Tom Jones arrives
11/13/04
9:30 PM
An early night at Dave’s camp. The weather is shitty again. The winds picked up this afternoon at around 1. One of the d-rings on our tent (the pink fortress) finally gave out. One of the bungee hooks on Joe’s tent actually bent into a completely straight wire from the wind this afternoon. We probably had a few gusts up around 60-70 mph.
Jim, Dave and I did a seismic survey of our lake today. It was very refreshing to finally do something for my project specifically. I measured the lake, it’s actually pretty big, like 200 meters by 85 meters. Setting up the line went surprisingly smoothly, but of course there were issues with the computer. I finally worked everything out and we managed to get some good data. I still don’t think we’ll get exactly what they want, but we can try all we want. Dave swung the sledge while I worked the computer and Jim stood there to prevent everything from blowing away. When the winds really came it was awful. First of all, my hands were completely frozen. I lost feeling in three fingers. They were completely numb. It was weird and a little bit scary. Dave made me put hand warmers in my thin glove liners. I couldn’t wear anything more because I had to use the fucking computer. Oh and you can’t see shit on the screen because it is so bright out. The mouse was impossible to find. I probably spent a total of 20 minutes looking for the cursor over a 2 hour period. At one point a huge gust came that knocked Jim backwards. He landed about two feet from a huge tent stake sticking about 8 inches out of the ice. I don’t even want to think of what would have happened. The same gust dragged me along the ice. The lid of the equipment case was open to reduced glare on the screen and it sort of acted like a sail. I grabbed on with one hand and tried to grab the rest of the equipment with the other so that the cables wouldn’t break. We all moved about 8 feet downwind before the gust died down. At that point we decided to call it a day.
The wind took my pee bottle away this afternoon. I left it outside my tent in the morning and when I returned it was missing. I scoured the inside of the tent and even asked Adam if he had seen or moved it recently. I then set out on a search and rescue mission. I walked all the way around the lake looking at the rocks for any sign of “P”, but saw nothing. I spotted one of our packs that had blown away and grabbed it. As I put it on, about 15 feet away was my pee bottle, nestled beneath a small boulder, waiting to be reunited with its favorite (and only) provider.
This is the third night in a row that I have eaten with Jim and Dave. It has gotten much better. Joe still says some weird stuff and everyone just kind of ignores it at this point. Nobody knows how to respond. After dinner, Dave cooked beers. He exploded one in the pressure cooker and it was reminiscent of the Joe Beals coffee disaster. We laughed a lot. We listened to the entire Tom Jones album twice. Dave is so funny. Just watching him listen to Tom makes me laugh. I can hear it right now, he’s playing the same song over and over again in his tent. The one where Tom starts off talking about love and how if you think for just one minute that you can live without it, then you’re only foolin’ yourself. I can’t help but smile every time I hear it.
This was the first night that they didn’t break out maps and aerial photographs to discuss geology. It was kind of nice. We also “finished” at a reasonable hour, just after 5. Yesterday we went on a hike down to the base of the valley, about where Mullins feeds into Beacon. We stopped about 200 yards from camp to dig pits and spent the next 2 and a half hour there photographing and sampling. Jim has to photograph everything. What is he ever going to do with all of those pictures? We didn’t eat lunch until 2 and that was only after pleading. Jim and Dave were walking so slowly, stopping every ten feet to talk or look at something. Jim is a slow hiker, which is understandable. It kind of irritated me though. I just like to move I guess. Keeps me warm and prevents boredom. We dug more pits at the bottom and then split up into two groups for the hike back up. I was with Jim, Dave, Doug and Joe. We were walking and stopping, stopping, digging, sampling, on and on. At one point Jim had hiked up ahead and I kind of split off on my own and motored back to camp. I didn’t get back until 8:20. At least the weather was beautiful when I did get back. It was so calm and peaceful here on our little lake. I decided to change my underwear. It was long overdue. I haven’t really been keeping a schedule. Whatever works. I guess Dave is notorious for not drinking water, not eating lunch, and working 12 hour days. Fuck. He also ate the dint for breakfast yesterday.
Battery almost dead…again.
The first seismic line...
...and the seismic source.
A view from the base of Mullins Valley of winds blowing snow off the ice down into Beacon Valley.
The team getting ready to move after lunch. Parka, parka, PARKA.
9:30 PM
An early night at Dave’s camp. The weather is shitty again. The winds picked up this afternoon at around 1. One of the d-rings on our tent (the pink fortress) finally gave out. One of the bungee hooks on Joe’s tent actually bent into a completely straight wire from the wind this afternoon. We probably had a few gusts up around 60-70 mph.
Jim, Dave and I did a seismic survey of our lake today. It was very refreshing to finally do something for my project specifically. I measured the lake, it’s actually pretty big, like 200 meters by 85 meters. Setting up the line went surprisingly smoothly, but of course there were issues with the computer. I finally worked everything out and we managed to get some good data. I still don’t think we’ll get exactly what they want, but we can try all we want. Dave swung the sledge while I worked the computer and Jim stood there to prevent everything from blowing away. When the winds really came it was awful. First of all, my hands were completely frozen. I lost feeling in three fingers. They were completely numb. It was weird and a little bit scary. Dave made me put hand warmers in my thin glove liners. I couldn’t wear anything more because I had to use the fucking computer. Oh and you can’t see shit on the screen because it is so bright out. The mouse was impossible to find. I probably spent a total of 20 minutes looking for the cursor over a 2 hour period. At one point a huge gust came that knocked Jim backwards. He landed about two feet from a huge tent stake sticking about 8 inches out of the ice. I don’t even want to think of what would have happened. The same gust dragged me along the ice. The lid of the equipment case was open to reduced glare on the screen and it sort of acted like a sail. I grabbed on with one hand and tried to grab the rest of the equipment with the other so that the cables wouldn’t break. We all moved about 8 feet downwind before the gust died down. At that point we decided to call it a day.
The wind took my pee bottle away this afternoon. I left it outside my tent in the morning and when I returned it was missing. I scoured the inside of the tent and even asked Adam if he had seen or moved it recently. I then set out on a search and rescue mission. I walked all the way around the lake looking at the rocks for any sign of “P”, but saw nothing. I spotted one of our packs that had blown away and grabbed it. As I put it on, about 15 feet away was my pee bottle, nestled beneath a small boulder, waiting to be reunited with its favorite (and only) provider.
This is the third night in a row that I have eaten with Jim and Dave. It has gotten much better. Joe still says some weird stuff and everyone just kind of ignores it at this point. Nobody knows how to respond. After dinner, Dave cooked beers. He exploded one in the pressure cooker and it was reminiscent of the Joe Beals coffee disaster. We laughed a lot. We listened to the entire Tom Jones album twice. Dave is so funny. Just watching him listen to Tom makes me laugh. I can hear it right now, he’s playing the same song over and over again in his tent. The one where Tom starts off talking about love and how if you think for just one minute that you can live without it, then you’re only foolin’ yourself. I can’t help but smile every time I hear it.
This was the first night that they didn’t break out maps and aerial photographs to discuss geology. It was kind of nice. We also “finished” at a reasonable hour, just after 5. Yesterday we went on a hike down to the base of the valley, about where Mullins feeds into Beacon. We stopped about 200 yards from camp to dig pits and spent the next 2 and a half hour there photographing and sampling. Jim has to photograph everything. What is he ever going to do with all of those pictures? We didn’t eat lunch until 2 and that was only after pleading. Jim and Dave were walking so slowly, stopping every ten feet to talk or look at something. Jim is a slow hiker, which is understandable. It kind of irritated me though. I just like to move I guess. Keeps me warm and prevents boredom. We dug more pits at the bottom and then split up into two groups for the hike back up. I was with Jim, Dave, Doug and Joe. We were walking and stopping, stopping, digging, sampling, on and on. At one point Jim had hiked up ahead and I kind of split off on my own and motored back to camp. I didn’t get back until 8:20. At least the weather was beautiful when I did get back. It was so calm and peaceful here on our little lake. I decided to change my underwear. It was long overdue. I haven’t really been keeping a schedule. Whatever works. I guess Dave is notorious for not drinking water, not eating lunch, and working 12 hour days. Fuck. He also ate the dint for breakfast yesterday.
Battery almost dead…again.
The first seismic line...
...and the seismic source.
A view from the base of Mullins Valley of winds blowing snow off the ice down into Beacon Valley.
The team getting ready to move after lunch. Parka, parka, PARKA.
posted by LankyPoobah at 9:30 PM
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