Pioneer Trek

On May 21st and 22nd my stake went on a trek! Friday I got dressed in my pioneer garb that I still have from when I made it for Youth Conference. (I knew it would come in handy sometime.) Those in the ward going on the trek met in front of the Taj and loaded up cars and took sweet before pictures. We drove for 45 min (that's what they told us it would be, but it felt longer, so I don't know how long we actually drove) to get to the other side of Utah Lake to an LDS ranch designed specifically for handcart treks. There were senior missionaries there and everything. The stake leaders talked to us and gave us instructions at the beginning, and then we loaded up all our handcarts. Our ward had probably 29 or so people, so 3 families and 3 handcarts. I was the Ma of one, but it didn't really give me any special responsibilities. We have the highest ward number numerically in the stake, so we were last in the "wagon" train. Every few miles there were porta-potties, which was nice. We stopped and ate lunch that we had each packed. We took turns pushing and pulling the cart so we could all get the experience. [Here's Dave (Pa), Christina, and Angie. Then it's Becca. Then it's all them together.]

[This is Angie and Jessica from my family. Randy, Ben, and Ariel are pulling for the next family behind us.] A few other times that we took short breaks we also shared pioneer stories from our ancestry. It was cool hearing the different stories from our ward with different people having pioneer ancestors who crossed the plains and people who had just barely been baptized a few years ago. [Sean, Ie Ling, and Jessica pull while Ryan holds our ward's orange flag.] I think we did about 10 miles that day. [This last picture shows how we accidentally lost some Cheese-Its along the way. However, after eating dirt in the wind all day, we figured it wouldn't hurt to eat a few off the ground! Brother Wilson led the group in bending over for a little snack. And boy were they tasty!] We stopped and set up camp. Our ward won the tent war, 'cause we had some HUGE tents. As we were cutting up food to put in the dutch ovens for dinner, it started raining. [From L to R: Ie Ling, Zach, Jessica, Christina, Kyra in back, and Angie.] We hurried and finished and ran back to the tent.

[Nicole's taking a little nap-i-poo after a long day.] It pretty much quit raining, but it was very windy for a while. After eating, our ward played a big game of "I have never" where the person in the middle says something they've never done and if you've done it you have to get up and change chairs. Bishop Richards drove in for the night and Bro. Wilson (2nd Counselor) had been there with us all day, and it was pretty funny seeing them get so into the game and start knocking each other and us down to get a chair. There was a dance that night, but the DJ was playing lame music and it was too dark and dusty to be much fun. So I went back to our campsite early to find that half of the ward had the same idea and were already sitting around a campfire there. We talked for a little bit before the wind started picking up and it began to rain again. After the mad dash to the tents, it was a glorious sleep filled with trying to get comfortable and trying to ignore the loud sounds of the tent flapping and the rain falling.

Saturday morning we were very chilly and did not want to come out of our sleeping bags. Luckily, the guys were rill nice and cooked us breakfast. After we ate and loaded the carts up again, we were on our way. [It was an art to get it all balanced just right!] We were tired of being in the back of the train, so we cut in line. We opted to take the optional fork that led us to the Women's Pull. [Christina, Jess, and Angie up front.] It was a 1/2 mile of tilled ground (which was only made all the softer with all the rain overnight) that we pulled through. [I'm at the back pushing.] That was the part of the trek where I felt the Spirit the strongest, and it was a very cool experience. The guys just walked next to us and cheered us on (and took pictures, of course). [Here's a better view of Becca (at the far side) and me pushing.] Our cart was the first in our ward, and when we finished we looked back and saw that the other two carts were having a lot of trouble so we ran back to help them so that they wouldn't have to ask the guys to help. What a neat experience! Somehow we missed the fork that took us across water (we just blindly followed the ward in front of us, I guess), so we were all kind of bummed that we missed that part of the experience. [Lindsey rolled her ankle literally feet from the end, so she's sitting down with her foot in a bucket of ice water. Eve's rubbing her shoulders, then it's Zach, Randy, Tucker, Nicole, and Kyra.] We only did probably 3 or 4 miles that day, so it wasn't a very long trek overall. [Some wardies chillin' afterward. Tyler's in the back, with Becca, Stephanie, Ryan, Dave, and Alexay around the "circle."] We had some fruit and donuts before heading home. It was a really fun experience overall, and I recommend doing a pioneer trek at least once in your life if you haven't already.

What have been your experiences with pioneer treks?