Day 1--Independence Rock and the Sweetwater

We saw lots of antelope on our bus ride and on our trek

On Monday, August 2, our bus rolled out of the church parking lot at 5:30 a.m. We were anxious, excited, and exhausted. I found my bonnet to be a convenient sleeping mask and caught a little shut-eye as we drove from Littleton to Independence Rock. This landmark is over 150 feet tall! It got its name because those who were on the Oregon Trail had to be to this point by the 4th of July, or they would not make the West Coast before winter set in. People would etch their names and messages to those coming behind in the granite. We saw names that had been scratched in the rock 160 years ago!




Next, it was on to Martin’s Cove to get our handcarts and start walking. For these first 2 days, we would spend time where the pioneers in the Martin Handcart Company walked and were rescued when an early blizzard caught them and would have destroyed them. As we approached the Sweetwater River, we were asked to be silent out of respect for the lives lost by those who spent all day carrying exhausted pioneers across the partly frozen water. The priests in our ward (16-18-year-old boys) had decided they wanted to reenact this rescue and carried all of the girls and women across. (When I first asked Steve to go on this Trek with me, he told me he would only go if he could carry me across the Sweetwater…and he did.) What a moving experience! There was great reverence by our youth and the Spirit was strong. It was almost palpable, what the rescuers did, as we watched the priests do the same in total silence.

The men who carried us across the Sweetwater

Just a few minutes later, I had to wonder if this was the same group of youth when we had our “Noisy River Crossing.” It was a hot day…maybe the priests were just performing another service when they dunked as many people as they could get their hands on. After this, we truly walked and walked and walked and walked until we got to camp—8 miles in all.