Pioneer Trek

On Wednesday morning, 6 am, we left home to drive to Wyoming for "the Trek". We drove our truck, full of stuff with our friends, Ken and Jan Knight. Ken had been asked to plan the menu, buy the food and organize the food for about 200 people for three days. Ken asked Vere to help and I was included. We got to the Wyoming site about 3 in the afternoon. It was hot, but not unbearable. All the girls were wearing skirts and we had pioneer-looking bonnets. They also had a "possibles" bag which I'm sure the pioneer women did not have but they were for everyone to carry bottled water. It was a little windy, as Wyoming usually is and it got much windier as the day went on.

Visitor's center. We went inside and watched a movie about the area and why the church bought the land. It has become a center for a church experience, especially for the youth but families come to the site also to get a feel for what the pioneers went thru.

Our first day there, some of the support staff (like me) drove the cars over to the camp site, but the trekkers had to walk three miles to the site from the visitors center. The stake had rented about 30 vans to get everyone to Wyoming from Moab. Some, like us, brought our own cars.

Got a good picture of the sunset. I wasn't sure it would show up, but I think this is a pretty good picture.

Our first night, the sky was beautiful. This picture you can see our little tent, Vere is at the table in the green shirt.

The handcarts that the kids used, I suppose similar to what the pioneers used when they came across the plains. We used them to move things around.

Just to give you an idea of the "campground" where we were. In other words, no trees, no shade or grass, very hot, very different from what the pioneers experienced when they were here in Martin's Cove. In the center right, was the outhouse, two rooms for our group of 200 people. It wasn't bad, not too smelly. Luckily I was able to hang out at the campsite while the youth and their "parents" were out hiking in the wilderness.

Just to give an idea of how many people were there

This was the last day of the trek, just before we left. Everyone was kneeling and saying a prayer so we would travel safely and being thankful that everyone completed the experience with a good spirit. When we got home, I think I felt allright until we started bringing things into the house. By the time I was able to take my shower, I was almost too tired to move. Imagine how much more tired the people were who had walked more than 10 miles each day with their handcarts. We, the food people, stayed at the camp site, but we were responsible for the food, and that was a big process. Each family had two coolers. When they took one with their food for the meal, they brought us an empty one to fill with their next meal. There were 21 coolers for us to put their stuff in. So while they were trekking, we were organizing their food.

Anyway, it was good to be clean Saturday night. The youth in our ward spoke in church the next day. It was clear that they had learned a lot about the pioneers who had gone through starvation and pain to make sure the church did not die out when Joseph Smith was martyred. The Salt Lake Valley was seen in vision by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as the "Right Place."