I awoke to the sun, and saw some people moving around. I got up and found out it was 6:45 am. We had a Ma and Pa meeting at 7, so I got up and ready and woke Kevin up. We had our meeting, and found out it was about 40 degrees that morning. We were informed of the days events, and what was to come. The different trials they were going to put the kids through, including starting the day with only bread and jam. We got back to our camp and woke our kids up. Each day we assigned a head boy and girl. They were in charge of getting meals, heading up the wagon, and the other details of the day.

The kids went to retrieve breakfast while the others started taking down our camp. They came back with bread, butter, and jelly. They couldn’t believe that’s all they were getting (We knew this wasn’t their real breakfast). Kevin cracked open his smuggled can of soda in front of all of them, so as a peace offering, we gave them each a chocolate Hershey bar. So they did get a little more than others that morning.

Our company was set to set off 2nd that day at 9 am. We thought it would warm up as we started walking, so we put our coats in the wagon. Big mistake. We were freezing the entire morning, but didn’t want to have to untie our wagon to get our coats. This probably did not help out my sickness.

The road was as rocky as a river bed, which made the carts difficult to pull, and even harder to walk on. We kept having to stop and wait for others in the company as wagon wheels broke. One family in our company had 3 brakes by lunchtime, one wheel broke twice. After about 2 miles, we came up to a stop where we learned about the food the pioneers ate. A few stories were told, one being about a man who would sleep with his family’s provisions under his pillow. In the middle of the night, he felt a hand reach under his pillow. He told the man that if he were to take food from the mouths of his children, then he would not live to see Zion. That night, the man who tried to steal the food passed away. The pioneers faced many trials, and food was scarce. Once the stories were told, the kids were told to walk over to the trees, and their hot sausage mcmuffins were waiting for them.  The point was made about how the pioneers had to pull the carts on empty stomachs, but these kids did not sign up for a starvation trek, and neither did I.

The funny part was we knew about this stop, so about a half mile before, Kevin started talking to the kids about how good a McMuffin from McDonald’s sounds. He talked about the dripping bacon and hot sausage with melted cheese. He got them all worked up, till the kids were telling him to be quite about food. So after the stories were told and they were given  their hot mcmuffins, they all turned to Kevin yelling, “You knew!’ Of coarse we knew. We just laughed at them.

We continued on a few more miles, and came upon an “Indian.” She told stories of how the Indians would help the pioneers, and entertain them. Sometimes, the worst would happen, but usually, there was friendly interactions. She gave directions speaking her “native language” and had a translator relate where our direction were to go. (It was really funny, because I know her, and she was speaking Romanian.) She would also give a 30 second direction, and then the translation would be 2 words. The kids loved it.

She directed us to a pond that we had to cross. It was about 20×30 ft of snow run off water. There, they told the story of the 3 teenage boys who helped carry the whole Martin company across the icy river…

In October 1856, Brigham Young learned they were in deep trouble. The semi-annual conference was about to begin, so during the conference, he asked for volunteers to form a rescue party. The rescuers found them, bringing food and help. However, by the time they reached the Sweetwater River, the people in the Martin Handcart Company were very weak from having been hungry and cold for so long. The very deep, wide, and icy cold river was more than they could handle and they were afraid their journey would end right there, because they weren’t strong enough to cross it. Three teenage boys from the rescue party, George W. Grant, David P. Kimball, and C. Allen Huntington, took matters into their own hands and decided to carry people across. Those three boys carried almost every member of the handcart company themselves. However, this came with a price, as heroism often does. They became quite ill themselves from the strain and the challenges of spending so much time in icy water with heavy loads. Eventually—years after their heroic actions—they all died from complications of that day of heroism. Brigham Young was moved by their sacrifice and cried when he learned what they’d done.

Two of our girls decided to walk around the water. One had finally gotten warm, and didn’t want to freeze in the water, the other was a pretty small girl who would have been waist deep in the water. They helped me collect the shoes of those pulling the cart through the water, and we walked around. Last minute, Kevin jumped in to help the kids with the cart. We were told we had the fasted cart through the water, which resulted in one of our girls becoming drenched. She was basically pushed by the cart through the water.

Peter did not have a drop of water on his pants. I can’t believe he got them up that high.

We made it out of the water and continued on till lunch. It wasn’t much further, and the kids were all hyped from the water crossing. We didn’t have that long at lunch, because we were behind schedule. We were actually the last to leave lunch, because we had to unpack and get something out of the wagon for one of the girls. We hike for a few miles, and then met another leader. They explained how along the trail, the men were often taken away for different reasons, and the women were left to pull the cart. The men were sometimes called to serve missions, had to hunt, died, and other reasons that left the women alone.

At that point, the boys were taken off on their own hike, and us girls were left. The Stake Young Women’s President spoke to the girls about the strength women showed along the trail, and after they arrived to Salt Lake. She told a story of a young woman who’s father was called to Settle “The Muddy” (which was actually the Las Vegas valley if I remember right). She cried, and her friend asked why? She said that their fathers had just been called to go to “The Muddy.” The friend replied, “Yes, but why cry? My father will never go.” The girl replied, “But my father will, and I should not call him father if he didn’t.” Or something along those lines. What respect this girl had for her father and his mission call.

I think the girls pulled the hardest part of the whole day. I grabbed one of the boy’s gloves before he left, and the girls were surprised I was going to help. I hadn’t helped them up until this point. I didn’t feel like my help is necessarily needed when there is 8 of them, and now there was only 4. Most of the trail up until this point was relatively flat, just bumpy. While just the girls were pulling, we actually faced a few hills. It was not the easiest, but the girls were tough, and didn’t complain. The boys joined us after 2 miles on a steady incline. They walked silently beside us for about .5 mile. Some of the boys took their hats off to show respect to the girls. They had been given a talk about missionary work. We finally reached “Independence Rock” and were given fresh cold oranges. From there, it was just the 2 mile trek home. In all, the kids pulled about 10-11 miles that day.

We all signed the Rock.

We got back into camp, and had to find a new place to set up. We had one base location, but each night they switched the area we were supposed to camp in. We built a better tent that night, in hopes to stay warmer. There was a burn ban, so we could only heat the coals to cook our food, and then had to put them out. We were freezing. We made our dinner, and then it was time for the Ho Down. The kids were tired, and really didn’t want to go, but after telling them there was no choice, they all had a good time. One of our boys even ended up serenading the crowd at the after party.

There was an array of desserts for everyone, and dust caked the air. We collected our kids, and around 10 pm, made it back to camp. We even had a few extras we had to kick out. That night, I slept much better, but I’m pretty sure the exhaustion had set in.