26 June – We had a great P-Day down in the valley……accomplished all our errands and wound up with dinner at Royan’s and all the kids in attendance.
I think we’re spoiled. The air up here is so clear and clean, the sky so blue – not so in the valley. But one thing that did look strange to us was the shade in the back yard. Shade? What’s that? Grin.
27 June – Another trek arrives. It’ll be a busy few days!!!!! Then we have a Sunday day of rest and back at it early Monday morning. The treks are coming on Monday next week, because of the 4th of July. So, it’ll be the 4th before we see a break.
One thing we have learned – no trek ever goes as planned. There are always wrinkles and happenings that change the plans. I think Heavenly Father gets a chuckle out of turning over apple carts.
I’ve begun a collection of posies. I find a nice specimen of a flower, press it, fasten it on a piece of card stock, ID the specimen and put the page in a binder.
29 June – Our trek from Bountiful left yesterday. There were some real uplifting stories we were blessed to know that came out of this trek. One girl decided she was going home after the first day of trek. After much effort, the leaders were unable to reach her mother. Shortly after they gave the girl the info, she chose to join in the fun at hoedown night the group’s second night. From then on she basically participated, finished the trek and had a good experience.
The second story is of a young lad whom Ted (one of the support crew) had taught in Sunday School. The lad moved out of the stake a while back, but Ted encouraged him to come back for the trek. Ted is a real outdoorsman, straight forward and very friendly (super combination for teaching teenagers). Ted repeatedly asks former trekkers to come into his class to read a portion of their trek journals in an effort to encourage his class to go on the next trek. Without exception the former trekker will break down in the midst of reading their trek journal. The experiences they had are still so strong even years after.
The first evening, Ted walked into the medical tent where the young lad was receiving treatment for blisters (or something similarly minor). The lad pointed his finger at Ted and with great excitement said, “I had one of those things today!!!!!”
Ted inquired what he meant by the comment. The lad said, “Like the trekkers read out of their journals.” Ted verified that the youth meant a spiritual experience while on trek. The lad proceeded to tell of his ‘thing’ that had happened. Everyone in the tent was thrilled with his story. We were all so glad to hear the lad had had ‘one of those things’ and, in the end, knew what to call it.
Every night, after we come home to our camp, we go down to the depot to shower. I count my blessings I can take a hot shower while I think of ‘our’ trekkers out there in the sage brush, dust, covered with sweat and dust from the day’s trek and nothing more than a wash rag and cold water to clean up with. I count my blessings again and think showering will never again be the same. It’s one of those things we so much take for granted that is really such a great blessing.
We had a fancy dance on Saturday – Arnold and I had to be in so many places at once – but we thought, talked and organized until we covered the bases!! We had three things going almost simultaneously…..a Ma & Pa training followed by a route review, a three day trek leaving, and a rental coming to pick up hand carts for a training elsewhere.
With the Ma & Pa training, I was able to do a little sharing of ideas how they can use their handcarts to create shelters in bad weather. It was heartening to see how they ‘practiced’ and ‘created’ using the suggestions during their training. Maybe I helped them learn how to keep their kids dry during a sudden summer thunderstorm.
Later at the route review, I explained how every stake did their trek differently, but in the end the results came out the same – the kids and support crew had a great experience that worked for their group. I told them, “You bring them in the gate and the Lord takes over and makes it all work.” That is exactly what we’ve seen happening. The ‘trail boss’ was greatly relieved to hear that. He’s been losing sleep worrying about the outcome. Evidently this group hasn’t done a trek before.
I may have told you this story before, but it bears repeating. Once in years past a Stake President came on trek – the first for their stake – and, upon arriving, he informed the missionaries, “This is WAY TOO MUCH work. We’ll never do this again.” At the end of trek this same Stake President admitted, “I’ll do anything & everything to bring our kids back again.” It’s absolutely amazing what happens out here!
I had the opportunity to meet the ranch’s wild life manager the other day. I was able to discover what one of the birds we’d seen was called. It was a big hawk or eagle, dark colored with a white tail. It didn’t exactly fit being a bald eagle or a golden eagle. He explained to me that what I’d seen was one of the color phases of the Ferruginous Hawk (that’s fur-rue-gin-us with the emphasis on the rue). He also told me where I could see their nests. Over the years, the hawks have built three nests on top of some rocks and have used these same nests for several years – they just rotate from one to the other as the years pass. One of these days, I’m going to walk out there and take a look through my nocks (from a distance so I don’t disturb them).
Every trek we do, we grow to love the people we work with and I miss them when they leave. They are such hard working, dedicated folks. In our last trek, one couple were the cooks for a group of 150. They organized, developed the recipes, purchased and dispensed the food for the whole group. Most of the time, the food was divided and sent out to the ‘families’ to cook for themselves. But the for the group’s first camp, they two of them cooked dinner for the whole 150 of them.
29 June – Another Sabbath/day of rest. It was SO BUSY this week, we were both so fatigued that we napped (off and on) through church today. I guess that’s OK. We were where we were supposed to be, trying to do what we’re supposed to do and naps are a permissible activity on Sunday. GRIN!!!
1 July – Another trek came in yesterday. Most of their route is cross country and Arnold and I have decided not to turn them loose in places they cannot follow a road. Arnold walked the whole way (save 1 mile) with them. His feet hurt when he was through. We figured he walked 12 miles with the trek yesterday.
In the afternoon after spotting the potties & water, I walked out to meet the trek. Good thing I did cuz they had a couple medical emergencies (heat related) out in the boonies. Since I was out there, I was able to guide the medical truck to the patients. I also walked down from the top of Lake Ridge to the bottom of Crane to witness their women’s pull. They dallied along the way so they didn’t arrive at the women’s pull spot until just after sunset. Most of the pull took place in the almost dark. It was awesome, none the less.
I watched two little 12 year old girls, pulling on the front of the cart and three more pushing on the back. And they were getting the cart up the hill somehow. Amazing, brings tears to the eyes watching them struggle, but keep on going and not giving up.
The group is safely camped not far from the Depot (just a couple miles) and will remain there tonight and tomorrow night. No trekking tomorrow. So we’ll kind of have the day off, other than to check up on them. Then on Thursday we’ll trek them out to go home. I’m going to walk part of the way and Arnold will take the other part. I have found, I’m more comfortable standing than sitting so I might as well be walking. Sitting seems to scrunch the surgery area.
Today I found a patch of Sego Lillies in bloom. I’ve always wanted to see the real thing not just a picture. Now I have!!!
Took some pictures, too, so I can remember.
We have been blessed with lovely, puffy clouds the last several days. And, in the distance, superb thunderheads. They lend a little shade as they pass over and greatly enhance the views. One of the support people with this trek has so enjoyed taking photos of the grand views we have from the tops of the ridges. He has remarked that the clouds have made his photos so much better.
One of the youth on this trek is very small (either dwarf or midget). She has a hard time keeping up with the rest of them – she must make three steps to their one. As a result the “family” she is with, got creative and made a seat across the cart yoke right at the front of their handcart, cushioned it with a sleeping bag and let her ride some of the time. What a great example of everyone working as a whole to make the best of it for all of them. What a grand example of taking care of one’s family members.
That same little girl bore her testimony the last night of trek. She told how her mother died of cancer when she was seven.
And how she had the blessing of feeling her mother with her helping during the women’s pull. Wonderful, wonderful!!!!
This group had such a great testimony meeting!!!!! I think, if the leaders had let it run past midnight (they started before sundown), that in the end all the kids would have born their testimonies. There was a huge line all during the several hours of testimony meeting. Many told how they didn’t want to come in the first place and how thankful they were they had come. Several told of them told about this being their second trek (they first came when they were 12) and how much more they learned this time than last.
One lad told of how he felt this land was dedicated (it is owned by the church). And how much he felt the peace and spirit out here. The next day the leaders were expressing the same thing. I’m so glad others have felt what I feel when I enter the gate to the property. It is SO VERY peaceful out here.
Last night (3am ish) the wind drift was from the south east. I could hear the rumble of the trains going by several miles away. It sounded just like a vehicle going by on the road near camp. I was worried one of our treks had an emergency and had to take someone to the hospital, so I got up to look and realized it was the trains, not somebody on the road. How thankful I was, that it wasn’t a vehicle on the road that our treks were all sleeping peacefully in their camps.
The leaders on this trek were such super neat people. The support crew is always neat on all the treks, but this one seemed more so than most.
This morning, Arnold walked with the trek part way and I walked the rest of the way. One of the women groused about the walk, “I thought this was only four miles.” (Distance up here is quite easily miss guessed) Later I had a chance to tell her how thankful I was that I could walk the distance with them. Four years ago, I could barely walk around the block – now I can hike and backpack. Two weeks ago I was in the hospital – now I’m able to trek for short distances. How thankful and grateful I am that I can!!!!!!!
At the end of the trek one of the carts was having real difficulty with blistered feet, heat and dehydration. They lagged way behind the group. We almost had to send the medical truck in to ‘rescue’ them.
The rest of the group had all arrived at trail’s end. One of the leaders asked for volunteers to send some ‘valley boys’ back to ‘rescue’ the lagging cart. Several of the boys actually ran back up the hill (almost a quarter mile) to assist the cart. After three days of trekking they RAN!!!! Amazing!!!! One of the lads put the girl with the blistered feet on his back and carried her piggy back all the way in. The rest of the group lined the road on either side and cheered them home. Amazing bunch of kids!!!
4 July – This morning we had a ceremony by our flag pole in honor of the day. Brent, Emily, Kiley & Ben arrived this afternoon. They joined all the missionaries for a big pot luck in the ‘pavillion.’ The Hawks conducted a flag retiring ceremony during our pot luck for the old flag that was flown over the missionary camp last year. Later in the evening Kiley and I made flower pictures out of some of the pressed flowers I have collected.
5 July – Brent, Em, the kids and the two of us went down to Fox Hollow to ‘trek.’ We took water and some lunch along. We trekked up over the ridge out of Fox Hollow, down into the bottom then up another ridge where we stopped and had some lunch.
Then we turned around and trekked back again. Ben rode in the cart some of the time and some of the time he went exploring out in the sage. We saw lots and lots of Sego Lillies while we were trekking.
6 July – Today the whole family attended church together before Brent, Em & the kids headed home. Sure was good to see them and fun to go trekking with them!!!! Arnold says, “I sure have a heap more respect for the kids who pull the carts. Our cart was basically empty (save for a bag of food water & Ben) and it wasn’t easy to pull up a hill.”
This next week, we look forward to seeing Enoch and family for a couple days, then Royan & Marilyn will visit for a couple days.
Next weekend is the Payson Games. It’ll be the first year I’ve not been involved for well over a decade – nearly two perhaps. Sure hope all goes well for them!!! I’ll miss seeing all my friends who attend!!!!!!
Love & Laughter
Arnold & Syd
