Trek!

This weekend, 75 people from my neighborhood did a pioneer trek reenactment. In Charleston, they were always doing Civil War reenactments; out here, they reenact pioneers crossing the plains. It's a popular youth group event, only in our case, it was whole families--some older people, little kids, pregnant women (I have no idea how they did this, or how they had more energy than me!), etc. We did not dress up in period clothes, but we did load all our stuff on handcarts and pull them to each campsite. Back in the day, a lot of people who wanted to come West didn't have money to buy big wagons and oxen, so Brigham Young got the idea to make small handcarts and have the people themselves pull them. All I can say is that the ones who survived showed up pretty ripped at the end, because that uses muscles I had no idea even EXISTED. It was physically the hardest thing I've ever done, and I'm glad we did it. It made me appreciate both my ancestors who came to Idaho as pioneers (not with handcarts, luckily--just wagons and feet) and also my neighbors who were so quick to jump in and help pull when my husband had to run off every so often and teach class. Even though we didn't dress up, we would come to planted crosses now and then where someone's wagon would be drawn at random and they'd be affected--someone had a baby, and they had to take care of it. One kid got hit by lighting and couldn't talk until dinnertime. Someone would die or have to go war (Mexican-American war), leaving the cart short a puller. Etc. So there was plenty to remind us what it was really like, despite the (contraband) cell phones that just might have been along.

The kids had a FABULOUS time. Yes, it was hard work pulling the handcarts to each day's new camp site (6 miles the first day, nearly 8 the second, and 4 today). But we were in the most beautiful forest, all aspen and pine and wildflowers and loose, clear groundcover. Kids of all ages were running around playing together, and at night they sat around the fire playing things like Mafia and talking. It was like I imagine large camping family reunions to be like. (My husband has many pictures of that sort of thing growing up. We, on the other hand, were not a Big Camping Reunion sort of family.)

Now to the cleanup, which is intense! But I am looking forward to spending some time in a real bed, too. :)

Some pix of the area: