Yes, back then they did drink whiskey . . . and wine . . . and beer. My g-g-grandfather on my mother's side, was a Danish immigrant/convert who settled in the Sanpete valley, in the Mount Pleasant area. Three wives, 20 kids, and lots and lots of Danish beer.
Some pioneers used whiskey as a "anesthetic" while they cut off a limbs or digits due to frostbite. A lot of LDS members refused this if it was offered. Imagine the pain. As a side note a young Joseph Smith had to have part of the bone from a leg removed when he was a kid. He refused and whiskey to numb the pain.
Ughhhhh. Mine was 3 days long. We had to build our own handcarts. We chased, killed, and cooked our own chickens. My friend got her period for the first time. I forgot to bring a hair tie. My ma and pa did go through our stuff, but I just held my “contraband” (chewing gum) in my pocket. For the women’s pull, they told us that the men got attacked and killed by Native Americans. I got my hair washed with Dawn dish soap by one of the leaders. I had to lay my head on a rock and they used a cold cold bucket of water. During a “trek prep” meeting they told us “if you think you’re not ready, you’re right. And if you think you’re ready, you’re not.” The only positive thing I can think of is that they had our parents write us letters and gave them to us during some study time. It was very sweet. I did cry. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
It was Mormons who blamed Mountain Meadows on Native Americans by dressing up and wearing war paint. They then used a flag of Parlé to slaughter everyone. Blame it on the Jews again (since I assume they believed that Native Americans were all descended from Jews as per BoM).
For mine, parents had to write to us too, but I don’t get along with my mom and her letter was super condescending. She told me she hoped the trek would break my spirit.
I was one of two women in my "family", and the other girl had back problems, so I literally was forced to push that fucking cart up the steep hill ALONE, without being allowed to talk or cry for help. When the men in my family tried to help me, the church leaders stopped them. They ended up in their knees CRYING next to me, wanting to help me so bad, cuz I was CLEARLY in severe pain and I just couldn't do it on my own. It was literally IMPOSSIBLE.... The whole trip was some the worst, most traumatic memories from the church.....
Damn that sucks ass. My sister was literally bleeding from her feet and they still made her walk, but they let her off like the last day. But hey, at least you survive. You’re a tuff girl.
The church Ward is supposed to represent a big loving and helpful family, sister. But It seems to me that only a dysfunctional family would First Make You Suffer shame and pain before any help is rendered. Instead of playing pretend, with real whips, how about instead we go break our backs and help the suffering in our own City, in this century. Heck if you really investigate you would probably find many in your own ward who only Pretend that a visit once a month is good enough, but in reality are literally dying emotionally or physically because they need help children and any number of things
that's asinine . the brethren back in the day would have helped , in fact that's how some men and women fell in love while crossing the plains I bet . They should have let those guys help you out !! Sorry that happened to you - it was unnecessary and uncalled for
Not allowing the men to help will the physical labor is the most unrealistic thing I've ever heard. Pioneer times were all about gender roles....and guess who was expected to be physically stronger and more able? The men.
The church always told us Trek was good for us to experience how the pioneers suffered for us. You don’t have to nail me to a cross so I can experience how Christ suffered. The church told me I was born when I was because I was valiant in the pre-existence. Sucks to have been born in the 19th century and have to pull carts across wild wilderness. Serves them right. They should’ve been more valiant in the pre-existence.
Truly.... Glad I waited to show up in 1954 in the 20th century. My ancestors were just a bunch of wimps and stayed in New York state when the LDS church first got started and didn't follow the rest of the group. Still stayed Mormon but missed all the "fun" traipsing over the Rocky Mountains...... No video games when I was a kid but we did have Schwinn Bicycles. I must have been a bit more "valiant." LOL
The problem I have with stuff like this is that you are totally unprepared in way that the pioneers never were. They were used to walking, to physical labor. And if they weren't at first, they became conditioned as they went farther (and not through mountains at the beginning of the trek). They would have stopped long before dark, especially in the summer. A meal of broth would have been extremely rare. This is like the British family in the "1900 House" (a BBC/PBS show from 2000). They talked about how hard it was to keep the house running, but they were making mistakes no family from 1900 would have made, because they'd grown up in the late 1800s.
Did trek in Utah. I had come out to my TBM mom that I no longer believed so she made me go in the hopes it would 'help me feel the spirit again'. I was 16, it was over 100 degrees and I have really intense seasonal allergies. I got heat exhaustion pretty severely one day and collapsed. People just thought I was being dramatic because they new I didn't want to be there. They tried to force me up and to keep going, I don't remember what happened very well at that point because I was pretty delirious but at some point they gave up and had a truck come pick me up and take me to the next camp. The nurses there immediately loaded me down with icepacks and my body went into shock. I started shivering and dry heaving and that is all I remember of that day, until it was fully dark and my friend was holding my hand sitting beside my alone blanket covered body, yelling my name to get my attention. I guess my eyes were open but I just wasn't doing anything.
Clearly, you were severely dehydrated and suffering from heat exhaustion. I presume the organizers had emergency procedures and equipment in place but still, a piss poor response. In (non-LDS) Scouting, the Scouts are taught to monitor each other on hikes and treks, keep hydrated by monitoring mandatory water consumption, and moderating the activity to the weather. The people running these treks sound like clueless religious zealots.
I grew up in Utah and Trek came up in my ward every few years. I never went. I always said that according to the leaders of our church, I was saved for the last days. If I was meant to pull a handcart I would not have been born in the last days.
I did that once when I was a teen. My parents convinced me to go even though it fell on my 16th birthday. We maybe only walked for 2 hours a day over the 2 days we were there. We never carried anybody over the river and we never had to wash the girl's hair (thank god!). We did do the thing where all the guys just left and then they made us come back and act like angels and push the handcarts while the girls pulled them. While we were gone they told us something about the Mormon battalion but I am a bit hazy on those details. They assigned us names but nobody seemed to embrace it enough to actually use them but our "Ma and Pa" kept trying to get us to call them by their pioneer names. Also funny story we had a kid fake sprain his ankle about 20 mins into the first day and we had to pull him in the handcart up all those hills and stuff. He lived up the street from me and I found out a few days later that he was perfectly fine when I saw him biking around. What an ass, it's kind of funny now but I was livid pulling him around at the time. He probably weight 250lbs and of course he was in my family group. One positive thing came from Trek for me though. During Trek is when I decided that it was time to just come out and tell my parents that I wasn't going to go on a mission. The Trek didn't push me to do it or anything but at that point I kind of thought the longer I waited the harder it would be. I was always a loner so I had a long time to just think while we were up there. It took me a few months to build up my courage to tell then but Trek was where I actually made the decision that I for sure wasn't going. Needless to say my life got a lot easier past that point. The stress leading up to a mission is almost unbearable (at least for me).
I looked at both the trek and the mission and was like: well those sound unpleasant, I'll pass. 😄 I was so oblivious I didn't even realize there was a social stigma.
I grew up in Michigan and they did it every 4 years. The one I "should" have gone on happened over the weekend that happened to be my18th birthday and there was no way I was going. I now live in Texas and they do it here as well. One of my friend's daughters went and they left the church not long after. Her middle daughter wouldn't have gone if you paid her. She knew long before the rest of us that this was a bunch of lies. 😂 We're all happy exMos now.
I never went to EFY because they usually interfered with my family's summer vacation. My parents were never super crazy about us going on every single little trip. In fact my Dad uses them against me now and bring up the fact that I got to go on "all of these trips when I was a teenager". Yeah, church trips. It's not like I was going to Florida with my friends for spring break. 🙄
I blocked most of my Trek experience but I do remember that was the WORST 3 days of my life! I was BRUTALLY bullied but everyone. Even the leaders. I got severely dehydrated at one point. I had to stay home from the biggest hike the girls did because my ankle was fucked up and I could barely walk and was still very dehydrated and wasn't doing very well. Everyone made me feel like shit for having to stay back. And they kept me busy cooking and helping the entire time even though I was sick and and hurting and just not doing well.. and I was like barely 14 at the time.. it was AWEFUL. So glad I am out of that cult and never have to go again!
What a horrible, traumatic experience! Misogyny, child abuse, predators! No wonder you were uncomfortable having a strange boy wash your hair,! They were indoctrinating the girls into submitting to men whether or not they wanted to. This event is a form of torture. They make you so tired, hungry & sleepy to the point you will do anything just for it to stop! So disgusting🤬. Glad you made it thru & got out! And your children won’t be subjected to this atrocious situation!
at general conference a couple of years ago, someone called rape "nonconsentual immorality." They don't care about consent and clearly, not even for the boys. I'm sure there were soooooo many boys who absolutely did not want to part take in washing the girls' hair.
@Susan Mance That would have gone against the sexism and misogynist views. Good, faithful, temple-worthy, full tithe paying, Mormon men do not make a career out of being a cosmetologist. That is a woman's job. Only if something happens to her husband such as death or disability so that before the woman is remarried to another man, sorry sealed to another man, she would be able to provide income for her family of 15.
Trek was the one thing my strict parents never made us do, THANKFULLY I live in AZ and they had it during the hot desert summers and I distinctly remember someone telling a story of someone getting heat stroke during it during sacrament meeting :/
I was Laurel class president and I refused to go. They even were going to let me pick my own ma & pa and choose my siblings and I still was like nahhhhh. I’m so glad I didn’t go haha
I was never mormon but growing up in Utah, almost everyone around me was. I love your videos and I love how you take the time to learn and ask questions instead of following opinions blindly. You're such a great role model! Would you ever consider starting a podcast?
I remember when I was at track, we had the same no electronic rule, except all of the leaders had their phones. I specifically remember trying to fall asleep and I kept hearing my leader's phone playing Disney movies. I was PISSED
Hey Lex!! Loved it as always. Geez, wow. Trek stories are always so interesting to me, because the more I hear them, the more I realize mine was *not* the 'standard' experience. In a nutshell, we had a medical doctor in our ward, and he was ADAMANT on having the final say on planning for Trek. So, that alone I think made a lot of things different. I've put my basic experience in bullet points below, and for the sake of this, I'll call our trek medical doctor/planner "Jack" (awesome guy, still my family's family-doctor to this day, despite all of us having moved in and out of the state, and none of us being in the ward) *TREK SUMMARY:* -We all had to get full physicals in advance (with whichever doctor we wanted), and bring Jack signed forms describing our allergies, physical limitations, etc. -For every 1-2 handcarts there was one dedicated to food, gatorade, granola bars/trail mix stuff, and medical supplies. -The Trek motto was "P.W.!" or "Pee White!" and Jack would walk up and down the handcart line routinely asking people when the last time they had a drink was. -If Jack noticed someone hadn't been drinking them for a while, or was looking a fatigued, he would pull them off the cart, and sit them on a 4-wheeler for a while, have them rehydrate and rest, and then let them go back when he was satisfied. -Oh yeah, there were multiple four-wheelers with food, more water/gatorade, etc. spread throughout the line. -Anyone, at any time, for any reason (or none at all, as it was no-questions-asked) could 'opt out' and a four-wheeler would take them back to these HUGE army tents where we had our main encampment. -At our main encampment, there were the aforementioned army tents where everyone would sleep (like, 60-100 person tents). There were also 1-2 dedicated as the camp kitchens and there was an INSANE amount of food available at any time. -Jack was insistent that everyone have appropriate calorie intake throughout the day, and during breakfast and dinner (our two big meals). I obviously don't remember them all, but I remember nights with hamburgers and hotdogs, pulled pork/chicken, beef stew, and each night had multiple options. So, yeah. I honestly think a lot of us *GAINED* weight. The 'supply' carts also had PB&J and Cold sandwhiches in a cooler for anyone to take at any time throughout the day. -We received multiple trainings from Jack on the signs of heat exhaustion/stroke before Trek, and during, and were routinely reminded to keep an eye on others/ourselves to make sure no one was showing signs. I think 2 people got heat exhaustion, but it was caught super early, and they were fine in an hour or two (it was also the middle of summer in a desert, and about 90-100 degrees outside, so... pretty impressive, all things considered). -We did have a 'women's pull' up the steepest hill in the area, but don't remember a 'hair washing' thing. Women could also opt-out, and I remember there were a few dozen or so leaders who stepped out, I think partially to make it "okay" if someone else wanted to (so none of the youth had to be the 'only' one who didn't do it). *TLDR* I guess.... in a nutshell, trek for me is a story about how Jack is a complete badass and singlehandedly orchestrated a 300-person, week-long, high-physical-intensity, 100-degree summer-camp with virtually no injuries, illness, or... really any issues I can think of which simply amazes me looking back. It honestly was like ward-campout + pioneer clothes and... totally optional/thematic physical labor lol Anyway.... like I said. It's just really interesting learning about other's experiences and just. how. *different* they were from mine. Really interesting for sure. Anyway anyway.... cheers, and thanks for reading if you made it this far!
@@rosiej.1473 seriously. They always say good planners are almost unknown, because no one notices them unless something goes wrong. It's only now over a decade later that I realize how well executed that thing was.
THAT is how something like this should be done! I can sort of understand wanting the youth to get a feel for how difficult it was for the early pioneers, but putting them in danger to do it is unacceptable. I’m so glad you had someone competent leading. Too many “treks” are done with poor planning and leadership, leading to potential injury. I’m sure the parents have to sign waivers so the church won’t be held responsible if/when their child becomes hurt or ill.
@@apostatelizzy6836 Yeah, agreed 100%. Ive since learned that there are actually professionally run "camps" you can attend where you re-enact a platoon or batallion's experiences in WWI or WW2. (Lindybeige is a youtuber and he did it and talks about it) The purpose is supposed to be entirely educational and sort of like a 'civil war' re-enactment on steroids, though it's also very closely monitored by a whole slew of doctors, nurses, etc as they tend to do it with upwards of 1,000 people at once for a week and... well, yeah. All that to say, I can actually see the concept of a 'life-like educational re-enactment' being really effective and interesting. Though.... this is NOT something that should be handed off to some random local leaders to orchestrate. I've heard so many horror stories about people getting seriously injured/even airlifted out of trek now, due to simply incompetence, that I'm of the pursuasion that I was very very lucky we had ours the way we did.
No horses dressed as tapirs to pull the carts? The guys washing hair was likely for their benefit. Consent be damned, our BOYS need to learn to be less uncomfortable.
I wish society cared about consent. "Sally, we need to talk about consent. You're getting older and spending time with boys and consent is extremely important." "Oh, I've already heard about that. I'm so glad you say that! So you're telling me I don't have to spend hours each day against my will learning things I don't feel will benefit my life, often around people I don't like?" "Uh, no. It means that before a boy has sex with you, he needs your consent ... and my consent, and God's."
i mean, there was someone,who a couple of years ago in general conference, referred to rape as "nonconsenual immorality." Consent is not exactly a big thing for Mormons.
Zelph on the Shelf spoke abt their trek experiences and read others’; it reads like very strange coercive child abuse. I am very sorry you had to experience such a thing. The taking of names is disconcerting to say the least. Most emxo experiences I have heard from trek sound like needless sadism from the “Ma and Pa.” I sort of don’t understand how trek is legal. These experiences are hard to listen to just from an empathetic front; I am basing a fictional religion on Mormonism and its dictatorial cruelty so I hope I am able to bring comfort and awareness to the kids going through this crap someday. Thank you for sharing and thank you for your work.
I went on 2 treks. The first one was much more grueling than the second. I’m not sure if it was the age difference. Both my experiences were akin to yours. Broth for dinner, zoom cereal for the next breakfast. On one we had to kill and pluck our own turkeys. Many kids were traumatized by just that one event. 0/10.
When our ward went, I flat out refused. They tried so hard to get me to go even offering to let me ride in the RV they were bringing for the leaders so they could be comfortable (which seriously was BS... torture the kids while the adults have an RV). I remember telling my mutual leaders that I couldn’t suppose our ancestors who went through that hell would wish it on us, and also if ‘everyone’ wanted the full scope of ‘the burden’ the guys should do the whole thing in dresses because honestly? That shit just makes it worse. No regrets I didn’t attend. Also never went to girls camp either on the explanation that I was ( and still am) an unapologetic townie... and if God wanted the ‘chosen generation’ to suffer he wouldn’t have given us electricity and indoor plumbing. Again, zero regrets.
I grew up in New York State and we didn't have anything there other than the annual Hill Cumorah pageant. My 15 year old niece, however, lived in Utah and did this Pioneer Trek thing. On hers the girls had to carry a baby DOLL the entire time and every once in a while the "Ma" would come over and tell her that her baby had "died" and they would all pray over it and bury it on the side of the road. And then go on...She was horribly traumatized....It's a wonder there weren't child abuse charges filed!
@@weaksohyeah Agreed. I couldn't believe it when my niece and her friends told me this was part of the "Trek" to make it more "realistic" in understanding what the LDS pioneers endured to get to Utah. Morbid. She said they also gave them limited food to try to duplicate the hunger the pioneers endured. I hope they have cut back on these things for God's sake. Good Grief.
@@kkheflin3 Oh my life so the starvation is on purpose?! So misguided. And the guy was a freakin con man! Just so ridiculous and gross. No no no Thanks for sharing! I'm British and had NO IDEA
I experienced this on a trek, except the baby died once, not "every once in a while". It was a simulation of history, meant to give a tiny glimpse of what they went through. As for being traumatized, the point was to learn to empathize with someone's pain .... to walk in their shoes, so to speak. For me, it was a very sad and touching moment. But it was a doll. If the loss of a doll caused excessive trauma, then something is off. May she never watch "Old Yeller" or "Bambi", lest there be abuse charges.
Geeezz yeah. When I got to that part I visibly winced and couldn't stop saying "eeeww eew ew ew." No idea why. But that's.... bbllleeaaagghh. That makes my skin crawl.
I did mine 35 years ago. Sounds like some things never change. But there were no electronics to search for. They went through our stuff looking for gum and toilet paper. Trek sucked ass.
I’m from Montréal Quebec and they did a special version of this to us during a boy-scout jamboree… They had organized a big scene with the local police department and a farmer nearby without telling us anything about it at all. Cops pulled up in the camp in the middle of the night and told us we weren’t allowed to be on the site anymore and that we had to leave immediately. We took our most important belongings and left, we slept in the woods on the farmer’s property. They made us believe we were doing this illegaly cause we had no where else to go… We were a group of maybe 50 lids or more with only a few adults. This was so irresponsible and damaging for young kids to make them live through this kind of trauma just to make them experience what the pioneers had to go through. All these adults agreeing to such a harmful and stupidly dangerous idea is mind bugling to me 😒 To make matters worse, if I remember right, they hadn’t noticed the parents either…
I almost forgot about the hair washing, that was awkward. I could tell the girl was uncomfortable, so I tried to lather the shampoo in her scalp like a little massage, but now that I think of it it probably made her more uncomfortable lol. We did it in those bobbing for apples tin basin things not the river. Also some kid got bit by a snake in another company but he was taken away in a golf cart. Not sure what happened after that. Edit: Also I smuggled my moms old cell phone, so I can play snake and tetris
In California, We never had trek when I was a teen in the early 90’s. They did start doing it when my daughter was a teen. She didn’t want to go so I didn’t make her. I know a lot of parents who made their kids go.
They do it here in south central PA on the Appalachian trail. I felt so bad for the youth because ticks were really bad last summer and they’re walking in deep woods. Also, the “parents” (incl an ER Nurse manager) complained that it’s too bad they had to actually feed them and give the kids regular breaks.
I’ve actually gone on trek and shattered my Growth plate. They drugged me with pain meds and forced me to keep going. Everyone told me to stay and I fought back and insisted on going home. They finally said yes and I got a ride home and went to the doctor. He said I had shattered it. The most embarrassing thing is that they wanted to put me in the young adults cart. I was mortified and it was the first thing that me question my faith.
@@KidsandKittens217 yeah I’m good to go now. I raised hell so they had no choice. Thank goodness my mom has a lab science degree and taught me to stand up for my health. Or else it could’ve been way worse
I got to go on Trek twice! The first time was in Utah and I got SUPER bad heat stroke & exhaustion on like the second day. Second time was in Texas and we legit walked around a ranch all day In one huge circle, it the Texas heat, in August 🙃
I've never been a mormon but one of my best friends was and I remember when she had to go on this trip!! we live in Maryland and are 21 now, but she went when she was about 16 and I just remember how stressful and blatantly abusive it all sounded!!! she had to make her own garments of course and hATED IT, and at the point I'm almost sure she knew there was something fishy going on with Mormonism but after that trip she had enough and basically stopped believing in any of it. She was telling my mom and I all about it when she got back and we were just listening with our moths wide open the whole time. Wow, thank you for this video I'm shook af
she had an awful experience at the actual trek.. like it seemed like they were playing survivor/ lord of the flies or some shit lolol. also they had to do an immense amount of physical labor everyday. idk if some treks are worse than others (I assume they are) but it just really never sat right with me...
On our second day we didn’t do activities, we sat and journaled ALL day about our ancestors and I didn’t even have any. I was less bored walking with strangers for 12 hours the day before. Never talked to anybody, never made any friends. Walked away with a sprained ankle, but thank god no one washed my hair.
It's on brand that the adults were lying to you the whole time. "It's just a little bit further..." Yeah, I'm so surprised to learn now that the organization was lying to me too
The one thing the church teaches is how to lie straight faced. Lie to your bishop so you can go on youth baptism or lie to your children so they don't just walk away. No matter how you cloak it, it is lying.
@@ghostest1719 there is a WHOLE over 100 comment thread (on a different video) of me and a Mormon who came to this page to lie that Mormons aren't trying to force their religion on people (Prop 8) and that the church isn't sexist and that women are equal in the church. Apparently, me not keeping my cool against them was "hateful," but all the hating Queer people and voting to take their rights away isn't to this person. SOOOOOOOOO many lies.
Even though I’m definitely not mormon anymore my trek experience was a lot different and I actually had a ton of fun. We never washed the girls hair and we had big extravagant meals made for us. We also kept our real names and they didn’t go through our stuff. I actually had my phone with me. Our ma and pa were not active members actually and were super chill about everything. We didn’t even really do scriptures or pray a lot. We would also stay up till like 1 am hanging out and playing games. We did pull a lot that was probably the only similarity though.
I’m jealous:) we had beef jerky and apples most of the day and dinner we had small meals:p I was hungry most of the time:p don’t think I got enough water either:p
My trek experience was so great thay I actually went twice. I live in Utah and we did trek out in the middle of Wyoming, at the church historic sites (Martin's Cove, Rocky Ridge, Willie's Meadow, Rock Creek Hollow, etc.) And I had a great time. No weird shit like burying baby dolls, washing hair, or being called by pioneer names. We did carry the name tags with us to represent the pioneers but we just got called by our regular names. Delicious meals, great company, wonderful experience. My two biggest things during my first time were that I got a really bad sunburn on my arms because I rolled my sleeves up and took off my bonnet, and I didn't do my hair at all so it was so windy that I was unable to brush it at all the whole time and when I got home, I brushed out a ball of hair the size of a golf ball. Didn't make those mistakes the second time 😅
We had to do this in Texas. It was more planned out and accommodating than your experience, we had tents, and planned meals, and no weird hair washing haha. Though half of the girls in my group faked injuries so they didn’t have to help. And I hated the groups that wouldn’t stop singing and yelling Zion!!!
I remember begging my mom not to make me go to trek and she forced me to go. 90 percent of the experience was awful. We had fun times but most of it was being miserable with the awful “family” I was placed with and being in so much pain because of my feet and knee problems. There was also so much sexism in the things we did and so much tension between the people I had to spend it with. To top it all off it was either unbearably hot or windy to the point where my eyes hurt so bad from the dirt. Worst 3 days of my life
I went when I was 17, and roleplayed(?) as my ancestor Henry Ballard (great-great grandfather of the Apostle). With the gift hindsight, I mostly enjoyed it BECAUSE of the hiking, being an avid scout and adventurer. The women's pull was up the steepest hill in the entire trip, it was awkward for me and exhausting for the others. Another weird moment was a 19th century FHE on the third night, in which we passed around a sack with a 1/4 Cup of flour in it. Everyone spent the hour crying. This was just one of the many emotional anchors the church uses to secure its legally-blind membership.
Such adventures are good first hand experiences in appreciation. The treks that closely focus on the Mormon experiences can be misleading. Kids come back thinking only Mormons had it so hard. That’s a disservice to so many other people heading west and the hardships they endured. One such company was denied any kind of opportunity to purchase what they needed to continue on to California. All of the adults and children who were old enough to tell the story were murdered in Utah at a place called Mountain Meadows.
Grew up in Utah, I was forced to go on Trek as a 12 year old. I was very surprised when a friend told me that their ward didn't let 12 or 13 year olds go. Really makes me wish my ward was like that
While others' trek experiences could be called "Cult Evidence Exhibit A", mine was actually very fun, because I was "siblings" with one of my favorite people in the world. She was a funny, beautiful redhead with whom I already had great rapport and common interests. When we were near each other we talked and joked up a storm. Literally one of the best experiences of my life. But a couple things: during the "women's pull", would there also be fewer items in the handcarts? The men would have taken at least SOME of the supplies with them as they traveled wherever they needed to go to take over Mexico. (And while they may have never shot at anyone (as far as I know), their presence would have had an unethical influence. For example, they terrified the people of Tucson, who thought they would attack, if I remember correctly.) Also, the pioneers would have been smart enough to have pulleys for some of those uphill stretches. We had a hard stretch that would have been a lot easier with pulleys. As an engineering major, this dawned on me. A basic pully offers no mechanical advantage (i.e. trading force for distance-you choose to move something farther but using less strength), but at least you could use your bodyweight to your benefit to move the handcarts. More advanced pulley systems would make it a cinch. When you hear about people moving wagons up or down incredibly steep areas, I'm guessing they had pulleys.
As someone with social anxiety who gets antsy and anxious when anybody touches me at all, even if they're somebody I'm really close to, the being carried across the river and having a guy wash my hair would have been terrifying and likely would have sent me into a meltdown. The guys whispering encouraging words into my ears as the girls pulled the carts would have also made me either extremely anxious or very angry. I'm so glad I never went on trek when I had the opportunity to.
I'm from Washington state, and we have trek here. Thankfully, they didn't start doing it until a couple of years after I was out if young womens. My poor brothers had to do it, though!
I refused to go on Trek and I’m so glad I did. All my friends said they were miserable, people cried, one person fainted from heat stroke. I could never understand the purpose of Trek, “to know how the pioneers felt” was not a good enough reason for me so I always refused to go. When I left the church I finally realized it’s not a church, it’s definitely a cult.
There was one in California, but my family and I always seemed to had something else to do that weekend. Found out later my mom just didn’t want to go because they wouldn’t accommodate my dad who was severely disabled.
Canadian exmo here, and this was pretty similar to my trek experience. no boys washing our hair, and no name change (thats all super weird to me) they did go through my stuff and took one of my fiction novels, (I had an extra one they didn't find.) when we had to cross the "river" it had been raining and the water was waist high and no one carried us across the river, (thank god) but everything we had was soaked so they had to take it to the dry cleaners after. we actually did have a good diner that night which was good cause we were exhausted and had been woken up really early that morning by "the mob." also someone had to go home early since they couldn't do it anymore, so we had a mock funeral for them. and the womens pull is super emotional manipulative on the men it makes them feel so bad for the women (even if their fine) and further proves that they were persecuted and that the church is true.
First: I just discovered your videos and I adore you! I did Trek in Maryland. Some of the experiences were the same and some differences. My experience though was terrible. About halfway through day one I got so severely dehydrated that I had to be pulled off the trek. I had to be given an IV because of how dehydrated I was. I needed up at the adults base camp fo the rest of the day and most of day 2. I was sorta looked down at because I got sick and couldn’t complete the trek. Sort of like I wasn’t good enough to handle the full experience. I did join up for the long period at the 2nd camp. They did check bags, did not have to go by new names, and we did the hair washing but were told to just find a friend to help with the hair washing, didn’t have to be a boy washing a girls hair. That sounds super weird and awkwardly intimate.
I don't remember why, but my brother and I didn't go to trek. Everyone who did go said it was great, but I thought it sounded awful. Your story makes me glad I skipped it. I did do the BoM camp twice, though. Much more enjoyable.
It reads like a late night horror story, honestly. What was done to you, guys, was irresponsible, exploitative, manupilative and abusive. Well, I wasn't there, but arguably the worst part wasn't the actual ordeal (which was totally unnecessary), but not knowing what's going on and what is going to happen. Were you told the "trip plan" ahead of time, even if opting out wasn't available, it would still be easier to go through all that. Measure out your strength, being aware of what is coming next. Basically, your agency was taken from you, and you had to stick around your gaslighting captors / adults in charge who were the only ones mentally prepared for the routine. Soul crushing. I don't believe it to be a representative experience of any 17th century hardships because at those times people took collective decisions and discussions, even if you disagreed with the decision, you knew what it was. You weren't kept in the blue, continuously lied to, anxious and guessing about your next meal / rest. The only representative experience this serves is to learn first hand how terrorist hostages feel. So sorry about that happening to you. Thank you for not "leaving the church alone" and sharing those stories.
I never went on trek myself, but that's because - get ready for this - they stopped holding it in my area (Oklahoma/Arkansas, for context) when I was 13 or so, because someone in a neighboring stake DIED from heat related issues. Yup. Can't remember if it was heat stroke or what specifically, but an actual death. Which is..insane, to put it mildly!
Love the Studio Ghibli representation! So kawai! My stake in California did it once every four years. When we got to our launch site, the leadership decided we would just pull the handcarts for a few hours then go home because it was raining....so we pulled empty handcarts in the rain and thought we were freezing in 60 degree weather. Southern California's version of trek lol
I did a race in the rain in Southern California once (I've lived here most of my life. Our Pioneer Trek was cancelled because of them building or maybe it was dedicating the Redlands temple.) I remember being soooo cold for the race. It couldn't have been that much colder than 60 degrees either. I've lived in Boston and Idaho during the winter. If you said it was cold, it definitely was. There is probably something to do with being wet that made it colder.
I'm from Kentucky and I'm remember going through the pioneer trek experience. It was hot, miserably long, and I remember washing alot of dirt out of my hair when I got home. Luckily, we only had to camp out for one night, and we slept in tents. Thankfully, they didn't have the young men wash the young women's hair. I had to carry a baby doll while we were hiking to represent a real baby, so I had to walk through the water, instead of being carried across it. I had to go by a different name and they went through our stuff too.
I was one of the lucky ones that got to go on trek twice!! Lol. I grew up in SLC and our the parents of our group did not go through our stuff nor did we have to pick different names. We also didnt do the hair washing thing *hard cringe*. But we did do the women's pull and walked until my feet were bleeding. I remember being so tired by the time we got home I slept for close to 14 hours straight. During this particular trek experience it felt like they were trying to break us physically. I remember everyone being excited because it was "the hard trek". This crap is borderline abuse IMO.
I'm not a Mormon apologist and this activity sounds lame, but child abuse? Dumbest thing I've ever heard. You've insulted every child that has really been abused.
No. As someone who suggested through this for 7 days- it is STRAIGHT UP, LITERAL CHILD ABUSE.... it's no fucking joke dude...... It srsly messed me up as a kid
Your experience was so different than mine! Especially with food. We were allowed to bring our own snacks and we had big dutch oven dinners, etc. We had a list of stuff to bring and not bring but I don't remember them going through our stuff this time... (but back when Survivor was a thing, one of the YW leader's nieces was on the show, so we did a survivor themed youth conference and they took away EVERYTHING we brought and we had to complete challenges to earn it all back- yes, even the sleeping bags! But that's a story for another time!) We slept in tents. It was actually a lot of fun. Like you, we learned pioneer dances, games, and sang hymns as we walked. The "men" had to go away and join the battalion, and the women had to pull the carts themselves for a few hours. Instead of using a different name, we were told to research a pioneer ancestor (if we had one) and bring a story about them to share. We read the stories on the last day and had a big testimony meeting. The hair thing is really weird, we didn't do that. But honestly I might have repressed that memory. I know this is an unpopular opinion here, but I don't think trek is child abuse. It did help me gain a lot of perspective about modern comforts that I often take for granted. Clearly though, my leader roulette was better than yours. Had I only been given broth, I might be thinking differently. Oh, and indoctrination. Indoctrination sucks!!
I did trek in the mid-80s. I think I remember being told it was one of the first treks ever. At least in the infancy of the program. I had forgotten much of what you described, but yes even back then we did all the same things. I vividly remember the first day and into the night. I did have a wristwatch that apparently nobody noticed, and it was just after 1:00 A.M. when we finally stopped for the feast of beef broth. I remember the hair washing...odd. I remember at the beginning they mixed us all up and then separated us into "families"...there were three or four stakes worth of youth, I was from one of the Roosevelt Ut. stakes, and there were a couple of stakes from Bountiful and West Bountiful. We were supposed to tell our ma and pa if we knew anybody in our family, and oddly enough nobody knew anybody else! ( I had one girl from my ward and two other people from my high school but not the same stake) My horror story was on the second day for dinner we made fry bread and one kid in our family who was kind of an annoying, loud, smart @$& threw his dough into the pot when I was leaning over to put mine in, and the boiling oil splashed up on my face and into my left eye. So for the rest of the trip I had blisters on the side of my face and I tore off my shirt sleeve and made an eye patch. Most of them thought I was being funny or something , but it was actually because it was sooo painful when any air hit my eye... Nobody looked at it, examined it, nothing. My ma and pa asked if I was okay and naturally I said it was fine, which it wasn't, but that was just a knee-jerk reaction I had learned from years of beatings from dear old dad. "If you're going to cry I'll give you something to cry about!!" Literally My mother did take me to the optometrist when I got home. He said there was some scarring but too late to do any good, but use these eye drops for the pain and hopefully the scar tissue will go away...Keep praying, and do you want a Priesthood blessing? (The local optometrist was in the stake presidency!) I seem to have blocked much of my youth from my memory...until someone brings up something like this from the past, and then I take a little trip down memory lane. My left eye has never really been one hundred percent. I guess my faith wasn't where it needed to be...
Very much a thing in Arizona. Not just teens, entire families do it too, like annually. Even churning their own butter, it's crazy! I know families that do it for an entire week.
One of the ma’s on a trek I went on actually passed away because of the heat and humidity in Oklahoma. Her body just couldn’t take it and her organs shut down. Our trek ended the day after she started having major complications so I think I was only there for a day and a half. On top of that experience was all the weird trek stuff they had us do. It was an awful experience.
I grew up in southern Alberta, Canada and we called it josephs legacy. had a huge meltdown the morning was to leave, so my sister and dad left without me. I remember my dad yelling, crying, saying that I was breaking his heart. I remember for the whole day my mom would give me looks and say comments, making me feel guilty. The next day I went because I thought it would be better to face my fears of heatstroke and oppression than disappointing anyone any further.
When was this? I'm from Calgary and we called it "Trek" (mid-90's). & It sucked almost as bad as the stories people are telling from the States, but with a healthy measure of "let's not get sued/create a PR disaster" that seemed to round off the roughest edges. (Though I gather this was learned the hard way from previous Treks???)
So listening to you describe this was weird for me. At first I was like "Huh. I must have left soon enough as a teen to not do this." Because I never had to pull a cart or dress up or anything like that. Basically.... I never larped with my church. Then you started describing the activities and the eating and all that and I'm like..... "Wait..... I think I did a waaaaaaaaaaaay simpler version of this at Young Women's Camp one year!" We didn't leave the designated area for the camp, but we did trek all over the place and made it to different activities. Each one had some sort of message about God. We did bracelet making. Candle making. Archery. We got a little booklet filled with pictures of flowers and plants and each had some story next to it that was religious and we needed to find each plant. A bunch of different stuff. It wasn't "pioneer" food but at one point we learned how to cook different things on a fire. I distinctly remember one being how to make a cake in an orange peel. Shit you not. You made cake batter. Cut the top off an orange. Scooped though the orange. Filled the orange peel. Put the top back on. Wrapped it in foil. Then threw it on a fire for like.... 10 minutes. Open foil, orange, and then inside is orange flavored cake. Then we didn't have a square dance, but we ended the day with "Singing Trees". Each ward picked a tree and stood under it and we sang a hymn (I can't remember which one). Every girl had a flashlight and what happened was the first ward sang a section of the hymn with everyone in that ward shining their flashlights up into the tree they were under. Then they shut off their lights and moved on to the next ward. It was to make it look like the trees furthest from you were "glowing and singing". This continues till every ward is done and then we all sang the song together with all our flashlights on. MY WARD WAS LAST! It was like midnight and I was exhausted. I was so tired that I fell asleep standing up. We hadn't eaten for hours at that point either. My leader saw I had fallen asleep and when we got back to our tents she made me go to bed without eating because "If you were too tired sing you are too tired to stay up to make smores with the other girls." So I had to go to bed with an empty stomach smelling the other girls roasting smores.
I'm going to be that weird person to say of course you did square dancing. The Mormon church is racist and Square Dancing has a SUPER racist history--they essentially started Square dancing, because they didn't want people doing lindy hop and other swing dancing because swing dancing was created by Black people.
I'm from GA and they had us do ours during the winter since so many youth got heat stroke from previous years where they held it in the summer. I attended trek in 2014 and had a ton of fun. A lot of my trek family were much more relaxed Mormons, I think there were 2 converts in my "family", and everyone was pretty chill. We went by our normal names, but referred to our "ma and pa" by their titles bc we thought it was funny. We gave our "grandparents" southern grandparents names which was fun too. I remember our family pretending we were amish if we passed by anyone lol. We held our trek in a military base since it was one of the only places that was out in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't have a lot of foot traffic like the Appalachian trails usually do. The only electronics we were allowed were watches to keep track of the schedule, which was nice. I don't think people went through anyone's stuff, since I remember seeing some girls wearing mascara, but I think phones were only taken if found. We didn't have the young men wash our hair, I don't think they would have done that anyways since we live in a pretty swampy area. Lots of other families sang church songs, but we didn't really chime in. We did do the women's pull, but half way through some church members had come dressed in in their temple clothes (not the ceremonial ones) and helped the women pushed the carts. At the end we were greeted with by all the young men. I remember this being a pretty cool experience and feeling the spirit. We did have a square dance and games that happened new years eve which was super fun, and we had tons of food brought in and set off some fireworks. I made great friends during that time even though my "family" barely talked about gospel stuff. Although I'm questioning my faith now, it was definitely something I wouldn't have changed in my teen years and have very fond memories of looking back.
I had whooping cough and my mom STILL MADE ME GO! It was miserable, I didn't believe, and I was treated terribly by the other girls because of my cough. Lemme tell ya, I still get angry thinking about it
Man I must be the only person that had a fun time during trek. I understand how some parts of it are just wrong but overall it was a fun time with enjoyable memories with my friends.
I was in Illinois. We travelled to church owned land in Oklahoma to do it. We did families too, and they checked our bags. OMG they did the whole split where they left all the girls to pull the carts. We guys just walked and then prayed and then came back at night. The girls slept in a tent, the boys were outside.
I had the "joy" of experiencing one of these in Ohio. It was a joint venture with a ward in Michigan. The hottest 3 days of that summer. Only one kid had to go to hospital afterwards. I didn't want to do it, but was made to go. One of the kids in my "family", would pull the cart with me and we'd sing "Heresy" by NIN quietly together. Luckily a few years later when I was out on my own doing the adult thing I quietly left the church.
I remember doing this. It wasn’t a disaster or anything, though it was summer in Arizona and we’re all in long sleeves and heavy clothes... suuuuper safe in 100+ degree weather (sarcasm). The whole ward went at once so we had breaks areas now and then with porta potties, and I’d skipped one of the waiting spots because the line to pee was stupid long and was like “meh I can hold it until the next break”. But turns out, the trucks pulling the porta potties couldn’t get up the hill, so we had to wait until the NEXT break to pee. You’d think after doing this kinda thing for years, they’d have the route all planned out and test to make sure there’s no issues LOL I do remember when all the guys left and only the girls were there to push and pull, and of course it was on the steepest hill in the whole trek, but our “family” was actually fairly strong so we handled moving the cart with almost no issue, so when the men all came back to help it was supposed to be a “relief” but we were all like... “eh, we handled it” so nice try on whatever lesson or impact that was supposed to have LOL
Long sleeves in the heat can actually be comfortable but it absolutely has to be made of the right materials or else it's a hellish nightmare that literally makes everything worse lol. I do it all the time and it keeps the heat of the sun off. Moisture wicking, UV blocking, lightweight, non-clingy. Add in some armpit vents and it's pretty nice! Teens should start cutting armpit holes into their trek clothes. "Oops, the seam ripped oh well" lol
I was a teenager in the 80's. It must have been right before they started doing these treks. Instead they would take us into the woods, starve us, and make us do physical labor. At the end there would be a testimony meeting, then they would feed us.
They did this where I live in Canada. I wasn't a kid at it, I was an adult. They used a movie/TV set for it. The set is an old west town. That's pretty common here. They had the kids sleep in the woods. They hired people with horses to chase the kids out of their tents in the middle of the night. Then they tarred and feathered the person pretending to be Joseph Smith.
We did it in Wyoming. Did 36 miles total in 3 days, in mid July, with no trees in sight the entire time. We did 17 miles the first day alone. That specific trail we were on, 3 other stakes that summer had done AND all of them had multiple people FLOWN to hospitals due to dehydration and exposure as well as having IVs. And our stake STILL chose to do it. I myself got heat streak day 2 and had to spend the night in the “medical” tent. (Oh and they still made me do the woman’s pull that day as well) and when I got home I had to go to the doctor to have my feet checked due to the amount of blisters and stress fracture in my foot from the cart rolling over it. They asked me 4 years later if I wanted to do it again, it was a QUICK HARD no for me.
Hey teen years spent in Indiana and they did Trek the year after my graduating class for the first time ever here I had heard rumors and frankly I knew I had dodged a bullet! Every one who went on it raved and said how wonderful it all was. They had invited me thought I was graduated and I was like nah I barely handled girls camp I am happily fluffy I’ll stay on this side of the glass with A/C and electricity thank you very much. I imagine here in the summer where we get 100% humidity it would’ve been and absolute nightmare!!!
in our stake in las vegas we did it in 2016 and we went to utah lake and at like midnight we had to meet at the church and leave and it was really dusty and there were people along the way that pretended to be the pioneers and told us stories of them. we did not do the washing the young women's hair but we carried them across the little stream. the girls had to push the carts in the middle of the afternoon uphill and we had to watch helplessly.
The disturbing part to me is how obviously the leaders seemed to take advantage of and abuse your trust in them. This feels very much like child abuse to me where the child loves their abuser because they can be a parental figure or some other important figure in their life. I think it is beyond pathetic to be so depraved that you feel you must assert yourself over a small child and harm them just because you may want control or something else from it. This whole thing...ugh, I just don’t have words.
I’m from Idaho and we did trek. Travelled to Wyoming for it 30 hours on a greyhound bus. I also snuck mascara and my iPod. I REALLY did not want to go. My parents forced me to. We’d go to the store and shop for stuff we needed and I would cry and run away I hated every part of it.
In Nevada yes I had to go on trek and I was not really in good health due to hypoglycemia and a few other health issues I'd had for a few years. I was 5'9" and 90 lbs, and got my first period ever the day before I went. I was 14. The leader of my family group had no sympathy at all and she drove us really hard, and the pulling the carts through desert sand was the worst, because they sank in really deep and were so heavy. We also had to carry sacks of flour as "babies" and then some of them "died" so we had to dig holes and bury them in the desert. The boys did leave for an hour or so and that was the worst part because we didn't have a lot of girls. Luckily we did stop for lunch, and only trekked for one full day (dawn to dusk) and then stayed in a cabin and we were fed normal food, so we didn't starve. On the plus side I actually got to ride in a cart for about an hour or so because I legitimately almost fainted from my period, my health conditions, and the heat and if I had been forced to walk I would have not made it without needing medical help after. But I walked for most of it, and bled all over my skirt so I had to throw it away afterwards. Thinking of this and the many other things I did for my beliefs, I am still not past the anger of the lies and brainwashing of my youth.
@@rosiej.1473 I am 32 now, so time has healed a lot but wow it's amazing that stories like this bring up so many memories of stupid things I did for (in the end) no reason. But I'm good now :)
We didn't have guys washing girls' hair, but we had a scene where a couple adults dressed as Joseph Smith and others were "tarred and feathered" with honey and oatmeal by a "mob."
I highly recommend John Larsen's heartbreaking account of the Willie and Martin handcart companies on Mormon Stories Podcast. Go listen to it but I mean get ready to cry your eyes out. These poor people were ACTIVELY stolen from and neglected by the church over in Utah while being abused and starved on their grueling trip 💔. My ancestors were among those European converts and handcart pioneers and it gets super personal. I'm Oregon raised, so of course we did the Trek thing, following (at times) actual historical pioneer wagon trails through the mountains. Flirted with a nerdy boy in my "family" group the whole weekend so that probably made it fun for me. Reading all your horrible experiences, I have to give props to my former leaders for making good decisions! No live animal slaughters, no river crossing, girls washed their *own* hair in the river! The last day we had "ran out of food" so the ma's and pa's cooked biscuits in a pan made of only flour and water.
I grew up in Nevada and the first year they did trek I had a family wedding out of town so I luckily didn’t go. After the stories I heard I’m so glad I didn’t go!!! My friends told me they did wash each other’s hair, ate gruel, were forced to push handcarts while the men watched, and sleep in the cold. Sounds miserable!
Mine was done in the hottest part of the day. They took us to a steep hill that was pretty much all sand. The men were all just staring down at us while we struggled. We were a small group and we had people that were "dead" and couldn't pull, we had to pull them on the cart.
We had each family carry a babydoll full of sand that we had to pass around. Our baby’s head kept falling off so when we set up camp and needed to put a tarp up for rain our ma and pa put the baby’s head on a stake to prevent the stick from piercing the tarp 😂 Everyone stopped by to laugh at or judge us. I was part of trek during its very first year roughly 16 yrs ago, it was 12 miles in the north Georgia mountains, no weird names, don’t recall if our bags were gone through, definitely no hair washing! When our men returned from the Mormon battalion they stood at the top of the hill and just watched us pull the carts up in misery 😩 I was 17 and didn’t want to be there, was already “rebelling” by Mormon standards, so I didn’t even want to participate in the day of activities. My trek family was super chill though.
Exmo from PA, my sister did a baby trek up a hill for a picnic and home before dark. My trek was three days of hell in NV we didn't come up with new names but we did take on the family names of our 'ma' & 'pa' (we became the swansonites). All our stuff was in 5 gal tubs and they went through our stuff as an Indian raid halfway up the hill, and we went 10+ miles a day. I had heat exhaustion episodes almost every day. It was awful. However when my family was overseas we didn't do trek but that could have been the region. (Middle east)
I've lived in Illinois most of my life, so I'm glad I didn't have to any pioneer treks. In my groups with the young men and young women, we had camping trips, which were a lot of fun.
Physical exhaustion,
sleep deprivation,
social isolation,
identify deformation,
thought inculcation....
Indoctrination.
Exactly. It's all boundary pushing exercises.
all of the activities are intended to be abusive and to break the kids down to false humility
Lifetime PTSD for some.
Wow. No silver linings.
Exactly! The parents of these poor kids should be ashamed of themselves or jailed. preferably jailed!!!!
How hilarious would it have been if you pulled out a bottle of whiskey; hey, the pioneers drank that shit at the time.
Priceless. Absolutely priceless. Whiskey! Love it!
80's child... so glad this wasn't a 'thing' when I was a mormon kid. But if it had been... I would have been the one with a flask of whiskey.
Yes, back then they did drink whiskey . . . and wine . . . and beer. My g-g-grandfather on my mother's side, was a Danish immigrant/convert who settled in the Sanpete valley, in the Mount Pleasant area. Three wives, 20 kids, and lots and lots of Danish beer.
Some pioneers used whiskey as a "anesthetic" while they cut off a limbs or digits due to frostbite. A lot of LDS members refused this if it was offered. Imagine the pain. As a side note a young Joseph Smith had to have part of the bone from a leg removed when he was a kid. He refused and whiskey to numb the pain.
So true and a six shooter
Ughhhhh.
Mine was 3 days long.
We had to build our own handcarts.
We chased, killed, and cooked our own chickens.
My friend got her period for the first time.
I forgot to bring a hair tie.
My ma and pa did go through our stuff, but I just held my “contraband” (chewing gum) in my pocket.
For the women’s pull, they told us that the men got attacked and killed by Native Americans.
I got my hair washed with Dawn dish soap by one of the leaders. I had to lay my head on a rock and they used a cold cold bucket of water.
During a “trek prep” meeting they told us “if you think you’re not ready, you’re right. And if you think you’re ready, you’re not.”
The only positive thing I can think of is that they had our parents write us letters and gave them to us during some study time. It was very sweet. I did cry.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
That’s insane!
But why dish soap? My hair and scalp are crying.
Other than the hairwashing, & the details of why we had to do a women's pull, this sounds identical to my experience.
It was Mormons who blamed Mountain Meadows on Native Americans by dressing up and wearing war paint. They then used a flag of Parlé to slaughter everyone. Blame it on the Jews again (since I assume they believed that Native Americans were all descended from Jews as per BoM).
For mine, parents had to write to us too, but I don’t get along with my mom and her letter was super condescending. She told me she hoped the trek would break my spirit.
I was one of two women in my "family", and the other girl had back problems, so I literally was forced to push that fucking cart up the steep hill ALONE, without being allowed to talk or cry for help. When the men in my family tried to help me, the church leaders stopped them. They ended up in their knees CRYING next to me, wanting to help me so bad, cuz I was CLEARLY in severe pain and I just couldn't do it on my own. It was literally IMPOSSIBLE.... The whole trip was some the worst, most traumatic memories from the church.....
Damn that sucks ass. My sister was literally bleeding from her feet and they still made her walk, but they let her off like the last day. But hey, at least you survive. You’re a tuff girl.
The church Ward is supposed to represent a big loving and helpful family, sister. But It seems to me that only a dysfunctional family would First Make You Suffer shame and pain before any help is rendered. Instead of playing pretend, with real whips, how about instead we go break our backs and help the suffering in our own City, in this century. Heck if you really investigate you would probably find many in your own ward who only Pretend that a visit once a month is good enough, but in reality are literally dying emotionally or physically because they need help children and any number of things
that's asinine . the brethren back in the day would have helped , in fact that's how some men and women fell in love while crossing the plains I bet . They should have let those guys help you out !! Sorry that happened to you - it was unnecessary and uncalled for
Not allowing the men to help will the physical labor is the most unrealistic thing I've ever heard. Pioneer times were all about gender roles....and guess who was expected to be physically stronger and more able?
The men.
The church always told us Trek was good for us to experience how the pioneers suffered for us. You don’t have to nail me to a cross so I can experience how Christ suffered. The church told me I was born when I was because I was valiant in the pre-existence. Sucks to have been born in the 19th century and have to pull carts across wild wilderness. Serves them right. They should’ve been more valiant in the pre-existence.
Truly.... Glad I waited to show up in 1954 in the 20th century. My ancestors were just a bunch of wimps and stayed in New York state when the LDS church first got started and didn't follow the rest of the group. Still stayed Mormon but missed all the "fun" traipsing over the Rocky Mountains...... No video games when I was a kid but we did have Schwinn Bicycles. I must have been a bit more "valiant." LOL
The funniest thing I read in a long time! 😂😂
@@kkheflin3 all my ancestors were smart, they waited for the fucking railroad to finish lmao
The problem I have with stuff like this is that you are totally unprepared in way that the pioneers never were. They were used to walking, to physical labor. And if they weren't at first, they became conditioned as they went farther (and not through mountains at the beginning of the trek). They would have stopped long before dark, especially in the summer. A meal of broth would have been extremely rare.
This is like the British family in the "1900 House" (a BBC/PBS show from 2000). They talked about how hard it was to keep the house running, but they were making mistakes no family from 1900 would have made, because they'd grown up in the late 1800s.
Thiiisssss! It’s not historically accurate at. All.
Did trek in Utah. I had come out to my TBM mom that I no longer believed so she made me go in the hopes it would 'help me feel the spirit again'. I was 16, it was over 100 degrees and I have really intense seasonal allergies. I got heat exhaustion pretty severely one day and collapsed. People just thought I was being dramatic because they new I didn't want to be there. They tried to force me up and to keep going, I don't remember what happened very well at that point because I was pretty delirious but at some point they gave up and had a truck come pick me up and take me to the next camp. The nurses there immediately loaded me down with icepacks and my body went into shock. I started shivering and dry heaving and that is all I remember of that day, until it was fully dark and my friend was holding my hand sitting beside my alone blanket covered body, yelling my name to get my attention. I guess my eyes were open but I just wasn't doing anything.
That is horrible. You poor thing. I bet that did NOT change your mind!
Holy Fuck!!!!! What the hell? You could've died. You should've gone to the ER. What are these people thinking??????
That is so sad. How could they not realise how ill you were!
Clearly, you were severely dehydrated and suffering from heat exhaustion. I presume the organizers had emergency procedures and equipment in place but still, a piss poor response. In (non-LDS) Scouting, the Scouts are taught to monitor each other on hikes and treks, keep hydrated by monitoring mandatory water consumption, and moderating the activity to the weather. The people running these treks sound like clueless religious zealots.
You’re lucky you lived through this
I grew up in Utah and Trek came up in my ward every few years. I never went. I always said that according to the leaders of our church, I was saved for the last days. If I was meant to pull a handcart I would not have been born in the last days.
😂🤣😂 Great reply!
Love that!, made me giggle, thanks
Prriceless comment! Absolutely priceless.
I did that once when I was a teen. My parents convinced me to go even though it fell on my 16th birthday. We maybe only walked for 2 hours a day over the 2 days we were there. We never carried anybody over the river and we never had to wash the girl's hair (thank god!). We did do the thing where all the guys just left and then they made us come back and act like angels and push the handcarts while the girls pulled them. While we were gone they told us something about the Mormon battalion but I am a bit hazy on those details. They assigned us names but nobody seemed to embrace it enough to actually use them but our "Ma and Pa" kept trying to get us to call them by their pioneer names.
Also funny story we had a kid fake sprain his ankle about 20 mins into the first day and we had to pull him in the handcart up all those hills and stuff. He lived up the street from me and I found out a few days later that he was perfectly fine when I saw him biking around. What an ass, it's kind of funny now but I was livid pulling him around at the time. He probably weight 250lbs and of course he was in my family group.
One positive thing came from Trek for me though. During Trek is when I decided that it was time to just come out and tell my parents that I wasn't going to go on a mission. The Trek didn't push me to do it or anything but at that point I kind of thought the longer I waited the harder it would be. I was always a loner so I had a long time to just think while we were up there. It took me a few months to build up my courage to tell then but Trek was where I actually made the decision that I for sure wasn't going. Needless to say my life got a lot easier past that point. The stress leading up to a mission is almost unbearable (at least for me).
yeah, the ONLY benefit of being a woman in that church is a lack of expectation about going on a mission. I am sooo glad I was never expected to go.
I looked at both the trek and the mission and was like: well those sound unpleasant, I'll pass. 😄 I was so oblivious I didn't even realize there was a social stigma.
I grew up in Michigan and they did it every 4 years. The one I "should" have gone on happened over the weekend that happened to be my18th birthday and there was no way I was going. I now live in Texas and they do it here as well. One of my friend's daughters went and they left the church not long after. Her middle daughter wouldn't have gone if you paid her. She knew long before the rest of us that this was a bunch of lies. 😂 We're all happy exMos now.
I never went to EFY because they usually interfered with my family's summer vacation. My parents were never super crazy about us going on every single little trip. In fact my Dad uses them against me now and bring up the fact that I got to go on "all of these trips when I was a teenager". Yeah, church trips. It's not like I was going to Florida with my friends for spring break. 🙄
I blocked most of my Trek experience but I do remember that was the WORST 3 days of my life! I was BRUTALLY bullied but everyone. Even the leaders. I got severely dehydrated at one point. I had to stay home from the biggest hike the girls did because my ankle was fucked up and I could barely walk and was still very dehydrated and wasn't doing very well. Everyone made me feel like shit for having to stay back. And they kept me busy cooking and helping the entire time even though I was sick and and hurting and just not doing well.. and I was like barely 14 at the time.. it was AWEFUL. So glad I am out of that cult and never have to go again!
What a horrible, traumatic experience! Misogyny, child abuse, predators! No wonder you were uncomfortable having a strange boy wash your hair,! They were indoctrinating the girls into submitting to men whether or not they wanted to. This event is a form of torture. They make you so tired, hungry & sleepy to the point you will do anything just for it to stop! So disgusting🤬. Glad you made it thru & got out! And your children won’t be subjected to this atrocious situation!
at general conference a couple of years ago, someone called rape "nonconsentual immorality." They don't care about consent and clearly, not even for the boys. I'm sure there were soooooo many boys who absolutely did not want to part take in washing the girls' hair.
Why did the guys have to stop at just washing the girls hair? They should have also done a cut and color. Good training for future hairdressers.
ha ha ha
@Susan Mance That would have gone against the sexism and misogynist views. Good, faithful, temple-worthy, full tithe paying, Mormon men do not make a career out of being a cosmetologist. That is a woman's job. Only if something happens to her husband such as death or disability so that before the woman is remarried to another man, sorry sealed to another man, she would be able to provide income for her family of 15.
It's a way of indoctrinating and normalizing abuse. I'm so glad that she escaped and she will not be putting her kids through that.
Trek was the one thing my strict parents never made us do, THANKFULLY
I live in AZ and they had it during the hot desert summers and I distinctly remember someone telling a story of someone getting heat stroke during it during sacrament meeting :/
I can’t even IMAGINE having to do it in the Arizona heat 😩😩
@@ExmoLex yeah I'm pretty sure that's the reason my parents never made us do it because it was downright dangerous
Grew up in southwest Missouri. So trek for us was in mid July. Temp 90-100 and 100% humidity. I ended up getting heat stroke and they could care less.
Yep! I didn’t do it but a lot kid my friends did.
The washing the girls hair part seems incredibly creepy.
I was Laurel class president and I refused to go. They even were going to let me pick my own ma & pa and choose my siblings and I still was like nahhhhh. I’m so glad I didn’t go haha
Lazy
I was never mormon but growing up in Utah, almost everyone around me was. I love your videos and I love how you take the time to learn and ask questions instead of following opinions blindly. You're such a great role model! Would you ever consider starting a podcast?
Thank you!! I honestly don’t see myself doing a podcast, but if I ever did it would have to be when my kids are older.
I hated my Trek experience so much, I was really close to committing suicide even after it was over. What a horrific form of indoctrination.
I remember when I was at track, we had the same no electronic rule, except all of the leaders had their phones. I specifically remember trying to fall asleep and I kept hearing my leader's phone playing Disney movies. I was PISSED
We did it in Nevada. I was one of the "lucky" ones that got to go on two
Hey Lex!! Loved it as always.
Geez, wow. Trek stories are always so interesting to me, because the more I hear them, the more I realize mine was *not* the 'standard' experience. In a nutshell, we had a medical doctor in our ward, and he was ADAMANT on having the final say on planning for Trek.
So, that alone I think made a lot of things different. I've put my basic experience in bullet points below, and for the sake of this, I'll call our trek medical doctor/planner "Jack" (awesome guy, still my family's family-doctor to this day, despite all of us having moved in and out of the state, and none of us being in the ward)
*TREK SUMMARY:*
-We all had to get full physicals in advance (with whichever doctor we wanted), and bring Jack signed forms describing our allergies, physical limitations, etc.
-For every 1-2 handcarts there was one dedicated to food, gatorade, granola bars/trail mix stuff, and medical supplies.
-The Trek motto was "P.W.!" or "Pee White!" and Jack would walk up and down the handcart line routinely asking people when the last time they had a drink was.
-If Jack noticed someone hadn't been drinking them for a while, or was looking a fatigued, he would pull them off the cart, and sit them on a 4-wheeler for a while, have them rehydrate and rest, and then let them go back when he was satisfied.
-Oh yeah, there were multiple four-wheelers with food, more water/gatorade, etc. spread throughout the line.
-Anyone, at any time, for any reason (or none at all, as it was no-questions-asked) could 'opt out' and a four-wheeler would take them back to these HUGE army tents where we had our main encampment.
-At our main encampment, there were the aforementioned army tents where everyone would sleep (like, 60-100 person tents). There were also 1-2 dedicated as the camp kitchens and there was an INSANE amount of food available at any time.
-Jack was insistent that everyone have appropriate calorie intake throughout the day, and during breakfast and dinner (our two big meals). I obviously don't remember them all, but I remember nights with hamburgers and hotdogs, pulled pork/chicken, beef stew, and each night had multiple options. So, yeah. I honestly think a lot of us *GAINED* weight. The 'supply' carts also had PB&J and Cold sandwhiches in a cooler for anyone to take at any time throughout the day.
-We received multiple trainings from Jack on the signs of heat exhaustion/stroke before Trek, and during, and were routinely reminded to keep an eye on others/ourselves to make sure no one was showing signs. I think 2 people got heat exhaustion, but it was caught super early, and they were fine in an hour or two (it was also the middle of summer in a desert, and about 90-100 degrees outside, so... pretty impressive, all things considered).
-We did have a 'women's pull' up the steepest hill in the area, but don't remember a 'hair washing' thing. Women could also opt-out, and I remember there were a few dozen or so leaders who stepped out, I think partially to make it "okay" if someone else wanted to (so none of the youth had to be the 'only' one who didn't do it).
*TLDR*
I guess.... in a nutshell, trek for me is a story about how Jack is a complete badass and singlehandedly orchestrated a 300-person, week-long, high-physical-intensity, 100-degree summer-camp with virtually no injuries, illness, or... really any issues I can think of which simply amazes me looking back.
It honestly was like ward-campout + pioneer clothes and... totally optional/thematic physical labor lol
Anyway.... like I said. It's just really interesting learning about other's experiences and just. how. *different* they were from mine. Really interesting for sure.
Anyway anyway.... cheers, and thanks for reading if you made it this far!
Wow!! That is impressive planning.
@@rosiej.1473 seriously. They always say good planners are almost unknown, because no one notices them unless something goes wrong.
It's only now over a decade later that I realize how well executed that thing was.
THAT is how something like this should be done! I can sort of understand wanting the youth to get a feel for how difficult it was for the early pioneers, but putting them in danger to do it is unacceptable. I’m so glad you had someone competent leading. Too many “treks” are done with poor planning and leadership, leading to potential injury. I’m sure the parents have to sign waivers so the church won’t be held responsible if/when their child becomes hurt or ill.
@@apostatelizzy6836 Yeah, agreed 100%.
Ive since learned that there are actually professionally run "camps" you can attend where you re-enact a platoon or batallion's experiences in WWI or WW2. (Lindybeige is a youtuber and he did it and talks about it)
The purpose is supposed to be entirely educational and sort of like a 'civil war' re-enactment on steroids, though it's also very closely monitored by a whole slew of doctors, nurses, etc as they tend to do it with upwards of 1,000 people at once for a week and... well, yeah.
All that to say, I can actually see the concept of a 'life-like educational re-enactment' being really effective and interesting. Though.... this is NOT something that should be handed off to some random local leaders to orchestrate.
I've heard so many horror stories about people getting seriously injured/even airlifted out of trek now, due to simply incompetence, that I'm of the pursuasion that I was very very lucky we had ours the way we did.
Sounds a lot closer to mine, in fact i think i remember having to get a physical for trek now that it was mentioned
I grew up in Utah during the 70s 80s and 90s. Sunday’s were awesome , everyone was in church and all of us sinners had the whole state to our selves.
No horses dressed as tapirs to pull the carts?
The guys washing hair was likely for their benefit. Consent be damned, our BOYS need to learn to be less uncomfortable.
I wish society cared about consent.
"Sally, we need to talk about consent. You're getting older and spending time with boys and consent is extremely important."
"Oh, I've already heard about that. I'm so glad you say that! So you're telling me I don't have to spend hours each day against my will learning things I don't feel will benefit my life, often around people I don't like?"
"Uh, no. It means that before a boy has sex with you, he needs your consent ... and my consent, and God's."
i mean, there was someone,who a couple of years ago in general conference, referred to rape as "nonconsenual immorality." Consent is not exactly a big thing for Mormons.
The tapirs wouldn't have wheels to help them pull the carts
Zelph on the Shelf spoke abt their trek experiences and read others’; it reads like very strange coercive child abuse. I am very sorry you had to experience such a thing. The taking of names is disconcerting to say the least. Most emxo experiences I have heard from trek sound like needless sadism from the “Ma and Pa.” I sort of don’t understand how trek is legal. These experiences are hard to listen to just from an empathetic front; I am basing a fictional religion on Mormonism and its dictatorial cruelty so I hope I am able to bring comfort and awareness to the kids going through this crap someday. Thank you for sharing and thank you for your work.
Depriving people of food, sleep, and identity is a classic cult brainwashing technique :/
I already struggle with identity, so If I was forced to be called another name that would mess me up in the head so much
I went on 2 treks. The first one was much more grueling than the second. I’m not sure if it was the age difference. Both my experiences were akin to yours. Broth for dinner, zoom cereal for the next breakfast. On one we had to kill and pluck our own turkeys. Many kids were traumatized by just that one event. 0/10.
When our ward went, I flat out refused. They tried so hard to get me to go even offering to let me ride in the RV they were bringing for the leaders so they could be comfortable (which seriously was BS... torture the kids while the adults have an RV). I remember telling my mutual leaders that I couldn’t suppose our ancestors who went through that hell would wish it on us, and also if ‘everyone’ wanted the full scope of ‘the burden’ the guys should do the whole thing in dresses because honestly? That shit just makes it worse. No regrets I didn’t attend. Also never went to girls camp either on the explanation that I was ( and still am) an unapologetic townie... and if God wanted the ‘chosen generation’ to suffer he wouldn’t have given us electricity and indoor plumbing. Again, zero regrets.
I grew up in New York State and we didn't have anything there other than the annual Hill Cumorah pageant. My 15 year old niece, however, lived in Utah and did this Pioneer Trek thing. On hers the girls had to carry a baby DOLL the entire time and every once in a while the "Ma" would come over and tell her that her baby had "died" and they would all pray over it and bury it on the side of the road. And then go on...She was horribly traumatized....It's a wonder there weren't child abuse charges filed!
WHAT
WHAT THE FUCK
lol I'm sorry for the caps but this is beyond freakin belief. double yikes.
@@weaksohyeah Agreed. I couldn't believe it when my niece and her friends told me this was part of the "Trek" to make it more "realistic" in understanding what the LDS pioneers endured to get to Utah. Morbid. She said they also gave them limited food to try to duplicate the hunger the pioneers endured. I hope they have cut back on these things for God's sake. Good Grief.
@@kkheflin3 Oh my life so the starvation is on purpose?! So misguided. And the guy was a freakin con man! Just so ridiculous and gross. No no no
Thanks for sharing! I'm British and had NO IDEA
I experienced this on a trek, except the baby died once, not "every once in a while". It was a simulation of history, meant to give a tiny glimpse of what they went through. As for being traumatized, the point was to learn to empathize with someone's pain .... to walk in their shoes, so to speak. For me, it was a very sad and touching moment. But it was a doll. If the loss of a doll caused excessive trauma, then something is off. May she never watch "Old Yeller" or "Bambi", lest there be abuse charges.
@@bwbrady8372have you left the church already?
Really weird, the hair-washing!
Geeezz yeah. When I got to that part I visibly winced and couldn't stop saying "eeeww eew ew ew."
No idea why. But that's.... bbllleeaaagghh. That makes my skin crawl.
Reeeaaaaly weird! Isn't there something in the bible about hair washing? Maybe that's what it was for. But that's crazy they did that
I did mine 35 years ago. Sounds like some things never change. But there were no electronics to search for. They went through our stuff looking for gum and toilet paper.
Trek sucked ass.
They took the tp? Did they make you use grass? Why?!!?
@@FrogsForBreakfast leaves. It sucked. We ate a roll at night for the whole first day.
I’m from Montréal Quebec and they did a special version of this to us during a boy-scout jamboree… They had organized a big scene with the local police department and a farmer nearby without telling us anything about it at all. Cops pulled up in the camp in the middle of the night and told us we weren’t allowed to be on the site anymore and that we had to leave immediately. We took our most important belongings and left, we slept in the woods on the farmer’s property. They made us believe we were doing this illegaly cause we had no where else to go… We were a group of maybe 50 lids or more with only a few adults. This was so irresponsible and damaging for young kids to make them live through this kind of trauma just to make them experience what the pioneers had to go through. All these adults agreeing to such a harmful and stupidly dangerous idea is mind bugling to me 😒
To make matters worse, if I remember right, they hadn’t noticed the parents either…
😳
I almost forgot about the hair washing, that was awkward. I could tell the girl was uncomfortable, so I tried to lather the shampoo in her scalp like a little massage, but now that I think of it it probably made her more uncomfortable lol. We did it in those bobbing for apples tin basin things not the river. Also some kid got bit by a snake in another company but he was taken away in a golf cart. Not sure what happened after that. Edit: Also I smuggled my moms old cell phone, so I can play snake and tetris
In California, We never had trek when I was a teen in the early 90’s. They did start doing it when my daughter was a teen. She didn’t want to go so I didn’t make her. I know a lot of parents who made their kids go.
They do it here in south central PA on the Appalachian trail. I felt so bad for the youth because ticks were really bad last summer and they’re walking in deep woods. Also, the “parents” (incl an ER Nurse manager) complained that it’s too bad they had to actually feed them and give the kids regular breaks.
I'm also from south central pa. Franklin county area.
😮
I am a bus driver in Idaho. We take mormon kids to the hand cart trails in Wyoming. Apparently they walk from Casper to Lander.
I would have packed a can of coffee, just to see ma and pa's reaction!
I’ve actually gone on trek and shattered my Growth plate. They drugged me with pain meds and forced me to keep going. Everyone told me to stay and I fought back and insisted on going home. They finally said yes and I got a ride home and went to the doctor. He said I had shattered it. The most embarrassing thing is that they wanted to put me in the young adults cart. I was mortified and it was the first thing that me question my faith.
@Joseph Stahle That's terrible that such a serious injury would be ignored by them! I sure hope your health has recovered without permanent damage.
@@KidsandKittens217 yeah I’m good to go now. I raised hell so they had no choice. Thank goodness my mom has a lab science degree and taught me to stand up for my health. Or else it could’ve been way worse
Wow. Just- wow.
I got to go on Trek twice! The first time was in Utah and I got SUPER bad heat stroke & exhaustion on like the second day.
Second time was in Texas and we legit walked around a ranch all day In one huge circle, it the Texas heat, in August 🙃
I've never been a mormon but one of my best friends was and I remember when she had to go on this trip!! we live in Maryland and are 21 now, but she went when she was about 16 and I just remember how stressful and blatantly abusive it all sounded!!! she had to make her own garments of course and hATED IT, and at the point I'm almost sure she knew there was something fishy going on with Mormonism but after that trip she had enough and basically stopped believing in any of it. She was telling my mom and I all about it when she got back and we were just listening with our moths wide open the whole time. Wow, thank you for this video I'm shook af
she had an awful experience at the actual trek.. like it seemed like they were playing survivor/ lord of the flies or some shit lolol. also they had to do an immense amount of physical labor everyday. idk if some treks are worse than others (I assume they are) but it just really never sat right with me...
On our second day we didn’t do activities, we sat and journaled ALL day about our ancestors and I didn’t even have any. I was less bored walking with strangers for 12 hours the day before. Never talked to anybody, never made any friends. Walked away with a sprained ankle, but thank god no one washed my hair.
It's on brand that the adults were lying to you the whole time. "It's just a little bit further..." Yeah, I'm so surprised to learn now that the organization was lying to me too
The one thing the church teaches is how to lie straight faced. Lie to your bishop so you can go on youth baptism or lie to your children so they don't just walk away. No matter how you cloak it, it is lying.
@@ghostest1719 there is a WHOLE over 100 comment thread (on a different video) of me and a Mormon who came to this page to lie that Mormons aren't trying to force their religion on people (Prop 8) and that the church isn't sexist and that women are equal in the church. Apparently, me not keeping my cool against them was "hateful," but all the hating Queer people and voting to take their rights away isn't to this person. SOOOOOOOOO many lies.
There is a strong lesson here: Never leave your kids alone with Mormons!
Even though I’m definitely not mormon anymore my trek experience was a lot different and I actually had a ton of fun. We never washed the girls hair and we had big extravagant meals made for us. We also kept our real names and they didn’t go through our stuff. I actually had my phone with me. Our ma and pa were not active members actually and were super chill about everything. We didn’t even really do scriptures or pray a lot. We would also stay up till like 1 am hanging out and playing games. We did pull a lot that was probably the only similarity though.
I’m jealous:) we had beef jerky and apples most of the day and dinner we had small meals:p I was hungry most of the time:p don’t think I got enough water either:p
My trek experience was so great thay I actually went twice. I live in Utah and we did trek out in the middle of Wyoming, at the church historic sites (Martin's Cove, Rocky Ridge, Willie's Meadow, Rock Creek Hollow, etc.) And I had a great time. No weird shit like burying baby dolls, washing hair, or being called by pioneer names. We did carry the name tags with us to represent the pioneers but we just got called by our regular names. Delicious meals, great company, wonderful experience. My two biggest things during my first time were that I got a really bad sunburn on my arms because I rolled my sleeves up and took off my bonnet, and I didn't do my hair at all so it was so windy that I was unable to brush it at all the whole time and when I got home, I brushed out a ball of hair the size of a golf ball. Didn't make those mistakes the second time 😅
We had to do this in Texas. It was more planned out and accommodating than your experience, we had tents, and planned meals, and no weird hair washing haha. Though half of the girls in my group faked injuries so they didn’t have to help. And I hated the groups that wouldn’t stop singing and yelling Zion!!!
I remember begging my mom not to make me go to trek and she forced me to go. 90 percent of the experience was awful. We had fun times but most of it was being miserable with the awful “family” I was placed with and being in so much pain because of my feet and knee problems. There was also so much sexism in the things we did and so much tension between the people I had to spend it with. To top it all off it was either unbearably hot or windy to the point where my eyes hurt so bad from the dirt. Worst 3 days of my life
I went when I was 17, and roleplayed(?) as my ancestor Henry Ballard (great-great grandfather of the Apostle).
With the gift hindsight, I mostly enjoyed it BECAUSE of the hiking, being an avid scout and adventurer. The women's pull was up the steepest hill in the entire trip, it was awkward for me and exhausting for the others. Another weird moment was a 19th century FHE on the third night, in which we passed around a sack with a 1/4 Cup of flour in it. Everyone spent the hour crying.
This was just one of the many emotional anchors the church uses to secure its legally-blind membership.
Such adventures are good first hand experiences in appreciation. The treks that closely focus on the Mormon experiences can be misleading. Kids come back thinking only Mormons had it so hard. That’s a disservice to so many other people heading west and the hardships they endured. One such company was denied any kind of opportunity to purchase what they needed to continue on to California. All of the adults and children who were old enough to tell the story were murdered in Utah at a place called Mountain Meadows.
Very good points. Thank you for making these connections!
Horray! NO FACE and Totoro!!
A bit of a Hayao Miyazaki theme there.
Grew up in Utah, I was forced to go on Trek as a 12 year old. I was very surprised when a friend told me that their ward didn't let 12 or 13 year olds go. Really makes me wish my ward was like that
While others' trek experiences could be called "Cult Evidence Exhibit A", mine was actually very fun, because I was "siblings" with one of my favorite people in the world. She was a funny, beautiful redhead with whom I already had great rapport and common interests. When we were near each other we talked and joked up a storm. Literally one of the best experiences of my life. But a couple things: during the "women's pull", would there also be fewer items in the handcarts? The men would have taken at least SOME of the supplies with them as they traveled wherever they needed to go to take over Mexico. (And while they may have never shot at anyone (as far as I know), their presence would have had an unethical influence. For example, they terrified the people of Tucson, who thought they would attack, if I remember correctly.)
Also, the pioneers would have been smart enough to have pulleys for some of those uphill stretches. We had a hard stretch that would have been a lot easier with pulleys. As an engineering major, this dawned on me. A basic pully offers no mechanical advantage (i.e. trading force for distance-you choose to move something farther but using less strength), but at least you could use your bodyweight to your benefit to move the handcarts. More advanced pulley systems would make it a cinch. When you hear about people moving wagons up or down incredibly steep areas, I'm guessing they had pulleys.
As someone with social anxiety who gets antsy and anxious when anybody touches me at all, even if they're somebody I'm really close to, the being carried across the river and having a guy wash my hair would have been terrifying and likely would have sent me into a meltdown. The guys whispering encouraging words into my ears as the girls pulled the carts would have also made me either extremely anxious or very angry. I'm so glad I never went on trek when I had the opportunity to.
I'm from Washington state, and we have trek here. Thankfully, they didn't start doing it until a couple of years after I was out if young womens. My poor brothers had to do it, though!
I'm from Ontario, Canada. I had friends who crossed the border to do this.
I refused to go on Trek and I’m so glad I did. All my friends said they were miserable, people cried, one person fainted from heat stroke. I could never understand the purpose of Trek, “to know how the pioneers felt” was not a good enough reason for me so I always refused to go. When I left the church I finally realized it’s not a church, it’s definitely a cult.
There was one in California, but my family and I always seemed to had something else to do that weekend. Found out later my mom just didn’t want to go because they wouldn’t accommodate my dad who was severely disabled.
Canadian exmo here, and this was pretty similar to my trek experience. no boys washing our hair, and no name change (thats all super weird to me) they did go through my stuff and took one of my fiction novels, (I had an extra one they didn't find.) when we had to cross the "river" it had been raining and the water was waist high and no one carried us across the river, (thank god) but everything we had was soaked so they had to take it to the dry cleaners after. we actually did have a good diner that night which was good cause we were exhausted and had been woken up really early that morning by "the mob." also someone had to go home early since they couldn't do it anymore, so we had a mock funeral for them.
and the womens pull is super emotional manipulative on the men it makes them feel so bad for the women (even if their fine) and further proves that they were persecuted and that the church is true.
First: I just discovered your videos and I adore you!
I did Trek in Maryland. Some of the experiences were the same and some differences. My experience though was terrible. About halfway through day one I got so severely dehydrated that I had to be pulled off the trek. I had to be given an IV because of how dehydrated I was. I needed up at the adults base camp fo the rest of the day and most of day 2. I was sorta looked down at because I got sick and couldn’t complete the trek. Sort of like I wasn’t good enough to handle the full experience. I did join up for the long period at the 2nd camp.
They did check bags, did not have to go by new names, and we did the hair washing but were told to just find a friend to help with the hair washing, didn’t have to be a boy washing a girls hair. That sounds super weird and awkwardly intimate.
I don't remember why, but my brother and I didn't go to trek. Everyone who did go said it was great, but I thought it sounded awful. Your story makes me glad I skipped it.
I did do the BoM camp twice, though. Much more enjoyable.
It reads like a late night horror story, honestly. What was done to you, guys, was irresponsible, exploitative, manupilative and abusive. Well, I wasn't there, but arguably the worst part wasn't the actual ordeal (which was totally unnecessary), but not knowing what's going on and what is going to happen. Were you told the "trip plan" ahead of time, even if opting out wasn't available, it would still be easier to go through all that. Measure out your strength, being aware of what is coming next. Basically, your agency was taken from you, and you had to stick around your gaslighting captors / adults in charge who were the only ones mentally prepared for the routine. Soul crushing. I don't believe it to be a representative experience of any 17th century hardships because at those times people took collective decisions and discussions, even if you disagreed with the decision, you knew what it was. You weren't kept in the blue, continuously lied to, anxious and guessing about your next meal / rest. The only representative experience this serves is to learn first hand how terrorist hostages feel. So sorry about that happening to you. Thank you for not "leaving the church alone" and sharing those stories.
I never went on trek myself, but that's because - get ready for this - they stopped holding it in my area (Oklahoma/Arkansas, for context) when I was 13 or so, because someone in a neighboring stake DIED from heat related issues. Yup. Can't remember if it was heat stroke or what specifically, but an actual death. Which is..insane, to put it mildly!
I laugh at the money being spent on the “Love of God” ads that play before your video! Gee, I’m now converted!!!
Keep up the good work ❤️
Love the Studio Ghibli representation! So kawai! My stake in California did it once every four years. When we got to our launch site, the leadership decided we would just pull the handcarts for a few hours then go home because it was raining....so we pulled empty handcarts in the rain and thought we were freezing in 60 degree weather. Southern California's version of trek lol
I did a race in the rain in Southern California once (I've lived here most of my life. Our Pioneer Trek was cancelled because of them building or maybe it was dedicating the Redlands temple.) I remember being soooo cold for the race. It couldn't have been that much colder than 60 degrees either. I've lived in Boston and Idaho during the winter. If you said it was cold, it definitely was. There is probably something to do with being wet that made it colder.
I'm from Kentucky and I'm remember going through the pioneer trek experience. It was hot, miserably long, and I remember washing alot of dirt out of my hair when I got home. Luckily, we only had to camp out for one night, and we slept in tents. Thankfully, they didn't have the young men wash the young women's hair. I had to carry a baby doll while we were hiking to represent a real baby, so I had to walk through the water, instead of being carried across it. I had to go by a different name and they went through our stuff too.
I was one of the lucky ones that got to go on trek twice!! Lol. I grew up in SLC and our the parents of our group did not go through our stuff nor did we have to pick different names. We also didnt do the hair washing thing *hard cringe*. But we did do the women's pull and walked until my feet were bleeding. I remember being so tired by the time we got home I slept for close to 14 hours straight. During this particular trek experience it felt like they were trying to break us physically. I remember everyone being excited because it was "the hard trek". This crap is borderline abuse IMO.
Sounds like borderline child abuse.
Borderline??! It’s clearly WAY over the line! It can’t even see the line!
all youth mormon outing are abusive
I'm not a Mormon apologist and this activity sounds lame, but child abuse? Dumbest thing I've ever heard. You've insulted every child that has really been abused.
No. As someone who suggested through this for 7 days- it is STRAIGHT UP, LITERAL CHILD ABUSE.... it's no fucking joke dude...... It srsly messed me up as a kid
@@sweetyd I hope that you can get the help that you need 🙏🏻
Your experience was so different than mine! Especially with food. We were allowed to bring our own snacks and we had big dutch oven dinners, etc. We had a list of stuff to bring and not bring but I don't remember them going through our stuff this time... (but back when Survivor was a thing, one of the YW leader's nieces was on the show, so we did a survivor themed youth conference and they took away EVERYTHING we brought and we had to complete challenges to earn it all back- yes, even the sleeping bags! But that's a story for another time!) We slept in tents. It was actually a lot of fun. Like you, we learned pioneer dances, games, and sang hymns as we walked. The "men" had to go away and join the battalion, and the women had to pull the carts themselves for a few hours. Instead of using a different name, we were told to research a pioneer ancestor (if we had one) and bring a story about them to share. We read the stories on the last day and had a big testimony meeting. The hair thing is really weird, we didn't do that. But honestly I might have repressed that memory.
I know this is an unpopular opinion here, but I don't think trek is child abuse. It did help me gain a lot of perspective about modern comforts that I often take for granted. Clearly though, my leader roulette was better than yours. Had I only been given broth, I might be thinking differently. Oh, and indoctrination. Indoctrination sucks!!
I am glad you had a good experience
I did trek in the mid-80s. I think I remember being told it was one of the first treks ever. At least in the infancy of the program. I had forgotten much of what you described, but yes even back then we did all the same things. I vividly remember the first day and into the night. I did have a wristwatch that apparently nobody noticed, and it was just after 1:00 A.M. when we finally stopped for the feast of beef broth. I remember the hair washing...odd. I remember at the beginning they mixed us all up and then separated us into "families"...there were three or four stakes worth of youth, I was from one of the Roosevelt Ut. stakes, and there were a couple of stakes from Bountiful and West Bountiful. We were supposed to tell our ma and pa if we knew anybody in our family, and oddly enough nobody knew anybody else! ( I had one girl from my ward and two other people from my high school but not the same stake)
My horror story was on the second day for dinner we made fry bread and one kid in our family who was kind of an annoying, loud, smart @$& threw his dough into the pot when I was leaning over to put mine in, and the boiling oil splashed up on my face and into my left eye. So for the rest of the trip I had blisters on the side of my face and I tore off my shirt sleeve and made an eye patch. Most of them thought I was being funny or something , but it was actually because it was sooo painful when any air hit my eye... Nobody looked at it, examined it, nothing. My ma and pa asked if I was okay and naturally I said it was fine, which it wasn't, but that was just a knee-jerk reaction I had learned from years of beatings from dear old dad. "If you're going to cry I'll give you something to cry about!!" Literally
My mother did take me to the optometrist when I got home. He said there was some scarring but too late to do any good, but use these eye drops for the pain and hopefully the scar tissue will go away...Keep praying, and do you want a Priesthood blessing? (The local optometrist was in the stake presidency!)
I seem to have blocked much of my youth from my memory...until someone brings up something like this from the past, and then I take a little trip down memory lane.
My left eye has never really been one hundred percent. I guess my faith wasn't where it needed to be...
Sigh. Why are people such jerks sometimes? I am outraged on your behalf. And so sorry you had to go through all of that. Hugs
Very much a thing in Arizona. Not just teens, entire families do it too, like annually. Even churning their own butter, it's crazy! I know families that do it for an entire week.
I bet. I have ancestors who settled in Arizona and family in Arizona. Where they are, they also have Mormon Fourth of July (Pioneer Day).
One of the ma’s on a trek I went on actually passed away because of the heat and humidity in Oklahoma. Her body just couldn’t take it and her organs shut down. Our trek ended the day after she started having major complications so I think I was only there for a day and a half. On top of that experience was all the weird trek stuff they had us do. It was an awful experience.
I grew up in southern Alberta, Canada and we called it josephs legacy. had a huge meltdown the morning was to leave, so my sister and dad left without me. I remember my dad yelling, crying, saying that I was breaking his heart. I remember for the whole day my mom would give me looks and say comments, making me feel guilty. The next day I went because I thought it would be better to face my fears of heatstroke and oppression than disappointing anyone any further.
When was this? I'm from Calgary and we called it "Trek" (mid-90's). & It sucked almost as bad as the stories people are telling from the States, but with a healthy measure of "let's not get sued/create a PR disaster" that seemed to round off the roughest edges. (Though I gather this was learned the hard way from previous Treks???)
Mine was 2015 July
So listening to you describe this was weird for me. At first I was like "Huh. I must have left soon enough as a teen to not do this." Because I never had to pull a cart or dress up or anything like that. Basically.... I never larped with my church. Then you started describing the activities and the eating and all that and I'm like..... "Wait..... I think I did a waaaaaaaaaaaay simpler version of this at Young Women's Camp one year!" We didn't leave the designated area for the camp, but we did trek all over the place and made it to different activities. Each one had some sort of message about God. We did bracelet making. Candle making. Archery. We got a little booklet filled with pictures of flowers and plants and each had some story next to it that was religious and we needed to find each plant. A bunch of different stuff. It wasn't "pioneer" food but at one point we learned how to cook different things on a fire. I distinctly remember one being how to make a cake in an orange peel. Shit you not. You made cake batter. Cut the top off an orange. Scooped though the orange. Filled the orange peel. Put the top back on. Wrapped it in foil. Then threw it on a fire for like.... 10 minutes. Open foil, orange, and then inside is orange flavored cake.
Then we didn't have a square dance, but we ended the day with "Singing Trees". Each ward picked a tree and stood under it and we sang a hymn (I can't remember which one). Every girl had a flashlight and what happened was the first ward sang a section of the hymn with everyone in that ward shining their flashlights up into the tree they were under. Then they shut off their lights and moved on to the next ward. It was to make it look like the trees furthest from you were "glowing and singing". This continues till every ward is done and then we all sang the song together with all our flashlights on. MY WARD WAS LAST! It was like midnight and I was exhausted. I was so tired that I fell asleep standing up. We hadn't eaten for hours at that point either. My leader saw I had fallen asleep and when we got back to our tents she made me go to bed without eating because "If you were too tired sing you are too tired to stay up to make smores with the other girls." So I had to go to bed with an empty stomach smelling the other girls roasting smores.
I'm going to be that weird person to say of course you did square dancing. The Mormon church is racist and Square Dancing has a SUPER racist history--they essentially started Square dancing, because they didn't want people doing lindy hop and other swing dancing because swing dancing was created by Black people.
I'm from GA and they had us do ours during the winter since so many youth got heat stroke from previous years where they held it in the summer. I attended trek in 2014 and had a ton of fun. A lot of my trek family were much more relaxed Mormons, I think there were 2 converts in my "family", and everyone was pretty chill. We went by our normal names, but referred to our "ma and pa" by their titles bc we thought it was funny. We gave our "grandparents" southern grandparents names which was fun too. I remember our family pretending we were amish if we passed by anyone lol. We held our trek in a military base since it was one of the only places that was out in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't have a lot of foot traffic like the Appalachian trails usually do. The only electronics we were allowed were watches to keep track of the schedule, which was nice. I don't think people went through anyone's stuff, since I remember seeing some girls wearing mascara, but I think phones were only taken if found. We didn't have the young men wash our hair, I don't think they would have done that anyways since we live in a pretty swampy area. Lots of other families sang church songs, but we didn't really chime in. We did do the women's pull, but half way through some church members had come dressed in in their temple clothes (not the ceremonial ones) and helped the women pushed the carts. At the end we were greeted with by all the young men. I remember this being a pretty cool experience and feeling the spirit. We did have a square dance and games that happened new years eve which was super fun, and we had tons of food brought in and set off some fireworks. I made great friends during that time even though my "family" barely talked about gospel stuff. Although I'm questioning my faith now, it was definitely something I wouldn't have changed in my teen years and have very fond memories of looking back.
Sounds like pre marital mormon pioneer cosplay. I'm glad it didn't exist when I was a youth.
I had whooping cough and my mom STILL MADE ME GO!
It was miserable, I didn't believe, and I was treated terribly by the other girls because of my cough.
Lemme tell ya, I still get angry thinking about it
wow. that's literally child abuse and child endangerment. I'm sorry.
omg ! seriously ?!
Man I must be the only person that had a fun time during trek. I understand how some parts of it are just wrong but overall it was a fun time with enjoyable memories with my friends.
I was in Illinois. We travelled to church owned land in Oklahoma to do it.
We did families too, and they checked our bags.
OMG they did the whole split where they left all the girls to pull the carts. We guys just walked and then prayed and then came back at night.
The girls slept in a tent, the boys were outside.
I had the "joy" of experiencing one of these in Ohio. It was a joint venture with a ward in Michigan. The hottest 3 days of that summer. Only one kid had to go to hospital afterwards. I didn't want to do it, but was made to go. One of the kids in my "family", would pull the cart with me and we'd sing "Heresy" by NIN quietly together. Luckily a few years later when I was out on my own doing the adult thing I quietly left the church.
I remember doing this. It wasn’t a disaster or anything, though it was summer in Arizona and we’re all in long sleeves and heavy clothes... suuuuper safe in 100+ degree weather (sarcasm).
The whole ward went at once so we had breaks areas now and then with porta potties, and I’d skipped one of the waiting spots because the line to pee was stupid long and was like “meh I can hold it until the next break”. But turns out, the trucks pulling the porta potties couldn’t get up the hill, so we had to wait until the NEXT break to pee. You’d think after doing this kinda thing for years, they’d have the route all planned out and test to make sure there’s no issues LOL
I do remember when all the guys left and only the girls were there to push and pull, and of course it was on the steepest hill in the whole trek, but our “family” was actually fairly strong so we handled moving the cart with almost no issue, so when the men all came back to help it was supposed to be a “relief” but we were all like... “eh, we handled it” so nice try on whatever lesson or impact that was supposed to have LOL
Long sleeves in the heat can actually be comfortable but it absolutely has to be made of the right materials or else it's a hellish nightmare that literally makes everything worse lol. I do it all the time and it keeps the heat of the sun off. Moisture wicking, UV blocking, lightweight, non-clingy. Add in some armpit vents and it's pretty nice!
Teens should start cutting armpit holes into their trek clothes. "Oops, the seam ripped oh well" lol
I was a teenager in the 80's. It must have been right before they started doing these treks. Instead they would take us into the woods, starve us, and make us do physical labor. At the end there would be a testimony meeting, then they would feed us.
I'm from Australia, Pioneer Trek was rly hard and emotional. I was an older sister, 2nd time.......
Women's Pull was hard mentally and physical
They did this where I live in Canada. I wasn't a kid at it, I was an adult. They used a movie/TV set for it. The set is an old west town. That's pretty common here. They had the kids sleep in the woods. They hired people with horses to chase the kids out of their tents in the middle of the night. Then they tarred and feathered the person pretending to be Joseph Smith.
So weird....
We did it in Wyoming. Did 36 miles total in 3 days, in mid July, with no trees in sight the entire time. We did 17 miles the first day alone. That specific trail we were on, 3 other stakes that summer had done AND all of them had multiple people FLOWN to hospitals due to dehydration and exposure as well as having IVs. And our stake STILL chose to do it. I myself got heat streak day 2 and had to spend the night in the “medical” tent. (Oh and they still made me do the woman’s pull that day as well) and when I got home I had to go to the doctor to have my feet checked due to the amount of blisters and stress fracture in my foot from the cart rolling over it. They asked me 4 years later if I wanted to do it again, it was a QUICK HARD no for me.
I grew up in the Rhodes Valley Ward (Kamas UT area). We didn’t do this. OMG I’m so glad we didn’t. Sounds absolutely horrible.
Thank you for giving us a glimpse of what Like was Like for you , all for the sake of a con.
Love your video.
Hey teen years spent in Indiana and they did Trek the year after my graduating class for the first time ever here I had heard rumors and frankly I knew I had dodged a bullet! Every one who went on it raved and said how wonderful it all was. They had invited me thought I was graduated and I was like nah I barely handled girls camp I am happily fluffy I’ll stay on this side of the glass with A/C and electricity thank you very much. I imagine here in the summer where we get 100% humidity it would’ve been and absolute nightmare!!!
in our stake in las vegas we did it in 2016 and we went to utah lake and at like midnight we had to meet at the church and leave and it was really dusty and there were people along the way that pretended to be the pioneers and told us stories of them. we did not do the washing the young women's hair but we carried them across the little stream. the girls had to push the carts in the middle of the afternoon uphill and we had to watch helplessly.
The disturbing part to me is how obviously the leaders seemed to take advantage of and abuse your trust in them. This feels very much like child abuse to me where the child loves their abuser because they can be a parental figure or some other important figure in their life. I think it is beyond pathetic to be so depraved that you feel you must assert yourself over a small child and harm them just because you may want control or something else from it. This whole thing...ugh, I just don’t have words.
I’m from Idaho and we did trek. Travelled to Wyoming for it 30 hours on a greyhound bus. I also snuck mascara and my iPod. I REALLY did not want to go. My parents forced me to. We’d go to the store and shop for stuff we needed and I would cry and run away I hated every part of it.
In Nevada yes I had to go on trek and I was not really in good health due to hypoglycemia and a few other health issues I'd had for a few years. I was 5'9" and 90 lbs, and got my first period ever the day before I went. I was 14. The leader of my family group had no sympathy at all and she drove us really hard, and the pulling the carts through desert sand was the worst, because they sank in really deep and were so heavy. We also had to carry sacks of flour as "babies" and then some of them "died" so we had to dig holes and bury them in the desert. The boys did leave for an hour or so and that was the worst part because we didn't have a lot of girls. Luckily we did stop for lunch, and only trekked for one full day (dawn to dusk) and then stayed in a cabin and we were fed normal food, so we didn't starve. On the plus side I actually got to ride in a cart for about an hour or so because I legitimately almost fainted from my period, my health conditions, and the heat and if I had been forced to walk I would have not made it without needing medical help after. But I walked for most of it, and bled all over my skirt so I had to throw it away afterwards. Thinking of this and the many other things I did for my beliefs, I am still not past the anger of the lies and brainwashing of my youth.
I am SO SORRY! What a traumatic thing to be forced to go through.
@@rosiej.1473 I am 32 now, so time has healed a lot but wow it's amazing that stories like this bring up so many memories of stupid things I did for (in the end) no reason. But I'm good now :)
@@AskAmberOfficial I am glad to hear that. I am exJW and it is CRAZY the stupid things we did for no reason as well. Enjoy life on your terms now.
We didn't have guys washing girls' hair, but we had a scene where a couple adults dressed as Joseph Smith and others were "tarred and feathered" with honey and oatmeal by a "mob."
That is so weird lol
I’m from Melbourne Australia and we did pioneer trek here. Haha seems so crazy looking back haha
What a weird trek experience, haha. Mine wasn't so weird. We had tents and good food!
We did trek when I was 17, in California. We actually pulled our carts over Melissa Corey Peak. But we got actual food.
I highly recommend John Larsen's heartbreaking account of the Willie and Martin handcart companies on Mormon Stories Podcast. Go listen to it but I mean get ready to cry your eyes out. These poor people were ACTIVELY stolen from and neglected by the church over in Utah while being abused and starved on their grueling trip 💔. My ancestors were among those European converts and handcart pioneers and it gets super personal.
I'm Oregon raised, so of course we did the Trek thing, following (at times) actual historical pioneer wagon trails through the mountains. Flirted with a nerdy boy in my "family" group the whole weekend so that probably made it fun for me. Reading all your horrible experiences, I have to give props to my former leaders for making good decisions! No live animal slaughters, no river crossing, girls washed their *own* hair in the river! The last day we had "ran out of food" so the ma's and pa's cooked biscuits in a pan made of only flour and water.
This was my favorite yet! It was a great story with nice balance of what was good and bad about the experience.
I grew up in Nevada and the first year they did trek I had a family wedding out of town so I luckily didn’t go. After the stories I heard I’m so glad I didn’t go!!! My friends told me they did wash each other’s hair, ate gruel, were forced to push handcarts while the men watched, and sleep in the cold. Sounds miserable!
Born and (mostly) raised in Mormon Utah… and I have never heard of this!! It’s so strange to think some of my friends have probably done this..
Mine was done in the hottest part of the day. They took us to a steep hill that was pretty much all sand. The men were all just staring down at us while we struggled. We were a small group and we had people that were "dead" and couldn't pull, we had to pull them on the cart.
We had each family carry a babydoll full of sand that we had to pass around. Our baby’s head kept falling off so when we set up camp and needed to put a tarp up for rain our ma and pa put the baby’s head on a stake to prevent the stick from piercing the tarp 😂 Everyone stopped by to laugh at or judge us.
I was part of trek during its very first year roughly 16 yrs ago, it was 12 miles in the north Georgia mountains, no weird names, don’t recall if our bags were gone through, definitely no hair washing! When our men returned from the Mormon battalion they stood at the top of the hill and just watched us pull the carts up in misery 😩 I was 17 and didn’t want to be there, was already “rebelling” by Mormon standards, so I didn’t even want to participate in the day of activities. My trek family was super chill though.
Exmo from PA, my sister did a baby trek up a hill for a picnic and home before dark. My trek was three days of hell in NV we didn't come up with new names but we did take on the family names of our 'ma' & 'pa' (we became the swansonites). All our stuff was in 5 gal tubs and they went through our stuff as an Indian raid halfway up the hill, and we went 10+ miles a day. I had heat exhaustion episodes almost every day. It was awful. However when my family was overseas we didn't do trek but that could have been the region. (Middle east)
I've lived in Illinois most of my life, so I'm glad I didn't have to any pioneer treks. In my groups with the young men and young women, we had camping trips, which were a lot of fun.