PIONEER TREK 2010 (Photographs by David Wolf Photography)

Joe on the first day of the Trek. You can tell because he still has his coat on.

Handcarts lined up ready to fill and go.

Joe, Sidney Easter, Dallen Graff, and Ian Campbell.

Ian Campbell, ready to roll.

James Ahmed in the lead.

Bryan Zblewski pulling the bar of the handcart. Bet his family was happy to have a strong guy like him.

Ian behind the handcart. Larissa Yahne with their trek family baby.

One of the hills that had to be conquered.

Rough roads.

Pull!!!

Jacob Moss and Ben Ostler ease their handcart down a steep hill.

Ramsey Schroeder in the lead for his trek family.

Joe waits in line to shoot while the black powder rifle is loaded.

Joe shoots using technique he learned at Scout Camp while earning the Rifle Shooting Merit Badge. He hit the metal target making it clang and swing back and forth. Notice he is left-eyed.

Joe finishes the "Iron Rod" course and is met by President Coppin.

Sunbonnet Sue?

Ian and his partner having fun square dancing.

Some beautiful scenery on the way.

A pleasant part of the journey.

Joe's Trek family and handcart.

Vanessa and Grant Anderton, Joe's Ma and Pa.

                                             

    Joe's Pioneer Trek Handcart Family: Back Row: Megan, Sidney Easter, Richard Woodruff, Melissa Shoop, Joe. Front Row: Addie, Angel Andrews, Ma and Pa--Vanessa and Grant Anderton.

Joe's Pioneer Trek Handcart Family

Joe participated in our stake youth Pioneer Handcart Trek this summer. It was, as the stake president said later, "not just an academic exercise" but an extreme challenge for the youth. He said the Trek testimony meeting was filled with the youth relating their experiences of turning to their Father in Heaven for help and strength to keep going. Joe said it was one of the hardest things he has ever done. The terrain and hills that they had to push their handcarts over were very difficult. The first couple of days he felt like giving up but after they got through the hardest challenges he actually had some fun. They got to do some things like shoot guns, water sponge game, square dance-hoe down, walk on stilts, buffalo chip throwing, hatchet throwing, cherry seed spitting contest, hoop rolling, gunny sack races, playing chimes, cooking over a campfire and in dutch ovens, cleaning fish, tug-a-war, washing clothes on an old-fashioned washboard, washing each others hair and going on the "Iron Rod" rope course. He didn't even have trouble with blisters thanks to some very good socks and boots that he had broken in well. I think the leaders did a very good job of helping the youth get a little taste of how it must have been to be a real handcart pioneer.