Jaren and I had the great privilege to be a "Ma" and "Pa" for our Stake youth pioneer trek last week. We left our Stake center in Vancouver Wednesday morning around 11:00 and arrived at our destination (some place in eastern Washington just north of Hermiston, OR) at about 2:00 pm. The church owns a bunch of property out there and we were going to push handcarts out there for a few days.
Here is a picture of the youth and 3 couples (including us) that volunteered as Ma's and Pa's from our ward. YEAH! Can't you tell how excited our youth look about going to be hot and sweaty and tired for the next 3 days!!
It was suggested that each person bring two pioneer outfits to use for the 4 days (Wed-Sat) we were there. The top picture is my light blue dress and this is my darker blue dress. I did not buy them and I did not make them. My very talented mother made both dresses and my bonnets. To the disapproval of Jaren, I don't sew and almost outright refuse to learn. My mom is an amazing seamstress so why should I screw my things up just for her to have to fix it? Right?
Here are a couple of our "boys" showing off our family flag with our last name, the "Glover's" of course, and all of our signatures.
Here is everyone in our family except Jaren because he was always behind the camera. We had three girls and six boys. They were such great youth! They all pulled and didn't complain too bad. It was hot but not as bad as it could have been and we had a bit of a breeze. It was VERY dusty. This is about the grassiest part but looks can be deceiving because it was infested with stickers that would constantly get stuck in your socks! The skirts weren't too bad, especially if the wind made them billow and gave you some fresh air on your legs. It was nice having a bonnet to keep the sun out of your eyes and my head from getting burnt. Unfortunately, my nose was not shaded by my bonnet and promptly burnt on our first major day of trekking then peeled the few days after getting home. The first day we travelled from about 2:45 until 5:30. We set up camp them waited for the stake to bring our food rations. We didn't get them until about 8:00 pm because they couldn't get into their preparation are until late. We slept on the very stickery and lumpy ground (in our tents with sleeping bags) and the wind sounded like it was blowing 100 miles an hour. I heard coyotes in the middle of the night making some of the strangest noises I've ever heard. Then sometime in the early morning I heard what sounded like a bunch of cattle being herded right through camp. I later found out there were cows but they weren't going right through camp. The second day we trekked for a few hours in the morning, pulled our handcarts up a steep hill, trekked some more and then the men were called off to fight in the Mexican War. The men assembled into an infantry march formation and hiked up a hill as we women waved goodbye. The men then came right back down to form a path up the hill. This is there the "women's pull" came in. Us women were supposed to pull these handcarts up the hill by ourselves. The men cheered us on and only stepped in if absolutely necessary. It was a steep hill of nothing but soft powdery sand which the wheels sank into. The wheels would also spray up the dust into our faces and mouths as we were breathing heavily from the strain. The hill was approximately 500 ft or so and the last 200 ft inclined even more. This was when the men had to step in. Even having 10-12 women pulling the handcarts up it was still SO difficult. Jaren said that only 2 of the 45 handcarts made it up without ANY help. It was a tough hill! Since we had to take the women from about 3 handcarts just to pull one up the hill, the guys had to come down toward the end to help us get the last ones because we were exhausted after one trip let alone 2! Jaren and some of our boys came down to help pull ours up and Jaren was hunched over gasping for air when we got to the top so I didn't feel so wimpy for doing the same. And I made it up the hill twice! A lot more took place but this post is too long already to go into more detail. It was fun that our "kids" would call us Ma and Pa throughout the trek experience and we enjoyed our time together as a "family" even though when we all first got there, we didn't know each other. They mixed everyone up so well that none of us were from the same ward. I didn't want to say goodbye when the time came. We will miss them!
Pushing a handcart, being in the sun all day and sleeping on the hard ground was hard work and not very fun! It makes me appreciate the pioneers A LOT more for what they went through for months and not just a few days and worse than what we endured. I would definitely do it again though! What a great experience! Happy 4th of July everyone!
Here is a picture of the youth and 3 couples (including us) that volunteered as Ma's and Pa's from our ward. YEAH! Can't you tell how excited our youth look about going to be hot and sweaty and tired for the next 3 days!!
It was suggested that each person bring two pioneer outfits to use for the 4 days (Wed-Sat) we were there. The top picture is my light blue dress and this is my darker blue dress. I did not buy them and I did not make them. My very talented mother made both dresses and my bonnets. To the disapproval of Jaren, I don't sew and almost outright refuse to learn. My mom is an amazing seamstress so why should I screw my things up just for her to have to fix it? Right?
Here are a couple of our "boys" showing off our family flag with our last name, the "Glover's" of course, and all of our signatures.
Here is everyone in our family except Jaren because he was always behind the camera. We had three girls and six boys. They were such great youth! They all pulled and didn't complain too bad. It was hot but not as bad as it could have been and we had a bit of a breeze. It was VERY dusty. This is about the grassiest part but looks can be deceiving because it was infested with stickers that would constantly get stuck in your socks! The skirts weren't too bad, especially if the wind made them billow and gave you some fresh air on your legs. It was nice having a bonnet to keep the sun out of your eyes and my head from getting burnt. Unfortunately, my nose was not shaded by my bonnet and promptly burnt on our first major day of trekking then peeled the few days after getting home. The first day we travelled from about 2:45 until 5:30. We set up camp them waited for the stake to bring our food rations. We didn't get them until about 8:00 pm because they couldn't get into their preparation are until late. We slept on the very stickery and lumpy ground (in our tents with sleeping bags) and the wind sounded like it was blowing 100 miles an hour. I heard coyotes in the middle of the night making some of the strangest noises I've ever heard. Then sometime in the early morning I heard what sounded like a bunch of cattle being herded right through camp. I later found out there were cows but they weren't going right through camp. The second day we trekked for a few hours in the morning, pulled our handcarts up a steep hill, trekked some more and then the men were called off to fight in the Mexican War. The men assembled into an infantry march formation and hiked up a hill as we women waved goodbye. The men then came right back down to form a path up the hill. This is there the "women's pull" came in. Us women were supposed to pull these handcarts up the hill by ourselves. The men cheered us on and only stepped in if absolutely necessary. It was a steep hill of nothing but soft powdery sand which the wheels sank into. The wheels would also spray up the dust into our faces and mouths as we were breathing heavily from the strain. The hill was approximately 500 ft or so and the last 200 ft inclined even more. This was when the men had to step in. Even having 10-12 women pulling the handcarts up it was still SO difficult. Jaren said that only 2 of the 45 handcarts made it up without ANY help. It was a tough hill! Since we had to take the women from about 3 handcarts just to pull one up the hill, the guys had to come down toward the end to help us get the last ones because we were exhausted after one trip let alone 2! Jaren and some of our boys came down to help pull ours up and Jaren was hunched over gasping for air when we got to the top so I didn't feel so wimpy for doing the same. And I made it up the hill twice! A lot more took place but this post is too long already to go into more detail. It was fun that our "kids" would call us Ma and Pa throughout the trek experience and we enjoyed our time together as a "family" even though when we all first got there, we didn't know each other. They mixed everyone up so well that none of us were from the same ward. I didn't want to say goodbye when the time came. We will miss them!
Pushing a handcart, being in the sun all day and sleeping on the hard ground was hard work and not very fun! It makes me appreciate the pioneers A LOT more for what they went through for months and not just a few days and worse than what we endured. I would definitely do it again though! What a great experience! Happy 4th of July everyone!
3 comments:
I got to be a last minute "Ma" in our stake pioneer trak years ago. I loved it! How fun for you guys.
That is just awesome. Love the pictures. Hope your trip to WI is good. We'll compare trips via blog. :)
No way would I ever volunteer to do a Pioneer Trek, so more power to you for going! Sounds like you had a good time.
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