Sweetwater Crossings - third day

So begins our third day. We woke up and had breakfast. Canned peaches, yogurt, and an apple. Yum! This was our long day. We had 10 miles in front of us. We found out that our company was first that day and our cart was first in line. We were excited about this. We could set our own pace. They told us to load on the mosquito repellant. We already knew from the night before that they would be bad. We hiked down the road, past the missionary house, and into the fields. Hello mud!! This day was fun because we felt it was much more like what the pioneers had to deal with. Rugged terrain, mud, rocks, water, swamps, bugs... but by this time we were used to the walking and it turned out to be a great day. We trekked through the swampy fields and finally hit the path and stopped for lunch near the river. The missionaries told us a few stories about the mormon battalion and the sweetwater crossing/Rescue. After lunch, we trekked about 200 yards, and some guy in a soldiers uniform drove up and took all of our men. We women were left to pull our carts up a great big hill that had about 2 switchbacks. UHG. My girls were nervous, but we had a prayer and told each other we could do this!!! We were still the first handcart in line and we pulled that cart right up to the top. We ended up being quite a bit ahead of the rest of the carts, but my girls were strong and we just pulled strong and steady. The Men and boys were lining the top of the hill on both sides of the path with their hats over their hearts. I could tell this was a great experience for them watching their women do hard work. When we got to the top, Samuel said, "Ma, I couldn't believe it when we saw you. You were way out in front." Then he gave me a high five. It was cute. After all the girls made it to the top, we gathered in families out across the hill top and gave the kids the letters from their parents. They each read their letters of love and testimony from their parents and then we talked about how each one of us needs rescued at different times in our lives. That when we pull together and work together, we can do hard things. We moved on to the sweetwater and stopped and Brother Robinson told us the story of the sweetwater crossing. When the Willie company came to the 6th crossing, they were hungry and freezing and some just sat down on the ground and refused to go on. They couldn't bear getting into the freezing cold water and wading through the river. Some of the rescuers had found them at this point and offered to carry the saints across. One of those rescuers was named, C. Allen Huntington. The great, great... grandfather of another one our our sons, Samuel. These good men carried many of the pioneers across the river and suffered for the rest of their lives from wading the cold waters time after time. Samuel was excited to help. We asked for volunteers to carry some of the woman across and then we crossed the sweetwater in silence. As we pushed the cart down into the water, it made me think of a baptism. When we entered the water and it swished around us, it sounded just like it does at a baptism when a father and his child enter from opposite sides of the font and meet each other in the middle. I was thinking of how cold it must have been for these pioneers and rescuers and what a contrast to us. We were hot and sweaty and it felt so good to get wet. It was very touching. We stopped at the second crossing and turned and watched Samuel and some of the other boys carry some of the girls across. That too, was very touching. The third time we crossed was a fun time and we were able to get wet and play in the water. We layed down in the water and floated the river. It felt so good after three days of hiking. We washed the dirt and grime off and dunked our heads and laughed and had a great time. When it was time to go, we were soaking wet, but dried off pretty quickly. We still had 2 miles of hiking to get back to camp and it was through the muddy, swampy fields again. Our men carried the girls across a few more swamps so we wouldn't get all muddy and one of the Pa's fell over backwards on top of his daughter who was riding piggy back across. Oops. The poor girl was covered in mud from the back of her head down to her feet. We felt so bad, but she was o.k. We made it back to camp and ran our cart in as we knew we were done Trekking. It was a great day!