26 May 2008
Happy Memorial Day to everyone!
Work has been pretty dull that last two weeks. Everyone who had more rank than me was down in California to do some planning for our field time there in July which left a bunch of Lieutenants behind to keep the brigade running. Needless to say a bunch of Lieutenants did not do anything spectacular and I spent a lot of time staring at my e-mail waiting to see if there was anything important enough going on to warrant an e-mail. And for all of you who get about 100 e-mails a day and hate technology, in over a week of being the most senior officer (actually the only officer) in charge of all the support for the brigade (fuel, food, bullets, medical, etc) I got about 20 e-mails. If you were under the impression I have an important job think again, I run Birch Hill and sit in a broken chair waiting for something magical to happen in the office. But I learned more about my job, what I can and cannot do. I've even managed to learn what my role as the only medical logistics officer is too. So not all was lost with a lack of e-mails.
This weekend we had a 4 day for Memorial Day. Our unit is pretty good about giving people days off since during deployment weekends are just extensions of the week and not time off. I was a little apprehensive about exploring much after our safety brief. In an attempt to keep the young (and sometimes not so young) Soldiers from getting hurt and sometimes killed, the unit commander gives a safety brief reminding everyone that if they want to drink, don't drive; if they want to swim, don't swim drunk; if they want to go 4-wheeling; don't drink; if they want to hunt; don't get drunk. See the trend in the Army, lots of drinking and lots of accidents. But what scared me was that here in Alaska it's bear hunting season and there are moose wondering about on the roads who don't care that they'll wreck any car that hits them. So our brief was how if you're going out make sure you have a gun because the bears will eat you. Woohoo! bring on the wild out doors. But after I expressed my concerns to one of the Captains in the office he explained that the bear scare is really for people who are out looking for trouble, going deep into the woods either for bear hunting or just because they're ballsy.
So, once I decided that if I stayed on the road I wouldn't be malled by a bear, I decided to drive up to the Arctic Circle. Why? Because I could. It's about 200 miles north of here on a not so straight shot of a road and a not so well paved of a road. It's not 4 wheeling, but the washboard had me driving a little slower. Driving a Jeep is scary for me too. I'm spoiled with flying through the Rockies in a Volkswagen and bouncing down a dirt road in a Jeep had me pretty convinced I was going to just skip right of the road, end up in a heap, and never feel a thing because I'd be dead before the wheels ever left the road. There were signs all over saying 'road damage' which is just the road construction term for 'shitty conditions ahead, if you're in a Jeep take a Dramamine.' There were signs that said 'Dips' also so here I come down the road not even going the speed limit because I'm such a baby and I swear I could have made my own space movie in the car because you go launching over this 'dips' and slamming back down. Maybe part of my problem is that I grew up in Colorado where there's no water, so I'm not used to waves because I was getting rather sea-sick out there in the Alaska tundra. But one of the scariest things about driving that road to the Arctic Circle was these huge semi-trucks cruising at about 70 mph and flying by me. Usually I'm passing trucks, but there was no stopping these guys.
So the Arctic Circle. There's not line painted in the dirt marking the latitude, no neon signs, but there are super clean outhouses! There's a sign that says you're there, picnic tables and bear proof (and sadly Caitlin proof) trashcans. But that's about it. The drive up is pretty amazing though.
In Fairbanks there are a lot more deciduous than coniferous trees. About 40 miles north of Fairbanks it starts to become more coniferous. Then there aren't any deciduous trees anymore and the coniferous trees have branches that poke out about a foot. They're all packed together like little toothpicks in the tundra. About 20 miles South of the circle there's a pretty abrupt line of where the trees stop all together and the tundra starts. There are huge rocks and hardly any vegetation. The mountain ranges start on the north side of Fairbanks and get higher and more rugged the further north you go.
The road crosses the Yukon River about 60 miles south of the circle. I didn't think the Yukon was that big so far North, but it was pretty wide and far more spectacular than I thought it would be.
The entire drive also fallows the Pipeline. At first it's all exciting. You come over this hill and it's like 'YEAH! The Pipeline!' Then 200 miles later you're like, 'yeah, more pipeline.' But it's still incredibly impressive that it was built and has survived the weather and forest fires. About the first 100 miles the land is all scared with burned trees from previous fires, but the pipeline obviously didn't burn down and it's still pumping strong.
So that was pretty much the extent of my drive. I was at the circle about 3:30 in the afternoon and Fairbanks is at about 20 hours of daylight so I'm sure the sun was still high in the sky, but it was cloudy so I couldn't actually see where it was.
Work has been pretty dull that last two weeks. Everyone who had more rank than me was down in California to do some planning for our field time there in July which left a bunch of Lieutenants behind to keep the brigade running. Needless to say a bunch of Lieutenants did not do anything spectacular and I spent a lot of time staring at my e-mail waiting to see if there was anything important enough going on to warrant an e-mail. And for all of you who get about 100 e-mails a day and hate technology, in over a week of being the most senior officer (actually the only officer) in charge of all the support for the brigade (fuel, food, bullets, medical, etc) I got about 20 e-mails. If you were under the impression I have an important job think again, I run Birch Hill and sit in a broken chair waiting for something magical to happen in the office. But I learned more about my job, what I can and cannot do. I've even managed to learn what my role as the only medical logistics officer is too. So not all was lost with a lack of e-mails.
This weekend we had a 4 day for Memorial Day. Our unit is pretty good about giving people days off since during deployment weekends are just extensions of the week and not time off. I was a little apprehensive about exploring much after our safety brief. In an attempt to keep the young (and sometimes not so young) Soldiers from getting hurt and sometimes killed, the unit commander gives a safety brief reminding everyone that if they want to drink, don't drive; if they want to swim, don't swim drunk; if they want to go 4-wheeling; don't drink; if they want to hunt; don't get drunk. See the trend in the Army, lots of drinking and lots of accidents. But what scared me was that here in Alaska it's bear hunting season and there are moose wondering about on the roads who don't care that they'll wreck any car that hits them. So our brief was how if you're going out make sure you have a gun because the bears will eat you. Woohoo! bring on the wild out doors. But after I expressed my concerns to one of the Captains in the office he explained that the bear scare is really for people who are out looking for trouble, going deep into the woods either for bear hunting or just because they're ballsy.
So, once I decided that if I stayed on the road I wouldn't be malled by a bear, I decided to drive up to the Arctic Circle. Why? Because I could. It's about 200 miles north of here on a not so straight shot of a road and a not so well paved of a road. It's not 4 wheeling, but the washboard had me driving a little slower. Driving a Jeep is scary for me too. I'm spoiled with flying through the Rockies in a Volkswagen and bouncing down a dirt road in a Jeep had me pretty convinced I was going to just skip right of the road, end up in a heap, and never feel a thing because I'd be dead before the wheels ever left the road. There were signs all over saying 'road damage' which is just the road construction term for 'shitty conditions ahead, if you're in a Jeep take a Dramamine.' There were signs that said 'Dips' also so here I come down the road not even going the speed limit because I'm such a baby and I swear I could have made my own space movie in the car because you go launching over this 'dips' and slamming back down. Maybe part of my problem is that I grew up in Colorado where there's no water, so I'm not used to waves because I was getting rather sea-sick out there in the Alaska tundra. But one of the scariest things about driving that road to the Arctic Circle was these huge semi-trucks cruising at about 70 mph and flying by me. Usually I'm passing trucks, but there was no stopping these guys.
So the Arctic Circle. There's not line painted in the dirt marking the latitude, no neon signs, but there are super clean outhouses! There's a sign that says you're there, picnic tables and bear proof (and sadly Caitlin proof) trashcans. But that's about it. The drive up is pretty amazing though.
In Fairbanks there are a lot more deciduous than coniferous trees. About 40 miles north of Fairbanks it starts to become more coniferous. Then there aren't any deciduous trees anymore and the coniferous trees have branches that poke out about a foot. They're all packed together like little toothpicks in the tundra. About 20 miles South of the circle there's a pretty abrupt line of where the trees stop all together and the tundra starts. There are huge rocks and hardly any vegetation. The mountain ranges start on the north side of Fairbanks and get higher and more rugged the further north you go.
The road crosses the Yukon River about 60 miles south of the circle. I didn't think the Yukon was that big so far North, but it was pretty wide and far more spectacular than I thought it would be.
The entire drive also fallows the Pipeline. At first it's all exciting. You come over this hill and it's like 'YEAH! The Pipeline!' Then 200 miles later you're like, 'yeah, more pipeline.' But it's still incredibly impressive that it was built and has survived the weather and forest fires. About the first 100 miles the land is all scared with burned trees from previous fires, but the pipeline obviously didn't burn down and it's still pumping strong.
So that was pretty much the extent of my drive. I was at the circle about 3:30 in the afternoon and Fairbanks is at about 20 hours of daylight so I'm sure the sun was still high in the sky, but it was cloudy so I couldn't actually see where it was.
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