Handcarts in Wyoming: LOTS AND LOTS OF TREKKING!

The past three weeks have been full of treks.

Hooray!

Our missionaries have been preparing for this
ever since they arrived in April and May, and finally . . .
trekking season is definitely ON!

Trekkers arrive in all types of vehicles.

Some come in cars with a variety of trucks and trailers bringing their food . . .

. . . some come in big fancy buses . . .

. . . some come in school buses.

They must all bring medical personnel and a medical vehicle in case of problems. They park those vehicles at Base, and because our missionaries are in constant radio contact with each group, we can send help within minutes if there is an emergency.

Our two biggest problems, however, are blisters (caused by not wearing comfortable or broken-in shoes) and dehydration (caused by not drinking enough water in this dry, windy part of the country.)

As soon as the trekkers arrive they spill out of their vehicles and fill up our whole site with their happy, smiling, beautiful faces!

These trekkers are ready to get out on the trail!

Trekking groups camp in a variety of tents:

Some are quite unique . . .

. . . some are all the same . . .

. . . some are pretty luxurious!

Each ward, stake, and family group has its own unique way of storing, preparing, and cooking their food. Sometimes they are feeding 50 and sometimes they are feeding over 700!

These specialty cooking vehicles fed over 500 people for 4 days!

Check out this unique cooking unit. WOW!

EVERYONE needs to use the potties, and we just acquired 8 brand new, sweet-smelling, spotlessly clean port-a-potties at Handcart Parking! This actually helps with the timing of the treks. Just imagine how long it would take for over 700 kids to use 4 bathrooms. Figure 3 minutes per person - and do the math!

Now we have added 8 more and it makes a BIG difference!

We LOVE seeing all these terrific kids out on the trails!

We especially love the way they tenderly care for those who are not able to walk, and we SO appreciate the wonderful new rickshaws that were made by members of the Casper Stake!

We sometimes wonder what our dear handcart pioneers would think about all these trekkers trying to reenact their experience.

Here you can see three trek groups at the same time. The one in the foreground is heading out to Cherry Creek Campground along the Sand Trail, and in the background you can see two other large treks just getting ready to pass each other on the Front Trail. It was a busy day here, and there were four other trek groups: at Handcart Parking, in two of the amphitheaters, and up in Martin's Cove.

In addition to lots of trekkers, we also have hundreds and hundreds of visitors each day!

Every Thursday afternoon a tour bus arrives here about 4:30 pm full of Chinese and other Asian tourists. They go through the Visitors' Center first, and then they scatter all over taking pictures of everything. We are prepared for them and have many church pamphlets and Books of Mormon in the languages they speak.

We discovered that if we pulled out one of our handcarts,

it became their favorite photo spot.