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The Death Hike

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:6.)

I used to think I knew the meaning of thirst. I have spent Sunday mornings fasting, I have tracked in heat wave conditions, but I learned a whole new meaning a couple of months ago, on hike with three of my friends.

Death Trip

When we set out we anticipated we would be gone for 5-6 hours. We had picked out two canyons in a remote Southern Utah dessert. We anticipated very hot conditions but also expected to be shielded from the heat by steep canyon walls and pools of water. We started hiking at about 8am, and carried some snacks and a few liters of water each to sustain us until the afternoon when we expected to eat lunch back at the car.

For those who are unfamiliar with canyoneering, it is a combination of hiking, climbing, bouldering, rappelling and problem solving. More technical and dangerous than hiking but a lot more fun. The canyon we had chosen was a one-way route because of several reppels that dropped us deep in the canyon slot with no way of climbing back up.

Shortly after one of these rappels one of my friends, attempting to down-climb a fifteen foot drop, fell ten feet into a muddy hole. We feared his hand was broken. Soon thereafter another friend slipped on a steep rocky slope and fell, twisting his ankle. If climbing and hiking with one hand wasn’t hard enough climbing with one ankle proved quite painful.

At around noon we re-grouped and took assessment of the situation. Having not made it out of the first canyon, we knew we were moving dangerously slow, and were running low on water. We decided that due to injury we wouldn’t attempt to make it up through the second canyon but would hike around the mountain to a dirt road that would lead back to out car. The route would be longer and hotter but less technical and dangerous.

After we got out of the first canyon the route took us out into the open dessert sun. We began to run out of water. Thirst and the first symptoms of heat stroke including nausea and head aches were felt, but we still had 4-5 miles of bushwhacking a trail and a 3-4 mile hike on the road to go. Our focus turned exclusively to water. Sightseeing, exploring and picture taking ceased, and most of our conversation turned to how long before we would reach water and what drink would be most refreshing.

To our surprise our trail converged with “a river of dirty water”. It’s coolness was refreshing but like the titillating media of today it could not provide lasting satisfaction or quench our true thirst. Almost tauntingly it splashed and cooled but we knew that within the tempting, yet brown, water lay Giardia and other bacteria that would make us sick, and we had not form of filtration.

We used the river to navigate toward the dirt road that would lead us back to our car. At about five o’ clock we left the temptation of the muddy river and once again set off into the heat of the dessert. Nothing was more precious or consumed us more that the thought of water and how to get some. At this point we decided to split the group so that the two of us that were uninjured could go ahead and bring help or the car back.

As we hiked into the heat that we later found to be over 107 degrees, tongues became glued to the roof of the mouth making it difficult to talk and my friends hands began to loose circulation and turn white. We reached the old mining road and the trail got easier but the cramping and fast heart beats got worse. I have been on many hikes where I didn’t want to go on. And I wanted to stop and rest. But this is the first hike where I literally hiked until I could go no further.

I took five steps, then put my head between my legs, then took two steps, then one then sat on the side of the road. I then gave my friend my keys, the map and the best direction I could for the unknown road and left it in his hands. I fell over where I lay and drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness I began to wonder; Why we were here? Why had we come this way? But at this point I knew my fate lay in the hands of others. I had done all I could within my power.

At about 7pm or five hours later than we has expected to be back at the truck, my friend made it back with the truck. We were saved. After picking up my other two buddies that has been picked up by another car on the road we made it back to the highway where we found the first place where we could get water. And, oh, that was the most wonderful ice water and glorious lemonade I have ever experienced.

Hunger and thirst after higher spiritual levels

“How many of us strive for higher spiritual levels as though we hungered and thirsted for them?” I have learned that to thirst is more than a casual need. It is life sustaining. When gone without but for a few short hours, it becomes your entire focus, your ultimate destination, your only thought. All other actions, work and strife become means to that end.

“The highest blessings of the gospel are not for the fainthearted, coolly rational, theoretical philosopher, nor for the intellectually curious. Those blessings are for those stouthearted souls who hunger and thirst for greater personal righteousness.” (Jeffrey R. Holland, “He Hath Filled the Hungry with Good Things,” Ensign, Nov. 1997, 64)

It is easy to get distracted here on this side of the veil. I believe that earth is a perfectly designed testing center. It is very unique to the university testing centers we are all so fond of. For what testing center do you know of that wipes your mind clear when you enter! OK they all seem to. But the veil serves a very important function.

As Alma teaches his son Jacob in 2 Nephi 2:11 “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, (my first-born in the wilderness,) righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness not misery, neither good not bad.”

Alma goes on in verse 16 (2 Ne 2:16) “… Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.”

This earth was perfectly designed as place where we would we would be free to “choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil…2:27)”

I believe if we were in the presence of our Father and Savior without the veil, the taunting of the river of filthy water or the great and spacious building would have no temptation for us. Just as knowing the sickness that we would have received if we had drunk from that cold river when we needed water so badly, kept us from getting sick out in the dessert.

Need we feel bad for being tempted while here on this earth? No, it is part of the plan. But we must, do everything in our power to make the choices that lead us onto spiritual planes where those temptations have little effect. We must “feast on the scriptures” so that we may remember the eternal vision and purpose of our lives.

Spencer W Kimball once quoted: “The greatest battle of life is fought out within the silent chambers of the soul. A victory on the inside of a man’s heart is worth a hundred conquests on the battlefields of life. To be a master of yourself is the best guarantee that you will be master of the situation. Know thyself. The crown of character is self-control.” (Unknown quoted by Spencer W. Kimball)

The source of living waters

So we must have opposition to have agency. But we must also have help. “Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.” (2Ne.2:6) Just as the rattle of my little Ford Exporer brought such comfort to let me know that, after I had hiked at far as I humanly could., we were going to be alright. When we have done all we can do, and we are in our darkest hour. He who is the source of living water will rescue us.

For whosoever drinketh of the water that He shall give us shall never thirst; but the water that He shall give us shall be in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14) For He is the bread of life: if we go to Him we shall never hunger and if we believe on Him we shall never thirst. (John 6:35)

Life here on earth was not designed to be easy, but each drink of His living water brings rewards and hope of greater things yet to come.

I share these things in His name, even Jesus Christ, Amen.