Trek 2019

Wes and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for our tristake Trek the youth were doing. We were asked to sub in for our friends, the Hatches, after they found out they would be adopting their son Fin. Initially I wasn't very excited about it because I had done one as a youth and knew how difficult it could be. Wes had never had the opportunity to go on Trek and was excited.

We had to go to a few meetings before the actual Trek, most of which were in Holbrook. The three stakes going were Holbrook, Winslow, and Gallup. Initially our location was supposed to be near Heber, in the pines. As Trek got closer, and without much moisture over the winter, fire danger was at a high, and the forest service closed the forest. Plan B fell through too, and plan C was in the middle of the desert in between Holbrook and Gallup. Also, it was hot. Like 95 degrees hot.

We started on a Wednesday and ended Saturday, so three nights. Wednesday we got to meet up with our new "kids". As we started pulling our handcart we got to know them, and had so much fun getting to know them over the next few days. Our kids were rockstars, we were leading the whole crew almost the entire way each day.

The first day was the most difficult day, I think we did about 16 miles, ending after 1 in the morning and crashing on the ground, literally with poky pushes/cactus right under us. We were too tired to care at that point.

I hadn't slept outside in...never? Darn that Arizona sun that comes up before 5 am!

We ended up with two kids from our own ward, which was really fun. They still call us Ma Jones and Pa Jones.

I was so exhausted and hot!! With a killer headache I crashed one day. It's funny how fast you lose the ability to care about dirt and bugs.

Had to document Wes doing the dishes!

 

We were the first family to get to base camp, so we picked the best spot we could find. It had a large sandy flat space for sleeping and what we called "the tree of life". It was some of the only shade during around during the day which was crucial. I can't even tell you how much water and electrolytes we went through trying to make sure everyone stay hydrated in the heat.

Late night shenanigans.

We drove the motor home to where the backup camp was so that our friends, the Kiefers could use it while we roughed it. They were part of the cooking crew.

The first day, there was "manna" from heaven in the form of twinkies. It was a pretty amazing pick me up!

Sunset the first day

  We got into camp way later than we otherwise would have because of multiple things, but mostly because one of the stake helpers had a four wheeling accident, pretty severe and scary earlier in the day. She would end up recovering, but it would take a long time.

Fixing a handcart in the dark on the first day.

The second day Wes got his dream come true-to ride one of President Palmers horses. We were in the front of the line, and he was having an issue with a different horse and needed to teach it a lesson, so he asked Wes to take his horse for awhile and lead the group.

Desert camping=rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, etc.

The boys side. We all slept on one giant tarp, girls on one side, boys on the other. Our kids got along pretty well and made the most of a hard situation. We really did have a lot of fun amidst the not so fun parts.