Sept 19, 2011

Cross Country with My scouts.

The place was Granddaddy Basin and the time was Scout Camp summer of 1992. I had planned a trip into the basin to help my scouts learn how to find their way in the mountains where during my youth I had experienced some great camps but also some greater anxieties. I feared getting lost probably worse than getting attacked by wild animals even though those thoughts had also crossed my mind a couple of times.

I had all of the geological maps of the basin where we would be camped and had marked where I wanted to take them cross country. It would be a trail that would lead me past the lakes where I had camped in my youth. We would leave Pine Island and cross through to Palisade Lake. From Palisade to Brinton Meadows Guard Station and on to Governor Lake. From Governor Lake we would basically follow the trails to Granddaddy Lake and then back to Pine Island.

I had told the boys the plan before we even went into the basin for the week as we prepared by doing compass courses in troop meetings and learned how to orient maps. I had about 20 people in the group so I divided them up into four smaller groups that would each take a leg of the journey being in charge of reading the map and telling us where to hike. Each group had one boy in charge of smaller segments as well so that they would all have a turn at being the decision maker for the group as we hiked.

The energy was high as we started off that morning and I had the thought come to me that I hadn’t made the loop large enough. At the rate we were going it would be noon by the time we got back and I had planned for it to be around 5 pm just in time for supper.

We crossed the half mile that I had walked the day before in about half the time it had taken me. I started to realize though after they got there that I was going to be OK because they became fascinated with the scenery as well as the process and started to take their time playing around the lake and wanting to explore as they went.(I Then started to worry if  we  even get back before the next morning.)  We had fun though and crossing to Governor Lake became a different fun all together. Brother Brent Haines, who was one of my young adult assistants, stopped to show the boys in a small stream that meandered through a large meadow how to catch a fish without a fishing pole. We had stopped in the meadow to allow the boys to do some fishing in the stream and to relax and just soak in the beauty of our surroundings. Not many people who  go through the  Uintah's ever get to see these types of places since the trails typically go around through the forest rather than through them. Brent caught a small fish with his hand and soon several of the boys were trying it as well with some of them also finding success. I thought it was a great  addition to my plans as it gave them experience in providing food for themselves should they ever need to do so in the future.

We did find a trail of sorts that led up a hill and upon arriving at the top found the source of the stream that we had been fishing in was Govenor Lake. We spent quite a bit of time there  letting the boys fish while  I walked around the lake taking pictures and again soaking up all of the memories of my youth at that lake.  I even found a couple of deer that I was able to photograph.

We then climbed the steep hill following the trail that I had traversed in my youth  up to Granddaddy Lake. We again did some fishing as we went around the edge of the lake toward the trail we had been on Monday and which would lead us back to  Pine Island for the evening campfire program and much needed rest.

I remember as I walked the edge of the  lake seeing a team of Varsity Scouts practicing some old time survival methods that we had been asked as modern scouts not to do. They were cutting branches from live evergreen trees and making shelters. I looked at the trees and thought how bad it made them look and  wondered if their leaders even cared, especially since I couldn’t even see any of them around.  I vowed then to do all I could to drive home to boys that I would work with in the future as well as the ones I was with to respect the outdoors and to take care of them for their children.

Sept 18, 2011

Have you ever suffered any serious illness or injury? Describe what happened and how you recovered.

The most serious illness I have talked about before, I believe, was Perthes Disease.

The most serious injury was when I was shocked by 10,000 (10K) volts while working at Signetics. I was working on an Evaporator machine where an electrical circuit bypass had been deactivated by the previous shift. I reached in to tie up some cables and the next thing I knew I could see a flame moving rapidly toward my finger. It hit me and caused all my muscles to contract sending me clear of the shock and onto my back on the floor. It was a DC (Direct Current) shock that travels along the skin of the body and thus not terribly dangerous but enough to make me never want to experience it again. I was kept in the hospital overnight for observation then released the next day. Had it been an AC (Alternating Current) shock such as you  get from a light socket I would most likely not be writing about it.

THIS IS THE LAST QUESTION FROM "Share Your Stories Father Memory Book" FROM NOW ON I WILL BE POSTNG MY HISTORY STORIES AS I WRITE THEM. SOME HAVE ALREADY BEEN POSTED AND I WILL POST THOSE WHICH STILL HAVE NOT BEEN AS I GO ALONG ALSO.  HOPEFULLY THIS WILL HELP GET ALL OF THE STRIES WRITTEN WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS.

Sept 17, 2011

Have you ever seen or been in a natural disaster? What kind? Where?

I have never been in a natural disaster but have seen tornado’s that have caused such disasters at other times. While in Texas in the mission filed I saw 5 tornados at different times during those 2 years. Other than that I have never ben in one. I also saw the effects of a hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi back when I was 16 years old. But here again I was not in it and am ever so thankful for the fact that I have never experienced one first hand.

Sept. 16, 2011

What has been your favorite place to visit? What was it like?

Oregon. It was so green and so beautiful watching the ocean, and the various waterfalls that are through the state. The berry and tree farms were also pretty fun and very beautiful. I liked it because there were so many places to be able to photograph while visiting there.

Sept. 15, 2011

What was the longest trip you have ever taken? Who were you with, and where did you travel?

The longest trip was when I went through most of the states that are listed. We went as a family to the National Jamboree in Virginia but took the long way to get there. We went to Texas to show where the children and Marie where I had served my mission. We went on over to North Carolina where we stayed with Aunt Leora and Uncle Stan. We went to a number of historic sites as we went up the coast and finally arrived in Virginia where we went to the jamboree for about 5 hours. (And we were rained out.) We went to Washington where we met Uncle Chester and Aunt Helen Hill while they were there on a mission. We went to New Jersey where we stayed with one of Marie’s cousins and toured New York while there twice, once in the daytime and once at night. We went up on the World Trade Center Towers while there. We also went to Hershey Penn. And visited that as well as several sites of historic importance to the Civil War. We also went to Washinton DC and visited the area there including the Smithsonian Museums air flight

and one or two others. We then came back across the upper middle part of the states to Nauvoo where we stayed with Aunt Carma and Uncle Carling while they were serving a mission there. Carling took us on a special tour at night after everyone else was gone and we slept on the floor of their tiny apartment there. We continued across into Nebraska where stayed with Uncle Vaun and Aunt Elizabeth, (Marie’s Uncle.) Finally the kast place we stayed was with my cousins in Kemmerer Wyoming. We then traveled home after spending 18 days on this particular vacation. It was filled with sites and adventure and we will never forget Loren crying all the way up the stairs in the Statue of Liberty or the lockers falling on Brittany in a West Virginia motel which was owned by a doctor and who was there at the pool and took care of the cut on her head for us. I will never forget the sizes, since they were so small, of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria ships that were replicas of the ship Columus sailed in to America. The smell 10 miles out of Hershey Pennsylvania from the chocolate factory and the statues at Gettysburg. It was a very fun, fast trip.