All of the YW and YM in our ward were able to participate in a Martin's Cove Trek on June 6-8, 2011. This activity was after months of preparation including sewing activities for two pioneer outfits for Camille. Tanner and Camille were so fortunate to attend along with about 65 youth and adults. I never had the opportunity to attend Trek as a youth and would have given anything to have had that opportunity. Byron, however, did get that amazing experience and grew so much from that trek. Even though he had pouring rain for most of it, he has some great stories to tell the children about killing, plucking and eating a chicken for dinner and many other fun experiences.
Before the trek, each of the kids were able to pick a name of the Martin or Willie Handcart Company that they could read about their story and feel more like they knew that person. Tanner was lucky enough to pick Archibald McPhail from the Willie Handcart Company. He is a relative on my mom's side of the family. What an amazing story and man he was! He ended up saving an older woman when she didn't want to cross another creek. While Archibald was carrying her across the creek, the ice ended up breaking and he never fully recovered from that ordeal. He ended up dying before entering SLC. He is a true Saint in my eyes and I am anxious for the day when I can meet him. Camille chose Jeanetta Ann McBride of the Martin Handcart Company. She got baptized at the age of 8 in Scotland. She was 16 when she made the trek to Utah with her family.
Previous to the trek, there were two separate sewing parties for Camille to make her two skirts and two bonnets. Her and I had fun picking out the fabric and sewing the skirts. Luckily Sister Paystrup and her family helped sew the bonnets.
On Thursday, June 2nd, everything was getting packed into a trailer. I loved having the kids packed and all ready a few days previous. They were able to take whatever could fit into a 5 gallon bucket (minus cell phones, Ipods, and other electronic devices). I was amazed at how hard it was to pack everything that was needed in the buckets, but it all ended up fitting.
June 6th - bright and early, at 4 in the morning, the kids met and headed out on charter buses (it's a rough life:). I'm not sure if they were excited or not that morning - it was hard to tell since it was really early still.
Tanner said, "I got to know Taylor Olsen really well. There was a missionary that came dressed up like a cowboy and right when he started telling a pioneer story it was really quiet. Right when he said "Amen" the winds took over and destroyed Camille's tent. Most of the food flew off people's plates from the wind. All of the seagulls were picking it up. It was really hard watching the Women's Pole because they were tripping a lot. We had to wake up around 7 am each morning which was pretty easy since it was so windy and cold."
Camille said, "We had a baby that was made of material and rice. It weighed maybe 3 lbs. Our family named her Kori and backwards it spells "I rock." Me and my daughters slept in the same tent. "My husband" and "our boys" slept in their own tent. The first night we had a devotional. Two missionaries spoke from Martin's Cove. The second it was over, all of this wind came and we hurried to our tents. Right as we got to our tent, one of the poles broke and it wasn't fixable. Finally after lots of yelling because it was so windy, Bishop Jensen and Brother Willden willingly gave us their tent while they slept in the nice trailer. It was cool how the guys of our family all helped us with our stuff as we were moving to the other tent. The second night it was really windy after devotional again and the Bishop's tent pole broke. We felt so bad because it was his own tent. Luckily for this type of tent, we had an extra pole. But before the second tent broke, we had a ten mile hike down from our camp all the way to Martin's Cove. We also participated in the "Women's Pole." It was cool because our "Grandma" could help - Sister Kallee Pollmann. It was really awkward because the boys were lined up and half of them were crying - I was just thinking to myself - "Should I be crying myself because this might be hard but . . . ." I learned that the Priesthood is always wanting to help and we should let them help us. The hardest part was when their was a large rock sticking up above the ground and we had to go over that. We just had to push and shove through that part. The food was so good. Brother Wilcox made it. We had sack lunches during the day and yummy food at night (BBQ chicken and other great food). I was in the trek choir with Tanner. We sang "Come Come Ye Saints" and other church songs. I sang a solo at the beginning of the trek "A Mother's Lullaby." It was really cool because I got a lot of tears from my audience. It was so windy while there that I got sand burns on my legs. I could see sand blowing through my hair. I had to squint at certain gusts of wind. We were going to cross the Sweet Water, but the water was too high so we would have had to swim across and they didn't want us to do that because it was super cold or we would drowned.
Home and very tired! I didn't get much out of them about their experience for a couple of hours. They were beat, tired and dirty.
This is what Camille did as soon as she came into the house.
We have so many amazing leaders and parents that attended this event to make it a life altering experience for these kids. I am so thankful for their long hours of planning, time away from family, and sacrifice in our children's behalf. I am also thankful for our amazing Bishopric (Bishop Jensen, Brother Willden & Brother Rindlisbacher) for pushing this activity and making it possible.
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