Trekkin' (Day One)

I'm really excited to post about Trek, but I'm also worried that my thoughts and feelings won't adequately come through in my writing. My emotions are very close to the surface, so I hope I can figure out how to journal this amazing event.

For those of you who don't know, Trek is something our church does as a youth activity. We go up to Wyoming, wear pioneer clothes, pack our stuff in a handcart, and pull it several miles to re-enact the Mormon Emigration of the mid 1800s. Sounds strange, I know, but the Mormon pioneers went through a lot to get to the Salt Lake Valley and they did it because of their faith in God and their belief in our religion. We re-enact this event to help our youth understand a little of what they went through and help them gain a better understanding of our ancestors and for them to gain a stronger testimony.

Ryan and I were asked to go as "Ma and Pa" to a "family" of teenagers. We went as a group, pulled the handcart together, ate together, camped together, and really grew close to one another. Ryan and I had seven "children" ranging from ages 14 to 18. Five boys and two girls. We were also given a "baby" (rag doll) who represented an actual baby who died along the trail.

We left Wednesday morning and returned Saturday night. What an amazing, exhausting, emotional, sometimes painful and very spiritual four days!!!! I am going to post one day at a time, so I can keep my thoughts in order.

When we arrived at the church on Wednesday morning, we didn't really know what to expect. We didn't go on Trek when I was a youth, so I had no idea what it would be like. We had had several meetings for the Mas and Pas, but until you actually go, you don't really have a clue what is involved. We were assigned our "children" right off the bat, most of whom I didn't know. Then we separated into families and got to know each other a little bit. Most of them were excited to go, a few didn't look thrilled at all. It was interesting to me to see their personalities come through so early on....they were all so different. Shy kids and outgoing kids. I really hoped we could mesh as a family. At about ten o'clock, we got on the bus and headed for Wyoming, just past Evanston. When we arrived, we found our stuff waiting for us, and we began to load the handcart. We had a hard time fitting everything in. The actual pioneers coming across the plains in handcarts were only allowed seventeen pounds of personal items. Um, we exceeded that by a long ways. (My air mattress was probably half that much!! I have a bad back, OK?!?!)

This is our family packed and ready to go...we were excited to begin.

Loading the handcart was only the first obstacle. We were all eager to get going, so off we went. But the excitement of pulling and pushing the handcart through the sagebrush, cow pies, and rocks wore off quickly. We had a few "whiners" and some of the other kids didn't take too kindly to them. I hoped this was not going to be a theme for the rest of the week. We walked for about an hour and a half and then stopped for lunch. We then walked until about 7:00pm when we finally made it into camp!! We had pulled that handcart for almost seven hours in the heat!!

Here are some of the highlights of day one:

--We had to get our handcart through a huge and treacherous ravine. It took a lot of our strength. Our whole company, consisting of five handcart families worked together to get everyone through and up the other side. It was neat to see so many people helping each other.

--We pulled our handcart down a steep hill called "Gravel Hill". It was steep and very rocky. The pioneers had journaled that it was the steepest hill on the entire Mormon Trail. It was really hard to keep that handcart from rolling down the hill. We had ropes tied to a pole in the back that helped up "pull" the handcart from behind, but it took all nine of us to get down successfully.

--We also got to see "Brigham's Arrow". It is a landmark on the trail of a bunch of rocks placed in the shape of an arrow, signifying the turnoff from the Oregon Trail. Until this spot, both used this route, but at Brigham's Arrow, the Mormons went one way and those going to Oregon went another. A member of our Stake presidency was there and he talked about the crossroads in our everyday life and the decisions we make. Every day, we have a choice to follow where the world goes, or follow where the prophet wants us to go. It was a powerful lesson.

This is my cute family pushing the handcart on the plateau...nice to have a little break from the hills....

--We also ran into Miss Fortune on the trail. She was handing out misfortunes to each handcart. One of our sons was injured near the eyes, and had to be led behind the handcart for thirty minutes until he recovered....not too bad...it could have been much worse.

Like I said, we got into camp at around 7:00pm, set up our camp, ate dinner, went to a fireside about our pioneer ancestors, and crashed....It was a very tiring, but very good first day.