Here are a few scenes from our Wilderness Trek class field trip to the trusty, dusty deserts of Nephi, Utah, at the end of May. It was M@ (and the rest of the class) vs. Wild. Who won? Let's just say Bear Grylls doesn't have a corner on the wilderness market anymore.
Here's Trevor trying to make a fire with a bow-drill set. These might have been the most frustratingly hopeless three hours of my life. The desert wood is so dry you would think you could ignite it just by swearing at it, but I never got past smoke and blisters. Our spirits were fortunately lifted shortly after this picture was taken, when a couple of cowpokes herded their charges right through our camp and voiced, in rich pasture language, their disappointment that we were in the way (on BLM land, mind). The lead cowboy's horseback filibuster was cut short when his horse, evidently as irritated as we were, bucked him off into the hot sand. He got up like nothing happened, but we knew it smarted. I hope his cowboy buddies teased him good at the cowboy tavern that night. 
Excluding possibly the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, this might be the most handsome wilderness shelter our Earth has even seen. That's my burrow to the right, and my woodpile to the left. The woodpile was bottomless thanks to the parched surrounding forest.
This was surprisingly cozy. I smoked it out using a big tin can (known in camping circles as a Billy can) full of coals and green branches, and that got rid of most of its inhabitants that weren't me. I may or may not have burned a small hole in my sleeping bag with errant ash. Also I may or may not look like a woodsy Gilligan.
Here's our teacher, Jacob, and our sheep, Rover. Poor Rover's bloomers were on display for all the world to see.
