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Show as chaperon, left on that first trip. Out of that group of 35, there were 25 or more that had never been south of Provo. Knowing that many would not be able to go if we ate out and stayed in hotels or motels, I had everyone bring a bedroll and prepared to do cooking as a group, borrowing some big kettles from Dilworth Young of the Boy Scouts. Everyone was to take a turn cooking or helping prepare meals, washing dishes, etc. I do not remember what the menus were, but we usually had a good breakfast of eggs, bacon or ham, hot cakes, and juice or hot cocoa. Lunches were usually sandwiches of various kinds, tuna, cheese, peanut butter, etc., a salad or at least some fresh vegetables, and fresh or canned fruit and cookies. At night, we would have such foods as stews, potatoes, gravy and some kind of meat, a salad, and some kind of dessert. When we started, the bus was fully loaded, not only with people, but with food, cooking utensils, and other things inside and a full baggage rack of sleeping gear on top. We had planned to leave about 6:00 a.m. but we didnt make it. Plans were to go to Bryce Canyon for the first night, Grand Canyon, the second, Zion, the third, and home on the fourth day. I had not anticipated the time a group of that size required at each stop, nor that there might be problems with the bus, so it was after dark when we finally made camp at Bryce and still had to get some food. Next morning, some of the students were quite surprised when they found all the beds were in a rather compact group. After breakfast at Bryce, we hiked into the canyon, for Bryce cannot be fully visualized and enjoyed from the rim, then drove to some of the rim lookout points. As I remember it, we did not leave Bryce until after lunch and it is about 160 miles to the Grand Canyon, so the girls of the group under Ednas direction, fixed sandwiches and we ate while we traveled. I am not sure how many of the roads were paved, but I know many were still gravel. In that part of Utah, rest areas, except for service stations in towns, are few and far between, so several times we stopped along the road, sending the girls one way and the boys the other in the juniper forests. This was a new experience for some. Again it was quite dark when we reached camp, but the group had learned to help when needed. Field trips have always been important in teaching people to understand that there are times when the group is more important than the individual, and events that night and the next morning exemplified this. Two or three individuals were sleeping in one big bed. One kept complaining about a stick or rock under that part of the bed. Finally, another said, more over here, and they changed places. Next morning a couple of individuals took so long getting ready that we were late leaving camp and still needed to spend some time enjoying the Grand Canyon. We arrived in Zion well before dark, but spent so much time on the trails next morning, that it was after noon before we left for the 370 mile trip home. We drove all night and arrived in Ogden about 8:00 a.m. or so, tired but with many choice memories of the trip. Many other events of this period come to mind. One day there was a story in either the Standard or the Signpost or both about Orson Whitney Young collecting stray cats for use in the anatomy labs. It was probably during the summer of 1936, that there was another zoological story. While enlarging the basement under a house on the corner of 23rd and Adams, the workers had found some bones. I think Whit Young was out of town, so the Ogden Police called me thinking they had a murder case. When I got there and looked at them, they really did not seem like human remains, they were too large, and when one of the men held a rib up around him, and it reached clear around him, I was quite certain. However, just to make sure, I went back to the Moench building, got into the anatomy lab, studied the skeleton there, and found that the bones in the basement were totally different from human remains. Most likely they were the bones of a cow or a horse. They were well preserved for having been buried so long for I would guess the house was at least 40 years old. We tried to stop the story in the paper, but it was too late and there had to be a retraction the next day. Apparently nothing very earth-shaking happened during the 1936-1937 school year, at least that I can remember, though there were indications of growing trouble in Europe. In the spring, interest in the Southern Utah field trip was so great that I ended up with two busloads. I had learned from the 1936 trip that it would be better to go to Zion first, partly because Zion is farther than Bryce and we always seemed to get away from Ogden earlier than we ever did from camp, partly because Bryce is almost 4,000 feet higher than Ogden, so it was more of a downhill run coming home, and partly because the hills coming home from Zion seem longer and bus travel slower if we were to go to Bryce first. In May of 1937, there was so much snow in the Kaibab Forest that we could not get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Changing our plans, we went to Zion the first day, stayed there the second day, went to Bryce the third day, and home on the fourth. As was the case for many years, we camped in the group area of the upper or Grotto Campground in Zion Canyon, away from other campers and convenient to many hiking areas. The second morning after breakfast, we went to Weeping Rock and up the Narrows. Then, after lunch and when there was some shadow on the west wall of the canyon, most of the group hiked to Angels Landing. Whether it was this year or others, I am not sure, but often after the hike to Angels Landing, there would be a baseball game, a campfire, and perhaps a snipe hunt for the uninitiated. There was plenty of room between camp and the river. After one such climb to Angels Landing, one of the girls who was on KP for dinner that night quipped, Now I know what KP means completely pooped. On our way to Bryce the third morning, we would take time to hike the Great Arch Trail, stop for pictures at many places along the Tunnel Road and for lunch on the school or church grounds of Orderville. Arriving at Bryce, we would set up camp, then hike into the canyon and out along the rim road. Bryce is cold in May, so often those with thin sleeping bags would sit around the fire much of the night. The fourth day was homecoming. We would take time for one last view of Bryce, stop injunction or Richfield for lunch and arrive home about 9:00 at night. In the spring of 1937, I was awarded a fellowship at Stanford so I could begin work towards my doctorate. Whether to accept this fellowship at this time or not |