Trek Day 3

Actually it was Day 3 for Jena and the rest of the Trekkers, but Gary and I had a peaceful quiet morning at the campsite and then headed for home.  (I had forgotten the mayo for our lunch sandwiches and I was a bit anxious to find out if baby Scarlett had arrived so it was good to be heading home.) We had decided not to offer to bring kids home because we knew there were so many parents who wanted that opportunity to share a bit of Trek with the youth.  We felt blessed to have had a whole day.

They spent the day cleaning up and packing up.  Then they had several special activities including getting a Pony Express Rider bringing letters from home (parents had written letters for each of the kids), and a reenactment of the Sweetwater Rescue.  Eight of the young men carried in their arms the remaining 400 youth across a small patch of water.  They had some family time and some alone time in the trees.  There were some amazing pictures of this morning in the Trek video which is posted on my Facebook page.

On the other hand, we slept in, ate a nice breakfast, and took another walk through the trees.  We chatted with our friends the Denneys and then headed home.

Posing on a large stump in the camp ground

I noticed my shadow on the ground and thought it was a cool picture
Weird I know...

 If you haven't been in the mountains for awhile (attention all of my Texas family), enjoy!

Did I mention how beautiful the world is?

Trek Day Two

This was the day we spent at Trek so we have pictures to share.

We put on our "pioneer finest" and headed back down the road about 16 miles to the parking lot.  As we pulled in, this was the sight we saw:

 I am not going to lie.  I got tears in my eyes seeing them trekking down the hill.  It was an amazing sight!

There was a little hill right by the parking lot so we stopped there and took some great pictures of the families pushing their carts up.  The families were organized with a Youth Ma and Pa, eight other youth from all different wards in our Stake, plus 2 Adult "children". 

 This is Jena's family minus Jena who traveled a bit slower than the rest of the trekkers.  On the first day, she and her assigned sister who start off near the front of the handcarts and walk along while they all passed by and then they would get a lift from a trailing truck back to the front and start walking again.  At each break, they told us that her Ma would track her down and gather her to the family.  They walked 10 miles the first day although I am not sure how far Jena actually traveled by foot, she loved it all.

Bro. and Sis. Miggins were the adult Children
in Jena's family. Below is Maddie Kimball who was assigned as Jena's big sister.
 These were the only three people
from our ward in her family.  Jena knew a couple of
the other kids before the Trek a little bit.

Jena, Maddie, and another helper up a little incline

This morning was the time of the Women's Pull.  This represents the time when Mormon men were requested to leave their families along the trail in their wagons and join the Mormon Battalion to fight down in California.  Jena and I headed down to join the girls and women for their morning side while the young men and men headed up the mountainside.  It was a sobering sight as they separated (and these weren't even actual families.  How hard for a husband and father to leave his family crossing the plains!).

At the morningside, Jena sitting on her 5 gal. bucket.

Sis. Hatch spoke.  She is the Stake YW president.  I loved the description of her talk which was shared by Lindsay Ericksen at the Post-Trek fireside.  To paraphrase, she shared: "I was really psyched to do the Women's pull.  I knew we could do it.  I expected Sis. Hatch to talk about the strength and power of women and how we can accomplished hard things.  I thought she would be cheering us on and telling us how we could do it.  Instead she talked about the power and role of men.  She told us that the world was teaching us the wrong thing about men and belittling their roles in marriages, families, and society.  She taught us to stand strong and testify of the importance and role of men.  We need to expect them to be strong and work with them.  She challenged us to look into the eyes of the young men and men as we pushed up the hill.  See their goodness, their strength, how they want to help and pull with us."  Then Lindsay paused and said, "I took that challenge but only could look once.  It was too much to bear."

The women waiting at the bottom of the hill

Pushing up the hill
(cameraman on the side near the bottom of the hill)

 The young men and men had headed up the hill earlier and had their own morningside.  Then they were told to line the side of the hill near the top.  They could only watch as the girls struggled with the handcarts up the hill.  As the cart crested the hill, they could go to their family's cart and help them push it to the nearby stopping place.

Gary is standing at the top of the hill on the left in his blue shirt.

We chose to not have Jena do the push up the hill although I regretted it later.  I should have walked up with her.  She got a ride over to the testimony meeting which was held after every cart had made it up the hill.  With 400 youth, it was a long testimony meeting and we were told that Jena bore a sweet testimony herself in front of all those people.  Wish we had seen that, but those that needed to I am sure were there to hear it.

We headed out to walk the mile up to where the games were to be held in the afternoon and started setting up.  The skies were mostly overcast so it wasn't too hot for most of the day until right near the end of the games around 5:00.  Then the sun came out and we all really started sweating.

Susan Westbroek, Wendy Garcia, and Karla Robinett setting up
the Relay games.  I ran the Potato Sack races for 400 youth and adults.

Gary and Tim Robinett managed these tall catapults
launching water balloons.  Gary had a slight mishap as
a young grandchild of the landowners tripped over a
wire which release the 2 by 6 into Gary's face.
He was left with a knot on his head and a black eye
although he said he never got a headache.
I didn't see it until a couple of hours later since I was
in a different area of the field.

The tent city for the Trekkers

Jena's family was taking a family nap
after the games.  Everyone was actually sleeping but
Jena had her head up until she saw us
getting ready to take a picture so she
buried her head in a bonnet.

Ma (Megan) with Jena
Both Jena's Ma and Pa were outstanding with her.

 Jena's family is having dinner together.  Jena was definitely a part of this group and we so appreciate their willingness to go the extra mile.  Jena was relaxed with them and having a great time interacting with them.  We even overheard her making jokes with them.  Her Pa-Gavin- has known Jena since she was in 7th grade although I don't know him.  He told me later that it had been awesome to have Jena in their family.  She was always smiling and happy.

Here we are in our Trek clothes.

 Our Bishop and friend, Steve Slater, was able to go as an "unattached adult".  The Bishops were invited to do that so that they could visit with all of the youth in the ward along the way.  This picture was taken at the Friday night fireside.

We were there!

Friday night Hoedown took place in a large meadow near where we did the earlier games.  The kids had said that they didn't think they wanted to do the hoedown but from what we saw and heard later, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The caller did a great job managing 400 youth and adults in two huge circles.
There were smiling and laughing everywhere.

 We knew that Jena would love it and she did.  The top picture she didn't know that we were there watching the dance.

 As the night wore on, she finally had traveled around the circle to near where we were sitting and I got this picture as she saw us watching her.  Smiles!

After taking that picture of Jena dancing, we decided to hike back to our RV and head back to our camping spot.  As we reached the parking lot, the moon was just above the trees.  It was a full moon and we heard it allowed the dancing to continue even later.  It was a perfect end to an awesome day.

Syracuse South Stake Trek 2014--Journey to Christ-- Day One

Words can not express the feelings I have in regards to Jena's opportunity to attend Trek.  Scott, Ben, and Tosha all did trek as well during their high school years and they would have to speak for themselves about their experiences.  I served on the Stake committee when Ben and Tosha went on Trek in 2008 and really count it as one of the great highlights of my life, just be involved on the outskirts of things.  Again this year, Gary and I both were able to help on Friday afternoon and it allowed us a glimpse into Jena's experience and also a chance  to take a few pictures as well.  Facebook is filling up with pictures from other parents and adults who attended Trek so we were able to see more of it than when the other kids went.

Background:  Of course, Jena expects to be involved in everything and anything that the Young Women are involved in and I knew that Trek would be no different.  So typically, I started planning early on to figure out how this could possibly work for Jena.  She is a tough kid, but hiking and pushing handcarts for 20-26 miles over four days didn't seem doable.  She can walk for a long time on a flat surface but uneven and up and down is much more difficult for her.  We bough her shoes last summer and tried to have her wear them in by taking walks and a few little hikes over the past year.  Of course, we didn't do nearly as much of that as I had planned but at least I felt her shoes were worn in.  That was the easy part.

I spoke to the leaders of Trek who I didn't know and they didn't know Jena.  They assured me that this Trek would be doable for Jena, that they were not trekking as long or as difficult of a trail as in the past.  They would be sleeping in tents at night instead of on the ground, and that there would be plenty of food and rest time.  The trail boss also spoke to us about supports we thought Jena might need.  He is a good friend and has known Jena for several years as he has served in the High Council.  A few days before the Trek, I got a sweet email from him.  He promised that they had prepared many things to help make the Trek experience safe and good for Jena and that he knew that not only would she love it but that her presence would make a difference to everyone who came in contact with her.  With that comfort, we finished packing and headed out to the Church on Thursday, July 10 to drop her off with the 400 youth and 100 adults going to Trek.

Drop off pose

Since Jena was at Trek and we had to be there for Friday, Gary and I headed up to a campground called Monte Cristo which was about 16  miles further up the road from where they were having the Trek.  (Side note:  This was a big risk for me because Chantel's midwife had told her that the baby was coming anytime now as she continues to make progress towards delivery.  We spent 2 1/2 days without cell coverage.  Although it would have made a cute side story if Scarlett had arrived while we were gone, I was so relieved when we came down the mountain and there were no texts from Scott and Chantel.  Chantel texted me that she was now uncrossing her legs since we were back in town.  What a great daughter in law and Tosha also accommodated me by not having Niki either. Whew!)

Our camping spot was beautiful.  We were around 9000 feet high so it was nice and cool.  Wild flowers were everywhere and of course I was trying to take pictures of every single different variety.  Not sure what I am ever planning to do with all of those pictures, but I do like looking at them.

The trees were also gorgeous.

We took a walk around some paths in the Monte Cristo Campground and surprised a deer.  I only caught her in the photo as she bound away.  We saw several deer while we were up in that area.

 

 

Gary surprised me with a late birthday gift--my own walking stick complete with my WoodBadge patrol.  He had hid it in the RV and then had me open it just before our walk.  He has had his walking stick for several years and I had wanted one since I completed my Wood Badge.  However the craftsman who did them has been serving an LDS mission for a couple of years.  When he got back Gary ordered mine as a surprise for this trip.  Mine also has my name engaged in it.

Gary's Bobwhite and my Owl

The campground had very few guests and the quiet was awesome.  We did meet the Aaron and Amy Denney.  Aaron recognized Gary from Stake YMs a number of years ago.  They don't live in our stake any more but her sister is a friend of ours in another ward and her niece golfed with Jena on the CHS golf team.  Small world!

Our campground

Our own campfire

While we sat by the fire and made s'mores, we talked about other camping trips we had taken.  We realized that it has been over 32 years since we have been camping, just the two of us.  This was also the first trip the two of us have taken alone in the RV.  Gary wanted me to mention that (if I posted in the blog about the length of time since our last camping trip alone), we had done some amazing trips over the years as a couple both alone and with friends and family.  He wanted to make sure that our grandchildren and great grandchildren knew that we had lots of fun together over the years.  We have been so lucky to see so many amazing things in our lifetime.  The world is a beautiful and amazing place.

Right as we were finishing up our dessert, it started raining and by the time we got everything inside it was a serious downpour.  It was by far the loudest rain we have experienced in the RV and we worried about our 500 Trekers in tents down the hill.  We hoped Jena was warm and dry.  (And we found out that she was although she said there was a rock under her bed.  About 20% of the tents flooded however, so many people were wet and miserable their first night.)

End of day one for all of us!

First, backtracking to our hike on Antelope Island on July 3.

I couldn't figure out how to download the pictures from my camera to the computer and I forgot about this little hike that Jena, her friend Meggan, and I went on to help them get ready for Trek.  The weather was a bit overcast so it was a perfect day for a hike.  We did the western hike from the campground over to White Bay but only did part of it.

Meggan at the Trail head

Trekkers-in-training...

We saw a rabbit, buffalo, horses, and lots of birds

Drink break

 After the hike, we headed over to the Historical Farm on the east side of the island.  There we talked with Blair Barber, a close friend of Grandma and Grandpa Hall.  He asked Jena if she remembered her Grandpa Wayne.  She said yes and then Blair told her some stories about him and their friendship together.  It was very sweet and I wished that Grandma Hall could have been there to share those memories.

We had a great time out on Antelope Island and even had a little bit of rain which as it happens--occurred on Trek as well.  Next post.....