Pioneers

Erin, Bayley, Kegan and Rhys traveled to Wyoming last week to participate in a pioneer trek. They boarded big, comfy, chartered buses at 5:00 Thursday morning with over 250 other teens and their 90 something adult chaperones, all in pioneer costume. Each of our kids was reassigned to new 'families' for the duration of the trip,with a 'Ma' and 'Pa' and 7 to 8 new brothers and sisters. They refer to their pioneer families now as 'My Fake Mom and Dad' and 'My Fake Brothers and Sisters.' Day one was a 7 hour bus ride followed by lunches brought from home, setting up camp, and some preliminary hiking to Devil's Gate and Independence Rock. They climbed to the 130 foot summit of Independence Rock, an ascent that I am assured was nearly vertical, where they tried in vain to find famous names among the many carved there. All the while they were wearing their pioneer clothing, which for Kegan and Rhys basically meant out of style, but still basically comfortable, muslin shirts, suspenders and straw hats but for Erin and Bayley and all the other girls and women in the group meant long skirts,aprons and bonnets! (They were allowed modern shoes though.)

Day two was the long day. Each 'family' was given a 200 pound handcart to carry their things in and they began their 'trek' along the actual trail traveled by the Mormon Pioneers in the 1850's and 60's. Part way through the day they stopped at Martin's Cove, where the Willie and Martin handcart companies awaited rescue in the Fall of 1856. They took their handcarts back to camp with them that night, and started again the next morning. On the third day, a man dressed as an army captain came and marched away all the men and boys and left the women and girls to push and pull the handcarts alone up the steepest part of the trek. While Bayley believes that the attitude of many towards the 'girls' pull,' as it was nicknamed, was a little sexist (she was offended by the general opinion that it was somehow harder for the girls to pull the carts than it was for the boys to do so), the intent was to simulate the pioneers' actual experience when the men and boys really were taken from them and inlisted in the 'Mormon Battalion.' Of course, they couldn't really march them off to California, as I believe the real Battalion was, so instead the boys were asked to stand silently at the edge of the trail and watch the girls get to the top.

All in all it was a good experience. They had square dancing and campfire testimony meetings (during which they were rained on and bitten mercilessly by mosquitos). Kegan was hardly allowed out of sight of his 'fake parents,' while Bayley and her 'siblings' frequently couldn't find their Ma and Pa and in fact were left on their own each night while their parents went to bed early. Erin's parents turned out to have lived previously in Raton, New Mexico and knew many of the people we know from the branch there and even knew where Branson, Colorado was. Rhys's family seems to have bonded over 80's movies, and spent a good deal of the 3 days conversing in movie quotes. There was only one real medical emergency which required the administration of an IV to rehydrate anyone, and it happened to be one of Kegan's brothers, the rest of them seem to have taken to drinking plenty of Gatorade as instructed.

We picked them up at 10:00 Saturday night, still in full pioneer costume, caked in dust and a little smelly. It was a bit of a surreal sight, hundreds of 'pioneers' exiting big buses, toting back packs, plastic garbage bags(with sleeping bags and pillows in them), and 5 gallon buckets and then hopping into various mini-vans which lined the streets outside the stake center. I wonder what the neighborhood thought of that? We stayed up another 3 hours that night listening to stories while I washed pioneer clothes and mended torn hems so they could wear them to church in the morning.