A long crazy month of wilderness and wild

A blog will hardly be adequate to cover where I've been, what I've done, and how I feel about the last month or so. I'm listening to a nice playlist that should be on a CD for Emily Gilliland right now, but, as will soon be shown, I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I would like to. The dates are just a frame of reference as I describe the last month+. They are not individual posts.

Nov 28 to Dec 5 - It's going to start about the 28th of November, my sister's birthday. I headed out to the trail thinking all the while that I needed to give my sister a call, but of course, I never got around to it, and being on the trail makes that kind of thing quite the impossibility. It was a good week with a band of teenage boys that needed a lot of love in their lives. It was skills week. The very famous Ryan family and the Holladay family showed up to teach trailwalkers and youngwalkers alike new and interesting primitive skills. Most learned how to carve soft stone into various shapes. I wasn't so much interested in carving the stone, but i took the opportunity to carve out a couple things and then help myself to the stone supply. I'll get around to carving the stone later. I had bigger frish to fly. Dave Holladay was kind enough to teach me a little about the art of flint knapping. Joe, I've got a pretty little arrowhead with your name on it. Well, it doesn't have your name on it, I'm not that good, but it's yours when I get a chance to give it to you. I made a pair of moccasins, but they need some work. My next pair will be better. I would have liked to learn some more survival skills from those in the knowledge, but Mother Nature would look after that soon enough.

After the skills teachers left, the rain came. It was already scouting, but seeing the wise teachers leave, the water sent in its entire infantry, heavy and light armor divisions, and calvary. I was lucky enough to have my band in a good place and plenty of firewood. I spent the next couple days crawling out of my shelter in three hour intervals to stack my fire 5 feet high and check my traps. Sometimes it would stop raining for a few minutes, sometimes it wouldn't. It was a fun dance, but I had no idea the danger the other bands were in. I figured they were like us and able to weather the storm quite easily. Hit up Emy-G for information on how to survive a flash flood that comes through camp in the middle of the night. She really saved the day there, and I must also shout out to Dodge, the Anasazi King of the Ridge, for his good actions in that disaster.

We eventually made it to our final destination for the week and since rain and mud had closed most of the roads out to the area, I was able to help with some logistical items. It gave me a swollen head, but I had a fun time, and I hope I earned some trust with the field team for what I did. My boys were good that week and they did what they had to do. The complaining was minimal, even though they kept passing around a bug that was giving them all diarrhea and the pukes. I chose not to share food (I never share food) and was able to avoid the illness.

Dec 6 - I had a day off after that which I spent mostly at the Anasazi office. I had expected to have an entire week off, but it wouldn't be so. A young walker had special need of my expertise, and so, on short notice (8pm) I agreed to head back out to the trail. This decision would prove to be a hard one. Not a bad one, but a hard one indeed. I had planned on taking the week to prepare to work 3 weeks in a row including Christmas and New Years. Now I would have one day.

Dec 7-10 - The days I spent with that young walker were hard, cold, and wet. I was hypothermic at least 3 times myself. The other trailwalker that was with me passed out in the snow and mud, and it was the first time in my Anasazi walking that I felt like survival skills were absolutely necessary to see us through. I won't make a longer story out of a long one, but I've seen hypothermia, looked it in the face, and laughed. It then proceeded to totally kick my ass.

Dec 11 - I spent this day in a dysfunctional car running around Mesa, Gilbert, and Tempe trying to round up the gear that I thought I might need for the upcoming 3 straight weeks on the trail. The gal I was with was super accommodating, and we had a good, though stressful, day. I believe that stress got the better of me that day, and I felt broken and bruised as I went back out to the trail the next day.

Dec 12-Dec 19 - Plans on the trail changed, I heard rumors and slanders, I didn't feel well. It was not shaping up to be the best week ever. Even so, I was with some of my favorite young walkers, and I was determined to make the most/best out of every situation. It ended up being a cold, but environmentally relaxed week. Sometimes when you have time to think about life, rather than staying alive, you can have a really good week. Well, I hadn't finished anything that I wanted to for Christmas and my thoughts were heavy all week. I didn't have a good week. It was hard, and I must admit that I am no superman, at least not all the time. I did what I had to though. I worked hard to love that people that I was with. The young walkers are easy to love. They are easy to see as people because I am with them. Nature doesn't allow them to hide their souls, and they are as honest as anyone can be anyway. I had a hard time loving those who were not there and those who I felt were not honest with me. Honesty is a natural cultivator of love, but I'll save that for another blog.

Dec 20-27 Christmas week. Quite possibly one of my favorite weeks on the trail, though it had very little to do with the dates or the holidays. The young walkers made this week special. We had the option to do easy hikes. We chose the hard ones. We could have been grumpy about the cold weather. We chose to be happy. We chose. Isn't choice a wonderful thing. When we chose to do right, do the hard, grow, be happy, etc, we strengthened our gift of choice. That's what life is all about, if I haven't mentioned it already. Christmas was a bag of non trail food until I got a letter from Emily. That made my Christmas choice a lot easier. Thanks, Gillz.

Dec 28-Jan 1 - I got the word that I would be able to come off the trail for a night to do intakes. Wild stories about this week too, but I'll give my readers and myself a break. I was happy to come home, and though my car only starts part time, I was able to get to where I needed to go and get done what I needed to.

Jan 3 - Now - I'm at WFR training. That's Wilderness First Responder. I'll save you if you break your back or get a hangnail or whatever and it's out in the middle of nowhere. Basically, all I do is make sure that your back isn't broken and send for help. That's what I've learned so far. :) Nah, I'm kidding. There's a lot more to it. I'm having fun, but I'm in the mood for a break. You? Yeah, I'll leave it at that. Maybe there's some humor I can end with. Hmm . . . What do you get when you cross and elephant and a rhinoceros? Eleph-ino, you? wah wah.