In the Field

As of January 4th, I've started working in the field for a six month rotation. We have two survey crews at work for our area, well two party chiefs anyway, and people have been rotating out from the office to get the field experience. And finally it's my turn. So each week, I travel somewhere in California to do survey work with my party chief. It's basically what I did during my summers with the BLM when I was in school. Well, it's actually a whole different kind of surveying, but the traveling part of it and working four 10-hour days is the same.

I just finished my first week. We started out traveling to Ureka, then to Livermore and then Antioch. So basically, I never know where I'm going to be until about a day in advance. But it's really exciting and I'm loving it! The company pays for travel expenses, hotel rooms, and meals. So far, I've stayed at the Hampton Inn and gone out to nice dinner including a nice steak house all in beautiful wine country! I love my job!

I'll mainly be traveling in our area, which is along the north coast: from just north of San Jose all the way north to the CA/OR border and west of I-5. However, if other offices need our help, we can travel to other areas as well. So basically, I could be going anywhere in California. Here are a couple pictures my party chief got of me setting up the base station before doing some GPS topography.