Trek Activities

 Friday morning we got to camp at 7:00 a.m. It was a 2 hour drive to a small town called Dugas. We had breakfast and then divided into our families. Once we were in our families we put our handcarts together, picked out our chickens, learned each others names, had a shake down to make sure no one packed anything extra (no deodorant, toothpaste, makeup, treats, candy...), then packed our handcarts and headed out. We camped for the night (the details before camping for the night are going to be in another post) then headed out again Saturday morning after eating a cornmeal mush breakfast. We hiked about 2 hours into base camp where we stayed the rest of the time. It was very windy when we were trying to set up camp. There were tons of rocks where we were setting up. We must have thrown 50 rocks out, and still had a bunch more that we just left in. It was very hard ground and very cold so sleeping didn't go so well for most of us. One morning it was 21 degrees. The boys slept on one side of the tent and the girls on the other.
Some of the activities on Saturday were: shooting black powder rifles, making butter, hair washing, making taffy, square dancing and a skit night. We also killed our chickens that day for a stew dinner that night. Courtney and Sydney both killed one of their families chickens. My Dad raised the chickens for this and Mom was happy to get rid of them. When we were on the trail on Saturday we ran into some Indians (Brent Begay & Cami Riggs) who were trading blankets for some food. We traded a blanket and got some jerky and trail mix in return. They gave the blankets back before bedtime. We had sack lunches which had two rolls, an orange, an apple & two slim Jims - and for dinner we made stew and dutch oven rolls. They were yummy.
Sunday we had oatmeal for breakfast. The kids decided they liked oatmeal after all. We had brown sugar or honey to put on it. After breakfast we had Sunday School, Relief Society & Priesthood. After our meetings we did our faith walk. The Pony Express came and delivered letters for the kids from their parents. Then we had solo time. The kids were supposed to spend a few hours out on their own. We gave them their letters to read during this time and gave them paper, pens and envelopes to write a letter to someone. They were encouraged to write in a journal, read scriptures or take a nap if needed. We also sent them out with a sack lunch that had incredible oranges and apples in them. We met for a fireside that night. We had chili and scones for dinner. We also kept back some of the potatoes from the stew and made french fries. We rounded up some apples and made apple crisp, but decided to wait until breakfast the next day to cook and eat it.
Monday morning we had the apple crisp and cream of wheat for breakfast, cleaned up camp, packed and headed out. They had a lunch of hamburgers and french fries, fruit cups & brownies for us when we arrived. It was a wonderful time! I am so glad I was able to go. It was fun to have our 3 girls up there with us.