Yurt Adventure January 2008

The Venture Scouts recently returned from a nothing less than memorable winter camp in the Franklin Basin. Brother Kofoed, Brother Thorson, Brother Tanner, and Tyler Sorenson all suited up for a 3.5 mile cross country skiing trip to spend a cozy night in a Yurt. Plans changed however, when the trail to the Yurt washed out and the GPS system started giving mixed directions. At that time a decision was made to dig out an area, build a fire, and spend the night in a snow cave. A kind "giving tree" pine tree served well for providing us wood for a fire, and branches to cover our modest sleeping area. The sleeping area was so modest in fact that Brother Tanner (the major contributor to building the area) decided he would be better off sleeping outside between his emergency blankets so the rest of us could have room to breathe.

After many hours of waiting for dawn, we all packed up and headed down the mountain. This was the payoff for our efforts of climbing, and it was well worth it. Once we returned to the car we all felt that the campout was a wonderful test of our survival abilities, and we had passed.