Hey it's Rhiannon! :) I don't normally do the blog posts, but Mom practically begged me to write this one. So I obliged and here we are.
Trek was absolutely amazing, in every way. My faith grew, my muscles grew, and I have a greater appreciation for what those pioneers had to go through all those years ago. I had no idea what to expect when I first got to our Trek site, but I can tell you I wasn't expecting the trail to be as difficult as it was. SO HARD.
The good thing was I didn't do any of it alone. Our small Ridgecrest Stake got divided into five families with about twelve people in each, including our "Ma and Pa's. Everyone thought they had the best family but I know I had the best one. I was part of the MacGregor family, with my old seminary teacher as my dad and his wife as my mom. They are great and definitely made Trek that much better. Same with my "siblings". I already thought I knew most of my family pretty well, but I learned even more about them, and strengthened some friendships for sure.
To be honest, most of Trek went by in a blur. The first day was very strange and hard. Getting into our families was fun, but hiking 8 miles with a handcart, in one day..not too fun. We got POURED on with rain and one of my good friends (and sibling) Tamara sprained her ankle pretty badly on the first mile. She was a trooper, and started helping again afterwards, but I bet that was hard.
Our Stake was pretty lucky. I think Tamara's ankle and various people with blisters were the only casualties. We were definitely blessed! I was (happily) surprised that my feet did alright. I didn't get a single blister and my bunion didn't bother me at all. I did have a moment on the last day where I think I was getting dehydrated. But I felt well enough to keep going so it was fine.
There were a lot of people on the Trek. From our tiny stake there was fifty or so, but a stake from Las Vegas came as well and there were about two hundred of them. We had meals alongside them, and the dance was combined but besides that we were just pulling our carts in a line. Speaking of meals, the food was super yummy. I probably would have eaten anything but the food was REAL good. There was lots of tex-mex type food, and chicken. Mmm, mmm good.
For sleeping the first night, the boys slept in tents and the girls slept in this huge barn. It was fun and the barn was very cozy. Needless to say I passed out when it was time for bed. The second night was more "real" because everyone slept under the stars. No tents, just sleeping bags. The boys had one side of the field and the girls had the other. I didn't sleep as great that night but there were hardly any bugs and more fun that the barn.
There were lots of random speakers that impersonated people from the pioneer times. We had a Brigham Young speak to us multiple times and a Porter Robinson. I can't remember any of the other names, but I liked all of the speeches.
One of the most worrisome things of the whole Trek was crossing the river. (insert Jaws music here) It really wasn't that bad, and it was actually quite refreshing considering the water was cold and we had been sweating like beasts the whole time. I took my shoes off, hiked up my skirts and away we went. It really wasn't that hard, as the water barely went past my knee. The pioneers had to go through much worse than that.
The second day was probably the funnest. All of the days were, but we had more activities that day than anything else. We played a few fun games as a stake. My favorite game was "Grab-your-Gal" which is really hard to explain, but there was some winking and partnering up involved. You would think playing games like that would be super awkward and weird, but it really wasn't as awkward as it sounds--promise.
Also on the second day was the dance. It was incredibly crazy and disorganized but it was still pretty fun. If I could change anything about it, I would have the dance be in our own stakes. I was a lot more comfortable dancing with people I knew, rather than random people I had never met before. It was still great though, and I got my pioneer dance moves on for sure.
The third day was HARD. It consisted of 2 miles (easy, right?) where we had the Women's Pull, and steepsteepsteep hills that went almost straight up. The Women's Pull really wasn't that bad, because we were smart and the ladies in my family were buff (did I mention I grew some muscles on Trek?) On the hard parts we planned ahead and had families team up, so that each cart had twelve girls instead of six. We would take turns running carts up the hill. One cart would go first and then we would ocme back for the second cart. It was still tough but we were fine. As we met up with the boys again (who had been doing a Mormon Batallion reenactment) they sang for us and tried to get us to stop pulling the cart but we wouldn't let them.
The last mile and half was incredibly hard and even more steep than the Women's Pull which is definitely saying something, but our families worked hard, and we made it. BARELY.
At the end, I was super close with my family, with God and my ancestors. If I could do Trek again, which I can't because I will be aged out next time, I would go in a heartbeat., It was amazing!
