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+---
+title: Survival Journal - Week 2
+---
+
+_This week was called Group Expedition Week. It
+should have been rather straightforward but getting lost in the desert
+complicated everything. To this day, I still don't know where we were._
+
+## Sunday, July 29
+We held priesthood meeting at 8am Sunday morning and
+Sacrament Meeting right after that. For the Sacrament we used ash cakes
+and canteens. Both meetings were very special. We spent the afternoon
+carving spoons and recuperating from Impact. That evening we had a
+fireside with singing and guitars. It was all very pleasant and made us
+forget about our previous troubles and suffering.
+
+## Monday-Tuesday, July 30-31
+This week is called group expedition week. Each day a
+leader is chosen by the group to lead them. We divided into one boys
+group and two girls groups. The student leader for the day is given a
+map and told where to go. The staff leaders will hike along with us, but
+they will offer no help after we start.
+
+As leader for Monday, we chose Mark. After breaking camp at about 8 am,
+our first big obstacle was to find a way out of Big Springs Canyon. We
+were very anxious to get a good head-start on the girls groups so we
+could beat them to Beaver Wash on Wednesday. This is where the three
+groups were to come together again. The boys group claimed they would be
+there a whole day ahead of the girls.
+
+After an hour of searching, we finally decided to try ascending a very
+steep cliff. It scared me to death to climb that thing. Several times my
+handholds gave away and sent rocks showering down the canyon. It was a
+miracle no one was hurt on the way up. We gave thanks to the Lord when
+we arrived at the top.
+
+We spent until about 1:30 pm walking on dirt roads. Our progress was
+extremely fast and our confidence of beating the girls rose pretty high.
+
+At 1:30 we needed water pretty badly, so we decided to look for Outlaw
+Springs. Lynn and I were sent out to scout while the rest of the group
+stayed back. Ted later joined us with the map. We were quite sure we had
+found the way to the springs, but we were very thirsty, so we stopped a
+few minutes at a little seep we had stumbled onto. Then Lynn went back
+to bring the rest of the group.
+
+Ted and I had waited for an awfully long time when Lynn came back to
+tell us that the rest of the group was gone. We decided that they must
+have become impatient and went the long way around rather than wait for
+us to find the shorter way down a steep drop-off.
+
+We thought we could meet them at the springs so we forged ahead. We
+didn't see them where we thought the spring was, so we pushed on to Mule
+Seep. Our intended campsite was on Han's Flat Road just above the seep.
+We felt sure we would meet them at the seep, so we waited there for 2
+hours. It was getting dark, so we headed for the road. We came out at a
+ranger station to find that we were 5 miles off course. When we finally
+got to the campsite it was quite dark and no one was there. I was about
+to die of thirst when a guy from the ranger station rode up on his
+motorcycle and showed us where some rain pots were. I was down in the
+valley where the water was when I decided to go to the edge of the
+overhang and give a big shout. 200 feet below was what we thought was
+Mule Seep and I thought maybe the others of our group mighty be there by
+now. I yelled once and got no answer. I heard echoes all through the
+valley and felt that if the others were near, they would have heard it.
+I didn't yell again and was walking back when I heard an answer. Our
+leaders, Butch and Sundance, were over on a far ridge. We yelled and
+made sparks from our flint and steel until we located each other. When
+we got together it was a joyful reunion indeed.
+
+We walked back to the road and set up camp for the five of us. Then we
+sat down to discuss what had happened. Apparently, the rest of the group
+had thought they were supposed to take the long way to the springs when
+we scouts failed to return promptly. When we didn't show up at the
+Springs, they just stayed there the rest of the day while the leaders
+looked for us. Sundance told me that he and Butch had given up and were
+kneeling in prayer when they heard my call. He said he just started to
+cry and finished the prayer before calling back.
+
+The whole incident caused the boys group to lose about 24 hours of time.
+We started hiking again after the main group rejoined us on Han's Flat
+Road at about 2 pm Tuesday afternoon. Since we were late, we hiked until
+1 am in the morning to reach Granary Springs. The hiking was all on
+roads, so the way was easy to find, but it was a real test of endurance.
+I had blisters on both feet and a frayed Achilles tendon on my right
+heel. We often called upon the Lord for strength.
+
+## Wednesday, August 1
+Wednesday I was chosen group leader. This was the day we were to hike
+through Robber's Roost Canyon. We started to work better as a group and
+had no major problems finding the route. The canyon was really a
+challenge. It was my job to go first and decide whether or not to use
+ropes. On one occasion I ended up sliding down a 20-foot drop headfirst.
+I decided we had better use ropes for the rest of the group. We camped
+in the canyon at dark that night and I tasted some porcupine that GI Joe
+(Bruce) had killed.
+
+## Thursday-Friday, August 2-3
+Thursday we were very anxious to get to Beaver Wash ahead of the girls
+groups, so we could go swimming. We came out of Robber's Roost to the
+Dirty Devil River. We crossed the river and followed it toward Angel
+Cove Springs. Just as we were rounding the last bend toward the springs,
+we looked back to see Judy's girls group only a quarter mile behind. It
+was a real blow to our ego, and we felt sure that the girls would give
+us a little ribbing because we hadn't beat them to the wash by a whole
+day as we said we would.
+
+As we left Angel Cove our staff leaders stayed back to persuade the
+girls group to stay at Angel Cove long enough to allow the boys to swim
+a while at Beaver Wash. We still had several hours of hiking to do on
+our own before we arrived at the pool. Contentions soon arose and the
+spirit of cooperation and brotherhood soon left us. Finally, we just
+stopped in Beaver Canyon to talk it out. We decided that it
+
+was our lack of cooperation and unwillingness to fully respect and
+follow our group leaders that had gotten us so far behind. It was a real
+lesson in humility to realize that by working together the girls group
+had performed better than we had. When we started hiking again, we made
+much better progress and enjoyed a much-needed cool swim at the wash.
+
+The girls group led by Judy came in that evening and the last girls
+group came in Friday morning. The girls took their turn swimming, and we
+broke camp and left about noon Friday. It took us the entire afternoon
+to hike to our water drop at the edge of the Burr Desert. After our
+evening meal we decided to cross the nine-mile desert at night. It was
+already dark, and many were nearly exhausted. I knew it would be another
+test of endurance and will. We had a particularly weak girl in my
+family, Janet, for whom we had already had to carry her pack that
+afternoon. We had only gone a few miles when we had to help her along by
+putting her arms around the neck of a person on each side of her. I
+don't know why the bigger ones are usually the weaker ones, but Janet
+was a big girl. The night seemed to drag on forever and for many it
+seemed like a nightmare. We sang songs to keep our spirits up and pass
+the time faster. Finally, we arrived at an irrigation ditch on a ranch
+at about 2:30 am. We all dropped in our tracks after a prayer of thanks.
+We had prayed for strength on the trail many times too.
+
+## Saturday, August 4
+Saturday, we arose and hiked the remaining 4 miles to base camp without
+breakfast. After eating and setting up camp we rested through the middle
+of the day. That afternoon we had a meeting to organize new families and
+stress the importance of life, before we slaughtered our sheep. I was
+again privileged to be a father and our family's assignment was to skin
+the ewe. It was a messy job, but we got it done. The meat was a real
+treat after our bland diets of oatmeal and ash cakes that week. We
+jerkied 1/3 of it and divided the rest among the 4 family groups.