I’m not sure that the weather could have been much better for a day of field work at the end of January. Chase and I GPS’d the trail system in Elsie A. Holmes Nature Park just outside of Ringgold, GA. They’ve created a really nice system of trails for a nice walk that takes you down alongside the South Chickamauga Creek, and has a super nice parking area with bathrooms and a pavilion.
South Chickamauga Creek
Today at work, my brother and I were asked to go and GPS some new bike trails that are open to the public. My supervisor is a mountain biker, and wants us to create some maps showing the different trails that are in Raisin Woods, which currently contains 4 different trails that total about 5 miles.
This really brought back the feeling of a project that we did back in the summer of 2003. We had the task of hiking and GPSing all of the hiking trails in our area, most of which were in the National Forest.
Back in 2003, I was taking some classes at the local college, so I only worked a few hours a day except for friday, which was a full day. A coworker of ours, Ben, who is now retired, would do all of the legwork of locating the trails, calling and finding out about them, pretty much doing all of the planning on topographic maps to get us out there and going. He would drive us to the trailhead, help us get everything hooked up and working, and see that we were off to a good start. Usually he would even hike with us for a while because he enjoyed it as well and his added company was nice, but would have to turn back at some point to get the car so that he could pick us up at the end of the planned hike. So hiking was the friday thing for a few months, and we totalled ~93 miles worth of trails. We had a blast doing that project and really saw alot of neat things out there.
I haven’t blogged in a few days because not too much is really happening. My brother and I finished up that Census project we were on, and so far have only got one back to be resubmitted after correcting a few things 
We’ve been working outside for the past 3 days GPSing the utility poles, fire hydrants, crosswalk poles, water valves, and any other major thing along a road that is about 5 miles long in total. Included w/ all that stuff is also the edge of the asphault. So now that it is May and nice and warm out, I’m pretty burnt from the sun. You’d think I’d learn to remember the sunscreen 
Tomorrow we are heading down to Watkinsville, Georgia to do another security install for my brother. It’s probably one of the better ways to spend a wet saturday..making some money 
Things have been so hectic this week at work. Thank goodness that today is friday. Apparently before my brother and I go out in the field to do our work, we have to go around to everyone and ask if they need us to make any maps or files for them before we go. Which really is no big deal, except for the fact that you can’t find some of the people here until 9:15, and w/ a two hour drive to our destination to begin work, that cuts into our work time a huge amount. That happened a couple of times this week and made me so mad a few times Continue Reading..
Usually I wouldn’t care at all, but w/ a strict deadline, there’s not too much room to play on.
Whew…just when I thought that I’d be back in the office for the next few months something comes up 
We were asked to collect ~150 more railroad crossings in 3 other counties. These are quite a distance away, so there’s going to be some added travel time in there which will give us 2 weeks worth of field work. I was asked if I wanted to do them or if we should just pass on it, and my response was that I WANTED to do them, lol. So obviously I have grown a bit tired of the desk work over the years and have very much enjoyed the time outside and want more of it!
After about 6 months of working in the office completely, staring at the computer screen, and listening to the Today’s Big Hits on Yahoo! Music, we’re finally going to be getting to work out in the field for about a week. Planning on breaking it up and only going out when it’s not raining. So we’ll be cruising in the Crown Vic, and stopping at most of the railroad crossings in the North Georgia area.
Continue Reading..
There’s a certain kind of pain that can numb you. There’s a type of freedom that can tie you down. Sometimes the unexplained can define you. And sometimes the silence is the only sound. In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.
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© Copyright 2007-2012 Shane Holden
All Rights Reserved.
