July 3 with Gene Hickman by Christy Varga

Posted Friday, July 14, 2006 by Christy Varga

The third day Amy and I woke up early and went for a hike through the power plant to the top of Goon Hill We almost got there when some guy stopped us, so we walked down the road around the corner and went up anyway. We went through a little valley and saw a full deer skeleton. Then we hiked up a really steep hill and we saw some prickly pear cactus and got about half way and we were tired. We turned around and took some pictures and came back down. We took some pictures of a pelican and got back just in time for breakfast.
Breakfast was amazing. Rochelle makes the best eggs. Eggs over easy the perfect way! After breakfast we helped Gene Hickman empty out his truck, which was full of all this Indian stuff. He was wearing moccasins and Indian pants and a plaid shirt with suspenders. He made all of it too. The pants were made of deer hide and so were the moccasins. He killed the deer and all. He kind of seemed like a modern Buffalo Bill. He was a real mountain man and did lots of teaching about Lewis and Clark. So he started to teach us about the kind of shelters Lewis and Clark saw while they were on the Indian land. Of course we did the hardest one. We all split up the work. Dave and Zack set up the skeleton and dug holes and put the sticks in the holes. Lynda and I cut grass with sharp rocks by hand with Jack. Amy and Katie set up the contraption for weaving a mat (primitive loom) with the grass that we cut to make the side of the Wickiup. It took all morning to do that. When we finished, we sat in the house and learned about the war paint that the Indians used and we learned how to make rope with yucca. Then we had some lunch. After we had lunch Gene talked a long time about certain tools and dressed Amy up in the clothes that the men on the trip would have worn. Kristina arrived from Salt Lake that day also. She had missed her flight and came the next day. We had dinner and then learned some Indian sign language. That was awesome. Then we learned how to shoot a gun! It hurt my ears. We also got to fire it. After he left, we started a bonfire with flint and steel and went to bed at around 12.

by Christy Varga