We met at 4:30 AM on Wednesday to go. Here we are, still looking clean (if maybe not terribly wide awake).
At around noon our busses arrived at the middle of nowhere, somewhere near the Utah/Wyoming border. We unloaded all the gear and packed it on handcarts.
Here is our cart, all packed up and ready go go. We had a 35-gallon tote full of common gear (cooking stove, pots, pans, first aid kit, etc.), two 5-gallon water jugs, and a 5-gallon bucket of personal gear and a sleeping bag for each person. The tents and food were carried on separate vehicles.
If you look closely, you'll notice our cart has water pouring from it. It turns out water jugs leak badly when they aren't upright. We soon learned to keep the cart level when "parked" to keep from losing water.
Our "family" flag, flying in the breeze.
Yumiko, decked out in her pioneer duds.
Here's our group, ready to hit the trail.
And we're off, hiking across the plains of the western U.S.
Most of the trail was fairly flat, but we did run into a few hills that required more work to get up (or down).
Yumiko thoroughly enjoyed herself.
In one sense, the activity might seem a bit pointless; the real pioneers walked across the plains because the wanted to get somewhere and walking was the only way to get where they were going. We, on the other hand, were walking around in a big circle just for the experience of it.
But, it was a good to experience a bit of what the pioneers did. It's one thing to read about crossing the plains or pushing a handcart. It's quite another to actually try it. I think I understand a lot better now what it might have been like.
Of course, we had solidly built carts with iron axles and iron-rimmed wheels; sturdy, well-fitting shoes and socks; sunscreen; modern tents; propane-fired cooking stoves; and modern tents and sleeping bags. Not to mention good food, and plenty of it. So it wasn't really a re-enactment, just a somewhat similar experience. It would have been less fun for the real pioneers, of course, with bad gear, bad food, and a much longer, harder trail in front of them.
We also talked a lot about handcart pioneers, and the Martin and Willie companies in particular. That's actually a bit misleading, since only a small minority of pioneers traveled that way, and of the 10 handcart companies, only those two ran into serious trouble.
Practically speaking, though, it makes sense to experience handcarts rather than the more mainstream pioneers -- just like the in pioneer days, handcarts are a lot cheaper and less technical to handle than ox carts. It just wouldn't be practical to do a more realistic re-enactment. Especially for a group of city-slicker kids.
The area we were in is a cattle ranch. The first day we saw a lot of cows.
In addition to the ten real kids, we also had a ten-pound "rice baby." Her name was Mary Jane.
Yumiko made a sling to make it easier to carry Mary Jane.
One evening we played some pioneer-ish games, like stick pulling and tug-o-war.
We also stopped several times along the way to talk about various experiences of the real pioneers, again particularly those of the Willie and Martin companies. But mostly it was a lot of walking.
Actually, the walking wasn't too bad. We went about 30 miles in four days (not counting the 700 miles on the bus...). That actually was a fairly slow pace, even for kids that aren't used to walking with handcarts. We could have done quite a bit more. For the most part, the terrain was fairly flat, but we did have a few significant hills that were pretty tough.
Here's looking down from above one of the steeper sections. You can see some handcarts on the trail down below. Fortunately, this is one we went down, rather than up.
And now, for some more family photos.
Yumiko the heroic pioneer.
Daniel the goofy pioneer.
Lisa being happy...
...and tough.
Yumiko again.
And Andrew.
Daniel pulling his cart.
The real pioneers didn't rock cool shades like this, I think.
Lisa mugging for the camera.
Our bishop nicknamed her "movie star" because of the glasses.
Yours Truly.
Ma and Pa at the top of the hill.
The cactus were in bloom.
Yumiko really had a good time.
A tired Daniel at the end of the day.
Andrew was the oldest one in his "family," and he did a great job being a "big brother" to the other kids.
Lisa, tired and sunburned, but positive.
In short, it was a good experience, and we all had fun. I'm glad I got a chance to see a bit of what life might have been like for the pioneers. We've got a couple of ancestors that were in the Martin company, one that was in the rescue party, and a bunch more that were in wagon trains. I felt like I understood them a bit better.
