Pioneer Trek 2011

So I know that it has been a couple of weeks since Greg and I were able to go on Trek. (OK maybe 2 months) But I have been wanting to post some pictures and write about it since then and it seems that I am finally finding the time for that. SO hopefully my memory serves me well still.

I have been wanting to go on Trek for years now. And I was so happy when the opportunity came along. Though It may not of been the most convenient time for us, I don't think there is ever a perfectly convenient time for alot of things. So we came home from one vacation and moved right on to Trek mode. We showed up at the temple Thursday morning to start off on our adventure. We were separated into companies and then into families. This was a stake activity so we didn't just have kids from our ward but also kids form all over our stake. We as the "Ma's and Pa's" left first so we could start packing up our handcarts.



So we drove up prove canyon through Heber and started our trek near cascade springs. We were there a while before the kids started arriving. But when they finally came, boy did they come, there were so many of them. But then it all started, our "kids" started to arrive. First came Eric. I remember this because, I was thinking, "yes, this is exactly what I wanted, a big tough boy!" I knew I didn't want to be pulling that handcart all day and he looked like just the boy to do it for me!! And then the boys just kept coming, one after another, all big rough and tough boys.



There was Eric and then Tyler,and Marco, and Mason who we knew from our ward. We had Taylor and then our cowboy Keith. And I thought to myself this is gonna be OK, they are definitely going to take care of me and the girls. We were excited to have 2 girls form our ward, We had Katie and of coarse Madi. Then came along Marissa and Sandy. There was also Brenna and our youngest little Hannah who wasn't quite 14 yet. So all together we had 6 girls and 6 boys.



The walk wasn't too bad and just as I had thought when I saw our boys, they were definitely pulling their weight and mine too. (I carried the bag of candy, it was tough job!!)





We made it to camp, After about a 3 mile pull and through a nice little rainstorm. We set up camp, with our tents being down right on the edge of a big open meadow. We were lucky to get such a great spot to camp in all and all the whole group that we traveled in was about 350 people so to have a nice quiet place to camp with just our family was a luxury not all the families got.

After setting up camp we enjoyed a nice night of fun pioneer games a tasty dutch oven dinner and to top the night off we did some nice old fashioned square dancing. I will admit it was alot of fun. Different fun that what we and all the youth were used to. No phones, no TV, just good old fashioned fun.

The next morning started off really early, I mean real early, like 5:00am. When the mob came and kicked us out of camp. We didn't have time to take down our tents, so we had to just leave them there and only take our things out of our tents and pack them in our carts. It was so so cold that morning. when we popped our heads out of tents the ground was covered in frost. We wore as warm of clothes as we had and headed off on the trail. ( I was super super cold that morning, I can't remember the last time I was that cold)



We stopped on the trail for some nice hot dutch oven breakfast after we had hiked out of camp. Here was where our day changed. While eating breakfast, the Mormon Battalion came and took all of our men, leaving us girls to carry on without them. We had just eaten a nice good breakfast but we were all still really really cold. And to make matters worse our boys had taken such good care of us the day before that none of us girls had even pulled the cart once. President Lowder gave us girls as nice talk about "wowing" the world with being able to do hard things.And then it was time to get going again, this time alone, so we put on our gloves and headed back to our cart to start our journey.




Now earlier I was saying how happy I was to see such tough boys come to our family and knowing before hand that we were going to have a portion to pull without them I will admit when our girls showed up I was a little worried about this. Yes, to put it lightly we had small girls. Girls who up until that point were happy that the boys wanted to do all the work. But those girls impressed me that morning. There was no "this is too hard" or "I don't want to do this" It was just, "let's go do this, we are tough" So we headed up "faith hill" I wish I had a pic of this, it was a big hill. We traveled in companies so we were toward the front of the group. When we started the pull we were all shaking because we were still so cold. But about half way up the first hill we were ready to start shedding our jackets.



This part of the trek was a little deceiving, you could see the hill we were going up and it looked like we just had to make it up this one hill. I was convinced that around the corner was going to be a nice flat part, or just maybe our boys would be sitting there waiting for us. But once we turned this corner we could see the uphill was not going to stop anytime soon and our boys were no where in sight. So we rested in the shade for awhile, drank some water and headed up the hill some more. I knew going into this that we would be meeting back up with the boys at some point and so I was looking for them around every corner, but they were not there. This was hard work and I wasn't sure how far me and my girls could really go. After what had seemed like many hours we could see the boys off in the distant up a hill waiting for us. All the boys were singing pioneer hymns waiting for us to get there so they could help us again. I was looking for our boys and the problem was, I could not see any of them. I thought Taylor was wearing a pink shirt (which stood out) but I could not see him anywhere.



And then I spotted Greg. Once we made it to the boys they quickly wiped away their tears and took over. It was nice to see them and much nicer to have them lighten their load. We continued on again with our family back together again. We ate lunch on top of the mountain and reflected on the day so far. And then the fun started. We headed down the mountain.



The weather had been so wet this year that the normally trickling stream was much larger than usual. Alot of the trail was covered in water and we were pushing and pulling in the water for most of the day. Which made for alot of fun for the boys. We did all of the work that morning so the boys were happy to do the afternoon.




I really wish I had a picture of Keith in his cowboy hat that day. With his cowboy boots on with his pants tucked in. He really did look like a real cowboy and I even asked him if he was a cowboy in real life!



The girls impressed me all morning and the guys impressed me all afternoon. The water looked fun but it also looked like hard work. Some our girls decided to wade through the water also but I chose to have a day of creek jumping instead to stay nice and dry. Though i had a good time watching everyone in the water. We came back to camp late afternoon and I found myself enjoying a nice afternoon nap in the tall grass. When I woke up I was surprised to see 3 of my girls sleeping right by me in the grass. Not only does hiking wear you out, teenagers do too.

That night we gathered together to "bury" our baby that had died. I am glad that I thought to take a picture of the baby I sewed before I took it to trek. Matayia and Kaitlyn were sad to find out I wasn't going to be bringing it back home because they wanted to play with her. I will admit this is one of my few finished projects since I got my sewing machine for Christmas.



Saturday was our last day on Trek. We got up in the morning, took down our tents and packed up our cart one last time, and headed for home. We actually ended up going out a different way than what was originilaly planned. It was actually quite hard. But when we finally came down the hill all the kids parents were there lined on the streets waiting for them. It kinda felt like we were in a pioneer parade. It was nice to be able to meet all of our kids parents and tell them what good kids they had.




And then it was over. All of our kids were gone. The carts were empty. And it was back to real life.



I have been wanting to go on Trek for years. It was everything I thought it was going to be. Some asked if we had fun? I would say, yes. But it was more than fun. There were moments of fun, moments of hard, times of hunger and times of wet and cold. But I know my experience was only a tiny fraction of what the real pioneers lived everyday. I walked away with a greater appreciation for those who have gone before me. Those who paved the way for us today. Would I do it again? Absolutely, no hesitation. I neatly folded my pioneer clothes and packed them in a box labeled Trek hoping to get the opportunity to do it all over again.



I had to include this picture. When these little kids came to pick up their mom and dad the couldn't resist taking a try at pulling the cart together as a family.