Sorry to be a one subject pony but I was wondering if Trek is widespread in the U.S., if it's done at all in Canada and Europe etc? Or is it just a Morridor, California, Washington thing? Anyone in Texas participate or is it just too hot? My SIL in Texas has never mentioned it. I know growing up, I never did trek and it wasn't really mentioned, although we celebrated Pioneer Day as a stake with a party/picnic/barbeque. However my mom, who still lives in the stake where I grew up, said they do trek now and it's a hard haul - lots of work lugging heavy handcarts uphill. I told her about DH's cousin's wimpy trek (on the other thread) and she said theirs was a lot harder.

Also, do you think trek will be disbanded like so many other things because of finances or is brainwashing the youth worth the expenditure? What do you think?

Never heard of it until I started lurking here five years ago to help me understand the issues of my then gf. Even when dating an exmo, she never mentioned it to me. I live in South Carolina.

These treks are a good example of how history is manipulated to control people today.

Such an approach to history always backfires when thinking people are involved.

The key is to keep thinking people away, or to squash budding critical thinkers before their proclivity gets out of hand.

I enjoyed Trek. I live in the Southern Californian mountains and I went when I was 16 or so. Started in the afternoon and pushed the handcarts 15 miles or so the first night. Was tough but we only had around 10 miles to push for the other 2 days to get back to where we started.

It was pretty dumb dressing up in old clothing, but you don't care after a while because everyone looks stupid. We were in "families" of around 10 kids and a Ma and Pa. I liked my family, lots of pretty girls, and I'm still good friends with a couple of them (but I literally never talked to the other half after trek was over).

It was from Friday - Monday morning, and Saturday was pretty much an "activity" day with gun shooting, bow shooting, horseshoes, etc. Sunday was very boring. They gave everyone a 3 hour "reflection time" after sacrament meeting where we had to find a place by ourselves and study scriptures and write in our journals and crap. Most of us tried for 30 minutes and then fell asleep. Looking back on it, it was probably just the leaders trying to get away from babysitting kids. It was hilarious to see some of the kids claim how spiritual it was, when I literally saw them sleeping for 75% of it. Then on Monday we came back home.

It was actually one of my favorite experiences as a Mormon, and I had a great time.

Participated in Trek in Wyoming which was part of path of the actual trek. It was hard work, rained, millions of mosquitos, walked thru extremely cold river up to my chest, etc. Even though I am now an exmo, I still feel like it was good experience to physically participate, to get a glimpse of walking in someone else's shoes. It was chalked full of "created" spiritual experiences though. And I have heard that some youth in Texas have participated in a trek in the extreme heat.

Yes, here in Ohio they organize treks to Kirtland. Once there all the younguns get indoctrinated . . . I mean, "instructed" in the history of the church back in the day. They visit the Kirtland Temple and other related historical sites. Though I've never participated, I hear the youth pretty much hate it. As Red Puppy pointed out, they hate getting dressed up in pioneer garb and wasting an entire weekend pretending to be handcart trekkers.

"Devil's Gate" is a really good book. It really opened my eyes to the reality of the handcart tragedy.
The author likened mormons re-enacting the handcart immigration to jews re-enacting the holocaust.