Drove up to Cut Bank, Montana last week for a fiber splicing job along a new span of high tension transmission lines being built. Cut Bank is only 20 miles away from the US/Canadian border, so it was quite a drive.
First sunset over a railroad trestle.
First enclosure that I built, which was inside a new substation being built.
Not often that I'll be inside a fenced in area like this, for good reason. Not energized yet though--not til I finish their fiber work.
Monster bucket truck that was at my disposal. Only one problem: it was too big. :) I only needed to get as high up as the LADDER platform, that climbs up to the bucket. Oh well...
They're digging a trench to lay some ducts & fiber--that was supposed to already be here. Guess I'll be coming back here tomorrow.
Saw two monster Mule deer bucks one morning on the way to a remote substation.
Here's the rest of their entourage.
Another great sunrise. No wonder this place was given the name 'big sky'.
Another location to splice. This is a spot that our crew had already done a couple of months ago, but the elec company tore out a span of fiber cable to add in a new substation. I'll be ripping out the old cable that they cut, and adding in the new cable that's coiled at the base of the structure.
Tall structure. The lowest of the three transmission lines is over 100' up.
Wind turbines everywhere out here. There is a consistent wind that comes off of the Pacific, through Canada, and down through this area. The fiber work that I'm here to do this week is to tie together two wind turbine field substations that are about 27 miles apart.
Structure where they are tying in the wind fields to their transmission lines that run north to Canada.
They finally got the duct work & fiber placed for me here at my final structure. The fiber just runs to that little metal shack in the background. My work here is temporary: this enclosure will be ripped out after December, the the heavy cable will go back up the pole and over some more structures to a new substation that's being built in the far background (only dirt right now).
Driving home now, only 10 hours to go.
Some homes along the Snake River.
Found a new camping spot of us! Can you see it?
That blue dot is an old Chevy Suburban that snagged a great spot nestled in that valley. I'll have to remember this place...
Missouri River
Here are a couple of videos that I shot:
This is just a video of the wind blowing through a grain field.
This is a neat one. I was able to see the linemen adding paddles, or an end connector, to some of the transmission lines. They do this by using an implosive device to crimp/fuse the ends. Same process is used to connect two lines to each other.
It was a great week! Had a blast working along the power lines. Beautiful country too. Nothing but grain fields as far as the eye could see. And the traffic? Just right. :)
