Munchkin Land: Trek Day 3 & 4

When we woke up on the third day, we knew it was going to be the most difficult day of the trek. In the previous two days we had only walked a total of 11-12 miles and today we would be walking 12-13 miles. Because of the rain the night before, our Ma and Pa meeting got moved to before breakfast and in the meeting we found out that even though there were no rain clouds in the sky, we would all be wet by the end of the day. The rain storms had flooded the trail and there were going to be spots were trekers would be walking in knee deep water. That was a delight to one of our boys, Glenn, who couldn't wait for the river crossing but didn't sound like fun to the rest of them.

It didn't take long for the water and mud to become a factor. Less than a mile outside of camp there was a half mile stretch where the trail was covered in mud, mud, and more mud. Jen and I were able to walk off of the trail a little bit to avoid it but we still could not escape it all. One of our girls, Shelby, had gotten hurt the day before and tried to tough it out but after we all had to leap over a small stream that ran across the trail, she gave up and had to ride in the cart. Now by this time our kids had spent two straight days in the rain, slept on hard ground, and walked more miles in two days than they would normally have walked in an entire week. Needless to say tempers were beginning to grow and our kids were beginning to fight like a real family. No feelings were hurt and when they all started noticing it, they all laughed about it. We even had a crash while crossing a creek that ended up throwing our lunch into the water and pinning one of our girls, Sydney, under the handle bar.

She was hurt and a little upset but she soon joined us when she was ready. Now the purpose of this long day was to give the kids a little taste of what a normal day for the pioneers was like. On average the handcart companies travel 20-25 miles a day. We were asking the kids to do only half of that and by the end of it, they were walking with humble hearts.

The first two days were dedicated to Martin's Cove and the Martin handcart company and these last two days were dedicated to the Sixth Crossing and the Willie handcart company. When the pioneers traveled from Iowa City to Salt Lake they had to cross the Sweetwater River many times. When the Willie handcart company arrived at the Sixth and final crossing of the river, they had just ran out of there food rations and were too weak to cross the river on their own. They had received word from messengers that rescuers were on their way and decided to wait for them in a meadow on the east side of the river. Our trek took us to this very meadow were we listen to stories of the Willie company and ate lunch in the exact spot where these men and women were rescued. It was a tremendous experience and I could only imagine how these people must have felt when they looked to the west and saw rescue wagons coming over the hill.

Soon after it began to rain again and we sent our boys off for the Mormon Battalion and let the young women participate in the women's pull. They tried to get me to go with all of the men but I stuck around because our girls were in pretty bad shape. Shelby was still riding in the cart, Sydney had just gotten run over by the cart, Nikki was feeling very tired and Jen was 4 months pregnant and starting to feel the effects of the hike. The stake young womens president gave the girls a talk and then they began to pull up the toughest part of the trail. I thought I was going to have to jump in but they did great and pulled it the whole way up they hill. When they reached the top, the men were divided on either side of the trail and watch in respectful silence as their sisters and mothers pulled their carts. When we were reunited there was equal respect from both the young men and women.

Our next big thing which ended up being the most spiritual experience of the trek for me was the river crossing. After having a little presentation from the missionaries while we all got ATTACKED by hundreds of mosquitoes, those of us that wanted to were able to cross the river. Those who didn't want to were able to cross a bridge with the handcarts. Now as Jen has mentioned, once we were called to be Ma and Pa, I really got into researching and learning a lot about these pioneers and by far the stories that touched me the most were the stories of the multiple river crossings done by the handcart companies. These people had barely enough clothes on to stay modest, let alone protect them from the bitter cold weather and they were asked to cross ice cold waters that were sometimes chin deep. Now even thought it was June, it had been raining all week so the current was strong and the water was colder than I expected it to be. I did have a funny moment though when I saw our friend Ned Knight line up to cross the river but when he saw Joe Ellis, a rather tall man, go in ahead of him and have the river come up to his chest, Ned immediately turned around and headed away from the river. It turned out he just wanted to cross without his backpack but it was pretty funny thinking he had wimped out. When I got in the river the rush of the cold temperature shook my whole body. It seriously was the coldest water I had felt since those early mourning showers in Brazil. I took a minute to steady myself and began to walk across. Now I had given Jen the camera so we could get a good photo opp out of this one but once I was in the water, all I could think about was those pioneers and I just wanted to take this time to thank Heavenly Father for giving me this wonderful experience.

Matt in the middle with the suspenders

Jen said she kept waiting for me to look at her but I just couldn't. The cold water stopped the tears from flowing but it didn't stop me from understanding just a little of the pain and suffering those pioneers went through to follow the words of the prophet and head to Zion. All in all we had 4 members of our family cross the river, Glenn, Sterling, Sydney and Me. We were all wet walking back to camp but when we got there we knew we would have dry clothes unlike many of the pioneers who would die because they had no extra clothes.

On our way back to camp, Jen and I fell back from the pack. We were some of the last to finish but we finished. Neither one of us ended up in a cart and we walked what we found out later to be 25 miles in three days. It was an amazing experience and we finished the day off in our warm pajamas, ate dinner, had a wonderful testimony meeting and met up with our kids for one finally family talk. In our family meeting, I asked each kid to share one lesson they had learned from the last three days. Then we all said a pray, hugged and went to bed. Well we went to bed, the kids all stayed up in their tents and in fact someone had to get up at 2:00am and tell all the kids to be quiet and go to sleep.

The next mourning we woke up, packed up, had pancakes for breakfast and got on the buses to head home. When we got back to the stake center we found all of our stuff and headed back to my parents house for the best part of our trip, coming home to see the munchkin. He seemed exited to see us and my dad told me he had been walking around the whole house, even sticking his head under the bed, calling "Dad, Dad" that mourning.