Hi guys this is Richard. Phillip and I got back on the 12th from a camping trip in the Uintas. We had hoped to stay two nights, but we only stayed one. I will explain why we didn't stay the extra night later. Phillip and I had a great time up there. We built our own shelter! It was made with branches and grasses and stuff. This is our site we chose to build it on.
Pretty area huh?
We ended up having some problems. We had to downsize it a couple of tme and it still ended up being too big. Too big means no trapped air, which means no trapped heat.
This is the finished project for today. It was about 2-3 feet too thin, and too big. Most the holes were covered up so we couldn't see the light coming through. The other problem we found out later was that because it was on a downhill slope, and because we slept in sleepingbags, we were very uncomfortable and constantly slid down into our packs and supplies. We did sleep very warmly though, all covered up in sleeping bags and a blanket of grasses on top.
Down below you can see our firepit and firewall. The wall very effectively reflected the heat toward our shelter (I would know. I sat on the other side and was very cold for some of the time). We used a rock to heat up water quite effectively as well.
I figured that a breeze would keep us cold, and I didn't want any crazy animals breaking into our impervious fortress. So I built a SUPER strong door that totally covered the entrance. This thing made it impossible for the hungry bears to eat us.
Here we are practicing our use of grasses to make coats.
It got cold, but because we stuffed our shirts with this stuff we were pretty warm. i didn't use my jacket at all that night. We slept with it in our shirts at night and it ended up helping keep us warm.
Here below we are showing how muscly we look with our awesome shirts. WE WILL PUMP YOU UP!!!!!!!
The morning finally came around! I slept maybe an hour and the rest of the time passed soooo slowly. Phillip had crappy sinus stuff that made him go through two rolls of toilet paper as tissues. We got up at 2 AM and built a fire. We sat around and talked until the sun rose at 6ish. We decided to go home and play again later. This picture is how the fire looked when put out.
Here I am in the morning right before we leave. See the packs sitting around? The sun is up, yea. We left the the shelter up for others' benefit. I think we should go back and make it better again next time.
Well anyway, I think this was an awesome experience. We still have to try out making fire, filtering and treating water, making cordage, traps, etc. So still many times to go up and play. Let me know if any of you want to join us next time. Love you all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All right! My turn! So Richard came to my work Tuesday morning looking pretty dirty, imagine my surprise because I wasn't expecting to see him until Wednesday afternoon. Anyways I get home from work that evening and he's waiting at the door with an origami fortune teller, you all know what I'm talking about, you all played with them as kids. Well I choose a number that's written on the outside, and then he unfolds it and
underneath that number is a surprise! For example, number four's surprise was a package of OREOS (my weakness) and number two's surprise was a bouquet of daisies (my favorite). Well the last number I chose said for me to start packing. So we packed an overnight bag and Richard took me to The Holy of Holies....The Cheesecake Factory!!! After a gorgeous dinner there he took me to The 
Castle Creek Inn! For those who don't know this is the bed and breakfast that we stayed in on our honeymoon. We stayed in the Canterbury Room (which is awesome) that had this tub big enough for China to hang out in. If you want to see it go to the following URL: http://www.castleutah.com/It was all so sweet and unexpected! (!!!) I think I'll let him go camping more often!
