Pioneer Trek

Brad & I were asked to be a Ma & Pa on our Stake's Pioneer Trek this year. We have been preparing for this for a few months and we were looking forward to it. Here are some pictures that Micah took along the trail & in camp. Thanks for everything Micah! You guys did such a great job up there!

Susie & I at the beginning of the trek....you can tell because we're obviously not in pain yet.

This is our family approaching our first big obstacle - a really steep, rocky hill. It was only about a mile or so into the trek, so we got it up pretty fast. Brad and our boys all went back down to help the other families in our company (the Yates & Singer families) get their carts up.

A rear view of our WHOLE family pushing the cart up - these kids are all AMAZING!

After our first rest stop at the trading post, all our men were called away to be part of the Mormon Batallion, so us women had to push our handcarts alone (off on to a side trail - for demonstration purposes only....) but it was dang hard. It's hard to see but that's me at the end of this group on the back left side of the hand cart pushing it from behind...while I was holding our baby!!!! See that one-handed action?!Our first day came with a series of challenges - first a 'baby' (a sack filled with sand, complete with a plastic baby head), as well as other challenges. This is a picture of us sitting by the road for 10 minutes protecting ourselves from a torrential rain storm. The worst it got was when President Wilson poured his water on top of us....other than that it gave us a chance to visit with and joke around with our family.

Brad had a good time helping the kids cut up veggies for dinner - beef stew. Our table was our hand cart flipped upside-down...clever! (Our 'daughter' Marissa thought of that! No - that's not her sitting by Brad.) You can kind of see Kelsey's face behind the water cooler though. Brad had those kids cracking up the whole time. Everyone seemed to forget how tired and worn out they really were. We trekked over 11 miles our first day!

Our second day brought multiple challenges that took up most of our time, so we only trekked 5 or 6 miles this day. We learned how the pioneers measured distance (with a pioneer 'odometer'), we shot black powder, learned to set traps, roped 'calves', shoed a 'horse', built a shelter, built and started fires, and learned to make rope. It was a busy day, so the only pics I have from this day are from our camp site that night.

A view of our camp - I'm on the right leaning over the cart. Our kids are gathered around with a few others and kept busy by getting stuff ready to make chili for dinner.

I think Brad's thinking about how good it's gonna feel to climb into bed. He has no idea what's in store for us on this, our last night to sleep in a tent! It started to rain at midnight and didn't stop until almost 6 am. There were so many people who got rained out of their tents - literally flooded out. Our entire family was very lucky - the only person in our family got wet only because he was sleeping outside.

This was the morning devotional before we took off to trek our last 2 miles to the buses. It stopped raining just long enough for a few youth speakers and some last words from our Stake President. We were the first family (and company) on the trail the first two days, so our Captain asked us to stay put and leave camp last, and only after helping all of the other families load up and get on their way. It worked out really well....we didn't have to wait around for all of the buses to get loaded up with gear and stinky trekkers since we were the last to arrive.

This was the view (from Micah's windshield) of the ride home...and yes, he drove alone and still managed to take great pictures without killing himself in the process. We ended up having to go all the around by Caliente because the dirt roads were all washed out and too dangerous for the buses to drive on.
Our bus driver could not get his defroster to work, so Brad and I took turns wiping it off for him until the temperature in the bus was cool enough to allow it to work. That's what happens when a bunch of hot, stinky people load onto a bus when it's cold and rainy outside!
Overall this was an AWESOME experience for both of us. We love our 'kids' and can't wait to see them at the Trek Reunion in a couple of weeks!