Every so often we get the chance to do something totally unnecessary, yet totally awesome! This happened to me last semester when I signed up for a wilderness survival class at BYU. We met once a week and learned various skills, like starting fires using sticks, making rope out of bark, setting traps to catch food, and building shelters. For our final we went on a three day survival trek out in the middle of nowhere and had to prove ourselves against the wild.
This is me saying goodbye to my wife and son as I went off into the wilderness, (probably... to die)
The trip started out when we were dropped off in the middle of the night, on the side of a dirt road in the middle of the desert. We were told to follow the road until we reached our camp. We ended up hiking for two or three hours in the dark until we found the camp. Once there our teacher told us to get some sleep, that we would need it for the next day.
I slept under the stars, on the hard ground, and woke up covered in snow. It was one of the worst nights I have ever had. That day was used to pass off our skills for our teacher. It was exhausting and tons of work. Around 5 pm we were told that the time had come to go off on our own. We were hiked through the woods by our TAs and dropped off one at a time. Then I had to spend the next 38 hours alone in the wild.
This was the shelter I was able to build with the hour of sunlight I had left.
The walls didn't reach the floor, so I was freezing all night long. I could also hear coyotes all around me in the dark. My fire also went out in the middle of the night and I couldn't get it going again.
It took most of the day, but my shelter was as solid as a rock by the time I was finished.
My lonely camp.
I burned a hole in my sweatshirt when I was reading scriptures by the fire.
Waiting to be "rescued"
Overall it was a really fun trip and a great class. That being said, I was happy to go home to my little family and sleep in my warm, soft bed once again.
This was my welcome home poster prepared by Nicki and Owen.
Nicki also made me an awesome welcome home feast! Steak, my favorite snack foods, and banana cream pie! Thanks babe.
