Are a couple dozen good photos worth $700?

Hey all.

Last week was not nearly as crazy as the first. Aside from hiking back up to and getting that sound station running (the thumbs down one), I mostly stayed in the office and took excruciatingly boring on-line training courses. I am now an expert in reducing computer security risks, defensive driving, occupational safety, basic helicopter safety, using a government credit card responsibility, filling out weekly time sheets, bear safety, communicating by government radio, and how to add and subtract integer numbers. Some of the information was so obvious and unnecessary that I might be dumber for hearing it. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was getting paid.

Outside of work, some noteworthy things did occur. Tuesday the Denali C-Camp softball team played the NananaView Cafe team and won 9-6. I played catcher. They have parties around here on the solstices (shortest and longest days of the year) and Wednesday was the Summer Solstice. The sun set at 12:40AM and rose at 3:15AM, but it never got dark. Although I'm not sure why we celebrate the day when we start losing daylight, which eventually leads to days of 24 hour darkness; we celebrated by going to the local bar and seeing a bluegrass band. Friday I saw an owl perched on one of the cabins (photo below). Saturday I went top-rope climbing and repelling with some folks from camp. The rock is just down the road. It was pretty darn scary.

Sunday was crazy. I decided to climb and hike part of the ridge that runs the north edge of the park. I climbed from 2500ft and stood on some awesome peaks that were higher than 6000ft. Saw a porcupine, caribou, and lots of sheep. Then I saw a storm rolling in. By the time I found a place to descend the ridge it was snowing with thunder and lightning (CRAZY), then it hailed and rained, making the 2 hour scramble down the slope pretty sketchy. I had a raincoat, so only my pants got wet, but the ziplock I had my camera in didn't do it's job very well and my camera got pretty soaked. It is drying out now and I haven't tried powering it up yet, so it might not be dead, but the lens got a bunch of water and dirt in it and will at least have to be disassembled and cleaned. So these pictures might be the last high quality ones you see until I get it sorted.

On a more positive note, I found out I passed my Fundamentals of Engineering exam that I only studied a few hours for. This is rather amazing. Most people study for it for at least a month, and if my study buddy Toad didn't pass, I will be forced to tell him that I am smarter.

I am in Fairbanks all week for advanced helicopter training, living in a hotel room. Brings back memories of the out-of-town surveying life. It's OK though, I needed to come to the city to buy some things anyway. On Thursday we get to be strapped into a cage and thrown in a pool to see if we can get out (simulated water landing). Maybe David Blaine will be there? I'll let you know how it goes twaaaaa.

I don't have e-mail addresses for everyone I know, so if you see someone that would want to know what I've been up to, be sure to give them the website address. Thanks to those who left comments, I enjoy getting them, it's kinda like getting mail.

Take it easy everyone!

-Jared