First Leg of the Trek

We began the first leg of our trek around one'ish. In keeping with the time of the handcart pioneers we were asked not to bring ipods, cellphones and other electronic paraphenilia (digital cameras were ok). It seems a lot of us took this to heart and didn't wear any watches, hence, all times are calculated guestimates. We hiked for about 2 1/2 miles with intermittent breaks. We wanted to make sure that we took care of any hot spots on feet and also stopped frequently and drank water.

At that point we reached a creek bed that we had to cross. It had a wooden bridge that spanned the creek but there was a very steep and sandy bank leading to and away from the bridge. Each company (a group of 3 families) had their young men work together for this portion.












Afterwards we had a long steady incline that took us on top of a bluff. The picture shows the front of the train waiting for us. We were scheduled to take a 1 hour snack and bathroom break on top of the bluff, but we were at the back of the handcart train and by the time we caught up with the front we only had about 10 minutes left. This was mainly due to the fact that when one handcart stopped - to wrap a sore foot or to relash gear - everyone behind stopped as well (I'm sure this was a common occurence with our pioneer ancestors). Our family was awesome though and raring to go. Later that same day we were put at the front of the train and all agreed that it was much nicer to set the pace than to be ruled by the whims of those in front of us. The kids were so enthusiastic and strong! Big brother Aaron kept us all singing- we called him our juke box!


I took these pictures as the kids were pulling up a long incline. They had other things on their mind besides posing for the camera. Kids- sorry if they aren't the most flattering.