't really watch tv very often, occasionally I watch cnn or the weather channel, but thats the extent of it. The last two weeks, I have had the tv on almost constantly when I'm in my hotel room. The only thing that I watch now is CNBC. The mess in the economy is amazing. The stock market has become absolutely fascinating to me. I have a new hobby and I love it. In addition to trading real stocks, I have also opened some free practice accounts. So essintially I can "pretend" that I am trading masssive amounts of stocks and it doesn't cost me a penny. I've also been "pretending" to trade in foreign currencies. Thats fun, but is still confusing to me and I don't think I would attempt it in real life. The biggest problem so far is that its costing me a lot of sleep, I've been staying up til all hours "studying" stocks. I can't wait to get home so that I can get some sort of real balance in my life.

I wonder if maybe our country will finally see the end of this conspicious consumption binge that we have been on. I wouldn't mind. I think we all are a little spoiled and maybe have too much stuff. I think if we tighten our belts a little we can all come out stronger when this mess is over.

So, if anyone is really bored. I have been slacking off lately when it comes to working out, and to get myself back in gear, I decided to run 100 times in 100 days, I am on day 2 of it right now. You can check out that blog at

And of course, here are some pics of the animals I saw today.

Here is a California donkey that kept making weird noises.

A California Lizard

And here are some California deer. Apparently they are very spoiled and need to have a roof over there head.

No Rest

So, about an hour or so after I made my last post, the one that makes it seem like I'm not very busy, I got news that I needed to go to Elko, Nevada. Its about an 8 hour drive, So I packed up all of my gear and moved over there. I ended up working for a few really long days over North of Wells, NV which is the town that got ruined by a pretty big earthquake back in February. When I say really long days, that means more than 12 hours because I typically work about 12 hours a day.
I finished up over there yesterday and then today I drove to Klamath Falls, Oregon which took about 12 hours because I detoured through Reno so that I could stop at REI, which is my favorite store!!
So anyways, between that and studying the stock market crash to see if theres any way that I can get rich off of it, I haven't had to much time to post or sleep or workout. It should lighten up a little bit tomorrow. I have a nice easy task for this week, I will be working just South of Malin, Oregon on both sides of the California/Oregon state line. And its actually in a flat, farmed valley. My legs will appreciate that.

I did take a couple of pix the last few days. If you click on them, they get bigger. I recommend going back to my first post and clicking on the rat. He's actually cute for a rat.

This first picture is of a gorgeous canyon that I hiked up. I took this picture about 1800' above, and about 6 miles in from where I parked. Where I parked was probably about 30 miles from the nearest paved road, and that is actually one of the most easily accessible places on this entire job.

While I was walking out, I found a lucky horse shoe!!!

And here is a self portrait that I took after getting back to the truck. I am waiting on my crew. I am always waiting on my crew. It seems like for every mile we walk, I somehow gain a 15 minute lead on them.

And yesterday the snow arrived, here I am turning around after I hit a spot that was just to steep. We ended up getting about 5 inches. Probably more at higher elevations.

La la la!

Wow this is a slow week. There have been a few times like this. Basically we are waiting on a new contract to get signed. Thats one of the problems with a 3 billion dollar project. It gets too political and there are way too many people involved. They would rather pay you to do nothing, than pay you to get a head start on some work that hasn't been signed for yet, even though everyone knows it will be approved, because its work that has to be done. So, right now I am getting paid 12 hours a day to do nothing. Its not as fun as you might think. I would much rather be working. I can't stand to do nothing, especially when the 5 cups of coffee starts kicking in.

Usually when I am bored, I will find a small mountain top lake to drive through.

Like this one for example.

But if you do that to often, it can lead to this happening.

And when that happens, this happens.

Life of a cow

Today is another day that I really don't have anything to say. I did have some great ideas this morning, but when I was done doing everything else that I had to do, I had absolutely no inspiration left. So I decided to write about cows.

For some reason, in my job I have developed sort of a friendship with cows. I can't explain it but it seems like often times they are just staring at me, and I am just staring at them.

I think that cows simply want my job, and who can blame them?? If it weren't for the fact that I never get to go home, I would honestly believe that I have the greatest job on Earth.. There are times however when I would be happy to trade places with a cow, if only for the day.

Sometimes I think they just want me to pet them, or give them food, look at these guys, they are begging for attention. Notice the giant tumbleweed. Yep, thats Nevada.

There was a cow that got pretty serious about taking my job, he actually tried to leave with me. I ended up talking him out of it. I mentioned that sometimes I only have beef jerky for lunch.


Some cows like to follow us, they will run along for miles just to see what we are doing I guess.
Before I came out here I never really thought much of cows. Now that I have spent time around them I can't say that I have figured them out, but they do seem to have a personality. I think that some of them are smarter than they let on. I sorta root for them. When I see the cowboys coming out to round them up I sometimes try and scatter them and get them to go hide in the woods. They are more like wild animals than midwestern cows are. Most of the country out here is open range, so there are no fences or anything like that. They are born in the wild and find there own food and water, they just wander about living their life. I like to think that I provide as much entertainment for them as they do for me.