Tuesday, August 25th

21 miles, North of Emigrant Gap – I had three companion walkers with me today from Casper.  Jacobs, Cindy and Tim .  It was a real plus to be able to have them help today since it was the first day of walking dirt roads and hills.  They did great.  I also had Greg and Ann Phillips and their grandson Racer.  They had driven out from Salt Lake to help me walk for a few days and I was excited that they were here because we have been friends for 20 years and Greg is a decendent of Sarah Goode Marshall’s youngest child, Sarah, so Greg has an emotional link to the trek.  Well Greg discovered that some of his parts and pieces on his body were not functioning as well as he would have liked and so he decided to take it slow the first day.  Good council.

As I got to Emigrant Gap I took off my shoes and wanted to walk barefoot to be able to experience what some of the pioneers went through that had either lost or had worn out their shoes, well let me tell you brother, that aint no picnic.  Other than the extreme pain that I was causing myself, I discovered that there really wasn’t any comparison for what I was trying to accomplish.  I was walking on sharp rock gravel roads and they would have been walking dirt trails.  It just didn’t add up and after two miles and two hours later, I had a good sized blister on my heal and I couldn’t walk anymore and needed to put my shoes back on.  It wasn’t the experience that I was hoping for because it wasn’t the same circumstances.

So we did 21 miles on original trail.  I loved it.  There is nothing like walking in the same footsteps as my grandmother and so many other pioneers.  Shortly after hitting the hay, I keep hearing this scratching coming from under the tent but try to ignore it because I didn’t have the energy to deal with it and so all night long I hear this scratching.  So when I got up at 5:30 and started putting away the tent, I was anxious to see what was still scratching the bottom of my tent, and lo and behold… it was the fattest field mouse that I have ever seen and he was trying to make himself so new digs under my tent.  If it’s not the trains that keep me up, then it’s the mice.

Friday August 21st, 2009

Casper WY, Friday, 21.87 Miles rested Sat, Sun, Mon

I was anxious to get to Casper so I could have the ability to see a doctor if needed and so we walked two days in a single day… again.  Since leaving the Scottsbluff hospital and being two days behind, I entered Casper 4 days ahead of schedule.  Not bad for an old man with one leg.  I have been watching the oozing of the new wound and have applied some SSD that they gave me at the hospital in Scottsbluff and by today (Monday) I have decided that I would save my money and not go to the doctor. It looks like it is on the mend.

I can’t say enough about Ryker Green, my 16 year old companion walker and descendant of Sarah Goode Marshall.  The blisters on his feet tell of his commitment to help get me to the Salt Lake Valley.  Rumors were that he might not have the stamina to finish the trek when in fact it was he that kept challenging me to walk a little farther and a little faster.  You gotta love the youth.  He couldn’t wait to find a snake and finally on the last couple of days he found one.  In the two short weeks after spending 10 to 12 hours and more a day with this young man, I can tell you that he will lighten the load of anyone that he walks with.  I owe him a great debt of gratitude as he left the comfort of his summer in Salt Lake and started pulling my handcart as I lay in the hospital.  Our long talks helped to bond us that will last a lifetime.  Congratulations Ryker!  No one else has done what you have.  Have a great school year and go study up on who Martin Harris is.

Ryker

I also needed to get a new thermostat for the truck because it was stuck open but when I went to have a mechanic do it, they had to order the part from Denver and so I won’t be able to get it repaired until Tuesday afternoon.  Just the part cost over $175 because it is this whole housing thing that it sits in and is a pain to change, so I imagine that I will get a hefty bill for this.  I am also having them repair my driver’s side door handle.  When I was in the hospital, the persons home that we left my truck at didn’t know how to get into my truck (there’s a trick) and he broke the handle, so every time that I want to get into the truck, I have to crawl across all of my boxes and junk that I have been carrying on the passenger side.  It’s just a pain, so I need to get that fixed also.  It’s always something, isn’t it?

I have lost 35 pounds to date! That means that I lose about ½ pound a day with about 20 pounds to go.  I should write a diet book.  It would only have one page.  Eat less than 1200 calories a day and walk almost 1500 miles in 4 months. My hernia’s are about the same and so I stop when I need to and rest and repair.  My feet have been doing well for quite some time.  I have been getting a lot of leg cramps lately and so I need to remember to take my supplements.  The herniated disc in my back comes and goes.  My mental outlook has had a boost because I feel like I am getting close to home and when my mind stays positive, my body walks with a little more vigor.  I have slept a lot better the last couple of nights because it hasn’t been very cold and I am away from the trucks and the trains… finally.  I found a Jerusalem Cricket outside my tent last night.  Nasty looking things!

Also, I think that I have mentioned it before, but when I am walking down the road, my handcart attracts cows and horses like I am some kind of free lunch.  It is just funny, when they hear the sound of the cart, they just come running full speed across acres of ground to see what we have to eat.  This has even happened to a Zebra that someone had on their property.  Well a couple of days ago there were about 15 horses that wouldn’t quite following us until they got some attention and so I dug out a couple of crab apples and I became an instant hit.  I love it!

Feeding horses that follow me

Quickies: I will be in a communication void for about the next two weeks because I will be in the WY cellular black hole / I met a Tracy Williams at church yesterday and as a coincidence, I had dinner with his brother in Omaha a few weeks ago / Please, if you have the ability, come join me for the last 5 miles from “This is the Place” monument on Sat., Sept. 26th and bring your family / I’ve been craving milk toast.. how crazy is that / the Jacobs in Casper, where I am using their lawn, have been the most wonderful family… everyone has / I gave a fireside talk last night to about 30 women and enjoyed the conversation / I bent the clothing rule today and bought a pair of long johns.  The Rocky Mts. are coming up / I can’t wait to do some fishing at the Sweetwater River as they did 150 years ago.  Trout sounds great right now / Greg Phillips, another descendent of Sarah Goode Marshall, will be walking with me for a week, starting tomorrow.

I drove the trail as it leaves Casper so I could get an idea ahead of time what the next 70 miles looks like and it is rough.  All original trail that has been graded over into a rough country road.  There are some notable landmarks along this section.  Emigrant Gap, Bessemer Bend, Avenue of Rocks, Willow Springs, Prospect Hill and Independence Rock and then Devils Gate and Martins Cove.  There is a good web site (http://www.independencerock.org) that has photos of all of the above important locations and also of what I will be traveling for the next couple of weeks.  It also gives a brief narration of each of the areas.  I’m not only making history by doing this trek, but for the first time that I know of, I have been given permission by the Pathfinder Ranch (largest ranch on the west coast, 140,000 acres) to continue to walk original two rut dirt trail that runs on their property for about 10 miles just before Independence Rock. I have been told that they don’t let anyone on their property to do this but I knocked on their door and we had a good conversation and they agreed to let me walk.  I love their section of the trail because it’s as pristine as the trail ever gets.  I’m not positive, but I believe that I may be the first handcart down this path in a long time, if ever, since 1860.  I am honored.  This section is also loaded with rattlesnakes, so caution will be the code of the day.  They don’t call them the Rattlesnake Mts. for nothing.

Also, starting at Emigrant Gap, I will be walking barefoot for as long as I can.  It may be an hour, a week or all of the way to Salt Lake City.  Why you ask?  What possesses me to do such an insane thing?  Well it’s not an insane thing, my second reason for doing the trek is to experience first-hand, and the pain and suffering that they endured to accomplish their journey so I could understand that suffering and be able to relate it to others that don’t have that knowledge.  One of the things that happened 150 years ago was that there were some that went barefoot the entire journey and then there were some that lost or wore out their shoes along the trail, so for me to understand what that was like, I too need to walk for some period… barefoot.  The second addendum to this reason is that from about Emigrant Gap for about the next 100+ miles, this piece of ground has a hallowed meaning for me and many others.  Exodus 3:5 says: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place where on thou standest is holy ground.  The next 100 miles from Emigrant Gap is the ground where over two hundred women, children and men lost their lives in just two handcart companies.  It is my privilege and honor to walk barefoot on this ground.  I can think of no more fitting way of showing my respect.  You see, for me it’s not just the dirt.  This entire trek is not just about the trail, it is the lives that stood in the same place that I stand and it was grandmothers and grandfathers, brothers and sisters of not so many years ago that had “Faith Greater Than Pain”.  They were willing to give all that they had, including their lives to beckon the call to come “home” and over 200 paid the ultimate price by freezing and starving to death.  The Spirit is so strong in this area, you can reach out and touch it.  The hardest for me is yet to come, but the greatest rewards are in that effort.  My accomplishments that require the greatest effort have given me the greatest rewards.  Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley said “the price of discipleship is personal courage”; well I think that it’s about time that I stepped up to the plate.

Thursday August 20, 2009

Glenrock, WY,  28.9 Miles

My longest pull yet, but I think that I may have paid the price.  I felt the top part of my right leg calf getting oozy (that’s a medical term) by the end of the day and upon pulling up the pant leg it looks like the beginning stages of what the bottom part of the leg was doing when I went to the hospital in Scottsbluff, so I took a shower (which is a novelty for me) cleaning the area, re-dressed the leg with meds and we will see what it looks like in the morning.  I pray that this isn’t having a relapse.  That wouldn’t be good, and after a stellar day of putting on some serious miles.  So for medical safety sake, they pulled me and the cart in the last 11 miles into Glenrock so I could dress the wound area.  Once again, keep me in your prayers.

Other than that, Ryker and I were cruising today, even though I was having a difficult time even walking this morning because of being so tired… why so tired you say?  Well I didn’t get all of my business taken care of until around 11PM and then I got soaked by the irrigation sprinklers again at about 2AM.  My tent leaks like crazy and so my blanket got wet, then my socks that I was wearing got wet, and then I tried to go outside to see if I could stop the sprinklers and then my shirt got wet.  It was a miserable night, along with the antelope that were outside of my tent.  One of these nights I will get some sleep.  I am starting to lose my marbles.

Wednesday August 19, 2009

Douglas WY, 21 Miles

I spent my night in a city park and low and behold I got watered again with the 2AM sprinkler system.  As I have said before, my tent is no longer waterproof and all of the seams leak and so I just had to lay there and deal with getting wet.  I then woke up this morning after freezing all night and discovered that my bread ration for the day had been partially consumed by some ferrill cats that I had seen earlier in the evening and so it was starting out as a typical day.

Now I talked a little about the difficulty that I was having with my backside, well I had discovered that I have two very long and sore blisters back there and so walking today was difficult at best.  Ryker and I trade off every mile on pulling the cart and it seemed to work well other than we had to fight a 20 to 25 mile an hour head wind, all day long.  That, along with having to climb hills as a steady daily diet adds to the grief of getting this 217 pounds down the road.

Other than that, I have my tent pitched on the LDS church grounds and this evening I had the honor of meeting and having a lengthy conversation with Martin Harris VII, the direct grandson of Martin Harris.  For those of you who may not be LDS, Martin Harris was instrumental in the formation and history of the Mormon faith, so it was a honor to meet him and all of the kids that were having a youth activity for the night.

Martin Harris and Doc

Well, as usual, I haven’t eaten, I’m cold and there are antelope outside of my tent, the wind is blowing up a storm and it’s almost ten at night… I’m going to sleep.

Tuesday August 18, 2009

Glendo, WY, 21 Miles
This was a tough day. It is the first day that I have done 20+ miles in the hills and dirt since I left Iowa and it kicked my behind and to top things off, I believed that I would be able to follow the trail but was told that I needed special permission from a land owner that wasn’t available, so instead of walking the anticipated 20 miles, the total distance became 35 miles. Well by the time I had completed 21 miles, I had walked for 11 hours and had not powdered my behind and got… shall I say… chaffed? I couldn’t walk another step. To do so would have caused blisters and I didn’t need that in addition to the present pain, so I had to get in the supply wagon and ride the last 15 miles. Ryker couldn’t pull either because he has developed blisters. So if I could have walked and had to finish the day with the longer round about distance, I wouldn’t have arrived in Glendo until around 3 or 4AM. So now I have to figure out how to care for my behind.
Other than that drama, I had a good day. I had a companion walker who is LDS and walked with me for a couple of miles out in the countryside where his family has been for over 100 years. He is 71 years old and pulled the cart like a champ. Speaking of countryside, the topography has changed dramatically in the last couple of days. We now have the Laramie Peak at 12,840 in front of me and everything has become very hilly again. The temperature dropped to 40 degrees last night and I am freezing with my two little blankets and I have over a month to go. Heaven help me.
I also found three pioneer graves today, and was also given permission by Kathy Murray (?) to visit Porters Rock (look it up). It was a great moment to stand there on this piece of ground that the trail passes right by and divides into two directions and you can see the original swales where they traveled. The land has never been cultivated and so it looks as it did 150 years ago. It was amazing to be there.
Well I have to cut this short and go powder my behind and try and find a way to stay warm tonight.

Porters Rock

Monday, August 17, 2009

Guernsey, WY. 13 Miles
As I spent another insane night next to the trains last night and it is getting cold at night now that I am at around 4500 feet in elevation. I have been able to see my breath each night as I crawl out of my tent to go tinkle. By the way, even sleeping in my clothes and with the one blanket under me and the other over me… I get c o l d… and I have another 4000 feet in elevation to go. I have no doubt that I will get dusted with some snow in the Rockies before I get home on Sept. 26th. So the lack of sleep will change in Casper from losing the train whistles to gaining the cold and uncomfortable nights. Welcome to being a pioneer.
As I was leaving Ft. Laramie this morning, a very large gentleman in his night clothes came running out to meet me and said that he had been following me and he wanted me to take some squash and a couple of small watermelons from his garden that he had been saving for me. Hallelujah Brother! The Lord keeps sending me more food and because I was still in the Ft. Laramie trading zone, I graciously accepted. I’m saving one of those little watermelons for my birthday, Sept. 13th. It will be quite a pioneer party, even though I will probably be by myself, I have been carrying an “add only water” cranberry muffin mix for the last 70 days and it will be the center of the meal on my birthday. So I will have the muffins, watermelon, and hard tack dipped in my choke cherry juice for flavor for breakfast. Remember the choke cherries that put me in the hospital, well it cooked down to three quarts and I earned each drop.

The Bounty!

By the way, I am at the Guernsey Ruts. Go Google it on the net and read up on the area. The ruts and Ft. Laramie are a focal point on the trail. I took my handcart up to the ruts this afternoon and did an historical narration with the handcart actually in the ruts. I have no doubt that my handcart is the first handcart that has been in those ruts since 1860. What an honor to be in the exact same spot as my grandmother and every other pioneer. Let me just dropped a couple of names: Everyone in Brigham Young’s wagon train, every handcart that ever went to Salt Lake, John C. Fremont, Jim Bridger, and on and on. Do a little history lesson for yourself and Google the Guernsey Ruts.

Guernsey Ruts

Updates: the leg is doing well, or as well as can be expected. Hernias are still a concern. Feet are doing well. Rash on upper body is a concern. Mental outlook is better because of being in WY and getting additional food stuffs. The daily grind is more tolerable with Reiker to help pull.
In my mind’s eye, my motivator is I see myself entering the Salt Lake Valley and meeting a lot of wonderful people. It will be an honor for Grandmother Sarah Goode Marshall that has been 153 years in the making. I am also looking forward to meeting and walking that last mile or so with people of all religions. This is what drives me at the moment… plus a Godfathers Combo!
Time for bed… not sleep… just bed.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Fort Laramie, WY 20 Miles
My first full day’s trek in Wyoming and it was a bit of an adventure. I was confronted with a pretty intense storm of hail, lightning, winds over 35 miles per hour and of course rain as I came into Ft. Laramie. It is just tough doing the trek and all that it entails and then also having to be a video producer at the same time puts a lot of stress on the situation. You can do one or the other, but it is tough to get the shots that you want when you are trying to survive this storm. The wind was so strong that it ripped the cover off from my cart (and it is fastened on there pretty tight) and it proceeded to send it into the next county. So here I am trying to just make a few feet at a time and getting soaked to the bone and then lightning hit about ½ mile away and that sent me straight to my truck. I don’t mind dealing with the elements, but I don’t deal with the lightning. So as soon as the lightning and most of the rain passed, I got back out into it and walked in the rain to Ft. Laramie, found the local park and was about to pitch my tent there, but decided against it when the sign said that the auto sprinklers are on from midnight to 4AM. I am tired of getting soaked and so I opted for the local campground with a shower, since I hadn’t had one since I left the hospital. Which brings me to my next point, I have been itching ever since I left the hospital, not just a little itch, I mean an itch to where you want to scratch your eyes out kind of itch. Well I couldn’t really figure out what was going on until tonight when I showered… I have a rash all over my upper torso. Where it came from, or what medicine am I allergic to, I have no idea. I kept thinking that it would get better but it seems to be getting worse, so I suppose that I need to call the doctor to find out what is going on.
So staying at the campground, the owner knew of my situation and asked if I was doing my own cooking and I affirmed that I did and he then said that I could raid what was left in his garden to help with my supplies. Since this was my last trading area until Fort Bridger, I gladly accepted and dug up about 8 pounds of red potatoes, about 2 pounds of string beans and 6 partially ripe tomatoes. What a bounty! I then proceeded to make a soup with the red spuds, some onion, some string beans and just a hint of chicken bouillon. Man was it good! I had some for dinner, breakfast and for dinner again on Monday.

Digging Potatoes

By the way… I am about to lose my mind because I haven’t slept in weeks. I think that we have had this discussion before because the trail is next to the trains and I typically sleep within a block or two of the tracks because that is all the larger that these little towns are. So if you want to get just a glimpse of my night, get on the internet and download a train whistle blowing it’s series of warnings, and there are about 6 of them, and then start playing them as loud as your sound system will play them without blowing up the system or getting arrested by the police because your neighbors have turned you in for disturbing the peace. Ok, now put it on automatic to where it will play at this intensity about every 10 to 20 minutes and let it run for 24 hours! Do you get just a little slice of my night? If you think that I am kidding, you are totally wrong, I have been dealing with this insanity of weeks and weeks and my brain never gets into REM. So… let’s see how much you have been reading and paying attention to my blog and see how many of the following questions that you get right.
Why am I losing my mind?
Lack of sleep
I want to scratch my legs, and now my body till it bleeds
I have hemorrhoids
All of the above
What is the most miles that I have walked in a day?
26.7
25.8
28.3
30.1
What was I picking when I got my chigger bites?
My nose
Currents
Mulberries
Choke Cherries
The reason(s) that I am not sleeping is:
I have arthritis and it’s cold at night with only two small blankets
I have to get up and let the trains drive through my tent every 20 minutes
Air brakes are legal in every little small town in IA and NE
I’m hungry
All of the above
Name 4 kinds of beetles, spiders, ants, or cock roaches that I have killed on my face as I sleep in the middle of the night?
What berries, vegetables, and tubers have I been able to supplement my diet with?
Those that guess correctly and get 6 out of 6 get to come and help me pull this handcart over the Rocky Mts. because apparently you have way too much time on your hands and could use something to occupy your mind.

Thursday, August, 13

Morrell NE.
I have to do a quick blog because I am about to lose power.

My leg is doing well and I am excited about that. It was 99 degrees today and was a big drain to try and get to my destination.

I am including an email that I sent to a friend of mine because I feel that it is something that everyone should know that is following this trek….

After having made great progress in the hospital, I have begun to pull the handcart again and I walked 18 of the 20 miles yesterday and then I pulled 16 miles today and feel as good as I did before I went into this tailspin. So if I am the only one that has walked the same footsteps, eaten as they did and suffered as they did, I truly believe that there is Davine Intervention during a lot of this trek so I can be the last living witness to what so many gave their lives for. All we have are the journals, stories and text books of those who suffered for us, and it’s not only Mormons, it was 600k people who traveled those trails in search of their dream, be it gold dust or religious freedom. Their lives are literally etched into the dust and rock that I walk. This trek is about America…it’s not about me or not really just about my grandmother, it’s about those whose “Faith was Greater Than their Pain” to find their dream. One of the most profound sentences that I think that I have ever read in the hundreds of pioneer journals that I have absorbed over the years was a man newly baptized into the Mormon faith in the 1850’s. After having given up his home and everything that life’s comforts had to offer him in search of his newly found religion that took him half way around the world, he said that his proudest moment was when he stepped off from his clipper ship and a man at the bottom of the gangway called me an “American”! He felt that he was now part of the greatest nation on earth and they included him as one on the citizenry. What an amazing moment in his life…something that I feel too many that occupy our shores have lost…feeling proud to be considered an American.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble but I have had over a couple of months to my thoughts and to be able to feel the impressions of those footsteps that I walk in on a daily basis and I’m afraid that those that gave so much on our behalf would be utterly disappointed at what has become of this nation, but at the same time I can give testimony as to the spirit of the people who live in small town America, they, like me, aren’t quite sure how we lost that spirit that built America but it is my resolve to change what I have the power to change, and that power may be to change only myself.

TOMORROW I’M IN WYOMING!!!

Wednesday August 12, 2009

Scottsbluff,  NE, 20 Miles

After being released from the hospital yesterday, I met the handcart at Chimney Rock.  What a great place to be able to be at with the handcart.  I appreciate all those that pulled the cart for the three days to get it down the road, especially Jeff Tapp and his brother, the Peters family and especially Ryker Green, Shirley’s grandson. Ryker and I both walked today and I took a two mile break for my leg this morning but was able to put in 18 miles today and it felt alright even though the temperature reached 97 before I got to my destination.

The leg is completing it’s miracle phase as we speak.   We don’t have time here to go into all of the details and prayers and answers that have placed me from a very serious unknown condition to being back on the trail within a week.  I can’t thank everyone enough for taking the time to include me in their prayers and I am eternally grateful to Joe Jeter Physicians Assistant at Regional West Hospital, for his great knowledge, tenacity, and comfort in a trying time, truly a friend forever.  So I am following instructions on keeping it clean, healing, and watching for any abnormalities.  Who says that miracles don’t happen anymore?

So… Since I am only about 25 miles away from the WY border, I may try and surmount another milestone and catch up on one of the days that I have lost by being in the hospital.  Stay tuned.  Stepping foot in WY, in my mind, is a HUGE psychological advancement to getting towards home.  The hardest is yet to come, but it will be the most rewarding.

Well, I need to set up my tent, clean and evaluate the progress of my leg and eat something.  By the way, I was interviewed by the newspaper today and am on the Scottsbluff television this evening. The television is http://www.kotanow.com/Global/story.asp?S=10893577 and the newspaper is the Star Herald.

Time for some sleep…….

Monday August 10, 2009

Scottsbluff, NE, Regional West Hospital

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and concern on my behalf as this serious situation has finally subsided into a recovery process.  I will be released from the hospital tomorrow after having finally dumped enough antibiotics and steroids into me to get an upper hand on this deteriorating leg.  The bottom line is that they don’t know what it is but treating it as a chemical burn has stopped the progression.  They were very concerned during the first 24 hours that I might have necrotizing fasciitis and if you look at photos on the internet of that disease and then compare it to my leg a couple of days ago, they look almost the same, so I can understand their concern.

I am looking forward to getting back out on the trail and start walking again and making the last 650 miles or so.  The cart is approaching Chimney Rock tomorrow and I want to be there to pull through that segment since it was such a pivital landmark on the trail.  It was considered half way home if you were traveling from the Missouri River, but since I started 300 miles earlier, I am well beyond half way.  The most difficult part of the trek is yet to come upon leaving Casper WY and heading towards Independence Rock, Martins Cove, South Pass, Fort Bridger and then the Salt Lake Valley.  That is what I am looking forward to because the great majority of the trek will be on original dirt two rut trails.  There will also be sections where I won’t be able to have escorts follow me because of BLM restrictions and so I will be on my own for a period of time and will have to load about an additional 75-100# of gear onto my cart that will carry my tent, food, water, bedding, etc.  Someone said that it has already snowed in the tops of the Rockies a couple of days ago and I have no doubt that I will get dusted on, just as the first handcart company did, before I reach the valley.

So… I have gained a couple of pounds recouperating here in the hospital.  I have eaten almost everything that I could get my hands on and then I have the nurses bring me a cup of ice cream every time that they walk by my door because those wonderful tastes will soon be eliminated and I’ll be back to biscuits and jerky.  As each day goes by, I feel so privileged to be able to recreate this trek and to endure some of the trials that they did so many years ago.  You can be the worlds best historian and not truly understand on a personal basis how difficult it was emotionally and physically until you walk the walk.  Once again, I wouldn’t be able to complete this trek without the love and support of so many that have taken an interest in this epic adventure… thank you…