Pioneer Trek Summary

This weekend Rick and I were a "Ma" and a "Pa" for our Stake Pioneer Trek. Janelle and Jaiden also attended the trek. They were in different families but they were part of our Far West company. The organization of this activity was amazing. I can't imagine all of the months of preparation that went into it. The leaders did and awesome job putting it all together!

This is my third trek. The first was as a youth. It was a difficult, but life changing event. The second was ten years ago at Martin's Cove in Wyoming. This experience is documented in this journal (July 2009) . They had asked the Bishops and their wives to attend. Rick was Branch President at the time and so we went! We didn't have any responsibility on the trek and so we were just able to enjoy the experience without any of the work or worry! It was was so fun! We learned so much and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

This is our first time being a "Ma and Pa" and also our last (according to Rick anyway). I will share some positives, some of my favorite parts and some things I wish had been different. Positives include the amazing organization and committees -- everything from registration to equipment and transportation to portable toilets! They all did an amazing job organizing everything! Other positives included the pre-trek fireside (the speaker was the director of the movie 17 miracles and it was very touching). I also loved working within our trek family and getting to know our youth. It was fun meeting many wonderful people in our stake.

Another big plus was THE FOOD!!!! The food committee was amazing. Not only did they have amazing meals prepared, they also gave each of the families bags of snacks to bring on the trail. It can be extremely challenging feeding so many and also taking care of various dietary needs, but they handled it really well. I was one of those that needed a separate gluten free meal and I was grateful for their careful planning. The dance was also a lot of fun. I was surprised that the kids had energy to dance after trekking 8 miles in the heat, but they did! They smiled and laughed and had a great time. It was fun to watch!

I also loved the speakers! We had two on the trail and then a fireside with two excellent speakers. Those were some of my favorite parts of the trek! Another plus is that the committee were very prepared for contingencies! The last two or three treks had lots of rain. Four years ago when Jase and Jared went, they had to evacuate everyone in the middle of the night to nearby cabins. From what I heard it was crazy and unorganized, which is understandable but also nerve wracking! So this year everyone was required to come with an emergency overnight bag. Each of these bags were tagged and assigned to a specific cabin in the case of an emergency evacuation. These were kept inside a trailer. Thankfully the weather was perfect and we didn't need the bags, but we were prepared if we did!

A few things I would change...in the 48 hour time period we trekked 22 miles going up and down, pushing and pulling heavy handcarts. I know the experience is supposed to be difficult (and it was) but I think the lessons of sacrifice and sense of accomplishment (I can do hard things) could still be learned with less miles and additional activities. Maybe we are just getting old! The youth wanted to move quickly and we had to walk fast to keep up! We were huffing and puffing and had aching feet and very sore muscles! I know this is part of the experience, I would have just loved to have more variety of activities then just trekking for hours all three days. 

There were a few miscommunications or inconsistencies between what was on our papers and was told to us in the meetings. Rick and I were under the impression that all of our sleeping gear (sleeping bags, tents, blankets, and so forth) would be transported by the trucks and trailers to the camping sites. We thought we would only be transporting our buckets. Maybe we assumed this because that is what we did at Wyoming. But there were others that we talked too that had this understanding too and so we were not the only ones! In Wyoming we set up camp one time in one place and then went out each day to trek to the various sites that were on the trail. We only carried what we needed for the day. That way we had access to our buckets and could get them out and sit on them when we stopped for a fireside or activity, which worked out really well! 

So we were shocked when we asked where to put our sleeping gear and were told that we were carrying it all on our handcart! As a Ma and Pa we were asked to bring quite a bit of equipment -- three tents, tarps, bungee cords, a camp stove, propane, pans, towels, rope, soap, a large cooler, water jugs, a shovel, hammer, garbage bags...you get the idea. We aren't huge campers and so there were several things we needed to borrow or purchase. We tried to borrow as much as we could, but we still easily spent over $100.00 out of our own pockets gathering supplies.

Each of the kids were supposed to bring their buckets and also a sleeping bag, blanket, and heavy coat in a garbage bag. So times this by 9, 10, or 11 people and that is A LOT of gear to try and stuff on one handcart! I realize that the pioneers had to carry all of their equipment, but I wish that it had been clarified that we had to cart everything. I have a tendency to over-pack and be prepared, but if I had known we had to pack EVERYTHING I would have tried to consolidate some of our supplies within our family so that we didn't have duplicates of several items. We also had lots of equipment that we didn't need or end up using.

We wanted to have "family time" with a devotional and scriptures before bed but had difficulty tracking down all of the kids -- especially when some families were having family time and others weren't. So consistency with expectations would have helped. After we went to bed we could hear kids running around well past when they were supposed to be in bed. I wondered if we should check on all of our kids to see if they were all in their tents, but we were already in bed -- and we were exhausted!!

But all in all is was a worthwhile experience and I am glad that we had the opportunity to go and say "we did it!"

Pioneer Trek Day Three

We didn't sleep well last night at all! It was really nice out when we went to bed and we had the flaps open to see the stars. But the kids were noisy and were up much later than the 10:30 curfew.  I finally fell asleep at midnight and could still hear kids talking and laughing. I woke up at 3:30 to the sound of coyotes howling and the rain tarp flapping back and forth in the wind. It was also very cold by this time. So I just lay there and kept checking the time on my fitbit every half hour or so. A couple families had decided not to bring tents. They wanted to save room and time by just sleeping on a tarp underneath the stars. That probably worked fine the first night but I kept worrying about them thinking about how cold they must be in the wind!

Breakfast consisted of fruit and yogurt and cereal. We then packed everything back up and started trekking to Pine Valley. We walked for six miles. It went quickly. I think everyone was anxious to get back! The weather was cooler today. The kids handled the handcart fine without us and so we were able to enjoy the nice walk! We returned to Pine Valley around noon. President Smith said a few words before we let the youth go! After we got home we were too tired to unpack. We showered and then took a nap! We were too tired and sore to do much the rest of the day! (My camera has a little spot on the lens which is why many of the pictures have a little black spot in them. If I have time maybe I will go in and edit them). 

Here is part of our family!! Two of the kids were not there when we took the pictures but they are in the picture below this one.

Finishing the trek in Pine Valley!! 

Pioneer Trek Day Two

Today was easier than yesterday! We woke up and had breakfast and then took down all of the tents and packed up the handcart again. Only our water cooler that we had strapped to the back fell down and we had to stop and re-position it causing us to be the last handcart. Halfway through we stopped for a break and snacks. They split the companies into two or three groups and we each listened to a speaker. Our speaker was someone who dressed up and impersonated Porter Rockwell. He did a great job. We trekked a while longer and then the group stopped along the trail for a special speaker -- Brother Hoaldridge. He was Janelle's "Pa" on the trek.

He shared the very personal experience of losing his fifteen year old daughter, Baylee, in an ATV accident in 2015 when the ATV tipped on it's side and burst into flames. She was burned over 65% of her body and withstood four months of pain and 27 extremely painful surgeries. Their motto was "Be Brave Baylee." The story is absolutely heart wrenching. You can google her name to find out more information. He talked about the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ in helping her through her ordeal and helping the family to heal. I was crying throughout the whole talk.

Then the Stake Young Women's President, Sister Lindsey, spoke about the bravery of the pioneer women who often had to trek alone when losing their husbands to illness or other reasons. This led into the women's pull. Our girls were excited and nervous about the challenge but it was a lot easier than we thought it would be. It was supposed to be a mile but ended up being only a half mile or so. It was slightly uphill but not bad. I think our girls were actually disappointed that it wasn't harder. When the boys were allowed to come help they kept kicking them off. Later on as we reflected about the event and they shared their feelings Rick brought up the point that we don't need to do everything on our own. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ, that we can rely on and we need to be willing to accept the gift that He gave us.

The women's pull led us into the area where we would camp for the night. The conditions were not ideal but it was the best they could find. The place where we were supposed to camp was in a valley that was still really wet from all of the recent rains and so they had to move to higher ground. We had to dig out rocks in order to find suitable places for the tents. We set up the tents and then retrieved our dinner and brought it back to eat with our family -- pasta, salad, garlic bread, and cookies. Then we all met in a big open place for our fireside. Brother Manis, a seminary teacher who was in our Stake but recently moved to Arizona, gave the first talk and it was awesome.

Then our Stake President spoke on the reasons we do trek. His talk was excellent too. Then we met in groups of three families for a testimony meeting. Our testimony meeting was pretty quiet at first but then we suggested going around the circle. We only made it halfway before it was time to close. We sang a hymn and then met with our family for a family devotional. We were disappointed that several of the kids in our family had taken off with friends and were not there for it! All in all it was a good day though!

Pioneer Trek Day One

The leaders left at 10:00. We car-pooled with the Goughs and threw everything into the back of their truck. All of the youth met at their various wards and were transported to Pinto by Youth leaders. We got organized into our families and ate lunch and loaded up our handcarts. We had seven children in our family (just like our real family!) We were supposed to have one or two more but they weren't able to come. They took some company pictures and even had a drone take some aerial shots of the group before we departed.

We then trekked 8 very long miles! The youth were walking fast and it was hot (but there was a breeze and cloud coverage now and then which felt amazing!) Halfway through our trek Rick started saying that he wasn't feeling well. He started to hang back and get further and further behind. One of the trucks then let him in so that he could get a little rest. They told him he was probably low on electrolytes and gave him some Gatorade and that really helped him to perk back up. He said that it was so weird and that he had never felt that way before.

They had a break halfway through where everyone could get drinks and snacks and take a bathroom break. There was a trailor with several port-a-potties that followed the group on the trek. The activity at this stopping point was knife throwing. Some of the youth participated but I think most just wanted to sit down -- I know we did! Although there wasn't really anywhere to sit except on the uncomfortable ground. But it was better than nothing! Rick lay down on the ground and took a nap. My back was hurting me and so I tried laying down too but it wasn't very comfortable.

The youth in our family did well -- they all pulled their weight and had a good attitude. It was fun talking to them and getting to know them. We finally arrived at the place we were staying overnight and set up camp. It took a while for everyone to get their tents set up. The girls did better than the boys in setting up their tent! It was a beautiful area. Someone from the Stake graciously let us camp on their property. They had a cabin for all of the food preparations and a nice grassy area for the dance! We had a delicious dinner of fresh vegies, rice, and teriyaki chicken with cobbler for dessert. I couldn't eat the cobbler and so I just had ice-cream. The kids had a great time at the dance and it was fun to watch them smiling and laughing as they danced! It was neat to remember that the pioneers had fun times on the plains too!

We then met as a family for a short devotional and then went to bed! I was so exhausted that I though I would go right to sleep but I didn't sleep well at all! There were still kids running around well past midnight! But I actually must have slept better than I thought I did because I didn't hear the coyotes or windstorm that others heard! I did the second night though!