Cam Berr

Where did they first put the marker?

Cam Berr got a first useful field job on the hill through a neighbor who had seen Cam walk around a retaining wall rather than look over it. The neighbor had overestimated how often Cam did that. On a survey for a cable repair, Cam copied a lantern mark from the upper wall without seeing that someone working below had set the marker back a few inches. The installation crew found the difference. Cam and Mina, Cam's older sister, walked a fresh set of points in the rain. At the top Mina started to read the position aloud. Cam offered to walk back down for a look, and Mina put one boot on the first step. She already had the other reading.

They've moved houses for each other four times. Cam plans the hallway around a drawing, and Mina holds a piece of furniture in a position the drawing insists cannot exist. Cam enjoys this most when nobody else is watching.

Where was the tilt?

The Audi 1984 Sport quattro sat quietly while Cam studied a wheel from the clean side of a bench. A pass through the closed practice course had made one side feel as though it took a little longer to settle. From the usual place the car looked square. On the second morning Mina happened to bring Cam lunch. She saw where the outer edge of the wheel broke the line of the bench from near the wall. Cam came around to look from the same height. The little lean was apparent a foot from the point that had kept them guessing all morning.

Cam reset the support first, so they were both looking at the same thing. The Audi had indeed been sitting slightly wrong on that edge. Afterward Cam stood by the crest on course and found a similar difference in the apparent shape of the bend. From the start it looked flat. From the other end you could see the entrance dropped toward one side before the steering seemed to settle.

What did the other end say?

Finn Flatout likes to observe the air from the top of the section. Cam sends the notes from below, where the cold gathers in the morning. A surface that looked clear from the upper course still held a little damp under the shadow on the far wall. It helped to put the two sets of observations next to each other before changing anything about the start. Sid Sideways wandered up with a box of snacks and wanted to know whether anybody had considered looking from inside the practice lane during the walk. Cam saved him a corner on the test sheet.

When Otto Gravel asked for a look at his three-bump stretch, Cam moved toward the bottom and saw a little tilt in the support there too. There was nothing unusual about it until the car came over the rise. Otto wanted them both to put a finger on the same place.

Where will Mina stand?

Cam wants to get the Audi over the crest with the wheel already settled as the far side comes into view. Mina has asked to do the low reading again. Cam has marked two places from which the reading should make sense. The two markers are resting in a bag she needs to return before she'll agree to find out which Cam had in mind for her.