My Trek Experience

Well, mom has been bugging me to blog about the trek from the moment I got back, and i'm finally getting to it. :)

Day One:
We got up early in the morning and drove out past Delores, Colorado, where we started the whole trek. The land was some private property owned by a member of the church, and it was beautiful! When we got there, they split us up into four different companies and families. There were about 11 kids and a ma and pa in each family, and about 10 handcarts in each company. So, all in all, there were nearly 400 kids, and it was awesome to see so many youth dressed up as pioneers, ready to go. We assembled the handcarts and talked with our families a bit, and then we set off. The wind was TERRIBLE, and dust blew everywhere and at times it was hard to see where we were going. At first, the road was nice and flat, and we were thinking "aww this is no problem!" But later in the evening we reached some hillier areas, that weren't on a path, and we had more of a rough time. At about 10:30, we reached "THE HILL". It was amazing...it was a steep 50 degree-ish hill, and we had to travel up it in complete darkness with hardly any lantern light. It took an extreme amount of effort, and we were all exhausted because we had already traveled about ten miles that day. It was by far the hardest thing I've done physically in my life. It would take all of our strenth to push the cart only about 30 feet, where we would stop again and collapse in the dirt in complete exhaustion, and literally sleep for a few minutes until we were brutally awoken again. When we thought it couldn't get any harder, we entered deep sand, that made progression even more difficult. When we got up about halfway, there was a small plateau, and another MUCH steeper hill. We hooked up more pulling equipment, and guys from another family stepped in and helped. I think we had 15 guys pulling, and all of the girls pushing in the back. It was simply amazing to see the guys working so hard, so willingly, over and over again. some guys traveled up and down that hill about 10 times....amazing. Our family pulled into camp at about 12, and the last family didn't get up until about 1 in the morning! When we got to the top, we had chicken noodle soup and went to bed. Even though it was really cold, i had absolutely NO trouble sleeping that night! :)

Day 2:
We began the second day with a morning devotional, and when we pulled out of camp they asked us to do so in silence, so we could have some time to ponder as we pulled the handcart along. After about a mile, some men on horses pulled up and read us a letter, asking the men to join the "mormon batallion". It was touching to imagine what the wives of the men in the mormon batallion went through. I have no doubt that they made it through without their husbands only by divine intervention, and I admire them greatly. So, our brothers were allowed to take two buckets out of the handcart, making our loads lighter, and we continued on up the road with only the girls. As hard as the first day was, the girls pull was even harder. It got to the point, where we could barely keep moving, and we would just go slowly. Step by step, prayer by prayer. We went up several steep hills, and back and forth on many switchbacks. Eventually, we met up with the guys. Some of them were dressed in white, and represented angels. They would come up from behind and push the handcart, making our load much lighter. Finally, the guys were allowed to take the place of the girls, so we could have some time to rest. BUT...one girl in our group decided that we would do the whole thing without them. It was hard, but i'd have to say it was worth it. After about six miles, we finally pulled into our base camp in a beautiful grove of aspen trees. wow. I sure was tired. and HUNGRY! haha. Our base camp had an AMAZING view. It seemed like we were on top of the world, because there we were on the very top of these mountains, and we could see an amazing view in all directions. We could see the mountains in moab, the Durango Mountains, the La Plata Mountains, and the Ute Mountains, as well as a couple other mountain ranges in the distance. BEAUTIFUL. I thought it was funny, because when we had first started hiking, we joked about how we were going all the way to the very top of the mountain...and we were quite suprised to find out that we REALLY were going to the very top. we spent the rest of the day sitting around talking, playing pioneer games. that night we had a big square dancing hoe down, which was fun.

Day Three:
On the third day, we didn't do any traveling, but stayed in base camp for a more spiritual day. We had a morning devotional, and learned all of the song Joseph Smith's first praer, and memorized the scripture D&C 10:5 "Pray always that ye may come off conquerer. Yea, that ye may conquer satan, and that ye may escape the hands of the servants of satan, that do uphold his work." (look it up and see if i'm right!)If you memorized the scripture, you recieved a little nail ring, like the ones you used to get in nauvoo. Later that day, we were able to have "solo time". We each recieved a surprise letter from our parents, which was neat, and we were able to find a quiet spot where we could read the scriptures, ponder, write in our journal, pray, or whatever. I really enjoyed this time. After that, we had the pleasure of hearing from our area authority, Perry Webb. His talk was simply amazing. Seriously, i don't think i've ever heard such a powerful talk in my life! he talked about the "wintry doctrines" as he called them. He taught about how each of us will have amazing struggles and trials in our lives, and how we can overcome them. While we may not have to push handcarts across the plains, we too will meet trials in our lives, such as the death of a loved one, loss of a job, etc etc. After his talk, this man played his guitar and sang for us. it was awesome...he YODELLED! I loved it. That night we had a big dinner of turkey, potatoes and carrots, flat bread, hand made butter (did you know you can put whipped cream and a marble in a jar and shake it up forever, and eventually it will make butter???), and ROOT BEER! The root beer sure was a treat. :) The rest of the night we just sat around talking more, and it was fun because my family finally started to bond. By the end of the night, we were all literally rolling around on the ground laughing and crying. I was laughing so hard, I lost my voice. When we finally all calmed down a little, we had a testimony meeting and went to bed, but we ended up sitting around talking until about 2.

Day 4:
On the last day, we packed our handcarts back up, and headed back down the hill. Luckily, we didn't have to go down THE HILL, because I honestly don't think it would have been possible. But, the hills we went down were still pretty steep, and by the time we got to the bottom, I literally looked like a coal miner because i was covered in soo much dirt. We got to the bottom, said goodbye to our families, and got in the car and went home. I was so relieved to get home and take a shower. I don't think i've seen that much dirt in my life! :)

Overall, the trek was amazing...an experience i'll surely never forget, and it strengthened my testimony greatly.
The picture is just one of my friend, Aaron. Just an example of what the handcarts looked like, and how everyone dressed.