Survival School: Day 23
Aug 6, 2007, 8:47p - Life
2nd Day of STUDENT EX
Got up wicked early, when the sky started turning blue. Hot food in the morning! HOT oats w/ milk, sugar, & cinnamon - so damn good, so much better than dinner. I'm so loving the hot oatmeal in the morning - it's really a boost bright & early.
The tree Hannes & I slept under last night - you can see the nice bed of pine needles
Self-portrait on day 23, with flash, as we set out on student expedition
Self-portrait on day 23, without flash
Got a nice early start - Cliff vomited right as we were leaving, said everything was OK, so we started up the road. As we forked off the road, Cliff was in a lot of pain - kidney hurting, so bad we had to stop - said it was 9 out of 10, so we stopped & sent Ben, Hannes, Nick C & Rob to run to the road (Highway 12) to get help. It was only 2 miles, so we hung out & helped Cliff until they got back. Pinky led the help [he was trained in CPR], Jeff was the scribe. It was a pretty serious pain, probably kidney stone, he hadn't been able to pee anymore. He did some crazy shit on solo - fasted for 3 days, had very little water. Probably contributed to the pain. Waited about 45 minutes, when the party came back w/ Steve - they'd hitched a ride to BOSS. They took Cliff away in a car up the road - we were pretty lucky to be so close to civilization when the pain kicked in. He could come back, but I doubt it.
After Cliff left, we just continued on our course. Crossed the river, then just kept heading south. Pinky leading, Jeff & Abe in sweep. Day was long, lots of hiking, maybe 8-10 miles. Lots of desert, wicked ravines.
A burnt forest - looks like a forest fire went through here
Eerily desolate, all black & ash
Beautiful yellow powder - I didn't know such bright colors existed in the wild, almost like chalk
Got to a water drop where they left us 10 gallons cause we hadn't seen water for hours. Hannes hurt his tendon in front of his shin, & he's taking it a bit slower - gave him ibuprofen, that helped the pain.
The view past the hollows
Again
And again
Cool pattern in the rock
More rock
What am I doing here?
The Expanse before us
More rock
Ben scouts ahead and signals that he's found the river we're looking for
The sky above
Battle of the Titans: Sky vs. Rock
Got to our campsite, through the hollows. Very sandy, slept under a tree. Prepared dinner - experimented w/ bullion & garlic first, but I don't think they changed it. Pretty watery, but peppery & OK. Still liked the oats from morning more. Made a round of ash cakes, yum. Also mint tea. Even after stew, I was really hungry, finished my GORP, still craving, just giving in. No more rationing the GORP, just ate as much as I wanted, when I wanted. Do enough planning in the real world, why not try not planning out here? Lots of stars, shooting stars. Conversation getting boring, I'm so ready to get out of here. Only 5 more nights. Dreamt about Brits on a hill, exclusive club [ala Harry Potter], snotty, 20 boys, mean, live in mansion, very classist. Inspired by the Brits.
(written on day 24)
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