If Joe can, I will

MiscellaniaFlagstaff, AZ

1. Pictures - I don't even know where my camera is. I've pretty much been on the trail for the last 3 months, and since I can't take a camera out there, I haven't really bothered finding the dang thing. I do miss taking pictures and posting about my adventures. I have started every sentence in this blog with the word "I".

2. Friends - You have not been forgotten. Upon receiving your voicemails and text messages, I have promptly felt guilt and yet not taken the time to call you back. Even as I type this, I wonder why I haven't called Jason Miller, Jeff Andrus, Joe Griffin, my little brother, the Gregories. Sorry guys. I'm feeling a little exhausted, but I'll call each of you before this short off-week is over.

3. WFR training - I'm a wilderness first responder, did you know? This means that if we're out in the woods, I can reduce your dislocated shoulders, fingers and elbows. You have to keep your head still until I perform a focused spinal assessment, so just don't move. Also, if I don't have any latex gloves with me, don't expect me to touch you, especially if you're bleeding profusely. It's rule #3.

Actually WFR training was really cool. Here are the crazy instructors, Shari and Pete.These two are crazy. Why is the bold messed up on the blogger? WFR training is a lot more than class time. It's scenarios with fake blood and guts and amputated hands. It's real life hypothermia, and how to take care of it, so whoever thinks that Anasazi is out to kill kids, well, I know how take care of them.



This was one of my patients during the night rescue. It was about 20 degrees cold that night. This guy had to be carried out in a litter, and luckily survived to tell his tale of climbing the tree to escape a bear. I kept singing the Davey Crockett song to him, but I don't think he was amused. Having your guts poking out through your abdomen wall is never a pleasant experience. The worst I ever received during the training was a broken collar bone and sever asthma. Weak!


4. Anasazi - Greatest thing to ever happen to a lot of struggling families. Why? Well, kids do get cold. There's some danger of getting hurt. Hey, sometimes they're even angry about being sent out into the woods/desert. Anasazi gives families a chance to have a new beginning. It's no guarantee that everyone is going to have a perfect life. I'd guess that a lot of the kids that leave our program go back to what they were doing before. It's a chance, an opportunity. It's a place where seeds of greatness are uncovered and have an opportunity to grow. That's all. I met a young walker who was on the trail 13 years ago this week. He doesn't have a perfect relationship with his family. He doesn't always make the right choices. He even thinks that some of the stuff that Anasazi does is pretty ridiculous. That's what he told me anyway. Then he proceeded to tell me about all the good times that he had out on the trail. He told me about how Ezekiel's kids were really cool. He told me about his remembrance pouch and his gatherings bag. To say that Anasazi didn't have an impact on his life would be a bald faced lie. It's a good thing, and it's saved many more lives than it has endangered.

5. Summer - I don't think that I'll be staying at Anasazi any later than May. I'll need to make some money to pay off debts this summer. I'd like to go do some traveling. I'll be looking for a good job that doesn't involve the word "sales" and has a close proximity to the Salt Lake Valley. If you have something in mind for me, I'd be willing to come as soon as mid-April, so let me know.

6. Goals - Well, I'm not making goals to get married, get a real job, or even cut my hair this year. I just won't do it. I will however work on thinking about what I say, before I say it (or post it). I am trying to be completely honest, even when it means letting people know that they are right and I am wrong, or I am right and they are wrong. I'm not going to be critical of anyone, but I will judge righteously.

7. Tangible goals -
A. Get completely out of debt.
B. Climb the Grand Teton and go through the Darby Canyon Ice Caves at least once.
C. Take a backpacking trip in Central Idaho.
D. Go to Central America.
E. Feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.

8. Want list -
A. Spend time with my family.
B. Climb some rocks.
C. Spend time with old friends.
D. Gain some weight.
E. Listen to Cross-Eyed and Painless' new recording.
F. Peace and Love in the world.


Thanks to Pete and Tyler for the photographs.

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.

A new fire in my life

I don't have some crazy story to tell. I have hundreds. Life in the wilderness is amazing, and the young people that I walk with teach me new things by the minute.

My family means the world to me. My friends are my richest treasures. I've got a good flame burning in my heart.

-Price

The Tuna Review

I've never been a tuna kinda guy. Honestly, I don't really care for it now, but having gone from a healthy income to a ways below the poverty line for sanity's sake, sacrifices had to be made.
(how'd you like that alliteration?) Tuna is bearable, and it's good for me. I'm not one to add a bunch of mayo or sauce it up. Pepper is plenty to mask the fact that I'm eating the canned Pisces that I've always despised. I usually eat about a can a day, so that's 37.5 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of delicious fat, and a big fat goose egg in the carb category. Granted, it's followed by some crackers and probably a healthy drowning in soda, but the tuna itself is mighty good.

I'll just skip the "chunk light" category. I'm not going to eat the lips and butts of fish just because cow lips and butts taste spectacular all rolled up in a Maverik bahama mama hot dog. Besides, the solid white albacore tuna is better in both taste and quality than any canned chicken I've ever had. Just avoid the envelope packaging altogether. Even the albacore in the flat packages is horrific. Stick to cans.

All the albacore can usually be purchased for just under a dollar a can if bought on sale or at Costco, so price is irrelevant. We'll just stick to quality and taste.

The worst - Starkist:
Texture is consistent with oatmeal or chunk tuna. I don't know how they can claim that it is solid white albacore. This brand is best avoided, even if you find it on sale. Don't be tricked by the nerdy fish in the beret. He's a bad, bad fish.






Pretty good - Chicken of the Sea:
Texture is usually good, and you get the occasional solid-fillet-surprise upon lifting the lid. I look forward to popping the lid and seeing one big chunk of fish almost as much as I anxiously awaited waffles that stuck the the top of the waffle iron in my youth. The name is not deceiving. Chicken of the Sea is good and it goes down well. Also notable is moisture content. Even though you squeeze that lid hard enough to crush skittles, this tuna retains just about the right amount of moisture. Not too shabby.





Completely bearable - Bumblebee Tuna:
Great Texture, good taste, decent moisture content, almost always gives the solid-fillet-surprise. Just pepper and go. Sometimes you can actually see the grill marks on the fish. This is the way to eat canned seafood.


I hope you haven't been bored to tears, though I'm sure that hope is in vain. Get some more protein in your diet. BTW, all three claim to be dolphin friendly since April 1990.

Change of Heart - Lack of Photos

I'll have to steal the pictures for this blog from other places on the interweb, so please forgive me. I'm not permitted to take pictures on the trail at Anasazi.

1. Friction Fire - While still difficult, certainly not impossible. I was able to create a coal and drop it into my tinder bundle shortly after I was shown correct methods and materials. Just after that I used a hand drill and got a burning coal on my first try. Wikihow has nothing on the people at Anasazi. I do have some small burns on my hands, because apparently, I was not instructed properly on how to hold my tinder bundle as I blew the coal into flames. It's rather necessary out on the trail since we don't have flashlights, lighters, matches, insect repellent, or even really warm gear. Out there, fire is life.




2. Cow tanks and sleeping on the ground - (had to straight steal this image from Gilz) Yeah, that's not the cow tank that I drank from, but it's only slightly greener. We don't filter our water, we drop it. Two drops of clorox per canteen. Well, I'm still here. Cow tanks are pretty much tiny man made lakes out in the desert. They get pretty gross. I really don't mind sleeping on the ground. It's just cold without anything between the body and the ground. Good thing for pine needles and leaves. It's also quite nice to heat up a rock in the fire and put it in the sleeping bag. Any number of sexual innuendos could be applicable here, but I'm not even going to start.

3. I'm T-pain, you know me - Imma buy U a drank, so just get used to it. One of the young walkers in my band had completely convinced himself that he was the rapper T-pain. Thing is, the other four young walkers were pretty well convinced of it as well. Actually, he was just a confused blond kid from the East Coast who wanted to buy everyone a drank. That kid has a heart of gold and he's laugh-out-loud funny. All of the young walkers have incredible potential, and they show it out there in the wilderness. Here's where my change of heart happened. I truly thought that I was going into the wild to babysit a bunch of punk kids who were too spoiled all their lives to obey their parents. I was humbled like a boxer in a gun fight. My expectations were left in ruins as I became part of a dynamic and interesting family. In true cliche style, I learned a lot more from them than they ever could have learned from me. I had decided to give Anasazi a "trial week" after which, I would return to Utah to climb rocks. Integrity would not be on my list of qualities if I were to turn and run now, so here I am. I'll be here a while, so for those of you who I should be missing, I will. Eight days on the trail and six days off make for ample visiting time, though, so plan on seeing me at regular intervals.

4. Trail food - Our supplies are plenty, but not exactly gourmet. Notable though is that these kids have learned how to make everything from muffins to lasagna in their little tin cups. I mostly stuck to simple foods-cheesy rice and lentils, corn meal, oats, and the occasional ash cake. Ash cakes are rather simple. They consist of flour, water, and whatever happens to be left in your food pack. Powdered cheese and chewed up tomatoes make a pretty good ash cake, brown sugar and chewed up almonds make a better one. You then clear the fire away so you have a nice bed of hot white ashes and toss it in. I suppose the ash probably helps digestion if anything. Chewing up ingredients is just part of cooking in the wild. It's the only way to make tomato sauce. You could spend an hour trying to cut up all the ingredients you need for a tasty dish, or you could quickly chew them up, or love them up as we like to say, and then spit them into the mix. Everything is cooked on the fire or in a steel cup like the one above. Even muffins. It's rather amazing.

Well, I'm here for a while. I'll try to blog on my time off, at least once a week. If you're not hearing from me, I'm in the woods, changing my heart for the better and inviting others to do the same. The Creator takes us to amazing places in this life.

Never enough!

I'm pretty sure that all songs by the Cure are about sex. Yes, all of them.

It's been a few days since I've blogged, and it's not for lack of interesting occurrences in my life. I'm in Phoenix. So, working backward from here: I was in San Diego earlier today, La Jolla actually. Jason Miller returned home from a 9 month stint in Thailand, and he actually doesn't smell that back. We went climbing near Oceanside with Beaver, the owner of Prana, and a few of his friends. Before that, I met up with Jason in Orange County. Saturday night Summers, H and I went to the Nascar truck race in Las Vegas. Before that I was in Utah, doing all of my normal, yet exciting Utah activities. I actually climbed every day for 8 straight.

Here's Beaver. He's a hell of a guy.

Jason Miller. (co-pictured w/ Joe Griffin)

Tyson Crosbie.

I have 99 biners

In my never ending attempts to injure myself while uninsured, I picked up my box of climbing gear and almost broke my back. Well, It was really heavy. Anyway, I tagged all my gear since it seems to be the cool-climber thing to do. Yellow is the color I chose. I somehow doubt I'm the first, but it should keep my stuff out of my friends' bags. At least now when I accuse them of stealing my gear I will have some evidence.

As I type here, the biners are all hanging above me, paint drying. There are 99 and I've been telling people that I probably have 100. Close enough, I say. If anyone who reads my blog cared in the least about climbing gear, it would probably not be wise to tell you that I also have 22 cams, 12 nuts, 3 belay devices, and enough nylon and dyneema webbing and slings to hang every traitor the catholic church ever had. That sounds rather gruesome, doesn't it? Well, I have a lot.



Summers, his wife, and I hit up Zion this weekend. I was humiliated by a crack climb, but I know very well that camming devices will hold my weight. That's a different story though. We descended Imlay canyon, and it really wasn't nearly as long/hard/dangerous as I remember. Maybe I've just gotten harder. I didn't bother with a lot of pictures. This canyon has a lot of stinky water that tends to destroy cameras and other electronics. Here are a couple shots I was lucky enough to get at the final rappel that dumps you into the narrows.




I need someone to sponsor me a new camera. That will be the next blog, but if you're thinking about it, here's a good reason:

I dare you to have a better 24 hours

1. Wake up late with no pressures or stress.

2. Climb an 11,300 foot mountain by yourself.

3. Feel alive.

4. Meet up with friends.

5. Build a fire in a secluded spot in the mountains.

6. Play games, talk, and stare at the stars all night.

7. Go to sleep more tired than you've ever felt before.

Boobies, and Boo Bees

Had to kill us some hornets.