Monday morning, again, I was up with the sun in advance of our wake up call. I shimmied myself into my clothes in our tiny tent and made it to the Ma & Pa meeting.
We started the day early with a company meeting at 6:30am, and there we learned what our breakfast would be. Capt. Fisher told us about the slim food rations the handcart pioneers were reduced to--that by this point on the trail, their bodies required 4000 calories a day, but that all they had was something like 400 calories total--he held up a tiny little canvas bag (roughly 2" square) in which was 4 oz of flour, which was all the pioneers had for the entire day! Each of us was going to receive one of the flour bags and that was our breakfast.
We each made a little dough with the flour by adding a little water to it, and then we dumped that into the hot dutch oven and baked it like a little pancake. Capt Fisher had a bottle of honey and we had some leftover coconut from our dessert the night before, so the flour cakes actually weren't too bad. Fortunately for us, that wasn't our only meal for the day, but what a way to understand the plight of those pioneers.
After clean-up (which actually was hard to do--flour & water makes glue, so it was stuck pretty well to our dishes!) we had to strike camp and load up our handcart in time to make it out with the first company. We ran out of time for scripture study so once we got into line & had a quiet moment, we tried to fit it in...but we didn't get far before the line started moving.
The Trek for that morning started out on the same trail we'd already walked back & forth from the visitor's center in the days prior, but finally we turned off toward our first event of the day, which was a river crossing. We were crossing the Sweetwater, which the handcart pioneers had to do multiple times in bitter cold with a winter storm raging. As we crossed, we were asked to go on "Silence" to keep a spirit of reverence and to allow for the Spirit himself to touch us. A lovely violin played ("Come, Come, Ye Saints," I think it was) at the banks of the river as we crossed and the spirit was so sweet. One little thing that happened was that the missionary there asked that the girls not hike up their skirts out of reverence....which I fully understood...but somewhat frustratingly, he did not ask the same of the boys and allowed them to roll up their pants and a couple of our girls in particular took some offense at that and so purposely hiked up their skirts anyway. I wish he had just said that the boys should keep their pants down too and it would never have become an issue. We had changed into our water shoes so after crossing we took a little time to change back into our dry socks & shoes before trekking on.
We stopped at a monument honoring the "Valley Boys" who helped those poor struggling pioneers to cross the Sweetwater, going back and forth carrying them across that frigid water. There we heard their stories as several of the youth stood and shared each--those boys were the same ages as many of the youth there. There are 3 statues, which I think I remember the missionary said that the artist did not mean to depict specific individuals but to honor all of the rescuers.
We picked up our handcarts and continued on just a little further until we came to a nice big pavilion (and a great big row of restrooms) where there was a brunch waiting for us: bagels & cream cheese, muffins & oranges. We sat down and eagerly tore into the food until being reminded that we were in the first company--there was a second group coming who were equally hungry so leave some food for them! We finished eating and then moved out of the way for the 2nd group to come in, but we spent a lot of time just sitting around and waiting at that point. I pulled out my sketchbook and tried to do some sketches...and finally we were being called to gather in.
So it's at this point that my day kinda went downhill. I didn't realize how long we were going to be gone when we left the carts here and as we gathered in to start a long hike into Martin's Cove itself, I realized I had to use the bathroom...and there's really not a nice way to say this but let's just say it was an intestinal issue...if I had known just how far we were going and how long it was going to be until we returned to the restrooms, I'd have just run back and then caught back up with the group, but I didn't...so with everyone on Silence, I walked with the group all the way up to the first part of the cove, where there was a small amphitheatre area with benches and a flute was playing as we entered. We heard more stories about the pioneers and sang "The Spirit of God". It was all so very lovely but I was so terribly distracted by my own bodily misery...we filed out of there with our families in single file to walk through the entire cove. The walk was so slow...it was agonizing... There was a particularly special spot where "GeroniMa" (Jen, our Trail Boss) stood to point out 3 tree stumps, which are believed to be the stumps left behind when one of the pioneers, who was on the point of death, was asked by a rescuer to go chop wood--he wondered why the healthier, stronger rescuer couldn't just chop the wood himself but later realized that the rescuer saved his life by having him get up and move. I could barely stand to peek in and take a quick look at the stumps (ordinarily I would have happily lingered to notice the ax marks in the stumps) just to keep moving down the trail...I just HAD to get to a bathroom! I kept praying that I would make it but the pressure and pain was intensifying with every step. Finally at one point the line had slowed down and come to a stop and I told George what was happening and he encouraged me to just keep walking and pass everyone in line...so I did. I hurried along as fast as I could. We came out of the Cove to a hilltop where we could see the pavilion & restrooms WAY out in the distance. My heart sank seeing how incredibly far we were...but all I could do was keep trudging on. I was moving along at a good clip when I heard my friend Wendy behind me asking if she could pass since she was desperately trying to get back to the bathrooms too--I told her I was doing the same so the two of us at that point moved together as fast as we could to the front of the line. Once there we told the leaders we were in urgent need and took off...we were running at that point. Finally we made it to the restrooms...but I'm sad to say that I hadn't quite "made it". I was thankful for my long skirt at that point though since it disguised my plight...I took off the offending clothing, rolled it up and found my bucket back in the handcart. I stuck the dirty clothes in and pulled out some fresh clean underclothes and trudged back to the restrooms again.
What an ordeal--I think the trail is only 1-1/2 miles in and out of the Cove but it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I dealt with bathroom issues for the rest of the day but thankfully there were no more accidents. Looking back on it and when initially I wondered why my prayers hadn't been answered that I'd make it, I realized that as miserable as I had been, that was nothing next to what those pioneers had experienced day after day after day on that trail and in that cove. They were starving on those sparse rations, the winter storm and wind was unrelenting, their loved ones were dying...they didn't even have pit toilets to use. In fact, we heard from the missionary that when those people got sick with diarrhea, they rode on the sick wagon, but there wasn't time to stop for them to "go" so it was all over the sick wagon...which means it just became this horrible vicious cycle as they were re-infected time and time again. Pondering those experiences made me realize how incredibly small my own had been and gave me a renewed appreciation and love for those poor dear saints and the incredible struggles they faced.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, in addition to the potty issues, my left eye had been bothering me terribly that entire day. I must've scratched it or it just had had too much sun strain--it hurt and stung and tears streamed from it regularly. And I wasn't alone in the misery...one of our trek kids also was having some issues that day (and we'd likely shared germs somehow or eaten the same bad thing) so I was entirely sympathetic and tried to do what I could to help. All in all it gave me some small understanding of the pioneers and for that I am grateful.
We left the pavilion area and trekked with the handcarts back to the visitor's center, crossing the Veil Crossing Bridge along the way. This bridge honors the "2nd Rescue" which happened when Pres Lorimer (the stake president in this area at the time) discovered that the pioneers who had died here along the trail on their way to Zion had never had their temple work done...and so their work was finally finished. Back at the visitor's center, we unloaded our carts and while waiting for the busses to arrive, we had lunch--deli sandwiches with chips, apples & carrot sticks.
We boarded the busses with our families (had a quick Ma & Pa meeting outside the busses) and continued on to our next stop, which was a short stop at the Sixth Crossing visitor's center where the leaders & Pa's were given the BLM training for the trail we'd be hiking tomorrow. Meanwhile, the youth & Ma's waited outside and heard the story of Ephraim Hanks from a missionary in full costume. It rained on us a little bit but thankfully there were covered tables to stand under. When the rain subsided, some of the Ma's organized games for the youth--they played an EFY game (I forget the name...some silly word like ay-goo?) in which the boys line up on one side and the girls on the other, and one from each end face off walking toward each other & pass & turn, facing each other the entire way trying not to smile or laugh--if they do, they have to jump in line with the other side. It was pretty cute to watch.
At last the training ended and we filed back on the busses again to head to our campground for the night--it was Jade Campground. We had new handcarts waiting for us and piled our buckets in, walked down the hill & found our campsite (which lucky for us this time was close to the food & meeting areas). We set up camp and ate a delicious dinner of beef stew. It was while eating the stew that Recneps got his name... A friend of another one of our boys (Ox) walked by and called out to him, saying his name backwards...so that led to all of us there in our site thinking about & sharing our own names backwards--Recneps said his with such gusto that it made all of us laugh out loud and we couldn't stop laughing about it.
As we met for our company meeting that evening, there were storm clouds gathering all around us and the wind was cold. We put on our coats and kept our rain ponchos handy. As the meeting was underway, we saw lightning. Brother Rasmussen sang a lovely song and a youth stood up to share another pioneer story--it was then that the rain started to come down. That poor young man up there kept telling his story, though his paper was being pummeled by rain and he could barely read it and the rest of us sat there huddled trying to listen amid the torrent of rain and wind. He finished and Capt Fisher stood up--he gave us a few last instructions and adjourned the meeting to send us back to our tents. Unfortunately due to the storm, we weren't able to hold our evening reflection (and we still hadn't even finished our scripture study from earlier that morning!)
We had a little incident that night--earlier while at the area waiting during the training, I was talking with one of the other Ma's who told me that 2 of our kids were up very late the previous night and had wandered into their camp, which is against the rules. I'm still not sure what the truth was but I have a feeling something did happen, it was just with other kids that she was confusing with ours...but because of that, after I had discussed it briefly with Capt Fisher, we had pulled aside each of those kids to say something to them about it...but when I did, it came out more as an accusation than an investigation, which rightly George rebuked me for. I had already been a little upset about something else I'd overheard earlier that evening from that same girl so I was letting my feelings get the better of me. He reminded me that when he was a teen, he was more similar to the "borderline" kids than the "good" kids...he reminded me that we needed to not push them away by dealing with them unkindly, that it was a good thing that they had chosen to come on Trek even if their hearts weren't in it the same way some of the other kids were. I thought about that throughout that night and in the morning, I apologized to the girl and never brought up the incident again...and as far as I know there were no more "sneaking out" incidents either. I am thankful for George's insight and deeply sorry for what I'd done.
That was a rough day but again, through the misery, the storm & the incident, I think we all learned to have that much more appreciation for the pioneers.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Trek Tales, part deux
I woke up early Sunday morning. I have no idea how early since I didn't have a watch (*note for whomever is planning the next Trek: please add "wristwatch" to the Ma & Pa packing list!) I only know it was early because I was up with the sun before the 6:00am wake-up call went around. I got myself dressed in our tiny 2 man tent (*note to self if we ever get called as Ma & Pa again: take a bigger tent!) and went off to the Ma & Pa meeting that morning, where we were given our run-down for the day.
Once our family was up and going for the day, we sent a couple of them back to the food tent to pick up our breakfast, which was to be prepared in our dutch oven over a single-burner stove. They came back with hash browns, eggs, cheese & bacon. We got the dutch oven heated up and added some oil to brown the hash browns a bit (there were 2 huge bags of the potatoes...the dutch oven was already pretty full after the first bag but it cooked down enough that we added the second bag, which we shouldn't have done...that slowed down the cooking too much!) The eggs were supposed to be beaten before going in with the hash browns but we had no bowl...so we improvised by using the bag that the hash browns had come in, but we hadn't noticed that there were holes in the sides of that bag--we ended up with an eggy mess! In went the eggs...then the cheese & the bacon on top...and we closed the lid and prayed it would turn out.
While that was underway, we had our first family scripture study. The Trek leaders had put together a great little journal that contained all our scripture studies with the scriptures written out along with questions to ponder, quotes & space for journal/reflection....all very well organized! We checked on our food after we'd finished our study and it looked questionable but we dug in anyway since it was time to head to the company meeting with Captain Fisher. At each company meeting, we sang our trek anthem "We are Walking to Zion", heard an inspirational story and got more details about our day's plans.
On Sunday's agenda was church, of course, and an afternoon exploring the visitor's center there at Martin's Cove as well as a short excursion to Devil's Gate. After cleaning up our breakfast, we gathered everyone together to begin our 3 mile hike back to Martin's Cove for church. At first, the hike seemed pretty easy and we said, "There's no way this is 3 miles..." but 20-30 minutes later still walking in the blazing sun, "This is definitely 3 miles, at least!" Haha. Finally we got there and lined up to re-fill our water bottles. Then we were led into a building where Sacrament was to be held.
The room was filled with chairs and as the families filed in, each row filled until the entire room was packed full, everyone in pioneer clothes, including the Stake Presidency who sat at the head. It was a memorable sight. We sang an opening hymn, business was conducted and we sang the Sacrament hymn, after which the Sacrament was blessed and passed by young men who'd been given the assignment previously.
The speakers were first 3 youth: Andrew (I missed last names on all of them) who shared the story of Ann Rowley's feather bed and asked, "What is 'your' feather bed?"; followed by Sage who spoke of the blessings of the temple and how we, like the pioneers, must beautify our own deserts, and take on our burdens & press forward; and lastly, Camille, who spoke of the ordinances of the temple and shared the story of Sarah & George who waited to be sealed in the temple (and sadly, George died on the trail, but was still sealed to Sarah.) After the youth, we heard from the stake presidency. President Bair taught that our ancestors are with us, that the Savior knows and loves each of us and wants us to come to Him in prayer. He taught that we should each look for our Pearl of Great Price...to increase our faith in the Savior. President Goodfellow followed him and shared the story of his own family's sacrifice of a new house when he was called into the bishopric earlier in his life. President Fisher then spoke, sharing his testimony that the Lord wanted each of us there. He shared a story from his mission in Japan when he taught and baptized a minister and his wife. The entire meeting was so inspiring and spirit-filled.
After Sacrament, we divided for Sunday School: the adults staying put while youth divided into their various age groups. Bro Hodson taught the adults. I missed the very first part since I needed to go run to use the restroom (they had us drinking SO much water!) but when I walked in they were discussing what the meaning of the word "caring" is. Some of the points I wrote down: caring is to recognize a need and act on it; caring for each other allows us to do more together; caring shows--it's in your face & people can tell when it's genuine; the Lord cares for us even when we make choices that puts us in bad situations just as the pioneers were rescued though it was many of their own poor choices that put them in the situation they were in; and you love others more in the process of caring for them. He then had us talk about what charity is and what it means to have charity. I remember the discussion being very sweet and spiritual but all I wrote was this scripture reference: Moroni 7:45-47
During 3rd hour, we divided again into RS, Priesthood & YW. The RS lesson was taught by Sis Bair. We discussed first what it meant to be a pioneer and why are pioneer stories important? She taught that to know our history strengthens us in our own trials--we can liken them to ourselves just as we do with the scriptures. Then we spoke at length about Levi Savage and his amazing story. We learned about the amazing life he led even before his experience in the handcart company--did you know he was called to serve a mission in Siam but was stuck in Burma? We know as much as we do about the handcart experiences thanks to his daily journal. And though he was proven right in his counsel to the company, he never uttered a word of negativity or criticism. He was such an incredible example of humility and obedience. What an amazing man.
(Sorry this is so long already, such a full & inspiring day!)
After church ended, we met back up together with our family to go eat lunch. Lunch was SO yummy--it was beef roast with carrot & celery sticks, apples & chips. We sat with our family inside the same building we'd been in for sacrament meeting. When everyone finished, we set off to explore the Martin's Cove site. We had a couple pages in our journals to fill out with facts about the Willie & Martin handcart companies, for which we found the answers within the visitor's center. Some things we learned: the 3 best months to cross the prairie were May, June & July; the Martin handcart company allotted only 17 lbs of personal items each to carry in the handcarts; and 15 people died in the Willie handcart company trying to cross Rocky Ridge.
When we finished with that, we wandered over to the meeting place for our company to hike out to Devil's Gate. It was only a half-mile walk and when we arrived there, there were about 6 horses gathered with all the people there--they said the horses just wandered right over and were super friendly. We touched the horses along with a bunch of the kids. We listened to Bishop Hardy share a pioneer story there and then were free to explore Devil's Gate a little more closely, climbing up the rocks there. A photographer took photos of our company perched up there on the rocks.
We returned from Devil's Gate back to the church site area where they had a presentation for us in the Trek Center. There was a musical video presentation and then a couple of the missionaries spoke to us. Finally it was time to hike the 3 miles back to camp where dinner was waiting for us. For part of that hike, we veered off the regular trail to a more overgrown trail, which we learned was the actual Mormon trail (and we'd come to spend a lot of time on that trail in the days that followed!)
Following dinner (which I think was BBQ chicken that night) we had a dessert contest! Everyone had their dutch ovens and were given a choice of all kinds of tasty ingredients. We let our kids choose and they came back with white cake mix, coconut and blueberries. We tried to make a cobbler based on the little knowledge I knew of making dump cake when we'd camped the month prior...with dump cake, you add a bottle of soda and since we didn't have the soda, we tried adding water...but we added way too much...and our little camp stove was not working well--we turned it off accidentally at one point and later ran out of fuel completely without realizing it, so the baking process dragged on forever! We did try adding a crumb topping with flour & brown sugar to try to salvage it. We had to leave it baking when it was time for our evening fireside.
We climbed the hill overlooking the camp where there were some benches set up for the fireside. At the fireside we heard more pioneer stories and we also heard from the missionary about how the church acquired the property where the Martin's Cove site now sits. It was owned by the Sun Family Ranch and for a long time they didn't want to sell the land to the church. The stake president at the time there though (Pres Lorimer) had felt prompted that the time was right--he'd bumped into one of the land-owning brothers one day who was angry with the rest of his family and wanted to sell out his part of the land...but despite trying to partition the land so that only a small part would go to the church, the rest of the family chose to keep that small part and sell the larger part to that brother. But still Pres Lorimer persisted and ended up spending a full day with one of the family members driving around the property. It had been a super hot day and the only thing available to drink in the man's truck was a Coke, which he'd offered to Pres Lorimer, who politely refused the Coke because he felt it was against the WoW. By the end of that hot day, when Pres Lorimer got out of the truck and the Coke was still there unopened, the man was so impressed by his integrity and honesty and trustworthiness that he finally agreed to sell the land to the church. Well, that's the gist of the story--I probably totally mixed up details as I have a habit of doing...
It was dark when the fireside ended and we made our way back to our campsite. Our cobbler was sitting there waiting for us. Recneps (I'm using my kids' Trek names) was brave enough to sample it first and declared it edible...so pretty soon everyone was perched around the Dutch oven spooning out bites of our attempt at dessert. It was this night that we decided our family name would be the Bandits (thanks in part to Recneps' daily outfit with his bandana covering his nose & mouth) and our family motto: "We try!"
Once our family was up and going for the day, we sent a couple of them back to the food tent to pick up our breakfast, which was to be prepared in our dutch oven over a single-burner stove. They came back with hash browns, eggs, cheese & bacon. We got the dutch oven heated up and added some oil to brown the hash browns a bit (there were 2 huge bags of the potatoes...the dutch oven was already pretty full after the first bag but it cooked down enough that we added the second bag, which we shouldn't have done...that slowed down the cooking too much!) The eggs were supposed to be beaten before going in with the hash browns but we had no bowl...so we improvised by using the bag that the hash browns had come in, but we hadn't noticed that there were holes in the sides of that bag--we ended up with an eggy mess! In went the eggs...then the cheese & the bacon on top...and we closed the lid and prayed it would turn out.
While that was underway, we had our first family scripture study. The Trek leaders had put together a great little journal that contained all our scripture studies with the scriptures written out along with questions to ponder, quotes & space for journal/reflection....all very well organized! We checked on our food after we'd finished our study and it looked questionable but we dug in anyway since it was time to head to the company meeting with Captain Fisher. At each company meeting, we sang our trek anthem "We are Walking to Zion", heard an inspirational story and got more details about our day's plans.
On Sunday's agenda was church, of course, and an afternoon exploring the visitor's center there at Martin's Cove as well as a short excursion to Devil's Gate. After cleaning up our breakfast, we gathered everyone together to begin our 3 mile hike back to Martin's Cove for church. At first, the hike seemed pretty easy and we said, "There's no way this is 3 miles..." but 20-30 minutes later still walking in the blazing sun, "This is definitely 3 miles, at least!" Haha. Finally we got there and lined up to re-fill our water bottles. Then we were led into a building where Sacrament was to be held.
The room was filled with chairs and as the families filed in, each row filled until the entire room was packed full, everyone in pioneer clothes, including the Stake Presidency who sat at the head. It was a memorable sight. We sang an opening hymn, business was conducted and we sang the Sacrament hymn, after which the Sacrament was blessed and passed by young men who'd been given the assignment previously.
The speakers were first 3 youth: Andrew (I missed last names on all of them) who shared the story of Ann Rowley's feather bed and asked, "What is 'your' feather bed?"; followed by Sage who spoke of the blessings of the temple and how we, like the pioneers, must beautify our own deserts, and take on our burdens & press forward; and lastly, Camille, who spoke of the ordinances of the temple and shared the story of Sarah & George who waited to be sealed in the temple (and sadly, George died on the trail, but was still sealed to Sarah.) After the youth, we heard from the stake presidency. President Bair taught that our ancestors are with us, that the Savior knows and loves each of us and wants us to come to Him in prayer. He taught that we should each look for our Pearl of Great Price...to increase our faith in the Savior. President Goodfellow followed him and shared the story of his own family's sacrifice of a new house when he was called into the bishopric earlier in his life. President Fisher then spoke, sharing his testimony that the Lord wanted each of us there. He shared a story from his mission in Japan when he taught and baptized a minister and his wife. The entire meeting was so inspiring and spirit-filled.
After Sacrament, we divided for Sunday School: the adults staying put while youth divided into their various age groups. Bro Hodson taught the adults. I missed the very first part since I needed to go run to use the restroom (they had us drinking SO much water!) but when I walked in they were discussing what the meaning of the word "caring" is. Some of the points I wrote down: caring is to recognize a need and act on it; caring for each other allows us to do more together; caring shows--it's in your face & people can tell when it's genuine; the Lord cares for us even when we make choices that puts us in bad situations just as the pioneers were rescued though it was many of their own poor choices that put them in the situation they were in; and you love others more in the process of caring for them. He then had us talk about what charity is and what it means to have charity. I remember the discussion being very sweet and spiritual but all I wrote was this scripture reference: Moroni 7:45-47
During 3rd hour, we divided again into RS, Priesthood & YW. The RS lesson was taught by Sis Bair. We discussed first what it meant to be a pioneer and why are pioneer stories important? She taught that to know our history strengthens us in our own trials--we can liken them to ourselves just as we do with the scriptures. Then we spoke at length about Levi Savage and his amazing story. We learned about the amazing life he led even before his experience in the handcart company--did you know he was called to serve a mission in Siam but was stuck in Burma? We know as much as we do about the handcart experiences thanks to his daily journal. And though he was proven right in his counsel to the company, he never uttered a word of negativity or criticism. He was such an incredible example of humility and obedience. What an amazing man.
(Sorry this is so long already, such a full & inspiring day!)
After church ended, we met back up together with our family to go eat lunch. Lunch was SO yummy--it was beef roast with carrot & celery sticks, apples & chips. We sat with our family inside the same building we'd been in for sacrament meeting. When everyone finished, we set off to explore the Martin's Cove site. We had a couple pages in our journals to fill out with facts about the Willie & Martin handcart companies, for which we found the answers within the visitor's center. Some things we learned: the 3 best months to cross the prairie were May, June & July; the Martin handcart company allotted only 17 lbs of personal items each to carry in the handcarts; and 15 people died in the Willie handcart company trying to cross Rocky Ridge.
When we finished with that, we wandered over to the meeting place for our company to hike out to Devil's Gate. It was only a half-mile walk and when we arrived there, there were about 6 horses gathered with all the people there--they said the horses just wandered right over and were super friendly. We touched the horses along with a bunch of the kids. We listened to Bishop Hardy share a pioneer story there and then were free to explore Devil's Gate a little more closely, climbing up the rocks there. A photographer took photos of our company perched up there on the rocks.
We returned from Devil's Gate back to the church site area where they had a presentation for us in the Trek Center. There was a musical video presentation and then a couple of the missionaries spoke to us. Finally it was time to hike the 3 miles back to camp where dinner was waiting for us. For part of that hike, we veered off the regular trail to a more overgrown trail, which we learned was the actual Mormon trail (and we'd come to spend a lot of time on that trail in the days that followed!)
Following dinner (which I think was BBQ chicken that night) we had a dessert contest! Everyone had their dutch ovens and were given a choice of all kinds of tasty ingredients. We let our kids choose and they came back with white cake mix, coconut and blueberries. We tried to make a cobbler based on the little knowledge I knew of making dump cake when we'd camped the month prior...with dump cake, you add a bottle of soda and since we didn't have the soda, we tried adding water...but we added way too much...and our little camp stove was not working well--we turned it off accidentally at one point and later ran out of fuel completely without realizing it, so the baking process dragged on forever! We did try adding a crumb topping with flour & brown sugar to try to salvage it. We had to leave it baking when it was time for our evening fireside.
We climbed the hill overlooking the camp where there were some benches set up for the fireside. At the fireside we heard more pioneer stories and we also heard from the missionary about how the church acquired the property where the Martin's Cove site now sits. It was owned by the Sun Family Ranch and for a long time they didn't want to sell the land to the church. The stake president at the time there though (Pres Lorimer) had felt prompted that the time was right--he'd bumped into one of the land-owning brothers one day who was angry with the rest of his family and wanted to sell out his part of the land...but despite trying to partition the land so that only a small part would go to the church, the rest of the family chose to keep that small part and sell the larger part to that brother. But still Pres Lorimer persisted and ended up spending a full day with one of the family members driving around the property. It had been a super hot day and the only thing available to drink in the man's truck was a Coke, which he'd offered to Pres Lorimer, who politely refused the Coke because he felt it was against the WoW. By the end of that hot day, when Pres Lorimer got out of the truck and the Coke was still there unopened, the man was so impressed by his integrity and honesty and trustworthiness that he finally agreed to sell the land to the church. Well, that's the gist of the story--I probably totally mixed up details as I have a habit of doing...
It was dark when the fireside ended and we made our way back to our campsite. Our cobbler was sitting there waiting for us. Recneps (I'm using my kids' Trek names) was brave enough to sample it first and declared it edible...so pretty soon everyone was perched around the Dutch oven spooning out bites of our attempt at dessert. It was this night that we decided our family name would be the Bandits (thanks in part to Recneps' daily outfit with his bandana covering his nose & mouth) and our family motto: "We try!"
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Trek Tales, part 1
I just had the experience of a lifetime participating in our stake Trek this past week. I need to write it all down now while it's fresh in my mind (and if I ever get my hands on some photos, I'll post those...it killed me not to be able to take pics myself throughout the Trek! And it's killing me now not to have anything to "illustrate" my tale with.)
So to start from the beginning... When we first found out about the location of Trek (last fall, was it? It was at Stake Conference, I know that), George and I just looked at each other and were SO excited. We had visited Martin's Cove 5 years ago on our way back from the family reunion in Kansas City and at the time the missionaries there told us all about all the groups who came to do treks there. We felt sad that we lived so far away that we'd never get to do it ourselves...but here now our youth (our son Anthony in particular) were going and we were absolutely thrilled for them (but a tiny bit sad that we weren't involved and able to take part ourselves).
Well...fast forward to this past June... I was at a lunch with a friend of mine who was going on the Trek as a Ma and she mentioned that the leadership was on the hunt for another Ma & Pa. I told her that George was really wanting to go (because truthfully, as excited as I was to do the Trek itself, the responsibility of playing "Ma" was hugely daunting...so it really was just George who wanted to do it). It was only a week or two later that we got a call from the Stake leadership saying they wanted to meet with George & me...and they extended the call to be a Ma & Pa! I had a lot of feelings about it...but like I said it was mostly a mix of enormous excitement with heavy worries about being inadequate for the Ma role. I remember the kinds of leaders I had as a youth that I loved and felt inspired by...and I'm not that person...at least I don't feel like I'm that person...and I feel like I don't connect well with teens, or at least I have the least experience with that age group. (I feel most at ease around the toddler to early elementary ages.) I spent a lot of time praying about that.
Thankfully we had received the call prior to our trip to Utah in June, so we took full advantage of that trip to stock up on our pioneer clothes and other gear for the Trek. We rushed to get all our doctor physicals done in time and all of that other necessary paperwork...and before we knew it, the day had arrived for our Trek departure on Friday, July 31st! George's dad was so very kind and generous to come stay with the other 4 boys all week while the 3 of us were away.
I kinda laugh about what happened when we first arrived at the church that afternoon--we got there the same time as Wendy Bennion so she & I walked in together through the "girls" door (the boys went in another side to maintain order and for the daypack "sweep".) As we walked in, the other Ma's that were there directed us into the room to have our own bags checked until they realized we were Ma's too (haha, they thought we were youth! I still can't believe people always think I'm that young...I'll be 40 in a year & a half, yikes.)
We went in, chose seats on Bus 5 (there were chairs set up in the cultural hall for each of the 5 busses...everyone other than the previously assigned Bus bosses got to choose where they rode for the first part of the trip.) Then when the actual busses arrived, we boarded and loaded all the buckets packed with our gear on...and then we hit the road!
We loved our bus. It ended up being filled with mostly Priests & Laurels, who were fun without being crazy annoying and they all actually quieted down pretty quickly when it was time to sleep. Anthony was on another bus so at our first stop we found him and asked him about his ride--turns out Bus 2, which he & his friends were on, had a broken A/C so the poor kids & adults on that bus were sweltering!
That night that we were on the road happened to be the same night as the Blue Moon for July--if you know me and my love of the night sky, you know I was thoroughly enamored with that moon and admired the view out the window bathed in all that silvery full moon light. I didn't want to sleep because of that moon but I knew I'd be regretting it come morning so I did try to sleep. (It was SO hard to sleep on that bus! Especially since I had a snorer sitting behind me...glad he was sleeping well at least.) The bus drivers took long breaks through the night--I'm not entirely clear why but I guess one of the busses ended up way behind periodically and had to be waited for--so we were pretty late getting to our destination for breakfast in Brigham City.
There in Brigham City at a stake center, we all changed into our first set of pioneer clothes. I loved seeing all the different dresses--some girls/women had gorgeous period dresses! The boys all looked so great in their clothes...a lot of them had suspenders and straw hats. So cute. We were fed a wonderful pancake breakfast there before we all boarded the busses once more to continue on to Independence Rock in Wyoming.
Once there, everyone left the busses and we finally organized into our Trek families. Each of the kids was given a code and we held up a sign with the code for our family, which was R-8 (which meant Red, or Fisher Company, number 8). We had 8 kids--4 girls & 4 boys: Rachel, Cassie, Addie, Olivia, Adam, Haydn, Cole & Spencer. George wanted to hike up Independence Rock for our first family meeting so we hurriedly walked out there. I mistakenly thought it was easiest to climb the Rock from the right hand side, but as we walked out that direction it became more evident that it was not any easier & probably worse than the other side. We stopped in one area to start our meeting (& eat lunch)...it started off awkwardly as we tried to prompt the kids to introduce themselves and run through the rules. We felt terribly rushed since the busses had arrived so late & they had to cut our time short. George did go up on the Rock with 7 of the kids while I hung back with Cassie who had tried to climb but felt nervous about it. I didn't blame her--I'd attempted to climb and kept getting tangled up in my dress. There were cute little cottontail rabbits hopping all over the place around the Rock. They finally came back down and we walked over to the other side of the Rock where tons of people were climbing up easily, so George & the boys went up again before the call went out for everyone to return to the busses to head to Martin's Cove at long last. (We were assigned to Bus 4 for the rest of our trip as a family...and the bus driver on Bus 4 was mean! He yelled at us for the mess left on the bus during the previous ride.)
At Martin's Cove, we unloaded all the buckets and found all of ours....then we were given a handcart and placed all our buckets in and began the hike to our campsite, about 3 miles away. We were about 4 hours behind schedule (thanks to those slow busses!) so the sun was setting as we walked the trail. It was getting dark as we finally arrived at camp and had to find our site...we finally found it and then had to set up all our tents. As we worked to build the tents, the most gloriously beautiful moonrise happened in the eastern sky. It was huge and a blazing pink-red color, directly opposite the fading light of a similarly pink sunset in the western sky. Truly awe-inspiring and a beautiful sight I won't soon forget.
Each night as a family, we were supposed to do an evening family meeting and specifically take time for reflection and journal writing...but it was SO late after setting up camp and then eating dinner & cleaning up afterward (dinner was a delicious taco salad!) that our time was short and everyone was dead tired after our not-so-restful overnight bus ride so I felt like our meeting was very lacking. I read a favorite scripture aloud and tried to spur some conversation but it all fell rather flat. Somehow we managed to completely miss our Company Meeting with "Captain" Fisher that evening too. We turned in for the evening and I fell fast asleep as soon as I hit my pillow (which was really just my warm coat stuffed in its pack.) It was pretty warm out still but I slept easily & woke only briefly to pull my sleeping bag over me when it did cool off.
So to start from the beginning... When we first found out about the location of Trek (last fall, was it? It was at Stake Conference, I know that), George and I just looked at each other and were SO excited. We had visited Martin's Cove 5 years ago on our way back from the family reunion in Kansas City and at the time the missionaries there told us all about all the groups who came to do treks there. We felt sad that we lived so far away that we'd never get to do it ourselves...but here now our youth (our son Anthony in particular) were going and we were absolutely thrilled for them (but a tiny bit sad that we weren't involved and able to take part ourselves).
Well...fast forward to this past June... I was at a lunch with a friend of mine who was going on the Trek as a Ma and she mentioned that the leadership was on the hunt for another Ma & Pa. I told her that George was really wanting to go (because truthfully, as excited as I was to do the Trek itself, the responsibility of playing "Ma" was hugely daunting...so it really was just George who wanted to do it). It was only a week or two later that we got a call from the Stake leadership saying they wanted to meet with George & me...and they extended the call to be a Ma & Pa! I had a lot of feelings about it...but like I said it was mostly a mix of enormous excitement with heavy worries about being inadequate for the Ma role. I remember the kinds of leaders I had as a youth that I loved and felt inspired by...and I'm not that person...at least I don't feel like I'm that person...and I feel like I don't connect well with teens, or at least I have the least experience with that age group. (I feel most at ease around the toddler to early elementary ages.) I spent a lot of time praying about that.
Thankfully we had received the call prior to our trip to Utah in June, so we took full advantage of that trip to stock up on our pioneer clothes and other gear for the Trek. We rushed to get all our doctor physicals done in time and all of that other necessary paperwork...and before we knew it, the day had arrived for our Trek departure on Friday, July 31st! George's dad was so very kind and generous to come stay with the other 4 boys all week while the 3 of us were away.
I kinda laugh about what happened when we first arrived at the church that afternoon--we got there the same time as Wendy Bennion so she & I walked in together through the "girls" door (the boys went in another side to maintain order and for the daypack "sweep".) As we walked in, the other Ma's that were there directed us into the room to have our own bags checked until they realized we were Ma's too (haha, they thought we were youth! I still can't believe people always think I'm that young...I'll be 40 in a year & a half, yikes.)
We went in, chose seats on Bus 5 (there were chairs set up in the cultural hall for each of the 5 busses...everyone other than the previously assigned Bus bosses got to choose where they rode for the first part of the trip.) Then when the actual busses arrived, we boarded and loaded all the buckets packed with our gear on...and then we hit the road!
We loved our bus. It ended up being filled with mostly Priests & Laurels, who were fun without being crazy annoying and they all actually quieted down pretty quickly when it was time to sleep. Anthony was on another bus so at our first stop we found him and asked him about his ride--turns out Bus 2, which he & his friends were on, had a broken A/C so the poor kids & adults on that bus were sweltering!
That night that we were on the road happened to be the same night as the Blue Moon for July--if you know me and my love of the night sky, you know I was thoroughly enamored with that moon and admired the view out the window bathed in all that silvery full moon light. I didn't want to sleep because of that moon but I knew I'd be regretting it come morning so I did try to sleep. (It was SO hard to sleep on that bus! Especially since I had a snorer sitting behind me...glad he was sleeping well at least.) The bus drivers took long breaks through the night--I'm not entirely clear why but I guess one of the busses ended up way behind periodically and had to be waited for--so we were pretty late getting to our destination for breakfast in Brigham City.
There in Brigham City at a stake center, we all changed into our first set of pioneer clothes. I loved seeing all the different dresses--some girls/women had gorgeous period dresses! The boys all looked so great in their clothes...a lot of them had suspenders and straw hats. So cute. We were fed a wonderful pancake breakfast there before we all boarded the busses once more to continue on to Independence Rock in Wyoming.
Once there, everyone left the busses and we finally organized into our Trek families. Each of the kids was given a code and we held up a sign with the code for our family, which was R-8 (which meant Red, or Fisher Company, number 8). We had 8 kids--4 girls & 4 boys: Rachel, Cassie, Addie, Olivia, Adam, Haydn, Cole & Spencer. George wanted to hike up Independence Rock for our first family meeting so we hurriedly walked out there. I mistakenly thought it was easiest to climb the Rock from the right hand side, but as we walked out that direction it became more evident that it was not any easier & probably worse than the other side. We stopped in one area to start our meeting (& eat lunch)...it started off awkwardly as we tried to prompt the kids to introduce themselves and run through the rules. We felt terribly rushed since the busses had arrived so late & they had to cut our time short. George did go up on the Rock with 7 of the kids while I hung back with Cassie who had tried to climb but felt nervous about it. I didn't blame her--I'd attempted to climb and kept getting tangled up in my dress. There were cute little cottontail rabbits hopping all over the place around the Rock. They finally came back down and we walked over to the other side of the Rock where tons of people were climbing up easily, so George & the boys went up again before the call went out for everyone to return to the busses to head to Martin's Cove at long last. (We were assigned to Bus 4 for the rest of our trip as a family...and the bus driver on Bus 4 was mean! He yelled at us for the mess left on the bus during the previous ride.)
At Martin's Cove, we unloaded all the buckets and found all of ours....then we were given a handcart and placed all our buckets in and began the hike to our campsite, about 3 miles away. We were about 4 hours behind schedule (thanks to those slow busses!) so the sun was setting as we walked the trail. It was getting dark as we finally arrived at camp and had to find our site...we finally found it and then had to set up all our tents. As we worked to build the tents, the most gloriously beautiful moonrise happened in the eastern sky. It was huge and a blazing pink-red color, directly opposite the fading light of a similarly pink sunset in the western sky. Truly awe-inspiring and a beautiful sight I won't soon forget.
Each night as a family, we were supposed to do an evening family meeting and specifically take time for reflection and journal writing...but it was SO late after setting up camp and then eating dinner & cleaning up afterward (dinner was a delicious taco salad!) that our time was short and everyone was dead tired after our not-so-restful overnight bus ride so I felt like our meeting was very lacking. I read a favorite scripture aloud and tried to spur some conversation but it all fell rather flat. Somehow we managed to completely miss our Company Meeting with "Captain" Fisher that evening too. We turned in for the evening and I fell fast asleep as soon as I hit my pillow (which was really just my warm coat stuffed in its pack.) It was pretty warm out still but I slept easily & woke only briefly to pull my sleeping bag over me when it did cool off.
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