Trek

Our Yakima Stake youth handcart trek was Wednesday, June 28 to Saturday, July 1st. Jeff and I went as a Ma and Pa leaders over a "family" group of 9 teenagers; Jay and Rose went as youth participants. Amber had an adventure of her own the day before the trek, when she flew out to Denver all by herself to stay with my parents while the rest of us trekked. Jeff took Amber to the airport on Tuesday (June 27th) and got her all checked in as an unaccompanied minor. Amber's direct flight was about 2 hours and 20 minutes long, and my mom picked Amber up at the Denver airport--she got a pass and went through security so she could be waiting at the gate when Amber arrived. Amber is a confident kid. She said she chatted to the guy next to her in the plane and played Nintendo on the flight. Then she had a fun 4 days in Denver with Grama, living her best life with fun activities while the rest of her family trekked into the dusty wilderness.

Jeff sent me this picture of Amber at the gate, about to walk out to her plane.

The day after the trek, my sister texted me to ask how it went. This was my summary text response:

It was a very good trek. I slept as much as I expected to (not much) and my digestive system is about where I expected it to be (backed up). But the actual trek was very good. The kids had a great experience and I loved the location! 

It all started on Wednesday morning. We loaded up our 5 gallon buckets of clothes/supplies and our sleeping bags plus our other gear into the van and met the entourage of people at the church building at 7:30am. From there, we divided up the youth and everyone piled into vehicles for the 6 hour drive to the Lazy R Ranch in central Idaho. Jay and Rose ended up riding with their friends, so we had five squirrely funny boys in our van. The three boys in the back seat talked about Spiderman for the ENTIRE 6 hour drive. In the front, we listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (perfect length for the drive). I was dreading that 6 hour drive because six hours there meant it was another six hours back at the end of trek, when we'd be exhausted. But away we went! 

This post would be endless if I wrote out the entire schedule for the trek, but here's a quick basic summary:

• Wednesday: 6 hour drive to the ranch, unload, meet trek families, take family picture, eat dinner, and a hoedown dance. Sleep outside under the stars on a tarp: Ma and Pa in the middle, boys on Pa's side of the tarp and girls on Ma's side of the tarp. There was an unusually heavy frigid dew that night and we all got wet and COLD with very minimal sleep.
• Thursday: eat breakfast, morning devotional, pack up, and WAIT for a few hours until it was our turn to be driven 30 minutes down a rutted bumpy dusty ranch road to the trailhead. Then we hiked 6 miles pushing a handcart to our first camp. Camp games, dinner, evening devotional, "bedtime" on the family tarp.
• Friday: breakfast, morning devotional, handcart trek 5 miles, stop for lunch, then Mas and Pas hiked on ahead to the next campsite while the stake leaders and company captains supervised the "youth pull" where the youth pulled their handcarts the final 2-ish miles up a massive long hill to the camp. Camp games, rest, dinner, evening musical performances. Company devotional and "what I learned at trek" sharing session around a campfire; bedtime (supposedly--camp was so noisy since it was the last night of trek).
• Saturday: breakfast, morning devotional, final 4 mile trek to "Zion" aka the parking lot where all of our vehicles were waiting in the hot sun. Lunch, final closing ceremony with a few words from various leaders and participants. Load and go on that endless sleepy 6 hour drive home.

OTHER DETAILS: The trek was 4 days and 3 nights, with actual handcart trekking on 3 of the days. We covered about 16-17 miles total on the trek, and the terrain had plenty of very challenging hills. Jay asked me what was different between this trek and the last trek I was a leader for 10 years ago, and my first response was "this trek was actually hard!" It was hard, but not too hard--hard enough to feel a great sense of accomplishment after each day of hiking, but not hard enough to completely break most kids' spirits. There was not much shade and it was pretty hot and dusty. We did not have to cook at all; all food was provided for us. 

CLOTHING: We did not have to wear historic costumes, and it was such a good call. Kids just followed the most recent For the Strength of Youth dress guidelines which are so self-governed that I felt such a burden lifted as a leader and as a former youth of the early 2000s and all of the kneecap/midriff/shoulder shaming that went along with it.

ATTENDANCE: Around 250 youth attended the trek, with another almost 100 adult leaders in various capacities. Mas and Pas were in charge of a trek family of 8-9 kids; company captains were in charge of a company of 5-6 families. There were 5 companies. Each company had about 50 kids in it. There was a logistics committee, a food committee, a games committee, medical staff, etc. etc. etc. so plenty of adults present!

PICTURES: I did not bring my phone or a camera on the trek. Kids were not allowed to have electronic devices, and I figured that meant leaders too. Turns out most leaders had phones and took pictures the whole trek! There was also an official trek photographer and videographer AND drone driver. Thankfully the stake promised a shared folder where we can access pictures taken at the trek. So far it hasn't materialized yet, though.

JOURNAL: Since I write in my journal on an app and I didn't have my phone during the trek, I did not write anything down during the four days we were trekking. The stake-provided "trek journal" was more of a schedule with a few scriptures and questions in it; there was no place for actual freehanded journaling. So I did zero recording during the trek and it was actually quite liberating. It also made writing a blog post about the trek rather challenging!

SKELETON: The five gallon buckets that everyone was required to pack clothing, hygiene supplies, and mess kits in also served as our seats during devotionals, etc. 5 gallon buckets are not comfortable and my skeleton protested more over the long bucket-sitting sessions than from the dusty hot hours on the trail. 

SLEEP: I was lying in my sleeping bag for 6-7 hours every night, but the actual sleeping that happened was minimal and I was so tired by the last day. After a painfully long prop-eyelids-open-eat-to-stay-awake drive wherein Jeff did most of the driving because I was practically comatose with fatigue, we got home a right around 7pm on Saturday night (July 1st).

Ok, now here are some journal entry excerpts:

Saturday, July 1st: We survived the trek! I am so so incredibly desperately tired, I can't really write. We got home around 6:45pm tonight and had to finish packing for Denver (our plane to Denver for the Brown family gathering departs tomorrow right after church). Trek was exhausting, dusty, scenic, emotional, and good. Our stake did a wonderful job creating a meaningful experience for the youth without being weird about pioneer stuff. I appreciated it greatly. Lazy R Ranch north of Boise was gorgeous. That is all I have to say tonight.

Note: this next journal entry bounces all over the trek timeline, because it was too overwhelming to write a chronological account of the trek. So I wrote the things I wanted to remember most instead. Plus I was completely sleep deprived and exhausted when I wrote it. I edited it for coherence, but left the wonky order of events.

Sunday, July 2nd: I am sitting on an airplane heading towards Denver, thumb typing on my phone--not ideal, but better than nothing. I haven't been able to write in my journal in days, because the "journal" that they gave to everyone on the trek had like half a page for actual writing, and I needed more space than that, so I waited till I could get back to typing in my Evernote journal app. I could've brought my phone on trek, but I'm kind of glad I didn't because even though I would have loved to take some pictures of the scenery and the hand cart trekkers, it was nice to fully unplug for a few days. 

After 3 nights under the stars on a tarp, we slept like the dead in our own beds last night and it was medicinal. We went to 1.5 hours of church this morning and left halfway through Sunday school to get ready for our flight. Jeff taught the first half of the Sunday school lesson and then handed it off to the other teacher. Both Jeff and the other teacher went on the trek, and they worked it out so each only had to teach for half a lesson in their post-trek tired haze. Before we left church, Jeff managed to squeeze in his final temple recommend interview too! It was about as last minute as could be, but he got it done! He's been trying to get an interview for nearly 2 months!

Rewind to sacrament testimony meeting today: several youth in our ward got up and bore their testimonies about things they learned on the trek, and it was very inspirational. I want to write all about trek, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it justice, and I don't know where to start! Right now I want to jot down a few thoughts and lessons from trek rather than outline the whole experience.

At the end of day 2 (Friday, the biggest trekking day), we gathered as a company (about 50 kids) and had a recap session where each participant took a turn to tell the group a lesson or highlight from trek, or to share their testimony. I appreciated the open-ended options for sharing because it avoided enforcing the incorrect idea that a testimony is anything you share to a church group, haha. Anyways, as I stood/sat (alternately, because my 5 gallon bucket was cramping and murdering my skeleton inch by inch) and listened to the valiant youth share their thoughts and feelings about trek, I was finally able to see the big picture, to catch the vision of the trek experience. Most of the youth were self conscious and only said a few words about trek, but even their few limited words added up in my mind until I was able to synthesize the events and experience of trek and see the meaning in it. 

Almost everyone talked about how great their trek families and Ma/Pa were, and about how hard it was to push and pull the handcarts up big hills. I remembered how we rotated pull positions in our trek family, and then the spirit taught me that this is how the Lord's church works: we all take turns rotating through positions of service in the church, and sometimes those positions are more push, other times they are more of a pull. Sometimes they are more of a supporting role in the back, other times the position is up front leading the way. I just loved this physical symbol of the importance of every member doing their part and taking their turn to push, pull, and serve where they are needed. That's what I shared that night.

One teenage girl's thought at that company gathering stood out to me. She said sometimes the kids were pushing hard or pulling hard, and other times when one of the kids was too tired to do that, the leaders told the kid to just hold on to the back of the handcart so they could keep up. She related that to life, how sometimes we have strong faith and spiritual experiences, and other times we just need to hold on until we get that strength back. It's ok to hang on and recharge between pushing harder again and building more faith. That's how we serve each other: holding space for those who need to hang on for dear life. We take turns pulling and holding on. I loved that!

Another trek highlight for me was when the youth had to pull the handcarts along a 2 mile section of trail without the Mas and Pas. The Mas and Pas hiked on ahead and waited for the youth. The hike was gorgeous, but it was almost all uphill, with a final massive long steep hill at the end at a mile high altitude. As Jeff and I hiked along, we wondered how our small family of 8 kids was going to manage this tough climb (kid #9 we were pretty sure wasn't going to do this section -- that's another story, haha). The climb winded us even without a handcart! I worried a little about the kids making it up such a challenging hill. The Mas and Pas lined the trail at the top of the hill and cheered for the kids as they crested the hill with their handcarts. Watching those kids sweat and work to get up that big hill, I felt a similar surge of emotion to how I feel at every cross country meet. It was so moving to see these kids work together to accomplish a hard physical task. At the time, I was too hot and tired and thirsty to get much more out of the experience, but later as I processed it, the more I learned. 

It was an empowering experience for the youth to accomplish that big hard thing. It was a powerful experience to watch the youth do that big hard thing together without adult help. (They did have company captains and medical staff shadowing them for safety.) Basically, I thought that whenever I wonder how my kids will survive navigating this crazy world or if they are going to be ok, I don't need to fear; I need to have faith--in God, and in my kids. They will rise to the occasion and work through their challenges, with faith and the support of good friends.

I am so glad that there were no costumes on our trek. I have never been able to get past the weirdness of hiking in costumes to see the meaning in a handcart trek, so nixing the costumes and embracing the new for the strength of youth standards removed some major barriers for me. Kids were in running shorts and tank tops, some boys were shirtless, anything worked. And the leaders did not have to police clothing choices. It fostered such a welcoming, non-judgmental spirit. I loved it. It was good to see the new FSY standards implemented well and lovingly.

Another tidbit from trek that I'm proud of is a brief five minute moment on the afternoon of day 2 (Friday). A handful of kids from other groups were sitting on our tarp in the shade, chatting (we had some of the best shade in camp that afternoon because Jeff and I were the first Ma and Pa to arrive at the camp to await the youth on their solo pull, so we shared our shady tarp with kids from other trek families). These random kids (probably age 13-ish) were trying to be funny, and they started making harsh jokes about people who are gay. Jeff and I let one slide past, but then the kid dug in and kept going, harping and scoffing at gayness with rude words about why is there a Pride month, etc. I said "that is not ok," and before I could say more, Jeff used his sharpish teacher voice and said "jokes like that are the reason we need a Pride month." There was silence on the whole tarp after that for a solid minute or two. None of the kids knew what to say, not even the kids who weren't in on the conversation. After a sizeable pause to let Jeff's words sink in, I turned to the kids we were sitting with (it was a large tarp) and said "we are an inclusive, loving family!" It felt right and good to stand up for my LGBTQ friends and hopefully teach a few kids how important it is to love all like Jesus does.

Every night, we slept outside on tarps, with Jeff and me in the middle and the girls on my side, the boys on Jeff's side. On the first night, it got WET. The thickest dew of all time descended and the temperature dropped, leaving us all miserably cold and wet. We did not get much sleep, and spent all morning drying out sleeping bags in the sun. When I went to check if my sleeping bag was dry, I saw that a bird had pooped right on top of my sleeping bag!! A gross gooey grayish white blob! I used a napkin to wipe it off. It was disgusting. Also, a new experience.

We didn't have any mud on this trek but the dust was insane. By the evening of night 2, every time I blew my nose, it came out black and dirty. This morning before church, Rose said "when I blew my nose this morning, it didn't have dirt in it!" Hah, we were filthy. My fingernails are still recovering. How did dirt burrow that far into the edges of my nails? My feet were even worse before my shower. 

We had a quiet 12 year old in our trek family who was not prepared for the trek at all physically. But they completely gave up less than a mile into our first day on the trail! First she said she felt sick. Then a few steps later she said her stomach hurt. Then she sat down and just wouldn't budge. She didn't show any outward signs of physical distress; she just refused to continue onward. Thankfully we had the medical guy on his mountain bike right behind us (we were the last handcart in the whole stake on day 1). He stayed with us and tried lots of things, but this kid wouldn't really tell us what the matter was; she just sat there and stared. It was insanely frustrating, concerning, and strange! I have dealt with a lot of reluctant kids in my 5 years of coaching, but this was a new one. At last the 4 wheeler came and hauled her off. I jogged on ahead and caught up to my family pretty easily in time to help them go down a scary steep hill through a creek and up to the lunch area. The downhill was harder than the uphill! Every muscle flexed and strained to hold the cart steady so it didn't flip, run away, or crash. I was surprised at how challenging it was! But we made it, and it felt amazing to succeed at an actual challenge! 

Jay and Rose visited Jeff and me about once a day on trek, and I was happy to see that they were having a good experience. This was Rose's first overnight church event as a youth, and she loved it!

Our ward trek crew in the church parking lot before departure--leaders and youth.

It was a lonnnnnng bouncy gravel drive up to the Lazy R Ranch, but the scenery got prettier and prettier.

The ranch had some Montana vibes, even though it was in the middle of nowhere Idaho north of Boise.

The dust got thicker the longer we drove.

Post trek picture of my dusty kids!

Family picture! A kind short lady offered to take this picture for us. I was hoping to get more of a handcart in the background, haha, but here we are.

So. Tired. The seats in our minivan felt like plush thrones after all that time spent sitting on those 5 gallon buckets.

All of our feet looked like Rose's toes when we got home.

I borrowed a few pictures that my neighbor Jory took at trek, for photographic context:

The entire group of trekkers, including most leaders. They had the hoedown dance in that barn on the first night.

A long line of handcarts. It was a beautiful setting and the weather was clear.

Here's our cute trek family. Across the front of the handcart: Kaylynn, Jacob, Russell, and Isaac. Jeff and I walked behind the handcart, but this may have been taken when we weren't there, during the youth-only portion.

This is Rose's family finishing the trek (arriving at "Zion"). Rose is in the white shirt and navy shorts on the right back side of the handcart (closest to the camera). Each trek family hoisted their family banner and ran the handcart to the Zion finish line. It was part endurance race vibe, part religious moment.