DJ by Night; Pioneer by Day ... Part 2

Continued from last entry. This is Part Two of my experience at the Sierra Vista Youth Conference. If you want to read about my first DJ experience, scroll down and see the post below.

On Saturday morning (19 Sept), I woke up at 4:30 in the AM to get ready, put on my Pioneer costume, gather my things, and meet my ride at 5:30. We traveled the 30 minutes to the trek starting point where we set up and got ready for the youth to start to arrive at 7am.

The theme for the Youth Conference was "Finding Joy in the Journey". One of the youth in the stake drew the design for the T-Shirt. I think it turned out really good. It focuses on our personal journey to the Temple and all that stands for.

As promised, here are a couple pictures of me in my Pioneer outfit:

Check out my bloomers! These babies saved me from the bugs, from all the low hanging branches of trees and bushes, and most of all, from chaffing. :o) What a good investment!!!! (I bought them online...along with the apron...from White Elegance).

I was put in charge of checking in the youth and telling them what "family" they belong to. We divided all the youth into 12 different families. The Ma's and Pa's in the different families were assigned a family name and story from a real pioneer family who trekked across the United States to Salt Lake City. During our little 8 mile hike, those Ma's and Pa's would share the experiences of their assigned family and help the youth to understand (in a small way) what the early Saints went through as they pulled handcarts, or guided ox or horse-drawn wagons across the plains.

Here is a picture of me checking in some of the youth. I think I was trying to find a Ma and Pa for one of the young women. It looks like I am concentrating hard. Plus the sun was bright and I was squinting. This is one of the only pictures of me without my bonnet on. I tried to keep the bonnet on most of the day because it saved my face from the sun. Thank you, Jessica, for letting me borrow your bonnet! No sunburns for me, thanks to you!

Notice my bun...yes... I tried to be authentic (but with cool and comfortable shoes).

After everyone was at the starting point and assigned to a family, the families had breakfast together, built their handcart, and played some Getting To Know You games. During the trek they were going to be really close, so they had to break the ice a bit. Pancakes and Bacon were on the menu that morning.

Then we were off...

It was my assignment to take pictures of the trek. I took TONS of pictures. But the trick was getting the shots of the front of the handcart train and everyone down the line until the end, and THEN getting to the front again. Honestly, I was a little afraid before I went that I would be stuck in the back of the train and only be able to pass everyone during water breaks or food breaks. But that was NOT the case. I was able to run (that's right...I said RUN and I mean literally) around the moving handcart train. And multiple times. Even at the end of the day I was still running. It was actually really fun and very exhilarating. I didn't realize how in shape I really am. Those stairs are really paying off (I'm up to over 500 stairs a day for 5 days a week). When we were planning for this trek, we had a doctor advise us about safety on the trail. One of the things he stressed was to pay attention to the heavier hikers. They are the ones who would get dehydrated fastest or have more problems during the trek. I was in on the planning, of course, so I was aware of that. On the trail, I made sure I always had water with me. When I was out of water in my bottle, I would fill up at the ox-drawn wagon, or at the other handcarts, and then I was off running again. I was never dehydrated, even though the day was REALLY hot and I was sweating like a pig! When the trek first started, the other leaders would ask me how I was doing and if I was getting enough water, but after a while when they saw me going this way and that, running to and fro, while performing my duties, plus being a messenger for the ox cart to the main body, the leaders stopped asking about me. Haha!

Because I was running back and forth from the top of the handcart train to the back and then to the front again, and also running between the ox-cart and the main body (the ox cart was a lot slower than the rest of the train), I think I went about 10 to 11 miles instead of the 8 that was mapped out. And I think I ran about 4 to 5 of those miles (but not consecutively). I've never run so much in my life! And I was not dead tired at the end of the day, my feet didn't hurt (that bad), I was still hydrated. In fact, I was ready to go again. Though, I have to say that Sunday I CRASHED and I had to take Monday off work because I had a bit of a stomach ache (though I would normally go to work with that), but I was still so DOG TIRED that I felt I needed to continue to sleep. I accomplished NOTHING that day, but I did get some good naps in.

On Sunday, I noticed I did have three blisters on my feet, though none of them hurt at all. One on the side under some calluses, and the other two under my toe nails of my longest toe on both feet. I think my socks did that to me. I forgot to clip my nails before the trek, so the sock kept pushing on my nail until a blood blister formed underneath it. It doesn't hurt...it just looks nasty. I may even lose my nails...I hope not. But I learned a valuable lesson! Always clip your toenails before going on long hikes or runs.

I am actually surprised I was not more injured. I had no sore muscles, I was not sunburned, and my feet did not hurt at all. I felt really good, but just really tired.

But I digress...Back to the Trek...

The terrain was so vast and different through those eight miles.

We had hills...

And valleys...

Sand...

And rocks...

Brush and flowers...

Mesquite trees...

Open Terrain...


Complete Tree Coverage...

We had lunch in a thicket of trees...

Lunch consisted of apples, hard tack, biscuits, trail mix, jerky, and Gatorade. Things we could bring with us that didn't need cooking. I usually can't stand jerky, but at that time, that jerky was SO GOOD! And the warm apples were TO DIE FOR. The hard tack was AMAZING. The biscuits were TOO YUMMY! And the trail mix PUSHED ME OVER THE EDGE, even with raisins (which I usually cannot stand). EVERYTHING was so good. It almost seemed like the best meal of the day to that point. Kind of funny how pushing yourself really hard and traveling some distance can change your taste buds. When you are really hungry, everything tastes good.

We played games in a Ghost town...

The boys were called to be in the Mormon Battalion...

The girls had to pull their handcart by themselves...

The we joined forces again to finish the trek...

Finally we arrived at our destination: another Ghost town (Fairbank).

The youth took apart their handcarts and we as the Stake Young Women leaders (minus one who couldn't hike because of bad knees) celebrated the fact we made it.

At Fairbank, we had dinner (BBQ pork, potato salad, beans, and rolls. For dessert: berry cobbler cooked in dutch ovens. Mmmmm!!!). That was the best meal of the day...SO GOOD! We also had a slide show. Once we arrived at the destination, and while the youth were taking apart the handcarts, I had to run, set up my computer, hook it up to the projector, download all my pictures from my camera to my external hard drive, get the pictures from the other two cameras onto my hard drive, and start putting the pictures into the slide show template of nearly 100 slides (a counselor in the Young Men's presidency put the template together before the trek). It took a lot longer than we expected. By the time I finished, all the youth had eaten dinner, finished their dessert, and still waited about 10 minutes for the closing session to start. Whoops! I am a little slow sometimes; downside of being a perfectionist. I think the slide show was a good way to wrap up the day. After the slide show and a talk from our Stake President, we cleaned up and headed home.

Random Pictures of Me...

Here are some pictures I took of my shadow. One of me walking, and one of me riding a horse.


At one point my ankle started hurting, and one of the horseback riders took pity on my. I rode for about 10 minutes. Then at that next stop, someone gave me a pain pill. Once it took affect, my ankle was fine and I started running around again. It never hurt again. I think it was a muscle that was spasming and when I took that pill with a little anti-inflammatory, it settled down and was fine for the rest of the trip.

And here are some other random pictures of me along the trail taken by the other cameras:

Play "Where's Waldo" with this picture. I'm in there somewhere.

What a fun day! It was my first Pioneer Trek, and I absolutely loved it. I hope I have an occasion to go again.

If you ever have the opportunity...I highly recommend it!