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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.
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