A Real Pioneer Trek

Spencer and I were asked to be Youth Conference parents this year. Which we were excited to do especially after we heard it was going to be a trek. Our last Stake did it and I heard nothing but good things. Here is the short version of it.

Wednesday Night:
meet our family at the stake center
make our family flag, play games

(our family)

(we were part of the Blue Company, and had to wear the blue bandanna)

go back to our house with our cousin family-eat and play games
the girls spent the night at our house and the boys spent the night at the cousins house
I fell asleep at 12:30

Thursday
Wake up at 6:00 to be at the Stake Center at 7:00
breakfast
load into cars and drive to Rileys Farm in Yucaipa
get there, load up our hand carts
hear a speaker (Brigham Young)
start trekking

stop for lunch
hear a story about Pioneers who walked in rags. Anyone who wanted could walk with just rags on their feet. All the guys in our group did it and one of our girls did it...the whole rest of the way (5 miles with hills and thorns). I opted out but Spencer did it for a few miles.

(our "big brother" Garrett. Putting rags in his feet)

We finally reach the camp site. Set up our tents. All the young men in one tent, Spencer and the other "Pa" in singles tents. All the young women in a tent and me and the other "Ma" in a tent.
Have dinner and a dance, devotional from our "big brother" and to bed.
Spencer and I forgot our pillows in the car, which made for a rough night of sleeping.

Friday/Saturday
Woke up to thick fog
breakfast was 1 biscuit (read a story about how the Pioneers only had 3 oz. of flour to eat the whole day). So we only had a biscuit to eat until lunch.
Trekked a huge/steep hill (Testimony Hill)
Finally reached a resting point for lunch. Where it started to rain and then pour. We tied our tarp up and tried to squeeze our while family under to keep warm. Still everyone managed to get wet and cold.
Once the rain eased up we had to unpack our handcart and lower it down a ravine. To reload the cart on the other side.
We reached camp, unpacked, set up tents, and ate dinner.
I was so cold during dinner I couldn't even finish my food I was shivering so bad.
We had a speaker Who is actually in our ward Brother Hancock. Who was great. During his talk around the camp fire. It started to rain and then proceeded to hail. After he was done we ran into our tents to try and get warm.
I put on almost all of my clothes to keep warm. 3 pairs of socks, 2 leggings, sweat pants, tee shirt, flannel shirt, sweatshirt, and jacket. And I couldn't keep warm. I finally took my jacket off and wrapped it around my feet. With all the wind and rain I couldn't sleep. I finally fell asleep around 2:00 to wake up at 3 and hear we are evacuating. All the girls tents were flooded. Our girls were huddled in the middle of the tent sitting on their buckets talking. The Ma's were shuttled 30 minutes away to get our cars. We drove up to get our girls. Took them to our home to dry their clothes. I took the best shower of my life. Put warm clothes on. Packed some dry clothes for Spencer. Ate breakfast. And drove back up to meet the guys at camp. Which means I only got maybe an hour of sleep.
We loaded up the tents and all our belongings in the cars. Hiked a little ways down the road to put the carts in a shed. Drove to the Calimesa Stake Center to have testimony meeting. And a delicious lunch.
All together I heard we trekked about 14 miles.
Through all of this not one person in our group complained. We had the most amazing group of kids. And I have realized there is a reason why I was born in this era. Im not pioneer material. And on top of all of this to give birth, loose loved ones, and to have harsh, harsh weather against you. I have a new love for the pioneers.

Sorry there isn't better picts. My camera was buried in my bucket because of the rain.