Trek

Well I haven't been on this blog in forever, but I'm going to start with trek which was last week. I wasn't being very positive about it, but it was still a good experience. The first day we walked four miles after a seven hour bus ride. It was surprisingly easy. Sadly, I learned during those four miles that my skirt wasn't big enough so it ripped when I tried to jump over a creek and I sunk into the mud. After finishing setting up the tents I cleaned off my shoes and no damage done - just frustration thinking about how I'd have to wear the stupid skirt for two more days. We did square dancing and stick pull that night. I'm not much of a dancer... actually I'm horrible, but it was one of the highlights of the whole trip. It was kind of weird though because we had to dance with a bunch of the old missionaries because there were only like nine guys from my ward. I was lucky enough to start off with a guy from my ward, but later you were changing partners every few seconds which is where I had to dance with the missionaries. Then stick pull... I couldn't beat anyone. I was joking, but I said my excuse was that I was the youngest one there. Which was true, but I was most definately not the smallest. Day two - we rode the bus for forty-five minutes and came to Independence Rock. They wouldn't let us climb it, but it still looked pretty cool. Then we went to Martin's Cove. That is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been. I can see why they call it Wyoming's temple. Shortly after we hiked back down from Martin's Cove it was time for a river crossing. I did not want to get any of my clothes wet so I took off my scrubs, held my skirt around an inch above my knees, stood on my tiptoes and crossed. I didn't get wet! That's talent. The third day wasn't the most fun. The wind had died down so there were tons of mosquitoes and bugs everywhere! It was also the day of the women's pull. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was one of the biggest, rockiest hills of the whole trek and the handcart I was helping to pull had all the food on it. We survived though and finished the trek. Testimony meeting was wonderful. We were sitting at some tables at the visitors' center, so there weren't bugs to distract us. A few people bore their testimonies twice and it cracked us up. We took the seven hour bus ride back home and my ears got so plugged and they're still that way. I didn't realize how bad I smelled until I got into my clean house. Then I was just gagging thinking about it. It took more than one shower to get the smell out - and they weren't short showers either. I don't know if I would go again, but there were lots of good things about trek.