Whose Skills Are You Calling Primitive?

The hallucinations start around two in the morning as I’m walking out of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Okay, “hallucinations” might be too strong of a word. I’m not seeing dancing cows, just a field of waist-high grass sprouting from the pavement in front of me. It’s the exact kind of grass we pushed through earlier in the day while trekking along the bottom of a broad, red-walled canyon. It’s probably just shadows cast by the half-moon hanging high in the sky. Things get weird at this hour, after all. There is no color, just varying shades of gray. Or maybe I’ve gone loopy after scrambling through the wilderness for a week with limited food and sleep.

This is the last challenge in the seven-day Field Expedition course with Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS). Along with nine other students and three instructors, I’ve hiked and camped my way through Dixie National Forest and Grand Staircase with minimal gear. We’ve