Two parts down One to go.

Well, I am 2/3 of the way back to the Ice. I have made it thorough Denver for orientation and training, and then onto Christchurch, NZ via Los Angles and Auckland. I believe that from the time we entered the airport in Denver and left the airport at Christchurch was about 23 hours total. Loads of fun.

So the trip had a few interesting events along the way. We flew from DEN to LAX on a 44 passenger regional jet. And the plane was over sold, so the airline was looking for volunteers to get off the plane. In the end two people stayed behind (none of the Ice people) to fly to LAX the next morning. When we got on the plane and settled in, I was looking forward and I thought that I saw a dogs head peek up over the seats. I looked again, and yes there was a Golden Retriever sitting in seat 3C. Come to find out it was a Disney dog that played Air Bud in the movies, so this dog made more money than I do. So in the end, the dog got to LAX on time and the two people got another night in Denver.

While in the BioSecurity area of the Auckland airport, I got to watch the food inspection Beagle at work. She ran down a person that went by here in a hurry and basically climbed up this persons back to smell their backpack. So, then the inspector looked through the pack and all was well. But it is amazing that a dog can catch a scent of something buried in a backpack from 15 feet away as it rushes by. Then I got my bags from the conveyor and was headed to the inspection line. The Beagle went over my bags on the cart, then jumped up to smell my backpack, and then hit on my carry on bag. The inspector asked to look at the bag, which had open M+M's and some other junk, but the dog smelled my apple that I had in my bag from LAX that I ate on the plane 6 hours earlier. Pretty cool.

Then when we landed in Christchurch we got earthquake humor from the flight attendant. She was explaining some of the important things about the city as we were taxiing from the runway to the gate. She said: "The city centere is 12km from the airport, at least it used to be, we think it is closer now." I guess you had to be there. We thought it was funny.

Now at noon I get to head to the CDC (Clothing Distrubution Centere) for ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) gear issue. Then sometime tomorrow we should depart for the Ice. We are hoping for a two day delay in Christchurch due to weather. That would give us two days extra in Chc, and then we would get into McMurdo on Sat. and our first full day on the Ice would be Sunday, a day off. We can hope. Also, for me, Paula is two days behind me, so if we get delayed she will catch up to me in Chc. Which would be nice.

That is all for now. I am going to walk around today and get photos of the remaining earthquake damage here in Chc. I will try to post as soon as I can when I get to McMurdo.

Kennedy Meadows Bridge Repair Trip

Hello All,

Recently Paula and I, and many other volunteers from the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew spent a week rebuilding a bridge over the Kern river about 2 miles from Kennedy Meadows Campground.

The bridge is a 70' steel span that was installed in 1984. The top deck and handrails were in disrepair and badly need to be replaced. Below are some before and after photos of the bridge. As I get time I will add some process photos.

We hiked into and out from the bridge each day for a total of 4 miles a day. We stayed in the campground in our RV and were fed great meals prepared by Dave.

Stay tuned for more photos.

Well it is back to work...

Well, after a long delay we are headed back to work. Paula and I will be returning to the Ice for another austral summer season. Actually I leave for Denver in less than 12 hours, and I actually should be packing right now and instead I am providing entertainment for all of you.

The last month or so has been a blur of visiting friends and family in the east. We have spent a few weeks in the state of TN visiting with my parents and going to the night race at Bristol Speedway. We have visited with Tom and Karen a few times now, we got have a few nice dinners with Jamie and Missy. As always it was nice to visit with the Potters; Roy, Jean, and Cheese Wiz. Plus all of the folks back in South Wales.

We also found time to get the canoe out of the barn for the first time in many years, and we spent most of a week in the Adirondacks. Lake Lila, Lows Lake and Round Lake were all on our list of places to see. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed the area as always. Of course it was nice to canoe instead of backpack, since we could take most anything that we wanted, and we didn't have to carry it all on our backs. Very relaxing. Hear are some trip photos. The bird in the tree is a Bald Eagle, and the bird floating is a Common Loon.

So I am off to Denver on Thursday for two weeks of Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting training followed by two days of general training for the Ice. Paula will catch up with me in Denver and we will leave for New Zealand together on Sept. 29th.

That is all for now. More to follow.

R.J.

Yes Jerry, I have posted a new blog.

Animal Crackers, The perfect snack food.

So, we have been fish people for a little while now. Here is some info about the Bandon Hatchery. The hatchery has a total of 10 tanks, of which six are normally used to raise fish at different times during the year. Three types of fish are raised here during the year. Steelhead Trout, Chinook Salmon, and Rainbow Trout. Annually they raise about 125,000 Steelhead, 500,000 Salmon, and 2,000 Rainbows. In addition to the outdoor ponds there are six indoor tanks and hundreds of incubator tray to start the eggs in.

So, the Rainbow Trouts are called the trophy trouts here, because they are raised to good sized 2 1/2 pound fish, and then they are used to stock several of the local ponds and lakes. These fish are started at another hatchery and raised to almost full-size and then they are transferred to Bandon to get them to full weight and then transfer out from here. They are normally hauled out 150 to 250 at a time every few weeks.

The Steelhead are spawned here at Bandon and are raised for a full year at this facility to be released in the local river in mid-April. The eggs are spawned from adult Steelhead that are taken for various areas of the river. The eggs are then placed in the incubators for several weeks. Once they are ready, they will be transferred into the indoor tanks to be raised for a few months, and then when they are up to size they will be transferred to the outdoor tanks. When the fish are ready to be taken to the river, they will be about 5.6 fish per pound and about 5 inches long.

The Chinook Salmon are also raised here in Bandon completely. They go through a similar process to the Steelhead. They will be transferred out of the hatchery at the end of May.

So, how do you move 125,000 fish in a reasonable amount of time? Well you use some 2,300 gallon tanker trucks, and you use a fish pump. A fish pump, you say? Yes, it is just like a fire pump, but the fish can go through it without harm. It is quite a process that takes two days to complete and allot of careful preparation. The steelhead trout are the most difficult fish to transport of the three that they do transport. They are fairly fragile at this stage and they are large loads as well. Most of the tanker loads were between 1,800 and 2,400 pounds of fish. So you do the math 5.6 fish per pound, that is allot of fish.

Here are some photos of the equipment. This is the fish pump. The fish get sucked up through the pipe into their pond, they pass through the pump and up to the separator at the top. The fish go into the truck, and the excess water goes back into the creek. To load 2000 pounds of fish takes about 10 minutes.



These are the two types of tankers we used. The International straight truck is Bandon’s tanker. It holds 2,300 gallons of water in a single tank. The tractor trailer is the regional office truck and it has two 1200 gallon tanks. In this case, it just meant that we had to load two separate tanks, but it can be nice for two different types of fish, or two loads of fish that are going to different locations. The tractor trailer looks new, but it is actually a 1991.





Next I have a few short non-narrated movies of the steelhead. There are 50,000 of them in this pond, so it is interesting when it is feeding time. This is just a few handfuls of feed, imagine what it is like when you throw out 25 pounds of feed on the water.

And lastly this is what the confused little fish do with their spare time. They got the right idea to head up river, but too bad for them these are just the water intakes for the pond. Nowhere to go from here.

So, that is it for now. This week, I expect my normal spelling checks and grammer corrections from the gallery, but I am sure that Greeson will fully explain everything that I got wrong.

R.J.

Goodbye Wyoming, Hello Oregon

Well our time in Wyoming has ended and it is tome to head west to see the ocean once again. We are going to Bandon, OR to work as volunteers at the Bandon Fish Hatchery for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Back to the RV living for the summer. We loaded up the RV and the Honda with all of our stuff planning for the drive west. The plan for the trip was a three day drive across Rt. 80 and 84 and then down the coast to Bandon. Of course, we had beautiful weather the entire time we were in Cheyenne, that of course ended the day we left. The weather on the departure day was blustery at best, but we took off. The roads were not too bad, as long as you drive like a reasonable human you would be fine. So after several hours of 35 mph driving we were sent off the interstate due to an accident ahead. So we camped out in a truck stop for a few hours. So finally we got out of there and we were ready to put some miles behind us. Well, we made it to the next exit and we were sent off again. This time the town (and by town, I mean an exit that 150 people live at) was filled with hundreds of trucks and it didn't look good. So we found a place to park and we went into a gas station to get an idea of what is going on. There was a 10 car pileup ahead and the road would likely be closed for the night. And the east bound 80 was closed as well, so we were stuck in this town for the night. Time to settle down and get some sleep. We knew it would be cool evening, but when we woke up at 4AM and it was 5 degrees, we were ready to go right now. We look and the road is open, so we started up and got heat back into us. The rest of the trip was uneventful. We got to see 3 new states for us. We had never been in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington so we were eager to see them all. We spent the night in ID near Bosie and the drive down the Columbia River along Rt. 84 was incredible. While we were driving down the river we crossed over to the Washington side and we got a view over the river as well.

We rolled into Bandon on Sunday afternoon and we work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and the rest of the week is ours for exploring. So we will have some areas to see and checkout. Here is a few photos of the Hatchery.

Ok, so this one is for Jamie. Aka, more trains.

Ok, so last time we toured the outside of the Union Pacific rail yard in Cheyenne. This time we will be inside the gates. Well there really aren't any gates, but be went inside either way. The Cheyenne shops are used to service the only remaining steam fleet in the US from a major railroad company. They have 5 mechanics working in Cheyenne and they maintain the show fleet and they are also responsible for snow removal from most of the Rocky Mountain region.

This is a sign you don't see many places.



Inside the shop there was one of the Big Boy locamotives that was receiving boiler maintenance and some chassis repairs before the summer show season.

This Big Boy is actually just a parts vehicle. The frame is cracked, so rather than scrapping the engine, they use it for extra parts to keep the others running.

Inside the Big Boy. You thought a pump panel was busy, this thing is crazy.

Notice the driver.

Notice the sign.

Here is the interior of one of the club cars. This one is from the '20s and the woodwork is amazing. They also have a '50s vintage club car, and the interior looks like it was made in the '50s. Not nearly as impressive.

Here is one of the vintage diesel engines. Much newer than the Big Boys, but still cool.

V-16 3000hp Detroit Diesel powerplant.

Now, here is the Rotary that is used to clear snow in the mountain passes.

Now outside, you can see the roundhouse in the background. Here is a truck from one of the diesel engines that I show above. Checkout the brakepads!

Lots of spare parts laying around the yard. Good thing I work on cars, not trains.

Here is the round table.

These are the tenders that they pull with the Big Boys. They carry 6000 gallons of water plus fuel for the engines. This will let them run for several hundred miles.

So, we were walking towards the roundhouse and I spotted a huge "bench" grinder on a flat car. Or tour host said "that isn't a big grinder, checkout the one inside."

And he was right. You can grind a 2x4 chunk of steel.

That is all for now. We are leaving for OR in about 20 minutes. So we will be on Interstate 80 or 84 when you read this. So, sorry Julie it will be a while before I read your comment.

Talk to everyone soon.

R.J.