Day 2

I could not fall asleep the last few hours as these were the coldest few hours of my life. My extremities were completely frozen and numb despite wearing leather work gloves and two pairs of wool socks. It was getting light, though no sun yet and I saw Adam skulking around in the sage brush bushes so I decided that if I am going to be cold I might as well be cold with someone instead of with my head so I got up and listened to Adam complain how cold he was last night.

Finally, one by one, everyone (except for the sun) was up, talking about the same thing: how cold they were last night. Steve finally came around and asked us we heard that in some cultures they worshiped the sun. I now believe it. I finally saw a sliver of sun light and I can honestly say I've never been happier to see that big giant ball of fire and its rays. I stood in the sun's rays for a good 15 minutes though it took at least 2 hours to regain feeling in my toes and fingers.

We took off for a short hike (maybe 2 or 3 miles) through the desert and came across a (very disgusting looking) cow pool. I should mention that all the areas we were hiking in were either federal lands or national parks which had leased the land to cow ranchers so there was always lots of cow pies and an occasional barbed fire fence around. I had no qualms about drinking water from that pool, however, I was surprised to find that a lot of people did. I figure I was in for a gram, I was in for a pound, so the last thing I cared about was some disgusting looking water which I treated with Aerobic Oxygen anyway.



Surprisingly, Steve and the rest of the instructors told us we were free to take hang out for a few hours which I immediately used to take a WARM nap. After a few hours Laurie gave us a presentation on making fire and we spent the next few hours in the sage brush looking for the "perfect bush" so we can make fire starting tools (spindle, fireboard, bow). I made a pretty good spindle and got started on the fireboard before we took off for more hiking through the desert.

It was hot. Probably over a 100, and we were expecting a long hike. Along the way we would stop and either Laurie or Steve would give us a lecture on this particular part of the desert or another (melted iron balls, cryptobionic soil...dont step on it, hygenic properties of sage brush...read: awesome toilet paper). Though at a certain I did figure out that we were going around in a big giant circle and asked Mike, the third instructor about it.

I should mentioned that my biggest annoyance with the course started from Day 1 and that was the reluctance of the instructors to discuss anything that was going on. While we were warned about it, the typical answer of "I dont know" or "We'll see" from people my age quickly wore out its cuteness. The reasons of "live in the present not the future" were just not working for me.

So I didnt get an answer, but I got further hiking. This time we descended into a canyon and after a lecture on flash floods, its dangers and canyon warning signs we stopped at small side depression. Now this was pretty cool because it had steps carved by Indians thousands of years ago and two intermittent water holes (also disgusting, filled with lots of dead mosquitoes) . Surprisingly, Steve told us we were camping out here for the night and then he took off.

As we found out later, Sam, our youngest member (20) had decided to quit and so Steve had to go take him out to the main road. In the mean time, we got busy looking for shelter and duff (oak leaves). Some people found caves, some people found overhangs (Adam and I) and everyone found duff! Unfortunately for Sam, he was not able to find a ride back to Boulder (population: <200)>
No food for about 30 hours now. Another cold night ahead. Lights out (sun is out :-)