Guest Blogger: Pioneer Trek by Prima Donna

Hey Everyone!

So, you guys want to learn about trek.  Hmmm..... where to begin.  I guess I should just start at the beginning.

Day 1

The first day we had to be at the church at 4:00 am.  So Mom and I just stayed up that late and drove over to the church.  Trek is way up in Wyoming and its about a 6 hour drive so normally we get a nice tour bus to ride in.  We pulled into the parking lot and it was a school bus.  Mom just about died of laughter.  I however did not think it was funny when I couldn't get any sleep on the bus.
We finally were able to escape the yellow monster and touch real ground.  We ate lunch and some elder missionaries told us a few stories while the leaders were in a meeting.  After that we filled up our water bottles and we headed out.  At Trek they split the group into families.  Each family has to carry their own handcart with everyone's luggage in it.  This day we walked about 5 miles.The first tough part was the Women's Pull.  All the girls had to pull the handcarts themselves up the steepest hill of the day.  I didn't think it was that bad but the boys were in tears so apparently it touched someone.  We got to cross the sweet water.  It felt so nice and somehow it turned into an epic water fight.  It was lots of fun until we remembered that they had to cross this river in the dead of winter with ice floating in it.  We finished our hike and drove to the camp sight.  We got to bed early because next morning we had to be up at five.

Day 2-AKA The Worst Day of My Life!

Day 2 we walked 16 miles!  My feet were ready to fall of.  We trekked from the sweet water to rock creek hollow.  In our way was Rocky Ridge.  I thought that going over those rocks were pretty fun until I remembered they had to cross in two feet of snow.  Once we crossed Rocky Ridge I was ready to just die.  I didn't think I could go any further.  Then they told me we still had 10 miles to do today.  I just kept on plodding.  Many times I thought I was just gonna die my feet hurt so bad, I was tired, the wind was constantly blowing in my face, my hands were sore from carrying a handcart but somehow I just kept moving.  We made it into camp and I just dropped to the floor. I vowed to never use my feet again. (Yeah, that didn't happen)  Our medic had told us to put duct tape on the toes that were blistering and basically my whole feet were covered in it.  I started to peel it off so my toes could breathe and in the process I ripped open a HUGE blister.  Those nasty pictures from the other day.  Yep, that's it.  It was so painful, I didn't want to stand up to go eat dinner and that is saying something.  That night we had a devotional and of course the small amphitheater is like a mile away.  I decided to just walk there bare foot.  Bad idea.  My feet hurt so bad.  When we got to the amphitheater I remembered, Oh yeah I have to sing. Lovely.  It was a miracle I could make it to the front honestly.  I sang in my small group and sat back down.  My feet hurt so bad that I was an emotional wreck.  One of the families then reenacted a pioneer story and I was balling.  Earlier in the day they had another reenactment where one of the women's leaders had to pull her husband up the hill and they had a descendant of them talk and it was so amazing.  Mom told you about how we were walking for someone, when I learned my little Bodil had died at Rock Creek Hollow I could not stop crying.  Then to add to my emotional roller coaster they passed out letters from home.  It was wonderful to have.  I got back to camp and got some sleep.  Well, attempted too, it was pouring outside and rain kept coming through the tent and hitting me in the face.

Day 3

Martin's Cove.  We hopped on the bus for two hours and drove out to Martin's Cove.  This is where the Martin Handcart Company stayed safe from the snow and wind.  The spirit there was wonderful. We only had to walk 7 miles and it felt heavenly.  Except for the throbbing pain in my feet of course.  Nothing too interesting to report while we were there.  When we got into camp we had our testimony meeting.  A few weeks ago I had this brilliant idea that Princess and I could play a clarinet duo while we are on trek and then the leaders decided to put it right before testimony meeting.  Worst time I have played my clarinet in my life.  It sucked so bad.  I'm amazed the testimony meeting was still so awesome.  Princess and I bore our testimonies and many, many others did too.  It was so spiritual and wonderful.  After testimony meeting, the girls in my tent decided they wanted to pull a prank on one of the boys tents.  So they tried to collapse their tent.  It didn't work at all.  The boys wanted revenge so while I was in there reading my scriptures the tent sank down a good three feet.  Terrifying!!  Somehow I was able to get some sleep after that.

Day 4

Last Day!  However, we had one more stop before we got to enjoy civilization.  We stopped at Independence Rock.  This was the where everyone going west tried to be by the 4th of July.  Many pioneers had carved their names into this rock and, as a history nerd, I had to search for all of them.  After about an hour of climbing over the rock hunting for names, Princess and I thought we ought to get down.  This rock is steep.  So we found the shortest way possible, which happened to be a 10 foot drop.  We took it anyway.  We inched down, and my life flashed before my eyes multiple times.  After that we loaded up our school bus and went home. Before we got there we had to stop at Little America.  The leaders bought everyone an ice cream cone.  It was so delicious.

Trek was a wonderful experience.  I loved every second of it.  The pioneers are awesome what they did was super human and I love them so much for it.  I am so glad they settled Utah because it truly is the place.