Trek Beginning and Day 1

Our stake put together a Pioneer Handcart Trek for the youth this summer.  It was for all the youth, ages 12-18.  I was pretty anxious to go because I wanted to keep an eye on Elle and I wanted to be a part of it too.  I was starting to get nervous that I wouldn't be able to.  I kept asking and asking, but no one would ever get back to me.  Finally, a friend in the ward told me how she didn't feel like she should go and that I was welcome to take her place.  It didn't take me long to get approval and I was in!  Initially I was just going to help with the wilderness survival class on the first day, but they needed more people on the activities committee.  I met some great people (truly talented) on that committee.  I was given different assignments for each day.  Initially we thought I'd be able to trek with the kids all four days, but logistically it turned out to be easier to just do the first two days and then stay at base camp the rest of the time.

The week leading up to trek was pretty easy for Elle and I.  All our stuff had been checked in a week before so we didn't have anything to stress about.  We woke up bright and early, at 4:30am on Monday, July 13th to head to the church and get on the buses.  In hindsight I really wished I'd driven, but ciest la vie.  Elle and I were on separate buses, but I was fine with that.  Even though I was going on Trek, I still wanted her to have a separate experience.  The bus ride was dang boring!  I wish I had brought a book.  I tried to sleep, but without a pillow, it was impossible.  The highlight of the ride was when the kids started timing how long it took others to use the bathroom.  Amazing what boredom will do to you.

When we arrived at Bing Canyon (45 min SW of Kennewick), the handcarts were all lined up and the Ma's and Pa's were ready to collect their kids.  The weather that week was supposed to be above 100 degrees every day.  It made me a tad nervous, but there was some pretty heavy emphasis on drinking enough.  The start of the day wasn't too bad because it was overcast.  It didn't really start to warm up till the afternoon, but it was blazing by then!  The first stretch was pretty short.  Once we stopped, everyone ate lunch and then there were some certification and other classes for the kids to rotate through.  I spent 2 1/2 hours lecturing 5 different groups on Wilderness Survival.  It wasn't too bad of a task.  I tried cracking a few jokes, but some of the groups were more responsive than others.

It was very hot!  Elle was doing pretty good at this point.  There were several places to fill up water.  We had been told that one of the water sources located next to the porta potties were safe to drink from, but it tasted disgusting!  I found out later that day that it was actually not drinking water. No kidding!  Sadly, some people didn't find out till the last day of trek.  During the classes, some people were going around and squirting us with water.  Ordinarily I don't care for wet clothing, but it sure felt good.  After the classes were over, everyone loaded up and took off for the next stretch.  I stayed behind to help take down all the pop ups and other supplies.  We took everything back to base camp and I had my first view of Zion (base camp).  It was definitely gorgeous compared to the rest of the desert.

I think I spent a few hours in base camp and then we got news that kids were started to drop like flies up at the stopping point for the trekkers.  The last stretch of the day was to do a rope pull up a very steep slope.  Each company had to man the ropes and pull one cart up at a time.  I think they didn't expect it to take as long as it did.  That aspect probably contributed to a lot of the trouble.  I just knew Elle would be one of them.

I was not wrong.  I headed right up.  She looked like she was doing okay, but she was pretty nauseated.  I initially thought she wasn't drinking enough.  I kept ragging her about how much she had drunk and she was getting pretty irritated with me.  We went and sat in the first aid tent for a while, but eventually decided to take her down to base camp and put her in the misting room (they had a hazmat type trailer setup with a misting system).  It was fabulous how well it worked.  It didn't take Elle long to feel back to 100%.  We had to wait a bit to get back up to camp, I think we finally made it by around 9pm.  We were both exhausted, but I didn't expect to sleep well because of the heat.  I ended up sleeping in Elle's family tent with her.  As predicted it took me forever to fall asleep.  It got really windy too and the way the tent was whipping around drove me crazy!  Amazingly, Elle slept better than I did.