Pioneer Trek

Cathy and I got to be a "Ma & Pa" on our Ward pioneer trek this past weekend

Cathy found this really cool stick bug while we were exploring around camp (these are really common in FL).

I used a stick to lure it off the back of her skirt so she could see it.  She immediately fell in love with the cuddly little bug.

This is our trek family.  We had the best kids ever.

We came to some deep water to cross so we all formed a chain to pass our equipment across.

This was a lot of fun.

This baby was secured to the handcart for safety purposes.  Some kid is going to be a wonderful parent someday.

This is the deepest section of water.  We weren't supposed to take the handcarts in more than 13" of water.  Oops.

After all the handcarts and equipment was safely across some of the youth couldn't resist busting a few cannonballs.

This tiny little cotton ball plant was pretty cool looking.

Some of the young men decided it would be fun to roll some old tires down a giant hill.  They probably didn't think it was quite as fun hiking down to carry them back up.

Most of the trek the youth pushed the handcart without help from the Ma and Pa.  

A young woman in our family found this tiny little caterpillar while we were resting.  

There were sections of trail we had to trail blaze and machete our way through some brush.

This mud was so thick that is pulled the shoes right off your feet.

The deepest mud came up to my knees.  This part was so sweet!

I was really worried that this trek would be too easy.  This hill was the beginning of several miles of hills just like this.  At this point I stopped worrying about it being too easy and started worrying about being the Pa who might not make it to the end.

We made it!  Growing up in FL we never did any handcart treks like this.  Super cool experience, if you get the chance I highly recommend participating.