There will be a lot of pictures for this post, so grab a drink and read on. The prep for the King's Peak trip consumed much of the first half of our year. When I say consumed, I mean it, but I mean it in a good way. Since Mark and I are in the business of making decent human beings, we were excited for Spencer, DJ and James to have a chance to have some unique, hands-on, hard-working experience that would add to their decency. They learned so much by preparing, packing, thinking, following, leading, sharing, helping, supporting, creating, innovating, cooking and much more. Basically, they had to learn how to "man-up" as they say. Since I did not go to King's Peak, this account will not be complete, but I'll do my best with the information that I heard 2-3 times.
Whatever is in these packs is what they had to live off of for Monday, July 24th - Saturday, July 29th. We learned that you should carry no more that 20% of you weight in your back pack. So although, the boys wanted to take more, they had to pare down to 20% so they would be able to bear their burden.
The excitement culminated at Joe Freed's house on Monday. All that we had worked for was about to begin!
The complete group!
Back row: Spencer, DJ, Brock Gregersen, Porter Randall, Russell Stringham, Seth Larsen, Ryker Werner, Shonn Tanner, Theo Larsen, Tanner Nelson, James, Joe Freed (he's holding his daughter Brianna who did not go, but wanted to, he did get her a matching shirt though) and Bishop Kevin Samuelson.
Front row: Rock Hadley, Mark, Jonathon Prisbrey, Matt Larsen, Jacob Adams, Colin Heaps and Nolan Heaps.
Their Scout leaders had some T-shirts made just for the trip. On the front it says "Mountain Knights," taken from a book they introduced to the boys called "Rules For a Knight." Within the book there was a story about a kid who wanted to be a knight and the book is about the lessons he learned. He learned that there are two wolves within yourself, one wolf is good, one wolf is bad, which ever one wins is the wolf you decide to feed. So on the back of their shirts is a list of attributes and ideas to develop that are used to feed the good wolf: solitude, humility, gratitude, pride, cooperation, friendship, forgiveness, honesty, courage, grace, patience, justice, generosity, discipline, dedication, speech, faith, equality, love and death.
Me. After dropping them off.
The leaders determined that it would be good to go to the Uintas a day earlier than planned to adjust to the altitude, so they left Monday afternoon and set up a quick camp by the parking lot. It rained for most of the week, which was one of the reasons they wanted to stay the whole week, so they they would have a greater chance of hiking the peak on a dry day. I was simply amazed that they would go, rain or shine. The picture above is James and I think Theo.
James and Mark with their helpful hiking poles.
The paths were muddy and wet and slippery, but they helped each other along.
One of the things the boys had to learn how to do was filter water because it would be too heavy to carry, so they had to stop along the way to fill up, and any other time they needed water.
Taking a break along the way to camp. The hike in was 9.7 miles. Breaks along the way were certainly necessary. This must have been a time of little or no rain. Thank goodness!
Some people (Bishop Samuelson) took full advantage of their hike break and took a power nap.
Even though the trails were muddy and wet, the scenery wasn't too bad.
The amazing Mark! And his amazing orange GPS unit that I was so grateful for. When he turned his GPS on, he would send me a link to a website that would track his movement. A few hikes into his prep hikes, he encountered a rattlesnake, which was a great persuasion for me to agree to the purchase of a GPS unit where I could always know where he is, especially if he is out of cell phone range. It turns out that most of the scout Moms were grateful for this too as they were able to follow the hike.
After a little confusion on which trail to follow, Mark finally came upon the sign for Henrys Fort lake and the cabin he had heard about that would help him know they were on the right track.
This is the first of many moose they were able to see. One in particular would wade in the lake they camped by.
Finally they were able to set up camp. Actually they split into two groups, one group that set up camp farther than another, but they rejoined in the morning to set up what became base camp.
Tanner, Porter, Colin and Jacob.
They were well rewarded with this beautiful scene in the morning.
First order of business was filtering water. They carried larger, collapsable water jugs that they filled so they wouldn't have to filter as often.
Second order of business: fishing (according to Spencer). Spencer was very excited to catch, cook and eat fish. He couldn't stop talking about it and built it up so much along the hike in that his disappointment was palpable when
Porter caught the first fish:
But Spencer didn't give up and when he caught his first fish (of six), his excitement was just as palpable, if not more, than his initial disappointment was.
Russell may have been just as excited to shoot a squirrel as Spencer was to catch a fish. Though Russell keeps his excitement under wraps, he was pretty quick to set out on his goal, and was soon rewarded. I wonder if he was more excited to shoot it or skin it or eat it? Glad he used gloves.
He had a few takers on tasting the little critter. I don't think they were too impressed. It didn't taste like chicken. Seth above, Ryker below.
DJ tried making a bow.
Most others also caught a fish. Tanner above, James below.
DJ did not catch a fish, but he helped clean one.
Before they found a good day to hike the peak, the boys were educated regarding various merit badges and their requirements.
DJ, Brock and Spencer were asked to serenade the rest of the troop with "The sun is hot, the sun is not a place where you could live. . ." to help fulfill an astronomy merit badge requirement.
And since they were in hiking mode, the troop went on a few little side hikes.
Bishop Samuelson decided that the 20% packing rule was a little low for him and packed along a chair and table. The boys regarded his equipment as the lap of luxury.
Thursday ended up being the day on which the weather cleared enough to summit King's Peak, though they needed an early start to make sure to beat any bad weather that might develop.
Astling Mountain Men
On the way to King's Peak, the boys found stone chairs around a fire that were highly coveted. Ahhhh back rests! Ahhhh foot rests!
There were lots of stopping points along the way and beautiful scenery. At every stop and during the hike as well, they kept looking up to the peak, thinking they were closer than they actually were until they spied the very tiny people at the top, which put their position in perspective. But they kept moving and kept each other in good spirits.
Finally they became the little people at the top!
Elevation: 13,528 feet.
I'm so proud of my boys!
The summit group.
Front row: Seth and Theo Larsen, Mark, Matt Larsen.
Middle Row: Jacob Adams, DJ, James, Rock Hadley and Bishop Samuelson.
Back Row: Spencer, Jonathon Prisbrey, Ryker Warner, Joe Freed, Russell Stringham and Brock Gregersen.
The boot/sock shot down the valley.
The hike down was perhaps a little more treacherous for some than the hike up, a little harder on the knees and a little too long at high altitude. I was so happy to hear that they helped each other down, took it slow, helped through water, gathered big rocks to make stepping stones through water, made sure there was enough water to drink, stopped patiently whenever needed and kept an appropriate pace for descending. They ended up descending in different groups, but all made it safely and collapsed into their sleeping bags upon arrival at camp.
This is a map of what all the families at home were seeing and following from a site linked to Mark's GPS unit. We were all grateful to have something to follow and have some sort of communication with them. Not much communication, but enough to be assured of their safety and a few events of the camp.
Saturday, July 29th they pack up all their gear, minus the food they had eaten. They high-tailed it toward civilization, AKA Arby's, or any food that they didn't have to filter and boil water for.
The final trail to the parking lot.
The quiet ride to Arby's.
The boys learned so much in the preparation and performance of this major hike in their lives. What a great experience and triumph to always look back on and know that they can do hard things. Thanks to Mark and all the Scout leaders who helped, encouraged, lead, prod, support, cheer and many, many other supportive roles to help the scouts accomplish such a tremendous task that will never be forgotten!
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