Feb 5, 2011

BYU Pow Wow: He didn't come after, was at home

One of our annual events in Scouts was to take the boys to the BYU annual Pow Wow. It was always a fun three weeks and it only took me a year to realize that I would need a rather strong incentive for the boys to get them to complete all three badges by the time the Pow Wow ended on the third Saturday. I decide that I would treat them to pizza on the way home from that third week if they gave me all three badge cards completely signed as passed off as we would meet at the vehicles. I don’t remember having to ever leave anyone out of that pizza trip. However there was one year when I was waiting for the last boy and he never came to the car. I was of course starting to get worried when we decided to call his parents and see if they would know where he might have gone. As it turned out they had come and picked him up after the first hour because campus security had caught him stealing something in the bookstore. Needless to say it ended up being a good lesson for the other boys and for myself in watching them more carefully after they left for class. The only way I could really do that though was to have them sign up as buddies so that they would have a person to help keep them on course. The yong man also learned an important lesson that day in the fact that he not only never finished the three badges he was also embarrassed when the security only called his parents and would not settle for anyone else that day. I was glad they did because the lesson was learned.

Feb 4, 2011

Building the family shed

Shortly after we built our house in Mapleton in 1983 I decided that I needed a shed to put garden equipment and other storage items into for increased use of the storage in our home. It was actually a couple of years I think but memory has a way of squashing years together the older you get and it takes some real research to get an accurate time table. Anyway I spent several weeks pondering what shed I would like to build and went to several sources for ideas. The best idea though came form a book called Backyard Builder if I remember it correctly. I saw several sheds in it and did some preliminary drawings to get a better idea of how I could do it. I even took it to Signetics to work and talked with other technicians about it. Finally I came up with a plan. I would build it 20 feet long and 10 foot wide. Why those dimensions I am not really sure now but I remember I wanted to have plenty of room because I was sure it would fill up rather rapidly.
I decided to put the flooring of it on a foundation of 6 buckets filled with cement. No logical reason just didn’t require as much digging or cement. I also wanted to be able to move it if needed since I was building it only three feet from the property line. (It looks like a lot more room than that but that is because the city just hasn’t built the road that they said they are going to build in the future and thus required more footage from me when we asked for a building permit for the house.) I then placed 6inch by 10 inch boards on their side to create the floor. As I built the sides of the shed Marie’s dad Verl brought me some metal strapping material and suggested that I put them on the outside of the framing to help make the structure more solid for earthquake protection. I was a little surprised by that suggestion but through the years have thought about it many times and learned that there was some pretty sound wisdom in his suggestion. It has become my backup living quarters if there should be an earthquake and the house be damaged to where we could not live in it. It would be easy to heat although I would need to add some insulation to the interior walls and a better door but if needed in a pinch we could set up a fairly comfortable home in that shed. Each of the children helped as much as they could with Ben probably adding the most since he was the oldest. I think though that building the shed actually did more for the children than I first thought. I knew I was going to get a shed out of it and in fact it has been a very good investment since I am able to house all of the camping supplies in it as well as several barrels of hard wheat for storage. I gained something else though that has become more apparent over the years and that is the fact that the boys seem to be unafraid of jumping into any building project and doing it themselves. This has been real evident as they have gotten their own homes and done most of the remodeling themselves.
It has changed over the years from housing the garden tractor, lawn mowers and bicycles to more camping gear and misc other storage. In 2008 I added a piece to the south side of it to store the riding lawn mower and 4 wheeler that we use to clean the driveway and entertain the grandchildren. It has always been a good investment but now I need to build another one to house the garden equipment and things that we when we have parties by the fire pit.
I could probably fill it up pretty fast also.

Feb 3, 2011

YW 4^th Year Hikes

4th Year Hike: Box Canyon Les Long

I have had the opportunity to be a Priesthood leader for several years as my girls were growing up on one of their yearly Young Women activities. It is a requirement for their certifications for the fourth year at Girl’s Camp that they go on a separate hike from the week long girl’s camp. So either their ward or the stake as a whole will get all of the girl’s in their fourth year and plan a special hike for them. Typically the girls go on one 4^th year hike but Tia had a leader , Wendy Dahle, who was a camper from her youth and taught Tia to love it as well. So Tia went on at least 8 of them and I went on 7 of them with her and still regret having not been there on the other one when she went to Green River Lakes in Wyoming with Bob and Wad (Bob Dahle and Dennis Wadsworth). 

The first year that I went I was able to go with a great camper Les Long as the other Priesthood leader. I have long respected his ability when it came to camping and enjoyed that camp with him. We traveled to the Boulder Mountains in Southern Utah. On the south side of the Boulders there is a canyon called Box Canyon which starts near the top of one of the main tributaries and goes 8 miles before you can get out of the canyon.  We start at the top and then take all of the cars to the bottom of the canyon and then drive back in one canyon and after the hike we take one car back to the top and pick up the other car and go back to the bottom. 

So we started at the top and all of the girl’s waited there for us until we got back in the one car. We then took a picture of the group and started down into the canyon.

It was a narrow trail at the start that often crossed the stream and then later went to the side as the canyon opened up into a larger base.  About four miles into the canyon we stopped to camp for the night.  The trail also went down for a long part of it in sand which made the going pretty hard especially with a heavy backpack. Several of the girls really struggled and would stop quite often making it harder to get to where we wanted to camp four miles into the canyon.

We were able to enjoy a relaxed evening after we set up our tents and had supper.

We had a good nights rest as far as sleeping on the sand allows anyway. We woke up and started breakfast and then as we were packing up to go it started to snow. The girl’s were ready to go in record time and they hiked out without hardly even stopping. I was so impressed by their speed but I guess when it’s snowing on you and you know you have to go four miles to get out of it then you can dig deep for the ability that is already there and make it happen. It was a great hike.

4th Year Hike: Box Canyon and the scouts Danny Raymer

This was a fun year for hiking because of the difference in attitudes caused probably by harmones. We went down a day earlier on this trip to Box Canyon and decided to stay over one extra night so we could go into Escalante and receive the training for wilderness hiking provided by the Forest Service there in town. We went to the training and enjoyed the sites that were in that small southern Utah town. Then traveled back up the canyon to a campground near the start of Box Canyon.  We started to set up camp and decide where all of the girls and leaders were going to be during the night. About halfway through the setup a carload of scouts drove into the campground. I could tell that it was a group of boys that were varsity Scouts and thus the same age as the girls. I went over and talked to one of the leaders who looked very familiar to me and as we talked I realized that I had worked with him in Varsity Scouting several years earlier. He was from American Fork and his boys were indeed Varsity Scouts. We decided that it would not work to well to have them in the same camp so Brother Kitchen decided to take his group to another camping area.

We did our usual activities around the campfire that night and then retired to bed. Well around 1 AM a couple of boys showed up in camp and little to their knowledge did they realize the quick plans they had made with the girls to came back when the leaders would be asleep wasn’t a real smart thing to do. We caught them fairly quickly and very soon after that their leader showed up in a car and told them to get back to camp. They started to try to climb into his car and he mearly stated “You walked here, you will walk back.” It was around a mile away from our camp.

The next morning we were eager to get into the canyon so we could spend a relaxing hike and several hours at our campsite halfway down the canyon. We shuttled the cars down and back and were just getting ready to start into the canyon when the boys showed up and were also going to hike through the canyon. They still had to shuttle their cars however so we were quite a bit ahead of them when we started into the canyon. The girls were hiking pretty good except for a couple who just couldn’t hike through the sand, it was so hot and difficult. About an hour later the boys however caught up with our group and then those girls didn’t seem to have a problem at all. They chatted with a couple of the boys and we hiked right along until we got to out camp without a word of a problem the whole time. It took us about an hour though to get the boys to move on down the canyon after we had stopped.

We had a good evening and did some hiking up some of the side canyons and I took lots of pictures. The next morning was just opposite of the last time we had been in the canyon and was somewhat hot. Again the girls were having a difficult time hiking out that morning. We had gone about 3 of the 4 miles and the boys showed up. They gallantly took over the backpacks of the struggling girls and we hiked on out to the end of the trail where their bewildered leaders had been wondering where they had gone. I think they had a pretty good idea however. They had actually spent the night at the end of the trail at the request of the boys.

Well the girls talked to the boys while we went and retrieved the other vehicle and then we finally pried them apart so that we could return home. I found out several years later that two of the girls and two of the boys had continued relationships for a couple years after returning home. I don’t know however if any of the relationships continued into a marriage relationship. I still remember one of their young men though that I had a great deal of respect for after that hike. He had one leg that has been removed due to cancer and hiked with an artificial leg the entire distance. It was obviously not easy but he never ever complained either.

4th Year Hike: Green River Lakes

The second time that Tia went into the head of the green river in Wyoming I was lucky enough to be able to go. I knew it was a beautiful area because Tia had shown me some of the pictures that she had taken the first time when she went in two years earlier. It was a long drive into Wyoming to get to the trail head but only about a mile and a half back into the camping area. We ended up hiking a good share of that in the rain also. This was my first time into any of the lakes in Wyoming and it was indeed a very beautiful area. The hike went well and the other Priesthood advisor was my brother-in-law Scott Jeffers who had brought horses along to carry in some of the gear. I personally had all of mine in my backpack but was glad we had horses to help a couple of the girls that had problems with their packs.

We set up camp on the first of the two lakes reminding the girls to hang their food in between two trees since we were in bear country. I never saw or heard a bear the entire trip but was always glad that we were cautious anyway. It was actually the second lake that we hiked to but the first one at the base of the mountains, truly where the river started. After doing all of the setup of the camp we had some time to do some hiking around the second lake and just having some fun. It was early in the year and luckily before the season where the mosquito’s were hatching in full volume.

We had a campfire and spent some time around it before retiring to bed.

The next morning, after a rough sleep on the rocks, several of us went for a hike around to the other side of the second lake. We saw a moose and I was able to take several pictures of it and we seemed to have hikes almost the entire trail back to the parking lot where we had started the day before. We had to hike clear back to  camp and pack up then walk back out. It was along walk but well worth it. There were no real problems on this hike but it did seem like the trail back was a lot shorter than the one going in the night before in the rain.  I was glad that I was able to be on that hike with Tia as well as all of the others that I did with her through the years.

4th Year Hike: Days Fork

When we did the Days Fork hike, up Hobble Creek Canyon, the Stake had asked that we keep all of the hikes within the Utah County area that year. So Marie, Brother and Sister Dahle and Sister Jones and I decided to try out first a hike that I had heard about form scout troops. Wendy Dahle also had known about it and wanted us to hike it so that we would know if it would work for the girls. Well we went up early one morning and I really enjoyed the hike. Going up I was quite concerned about Bob Dahle though since he was way behind the rest of us. He commented however that we were not to worry because even though he was slow he was steady. Bob was quite over weight but did indeed make the hike on a slow but steady pace. (That was a lesson that would serve me later in years when I was out of shape and asked to climb a mountain with a stake group.) It was a beautiful hike and we decided that we would take the girls on it in a couple of week following that day.

Well we did and it was a fun but rather hard hike after we put on back packs full of camping gear. I don’t remember how many girls we had with us but it was probably around 8 to 10. We hiked up to the top where the trail crossed over the ridge and then part of the way down the other side when we started to find water again before we stopped for the night.  I had a number of the girls begging me to stop but it wasn’t until the hike was over the next day that they were glad I had left all of the last days hike on the downhill side of the event. We did experience something that last day though that we had not experienced on the hike as leaders two week earlier. This time as were going down the trail we came to a part of it where an elk had died and there were flesh worms strewn along the trail for several yards and we had to get off of the trail to get past and even then we were unable to miss or skirt the smell that accompanied it. I doubt any of the girls will ever forget it. Another year, another hike and another special experience teaching young women how to hike and camp. Each time I was able to do it with Tia and that made it even more special.

4th Year Hike: Wardworth

Tia had been called as a Stake leader this time and was asked to plan the hike with any help that she wanted. So she came to me and asked me to help decide on a place to go. We decided to go up to Wadsworth in the right hand fork of Hobble Creek. It was near the Days Fork area only a little higher and went to the left side of the canyon rather than the right side where days fork was located.

We decided to use some help also from someone who would become a new member of the family. Hayden was dating  Cheyenne Palmer from Payson and we asked her to go along and do some things to help us stress first aid. Hayden also went as the second Priesthood advisor since we couldn’t find anyone else. We had with us that year a young women that we knew to be very hard to work with and one who didn’t obey the rules very well but she was a hard worker to some degree and we found out that it would play into our favor later on.

After we set up camp about a mile and a half from the start of the trail we had decided to take a hike further up the canyon so we could do some compass work and also teach the girls some tracking skill’s. Hayden and I left first leaving a trail that was quite obvious at first and then difficult to ward the end. The girls did a pretty good job until they were almost where we were hiding but when they found it difficult to find anymore tracks they were about to give up thinking we had fooled the and gone back to camp. We finally stood up to show them we were even close enough to hear them talking. It was a good chance to teach them that people, especially children, will hide so they can’t be found because they are scared that they don’t know the searching person or that they will get into trouble for it somehow.

We then started back down the trail with Cheyenne about in the middle and Tia and I at the first with Hayden following up at the end. At a certain area in the trail that Cheyenne had picked while hiking up she faked an accident and went rolling down the hill. (She later admitted that she wasn’t sure she was actually going to be able to stop before going all the way to the bottom. I was down the trail a pretty good distance and Hayden was a good distance as well. So the girls had to go into action, they called for us to do it. I called back and told them to get down and help her till I got there. So our problem girl, who is also a born leader, started to get things done and to get help down to Cheyenne. We were able to get her back up to the trail and she did a great job faking a hurt ankle. I helped the girls fashion a makeshift stretcher and they carried her back the ½ mile left to camp. About twenty yards before camp she had them stop, then she jumped off the stretcher and walked on into camp by herself obviously not hurt at all. The young lady really got mad then and all I could do was laugh. She calmed down and the with all of the girls around we talked about what had happened and what they had learned from it. The young lady then commented I was wondering why Hayden wouldn’t help us when it was his girlfriend and he should have been right there.  It was a good camp.

4th Year Hike:  Big Springs

Big Springs was a little bit different hike from the others in that we only carried the packs for 1 and a half miles to where we set camp and then hiked to the top of the pass overlooking Utah Valley. So it was a tough hike but luckily without backpacks. There were also some girls that struggled just to get to camp who elected to stay behind and not go to the top. Another girl had major problems just getting to the Big Springs camp area and Tia and Hayden had to take her back to the main camp. They then hiked back and caught up to the rest of us before we had gone hardly another mile. I struggled to make the top myself and Hayden and Tia were both there long before I made it. Another girl decided to stay in the bowl just below the ridge rather than try to make that last 100 foot climb. Sister Allen made the climb all the way to the top and we had about 10 girls also make the total distance.

We stopped and took some group pictures at the top and stayed there for several minutes while enjoying the view over Utah Valley. The top is just behind the Rock Canyon camp area East of Provo. We met a group of scouts who had hiked up form that area and were headed down into Big Springs. They had full back packs on as they were hiking. On the way back down from the top we all slid down on our coats on the snow banks. Sister Allan was headed straight for a stump and I was able to stop her before she got there. It was a pretty good hike and had one other surprise for those who did the climb. There is a large pine tree that smelled just like butterscotch that we were all surprised with as we stood close to it and took a deep smell of the bark.

4th Year Hike: Rocky Ridge

This year the hike was incorporated into the Stake Trek over Rocky Ridge. I suppose it was probably harder in many ways than most of the hikes in that it was a lot longer but maybe a bit easier in that they didn’t have to put on back packs. Pulling a cart probably made it more challenging in the long run. We had a three day event where we went to Martin’s cove one night then to 6^th water the second night. The actual hike was when we went from 6^th Water over Rocky Ridge which was a 21 mile trek with the hand carts. This was a good hike and as usual on a trek it was a very spiritual experience.

The one interesting thing that came from this year was that I was asked to take pictures on this trek for the stake. Another member of the stake had a Canon 60-D Digital camera that he had me take since he was going to be doing video during the trek. So I took my Canon A-1 and 40 rolls of film and then his digital camera and one card. I exposed 16 rolls of film and then added to that 800 images with the digital camera. It was a camera where I could also change lenses as I did on the A-1 and it was an experience that would change my life in photography forever. I went home form the trek and ordered my first Canon 10-D digital camera and have not used the film cameras since that time.

Feb 2, 2011

Carving Staves

When I first became a scoutmaster I was introduced to Bill Birch and Chuck Loveless who were always telling stories and carving bolo’s while telling them, they could keep boys spellbound for hours. Anyway I decided that I wanted to learn as well and so one day began carving and much to my dismay it looked nothing like a face that they would carve, but through perseverance I began doing a pretty good job especially since I used one of theirs to copy the first time after that failed attempt. Later though after making over a 100 of those faces I decided to try doing ones on a stave. I had wood burned staves several times but had never carved on one. However the things that I had learned with the small pieces still applied here and I was able to have as much fun with them as with the others. I ended up carving over 30 staves and possibly more. I would give most of them away to the leaders that were helping me. I often have people whom I have given a stave tell me that they still have it and I often have forgotten that I had even given them one. I carved one stave with animal faces since we had been living with a bear near camp that year. My first face however was done because of a bad day that Tia was having at girl’s camp. Marie had gone to camp that year with her and I took Loren and Brittany and we stayed near the area in a motor home that had been given to me by Dave Nemelka. I took both of them into camp with me each day and would help the Sister’s with whatever they needed. Britt loved it but told one of the girl’s that Tia was her secret friend and that ruined it for Tia. Well that made Tia mad and she was mad at me so I went to the road where I had seen some wood that had been pushed over as they cleaned the road earlier that year. I took a long one from the group and stripped the bark from it. It was a very hard wood and not like the aspen that I had been carving to that point which was quite easy. I went ahead and carved it anyway. She liked it and it made a hit with the other girls and leaders so for the next 12 years as I attended girls camp each year I would do several staves and give to the stake leaders. It was a lot of fun.

Second Version

Carving Staves

Having been involved in scouting for many years I have had the opportunity to see many talented men at work making life interesting for young men and consequently their leaders. Two of these men were Bill Birch and Chuck Loveless. They would have a booth and sit there carving faces out of wood. It seemed so easy watching them that I had a great desire to do it as well. I had seen samples of work that other men in the council had also done after seeing Bill and Chuck. So I tried it and needless to say my face was not very good. So I set out a plan for how to accomplish this goal. I figured that if I took the one I had received from Bill for a training day that I had attended that he was teaching on how to teach scouts then I could copy it and learn to do it that way. Well that worked and I soon had discovered that my problem the first time was in not making the cuts deep enough. I then began doing my own often being asked how I decided what to carve. My answer was simply “I carve until I see what was in the wood and then I am finished. It seemed that as I carved certain characteristics would emerge from some of the cuts and that would direct my next slice. It was really quite a lot of fun. I did over a hundred of these faces including one of my Bishop B ray Anderson that I did on a ward campout. We were sitting around the campfire and I started carving and one slice reminded me of one of his facial characteristics so I looked at him closely and completed what seemed to be a fairly good likeness. I had done quite a lot of these often carving while sitting listening to lessons at camp and while watching soccer games. I also cut myself several times before I learned how to keep my knife sharp and the blade away from flesh. After a few years I was out in the woods looking for a suitable stave for the week and after finding a good one went back to camp. (I would go out and find Aspens that had fallen during the winter and cut off branches for a stave.) That way I would have fresh wood to work with that made for easy carving. I would do the same for wood to carve the faces from while at camp. This particular year however after having removed the bark there was something in the wood that made me want to just carve a face in it instead of cutting off a piece. Well that led to several years of carving staves. I ended up carving faces of people or animals or other things like bear claws and scout symbols in the staves. Then at the end of the week would give it to an assistant scoutmaster or the senior patrol leader. I ended up even doing this at girl’s camp after doing a stave for Tia the second year that she was at girls camp. I have done well over 30 such staves since learning to carve and have really enjoyed watching what came from the wood on each stave.

Feb 1, 2011

Some scout camps I was not proud to have claimed to have been a part of it.


Eggs Don’t Break

I went on a number of camping trips as a young scout and have numerous pictures taken while on some of those camps. One camp however does not have any pictures of it in my collection but there is a very poignant one in my memory. Young people can be so mean even to their best friends or to the guy who is just being picked on that day. This camp was one held just a couple of miles up the Duchesne River from town. We had gone up Friday evening and Saturday morning we had played a number of games in the filed next to the trees where we had set camp. We had finished playing games that morning and for some reason had gone back to camp. It was probably to clean up and get ready to go home. Someone however began an egg fight of sorts. It was touted that raw eggs wouldn’t break when thrown just right. Now I don’t remember who suggested that or why Gary Foy was the chosen target but I do remember how badly I felt as I watched some of the other boys start to throw the eggs at Gary. He promptly got mad and climbed over the fence threatening to walk home. That was probably the fuel needed for the other boys to throw the eggs at him even more. I still have minds eye a vivid movie of an egg hitting Gary as he topped the fence and then it bouncing off and falling to the ground without a crack. That apparently proved the point and to the energizing of the group a full volley of eggs soon followed. Gary was luckily out of reach by then and many of them bounced off the ground while others simply broke on impact. He did carry a large goose egg though where the first one had made it’s impact. I have often felt very badly for this incident even though I did not participate in the testing of the theory. Gary was one of my friends and I remember being mad at the group for testing it out on him but they didn’t seem to be too worried about it. Gary later fell away from the church for several years and after a divorce from his high school sweetheart and being married to a waitress from a bar that became converted to the church he finally returned into full activity. I have often wondered if that incident could have been one of those critical points in his life that caused him to turn away. I was glad when I heard he had been baptized and returned.

Jan 31, 2011

Skunks: All in One

I decided to write a number of stories in one since they all have a common disliked animal, a Skunk.
My experiences with skunks started at an early age as I became very familiar with the common scent they put off. Each time as I would try to go to sleep at night, when their scent would filter through the air, I would little understand the very personal relationship I would develop with them over the years.
I first recall the call from dad to the older boys to get the .22 rifles because they had seen a spotted skunk, known as a Civit Cat, as they were driving toward the house from town. The Civit Cat was dreaded because it could go through a hole in the chicken coop no larger than their very head which was probably no lager than a quarter and at most a 50 cent piece. When they would get into the chicken coop they would kill the chickens as they slept and suck their blood from a small hole or bite in the neck of the chicken. I remember a lot of chickens that we lost that way. Then there were the striped skunks that were much larger and more plentiful. They wouldn’t kill the chickens but they would eat the eggs so they were also hunted and destroyed.
One of my first memories of skunks, when I was actually involved with them, came when I was around 11 or 12 years old and went with my father and brothers to haul hay at the church farm in Utahn. Since I really wasn’t big enough to lift the bales my job was to turn them over making it faster for the ones coming behind to pick them up and put them on the trailers. When the trailers had gone to the stack we were then free to play for a few minutes. Well that was where the trouble came because several of us younger kids spotted a skunk and happily went to throw rocks at it. We didn’t get close enough to be sprayed cause we were to smart for that. However we were to dumb to really be considered smart since we would chase after it through the field where it had sprayed and thus the scent was transferred to our clothes anyway. We ended up riding home in the back of the trucks.
I was around 16 when I was mowing the hay and carried the shotgun on the tractor with me since the favorite place for a skunk to hide was in the tall hay. As we would mow the hay from the outside of the field toward the middle the skunks would simply move into the still standing hay in the middle of the field and then as the area became smaller they would then venture out and run across the field. It was at that point that we would use the shotgun to kill them. This particular time though was my first in using the shotgun verses the .22 rifle. As the skunk ran from the hay it headed directly toward the stack yard. I didn’t see it until I had turned the tractor and headed in the direction of the stack yard. I quickly stopped mowing and pulled the shotgun from it’s case on the tractor and headed for the stack yard. I got there just as the skunk was headed into some tall bushes at the top of the stack yard. I quickly pulled up the shotgun and pulled the trigger. I didn’t know if I had hit it so I pumped another shell into the chamber at which time it fired again. Ihit the skunk both times and never forgot the surprise I felt as the second shot fired. I hadn’t meant to fire but as I pumped the new shell into the chamber I had forgotten to move my finger from the trigger area and promptly pulled the gun forward thus pulling the gun into the trigger finger. That was the last time I ever pumped a second shell into the chamber with my finger still near the trigger.
Then when I was 17 I was hired by Mr. Wilkerson to work in his Texaco gas station from 10 pm to 6 am every day of the week for the summer following graduation till I left for college. Since it was past 9:30 pm as I would leave for work I would often walk out to the track parked in the driveway without the use of any light. I knew my way to the truck so why use a flashlight? Well I found out why in a hurry one very dark night as I went to the truck parked out near the garage. Our garage was built back into the hillside and was covered with dirt. Inside the left side of the garage we had a small chicken setting on some eggs in a brooder. I just happened to walk out there as a skunk was headed into the garage for an evening snack of eggs. I must have nearly stepped on it since the spray I got was a direct hit with the yellow stuff. It didn’t take long for everyone in the house to figure out something had happened either so they were already after the gun and had the porch light on by the time I ran back to the house. I was not allowed into the back porch but was handed the gun through the door. I was also given a flashlight and then walked back out to the garage. I Turned on the light and then got down on the ground so I could see under the brooder to find the skunk. It was near the hen and I quickly fired. The bullet the broke a bottle that was stored at the back of the garage. I fired four more shots each at from a different angle since I kept hitting those blasted bottles and not the skunk. When the shooting was done and the air was cleared I discovered that I had hit the skunk all five times. The bullet had passed through the small skunk and hit the bottles in the back of the garage each time. I to this day don’t know why the bottles were being stored there but it didn’t matter since I had wiped out all of them with the one skunk.
You would think that getting married and moving to the city would have then stopped my mixing it up with skunks but, no, it continued. I didn’t move to a big enough city but rather to a small farming community near the city. A member of our church ward some years later gave us some of their chickens. They got a new batch every year and would give the others away to anyone they felt could use them. We had room to put in a small chicken coop and run. It was in that chicken coop that I had another run in with skunks. My neighbor, Gary Reed, was also raising some chickens in his yard and was equally concerned with the problem we had been having with skunks during the summer of 1986. So one night he called me and said he had just seen a skunk go into my coop. I quickly grabbed the rifle and he took out his pistol which he carried concealed in his boot. We opened the door of the coop so that we could shine a flashlight in to where the eggs were laid. We could see the skunk but he could care less and began to eat the eggs. It was then that I spotted another movement in the chicken run and saw another skunk headed for the eggs. He was a big one and so I aimed and fired even though I couldn’t really see the sights on the gun very well and he was on a dead run. The only problem was the dead run was too fast for me to make him dead before he entered the coop and jumped into the laying area. Now I had two skunks and worse they were fighting for the eggs. Gary and I decided the only thing to do was shoot them so he held the flashlight and I shot both of them inside the egg laying box. Well the box was built so we could be enter from outside of the coop. So the next job was to get them out and buried before the smell became any worse. That took some time but we were able to get it done and then went back to our houses. Little did I know what had happened in there, all of the windows were open. (I mean what else do you do on a hot August night when the house is not air conditioned?) It wouldn’t have been quite so bad had they been closed., It really wasn’t too bad for me because I only had to put up with it for one night and then early the next morning I left for BSA Camp Maple Dell for 8 days of Wood Badge training. (Marie however had to put up with it for several days until the stench finally cleared out.)
That however wasn’t the last of it for me that week either. I didn’t know that skunks loved scout camps as much as chickens because of all the free food they can dig from a fire pit at night after the boys are in bed. I didn’t discover it either until about Wednesday of the next week as I was sitting up late at night working on my Ticket for Wood Badge. A ticket is a set of goals that you will complete within two years of your week long training. It was 1 AM and the lanterns hanging from the rafters of the pavilion had all ran out of propane and gone out. So I sat at the table with my flashlight between my teeth working on my goals. I heard a faint noise coming from the direction of the fire pit and shined my flashlight out to see what it was. Yep, You are thinking correctly because it was a big skunk. Well I wasn’t too worried about it since I didn’t have any chickens or eggs to protect so I just quietly sat there watching it. I could have done that all night rather than risk moving and giving it a reason to be defensive. I Was OK also until I noticed some small eyes reflecting back the light from my flashlight further down the trail leading to the next camp. It was another skunk as if one wasn’t enough. I watched still in silence so as to not disturb and due also to pure curiosity of what might happen next. It didn’t take long to find out what would happen next since the approaching skunk was clearly the boss out of the two. He approached until he was about 10 feet away from the first skunk. He then ( I guess it was a He, I didn’t bother to check it out too closely.) raised his front paws off the ground and stamped then back down a couple of times. The first skunk finally paid attention to it but still wasn’t intimidated by it. So the second skunk repeated the act and then charged toward the first one at full speed. I too was then reacting at full speed because the first one was running directly toward me and it didn’t take much time for me to get on top of the table at which I was sitting. The skunk continued my direction passing between the legs of the table onto the pavilion behind me. The second one then stopped at the fire pit and began to did around for what really was never there, food. We were obedient when told not to put food in the fire pits and I was glad we had obeyed even though we were not told why. I then had a bigger problem though because the first skunk also stopped and now I was between the two of them. I would turn my light toward one and then the other making sure they were not going to take there dispute between them to another level which might include me. Finally to my relief the first one wandered off the pavilion and went around each of our four tents. He went into the one where my companion and I were staying but at least didn’t linger longer as a young adult might who is being fed on Sunday after church. I then put full attention to the one in the fire pit and began making small noises to scare it off. It took several minutes but he finally decided that the light near him must have been accompanied by something else which might pose a danger to him. He wandered ever so slowly away from camp into the trees and I then moved ever so quickly to bed. Later in the week on the Saturday morning as we were getting up for the last time at camp we were greeted by the smell of an outraged skunk coming to us from the direction of where the Bear Patrol was camped. Sure enough one of them had upset a skunk as he was headed to the bathroom that morning. I was just glad it wasn’t me.
Well you might think that the incidents would come to an end but no I am going to be destined to have to put up with skunks all of my life I fear.
About a year and a half after going to wood badge I became a scoutmaster. As part of my yearly routine I would take my scouts on an emergency preparedness camp. They would have three minutes from the time I got to their door to have their bags into my vehicle. Consequently we would do these without tents. One year as we were well settled down before 1 am I was awakened by movement under the cot I had taken to sleep on that night. It was low to the ground and had maybe three inches to spare after I had settled onto it. I then became aware of a small skunk emerging from under my bed. My son Jeff was laying next to me on the ground and so the little fellow had to cross over the top of Jeff. Well he had apparently learned from some of those young Adults I spoke of earlier and decided to linger longer. He went along the sleeping bag until he came close to Jeff’s mouth. I figured it was headed in to steal a kiss but rather jus t sniffed his face and then moved on around the camp. I was really hoping no one would wake up because I knew what would surely happen if they did. It did awaken Jeff but he had seen it close up enough for one night and was plenty ready to be obedient to my command to not move or make any noise. When we told the boys the next morning my fears were confirmed because they were all mad at me for not getting them up so they could have chased it.
Scout camp was not the only place where skunks liked top follow me. One year at Girl’s camp I had set my 10 foot tent over a cement table under the trees and then used my cot to the side of the table. I could cook and have everything that I needed in my tent. There was one minor problem in that the door would not shut on the tent. That didn’t really bother me though because I had used it that way for many years. I did happen to wake up though the first night around 1 am to find a skunk wandering around my tent, on the inside of it of course. I lay there quietly until it became evident that it might jump up on the table to secure some of my food. I never leave food out but that doesn’t stop the smell from making an animal think that I had. So I started to make some little noises so that it would get the idea that the place really was inhabited by a living, moving threat to his well being. He got the idea after a few anxious moments on my part and left through the door of the tent where he had entered. Well not to be outsmarted the next night or visited I went to some elaborate means to ensure that my door was inaccessible as I stacked chairs and other pieces of wood across the front of the door. It was around 1 am when I again woke and to my surprise I was outsmarted by quite a rascal of a skunk. Since he couldn’t get in through the door he instead was in the process of pushing under the edge of the tent and was almost half way inside. I didn’t hesitate to let him know of my displeasure in being outsmarted and luckily he was able to reverse direction before making it inside where getting him out would have been somewhat of a disaster. The following night I left the door open and moved all the food out of my tent and slept well all night as well as every night for the rest of the week.
Then there was the time in 2004 when I was at Mountain Dell as a Course Director for the Deseret District Timberline Course. I only had the one troop so most of the day to day activities I left up to the Scoutmaster and would spend a lot of my time cleaning up the rest of the unused camping areas. Then part of the time I spent sitting at a table under the trees near an electrical outlet doing reports and pictures of the camp on the computer. I left the Camera by my side and had several neat opportunities to photograph the wild animals that became use to my presence. I photographed curios chipmunks that ran out on the limbs at eye level to look at me. I photographed a young buck that was only 25 yards away from me and totally unaware that I was near him. I photographed a mink as he ran up and down the trunk of the tree near me. And I even photographed, WHAT WAS THAT, it ran from under the table where I was sitting and headed across the road, Yes it was a skunk of course. I hadn’t seen him approach from behind me and thank goodness was unaware that he was running past my legs until he was well past the dangerous confrontation point. I had seen skunks but he was by far the one I had been the closest too.
And last of all this year ,2005, at the same camp and only a few yards from my close encounter of the prior year I witnessed a skunk early one morning looking for food at the pavilion several yards away. I tried to photograph him but it was still a bit too dark. I didn’t see him again until two nights later when I again awoke around 1 am and could see in the brightly moonlit night that same little skunk trying to force his way into my tent trough the hole formed by where the three zippers met at the bottom of my tent. I of course had learned from prior experience not to have any food in my tent and knew there was no need for him to get trapped inside with me so I made plenty of noise to let him figure out he was an unwanted guest. He got the hint and wandered on up to the camp staff boys tents where he was able to get some treats that night. I know because I heard the dreadful tales the next morning from youth and adults.

Jan 30, 2011

Climbing Timpanogos Mountain with Loren

I have been on a lot of hikes with the scouts over the years and have climbed, what we refer to in Mapleton as Maple Mountain, several times. I have also been up in the High Uintahs and the mountains above Price. In all of those climbs I have wondered what it would be like to climb the tallest mountains in Utah, King’s Peak and Timpanogos. I almost got to climb King’s peak when I took my scouts around it base to Farmer’s Lake and Milk lake but never had a day to actually climb to the peak. I often wish that I had planned that trip better so we could have but at the same time have been glad I didn’t due to the ages of the boys I had with me. I did however finally get the chance to Climb Timpanogos with Loren and his scout troop as an adult supervisor several years after being released from being scoutmaster. I remember thinking that it would be so much harder than Maple Mountain (Spanish Fork Peak or Sierra Bonita) because it was nearly 3 hundred feet taller. I didn’t ever stop to think that it was actually easier as far as height because you travel in cars up to the trailhead several hundred feet before even starting the hike. I enjoyed the hike and even though it did have a lot of switchbacks it was finally completing that part of my life that I hadn’t yet accomplished. That was the first that I learned about a cabin below the peak where you can stay if caught in sudden bad weather which thankfully we didn’t have happen to us that day. It was still a long hike to the top to where we could see over into the valley but when we got there if was well worth it. I only made it to that point since I had climbed with the slower boys and was met by the others coming back from the very top as we arrived and were running out of daylight to return to the cars. Even though I didn’t go to the shack on the very top I felt satisfied to have finally made it to that point. It was a lot of fun being there with Loren also since all of my earlier scouting had been done with the three older brothers before he was old enough to become a scout. I was glad that later we would have excellent scouting experiences together at Timberline and would be able to make memories in scouting from those experiences.

Jan 29, 2011

Climbing Maple Mountain: Youth Midnight to sunrise.

Sometimes we do not understand our limitations until we try to do something that pushes them to the limit. That is how I found out about my ability to climb mountains. I learned in one night where my limitations were and thus will never try it again. We had a youth activity when Marie and I were in the Young Men’s and Young Women’s organization. I was Scoutmaster and she was a Counselor in the Young Women’s. We had decided (well the youth council decided) to do a sunrise hike up to the top of “Maple Mountain”, at least that is what we in Mapleton call it even though Spanish Fork people refer to it as “Spanish Fork Peak” and the original explorers called it “Sierra Bonita”.  Anyway it is the mountain that shades Mapleton from the early morning sunlight and the early evening moonlight. It has been said to be the most beautiful mountain in the United States since it is the only one that from it’s center to the outside edges it almost appears to be a mirror image of itself. Well it really isn’t but of any mountain in the U.S. it is the only ones that comes close. So it is a logical mountain for us to have a sunrise hike to it’s top in time for the sunrise and then be together for a testimony meeting. Well the plans were to meet at the church at 12 A.M. and then drive up to the trail head in Maple Canyon and walk up during the night. 4 boys from the Young Men’s Priest quorum decided to hike to the top from the front side and meet us there in the morning, they were more crazy than I. However, the rest of the plans were for the Scouts to take a horse with camping gear to the top starting at 5 pm so that in the morning we could make breakfast for the all night hikers. So I went with them up to the top. Unknown to me and the assistant scoutmasters, one of the young men was hiking on feet that had been operated on not long before the hike. He wanted to go so bad that he didn’t tell us and he was one of the younger boys so did not know how difficult the hike would be for him. We ended up carrying his pack over two thirds of the way just so he could make it. Well we each had a pack since we had plans to stay overnight and get up when everyone else arrived. We got to the top at about 10:00 P.M. as I remember it. I helped the boys set up camp and then headed back down the trail to meet up with the others that were coming later, one of which was Marie. I headed down the trail and not much later time wise but a long way distance wise I began regretting the decision to go back down. I must have scared a lot of deer for there were often sounds of trees being disturbed by rapidly moving animals all of which I suspected must have been a bear or mountain lion and truth be known could easily have been. But I made it down to where the trail crossed the creek at the end of the road coming from the campground. There I laid down and rested for a short period of time since I got there at about 12:30 and the group didn’t get there until nearly 1 or even 1:30 A.M.  I did get a bit of sleep since I had now been to the top with a backpack and ran back down the trail for 3.5 miles in the dark. As the group got there I fell in with Marie and hiked the rest of the way to the lake where the scouts were camped. We got to the lake around 5:30 A.M. and thus were a little early for the sunrise. There were several times on the way up that I had to continue to assure Marie that she had made the right decision. My batteries went dead when we were nearly there so we hiked part of the distance with only the one light since I had left my spare batteries in my backpack. It was a neat experience and one I will probably never forget and at least only skew the actual facts to make it appear worse than it may actually have been. Anyway when we arrived at the camp (and for me arrived for the second time within almost 12 hours and approximately 15 miles of hiking), we decided to rest until the sun was close to rising. I took a hammock and hung it between two trees and crawled in and slept of about 20 minutes. I nearly killed myself hiking up the steep mountain two times within one night and during normal sleeping hours to boot after working a full day just prior to the hike. I couldn’t believe how drained and sick I felt after stopping at the top the second time. (I say top meaning camp since the actual top was still another mile up the mountain from the lake.)  After we had breakfast and our sunrise ceremony we decided to hike to the actual top only instead of following the trial that was still covered with winter snow we just hiked up the edge the mountain. We started up one ridge which soon ran out and we were forced to snake our way in a ziz zag pattern until we reached the rim overlooking Mapleton. It was a beautiful site and the hike the rest of the way to the top was still pretty hard but also worth it since from there you could see for 360 degrees around you with no trees or hills to block the view. It was great, of course I had actually climbed this at least four time before by myself and later with my sons and later the scouts. However for Marie it was the first (and only) time that she had been there. I believe that Tia was with us and maybe even Hayden  but I don’t remember for sure. We enjoyed the top and then hiked back down the mountain to where the trail was covered with snow at which point we did some sliding on our coats on the snow. It was a lot of fun. (Yes we did get wet also.)I will never forget Marie’s comments though as we hiked back down the trail. She would look off the edge where it dropped suddenly a number of feet into dense brush and tell me had she been able to see that hiking up she would have turned around and gone back. Maybe there was some wisdom in hiking it in the dark after-all. She was the only female leader that went on the hike with the young women. I will always cherish this experience even if it just about did me under and I thought I was going to die when all of my energy just melted out of my body and I could hardly get into the hammock before fainting to the ground. Yes I now know I have limitations and will not pull a stunt like that again but I sure am glad I did it once.

Jan 28, 2011

Climbing Maple Mountain: Ben, Jeff & Hayden

My third trip up the mountain came within two years from the second. It was now time to take Hayden up the mountain.

We decided this time to hike to the lake and camp there so that we could have more time to play at the lake. I also packed a video camera up this time so that we could show Mom and Tia the sites. So this year the hiking was slower in that I had to stop and photograph the trail and sites from the trail. Also Hayden was having a little trouble hiking that far with his pack since he was still only 8 years old.

We did get to the lake in time to set up camp before dark with even enough time to play in the lake and cook supper. It was a neat camping spot up from the lake in the trees. The area was secluded and well worn from years of hunters and other using it to camp. We had brought along hammocks to use for sleeping that night. They were a lot better than the ground.

We arose early in the morning to have breakfast before climbing to the top. Plus we wanted to have plenty of time to play on the snow at the bottom of the cliffs. We went to the top this time with no incidents of pain since both of the snow drifts encountered on my other trips were not there this time. The only snow was at the base of the cliffs in the glacier that probably never ever totally melts.

We had fun up at the monument again and spent quite a bit of time there looking off the cliff to the lake and our camping area. Then we went back down to the snow and had a lot of fun sliding on the plastic bags we had brought along with us this time. Each trip up the mountain was a learning experience for me and made it more fun for the boys as well.  It would be years before I would finally get a chance to climb it with Tia or Loren. And to date I still haven’t been there with Brittany. In fact I am not sure whether Brittany has ever been up it yet. She probably has with the boys but I don’t remember for sure.

Jan 27, 2011

Climbing Maple Mountain: After Kitchen Plane crashed

Marie and I moved into Mapleton the day we were married. We rented our home from Verl O Behrmann, Marie’s father. We were lucky as a young couple to have a home we could move into rather than an apartment. We lived in the basement as the home had been in a fire several years earlier and it had burned part of the floor out that was upstairs. Verl and Lois would often come down and work on the house on the weekend. We lived in the basement for a couple years before being able to move upstairs. During that time I worked for American Television service as a repair technician in the field. Three years after we were married I left American TV and went to work for Signetics a couple of months later. I worked for four years on Swing shift, then four years on day shift and 7 on graveyard.

It was during the time on swing shift when I had decided it was time to climb the beautiful Sierra Bonita mountain peak east of our home. I had wanted to for several years but just never had a chance or the proper motivation I suppose. One year however in the early spring a plane took off from Provo airport with a Dentist, his wife and two daughters traveling south to California. It was foggy up in the lower altitudes and as they headed south they were flying just east of our home near the mountain. The instruments on the plane apparently failed and they missed going over the ridge by just a few feet and crashed into the hill. It killed the family and the pilot instantly and then endangered the lives of several men who were searching for it the next few days. The following Saturday morning I was watching from our back porch as the men climbed up the ridge in search of the plane. It was slow climbing as the snow was quite deep and they had to break a trail as well as climb. I had to go to work that afternoon at Signetics and so I then continued to listen on the radio as I drove into Orem. The clouds had lifted early that afternoon and it was shortly after I left for work that the plane was spotted. The men then started to cross the ravine toward the peak to the south where they had spotted the plane. It wasn’t long after when there was an avalanche and the men were in the middle of it. The rope that they had tied to everyone came free from the last climber who was the son of Collin Allan our neighbor. They have since recounted the experience and how the Lord made it possible for them to quickly find him and another climber who had been swept several yards don the mountain. They didn’t reach the plane that day but others from the military were to the ridge just above the plane where they were able to retrieve the bodies of the pilot and family.  Later after the snow had melted they used helicopters to remove the plane as well from the mountain.

 It was that summer as the snow had pretty well melted that one early July morning I decided it was time for me to hike the mountain,  I left at 5 o’clock in the morning and went up Maple Canyon past Whiting Park to the end of the road where I understood the trail started. I hiked by myself and could see the trail quite well since it had gotten light just as I made it to the actual trail that starts nearly 1/2 mile past the park. It was a beautiful day and the hike was fun. I did notice though that there were often what looked like motorcycle tracks on the trail. I figured that they must be ahead of me or have been in the prior week since they were still not covered by any other tracks except mine. I later found out that it was the Walpole boys that had gone up earlier that week and had then gone down the face of the mountains to get home. I thought they were crazy and they confirmed it by telling me about the experience and that they would never do it again. 

I didn’t know the trail but felt safe in not getting lost since there only seemed to be one trail all the way up to the little lake a 100 feet from the top of the mountain.  After the lake the trail wasn’t quite as distinct so I had to watch a little more closely for signs of the trail. I finally could tell where it went up the side of the mountain even though a good share of that trail was still covered by the snowy glacier that had still not melted. I soon found myself after a very steep climb overlooking the valley. I could see my house down below and wondered if the rest of the family had awaken from their peaceful sleep since it was nearly 9 am by then. I then could see where there were two trails, one that went straight up the ridge and a second that wound around the face of the hill. I chose the latter since it wasn’t steep and I had already climbed a pretty steep part. (In later years I did go up that trail as well.) As I went around the front of the mountain I came to the ridge where I had to navigate my way up around the large snow drift that covered the trail and the ridge for nearly a 100 yards up and down from the trail.  I was surprised since it didn’t look that big from down in the valley.  I then continued around the face and had to stop and watch a lone cow Elk that was also on the ridge several feet below me. She was beautiful and I envied her ability to quickly navigate the steep slopes. It didn’t take her long to be gone from my view. I continued the slow uphill climb as I went around the face of the hill and then crossed over the ridge and the next snowdrift. The last part of the climb was the hardest as it went straight up to the summit and the geological marker. It was fun to be up there and to be able to see so far. Utah Lake was so large and Timpanogos Mountain so beautiful in the early morning light. Utah Peak and Provo peaks were also so neat and I seemed to be almost as high up as they were. I stopped to eat a little breakfast and to write a little note in the book in the mailbox that was mounted inside a rock monument there at the top. I also spent some time reading the notes left by other and still remember one written by an 87 year old woman whom had climbed earlier that year. I was stunned knowing how difficult it had seemed to me, a man in my prime, and how long she must have taken to be there. I was very impressed.

A few minutes later as I contemplated the return trip I was joined by a couple of young ladies that I recognized from Mapleton. They asked if I had seen the Rattle Snake on the snowdrift. I hadn’t but apparently it had slithered up there just after I passed so that it was sitting on my tracks as they came to cross the trail. I looked for it as I went down but it apparently had left by then. To that date I had still never seen a rattlesnake in the wild and was somewhat disappointed.

As I got back down to the ridge where I had crossed the first snowdrift I met a couple and their young scout age son. They had climbed up to see if they could find where the plane had crashed. I went down the ridge with the boy until we found where they had removed the plane. I was amazed how far off from the ridge the crash had been since again it looked closer from down in the valley. We didn’t find any debris which is what he wanted but we did find the crash site and the spot where I felt again the pain of those young sons who had been left without parent s and sibling sisters just a few months earlier. I climbed with him back to his parents waiting by the trail and then left to return home. I had taken several pictures that day and loved the beauty of the earth that I had now for the first time had the opportunity to see up close. It would be a trip I would repeat at least four more times.

Jan 26, 2011

The next few entires are going to be stories from my life and a little repeat of what I just wrote about.




Climbing Maple Mountain: Ben & Jeff sliding on glacier

I have previously written about my first time that I climbed Maple Mountain, Sierra Bonita, Spanish Fork Peak. These are all three names used to refer to the mountain east of Mapleton. Of course Mapleton residents call it Maple Mountain even though a mountain behind BYU is already names that. Spanish Fork residents call it Spanish Fork Peak and others call it Sierra Bonita. I suppose all might be correct.
Anyway when Ben was 10 and Jeff 8 years of age we decided it was time for us to climb the mountain together. I knew Ben could do it but wasn’t sure Jeff was old enough to make it especially since they would be each carrying a backpack as we had decided to camp part way up in what is referred to as the first meadow. We left in the evening and arrived at the first meadow in time to pitch our tent and to cook supper. We all three slept in a small two man tent that was barely big enough for me but was still Ok.
We slept that night fairly well considering I was starting to remember why I hated sleeping on the ground. I woke first just before it got light. I lay there for some time just thinking about the day ahead of me. I then heard some movement outside of the tent so I cautiously opened the tent to discover a small doe feeding just a few feet in front of the tent. I lay there watching her wishing I could get to the camera but due to the size of the tent all of the gear had been stored outside. I woke the boys so they could see her as well.
We got up shortly after that and cooked some oatmeal cereal for breakfast. After breakfast we took what gear we could easily carry in smaller packs and stowed the rest of the gear in the trees.
We left there and climbed on up to the lake where we stopped only for a short time before climbing on to the top of the peak. As we went around the ridge there was no snowdrift as had been there when I first went up. We continued on to the second ridge where we did find some snow still on the ground. It looked inviting until I slid down the first time and found it hard to stop. That didn’t stop Ben or Jeff though as they went down several times until Jeff didn’t stop in time and went sliding down the rocks instead of stopping on the snow.. I was scared somewhat and ran down to get him getting there in time to stop him but not before he had scraped himself pretty good. That was enough to stop that fun so we continued to the top so we could have our lunch. It was an incredible view as the day was so clear and bright. We enjoyed the view and the rest for some time before deciding to go back down.
When we did go down we stopped on the glacier above the pond and did some more sliding. It wasn’t nearly as dangerous but was just as fun. It made going down mush faster. We used our coats to make the sliding faster and found them very wet by the time we were done.
We went on down to the lake and went salamander hunting. There were a lot of them in the lake and a lot of fun to try to catch. Jeff wanted to take one home but I convinced him to leave them there to swim around in the lake. It took some convincing but we finally left and returned to our camp where we collected our packs and went on down to our home in the valley. It was a lot of fun which we repeated again two years later.