The Jensen's: Trek

This past weekend my awesome hubby joined me on a 3 day meeting for my calling-not really but a handful of us attended a Training meeting up at Martin's Cove, WY in preparation for planning Trek next year. We left at 6 am Thursday and drove most of the day it felt like. Little man came along and did awesome, he did all the hiking with us and even cut another tooth Saturday morning! He was pretty tired and getting grumpy from sleeping in his car seat for 3 days and was ready to come home after it all. Having a baby with me gave a new understanding of what these pioneers went through. In preparation for this trip and Trek, I've been doing some reading and studying of church history and the pioneers. My most recent undertaking was Fire of the Covenant. It's almost 800 pages and I read it in under 2 weeks. Chris would find me in tears many nights as I felt these characters come alive to me. I learned so much, and gained an even deeper appreciation for these faithful, obedient Saints.

I have been 5 times in the last 3 years to this Sacred place and each time am touched by their stories and the Spirit of this place. These statues are one of the most recent additions to the Cove, there are 3 of them signifying the day the 4 young men crossed the icy waters, carrying dozens of children and people across the river.

This is part of the walk to Martin's Cove. This is where the Martin Handcart company made camp when the snow got too bad for them to travel on. It's also where the rescuers found them. This was about a 6 mile hike and lasted a little longer than I was prepared for. I almost had to find a large sagebrush and feed the little man, luckily he held out until we got back to the barn.

This was the first time we did the Rocky Ridge hike. It's really a 13 mile hike but we only did about 5. It was so, so humbling to walk this path. It took the pioneers 27 hours of straight walking in horrible snow and wind, having nothing to eat or drink, very little clothing or shoes, to get to Rock Creek Hallow where help waited for them. After having walked this in good weather, fully fed, I honestly do not know how anyone survived. It is literally solid, slippery rock most of the way on the top. When we got to the top the baby started to fuss, it broke my heart to know that so many women lost children and husbands because they were faithfully following the call of a prophet to come to Zion.

This is Sixth Crossing where we will camp and do the 11 mile Trek (500 people will be in our group!) Isn't it beautiful? We cross the river a few times and do a Women's Pull, I LOVE TREK!

This is the actual campsite.

He was such a doll the whole time, and I honestly loved having him so close and being able to snuggle him for hours on end, even if it was while we were hiking. You can see some missionaries in the background. They are wonderful!! I always loved the senior couples on my mission and this mission is full of them. They all dress in period clothes and it feels liek we've stepped back in time. Of course they were all 'grandkid' hungry so a few of them gave Brooks kisses and hugs, it was cute.