Trek

Our Trek family-

Front row: Ashley Funk, Sidney Toone, Drew Hawkins, Braden Roberts, Ma Nelson.

Back Row: Jaden Petersen, Jay Mattinson, Dalton Burdick, Pa Nelson

After four months of preparation, meetings with other leaders and meetings and activities with our family, Trek finally came. Our family consisted of Randy and me, five handsome and hard working boys and two beautiful and fun girls. These kids were awesome. They pushed and pulled that handcart 17 miles the first day, 10 miles the second day and 8 miles the last day. They did everything we asked them to do and then some. We couldn't have asked for more respectful, kind, or hard working kids. Each ward rode in a chartered school bus to the base camp at Deseret Land and Livestock. It is a huge ( almost 700 square miles) cattle ranch owned by the church. At any given time there can be multiple stakes participating in a Trek. There were three stakes there with us and we got a glimpse of one in the distance on the last day.
If I had known how far we were going to walk, I would have said that I could not do it. But once you get going, there is no turning back. There were over 500 people in our trek all strung out across the prairie and the only thing to do was to keep on walking as fast as I could to keep up with my family. We started walking about 11:00 a.m., following a gravel road for most of the afternoon. The road was a mixture of ups and downs. The kids soon came up with a strategy for each one. If we were going up a hill, the boys liked to get a running start and blast up the hill. If we were going downhill, the two little boys would hold onto ropes tied to the back and drag their feet to slow the cart down. It was hot, sweaty, and dirty work, but we made good time.

It was an awesome experience. I wouldn't say that it was fun but it was definitely worth it!