Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Survivor '07!

Here's what I brought. We also had a coffee can to boil our water in.

Above...Cliff Lake where we made camp.
My first fire made from flint and steel...while Paul and Jonathon built a sturdy shelter for the evening. The fire had two problems...1. It was built too far from the shelter to give us warmth and 2. We did not build a tall enough reflector around the fire to give us the heat we needed to stay warm for the night...we only slept 3 and a half hours on night 1.

On the way to the campsite we ran across a turtle...I said we should stop and take it with us...it thought differently and tried to convince us, by peeing all over itself and the ground.

Here is the turtle trying to make a break for it..."It's like watching a mosquito sucking on a mummy...forget it little friend."
Paul drove.
Here is the frame work of our shelter...just the studs and trusses...no insulation or sheetrock. Closer to the finished product, Jonathon and Paul relax on a surprisingly soft and comfortable bed...not photographed-we used moss for pillows.

Here are our make-shift fishing poles. We couldn't find grubs to catch any fish, but around 10am we found our first grasshopper...I proceeded to catch a few more...by lunch we had an 8 inch rainbow trout (or some other fish with multiple colors). I caught another fish later that day...Paul, my fishing teacher, failed to catch a fish, but I think he was proud that the mentee caught one. ("the student becomes the teacher"-said with a bad asian accent)

Here is my bite of the fish I caught.

This was not the turtle's finest moment.
He had already been boiled alive and then he met cold steel.

Rash from my bee sting (Bee not photographed-He did not sign a waiver to have his photograph shown on the internet...we don't want to be sued)

Also not shown...the eight times I puked on night #2...the 2 and a half miles we hiked in the dark to get out of there...the prayers we prayed hoping not to lose the trail or the tears we cried when we lost the trail.
At approximately 6:00 pm, I began throwing up the "nothing" that I had eaten. By nine o'clock, I was on my third puke fest...We needed to leave. But we had no flashlight...and no moon. It was dark...We felt our way down the 2 and a half miles to the car. We grew quite accustomed to the feel of the trail. By the last mile and a half we were walking at almost normal spead. (The trail is hard and dips toward the middle...it makes sense, but you typically don't notice when you have the use of your eyes.) To be honest, it was the highlight of the trip...with the slight exception of puking four more times down the trail and a final time in the car. Paul did not throw up until we were in the car...great timing!!! Actually, he opened the door and didn't get any inside the car. All in all...it was a great trip and we all had wonderful stories to tell.

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1 comment:

Mama Amy said...

My stomach feels oh not so good just reading this...