Bearry Mission Blog: Week 20

"Selby is that storm coming?"

Monday- August 4 - Bob and Patti spent the morning with us and then headed out to Cody to check out the sites there before visiting Yellowstone. We had such a wonderful visit with them, they are amazing friends. We packed up some food and clothes and headed to Rock Creek Hollow, with a stop in Lander for a few groceries, to spend the week acting as site/camp hosts. Rock Creek Hollow is the camp the Willie company arrived after a grueling 15 mile hike over rocky ridge which is the summit of south pass over the Rocky Mountains. It took some of the people over 24 hours to make the journey from camp to camp. It was snowing and windy and very cold. The Hollow offered water and shelter in the hollow rock walls. 13 people died in the journey that day and were buried in a common grave that memorializes them at this place today. The Riverton Stake also erected a Six foot rock monument that declares "Remember" to remind us of the price that was paid by these people and how they put their faith in Christ.

We go from Monday to Monday and the Martin's cove people come from Wednesday to Wednesday The Jensen's were here to greet us and teach us our responsibilities here. We stay in 2 trailers that the church owns and were brought here from sixth crossing at the beginning of the season.

No trekkers on Monday or Tuesday this week but we did have a couple of people stop by. About 4:30-5:00 a huge rain storm came through for about 45 minutes and then it cleared again. I had the trailer door open because it was warm and in a matter of seconds the floor and chair were soaked.

Tuesday- August 5 - Selby worked on the pumps some and I went with Sister Jensen and cleaned benches and railings. We visited with the Jensens some and read a lot. In the evening we went out and filled badger holes along the trail. We have giant rabbits here that don't seem to mind the people. We put up the flag each day and say the pledge of allegiance and have prayer together. Quite and peaceful day. But can't say as much about the night. Discovered we had visitors, little grey furry ones. Before the night was over 3 mice had been trapped and disposed of and Selby had his sleep interrupted and I slept only after all 3 had been eliminated and it was about 3:30 or 4:00,ugh!

Wednesday - August 6- Went and cleaned benches again ( the birds are constantly busy).

The Martins Cove missionaries switched out today, so it was good bye to the Jensen's and Hello to the Lindsays. Both couples are really nice people. We worked on the restrooms as there was a problem with how they had been handled, and of course Selby knew just what to do because of his camp experience.

Enough said other than he got rid of the smell and the flies. The trek hosts arrived to let us know how the trek for the day was progressing. The support group arrived and had 21 vans that they had rented to transport the 300 of them. They were from Eagle Mountain UT. The first group arrived about 4:00 and we are to direct traffic and get the kids to unload their carts and get them washed. We have a power sprayer so they can really get them clean. The second group arrived at 5:15. Same routine.They had some really fun leaders and great kids. We had another rain storm for about an hour which included some hail. Again it cleared up and had a nice evening attending the groups closing fireside. The kids got up and shared some of what these sites had made them feel and how they related that to their future in serving God. We enjoyed hearing how our efforts of sharing this place and its stories had impacted the kids. More creature escapades, caught one within 10 minutes of going to bed. This capture wasn't as successful, I don't know all the details but it entailed Selby chasing the trap and its occupant around the trailer until he could throw it outside. My nerves were frazzled. by the way Selby got a bad sunburn on his head again, yow, it is becoming a problem. Dr. Freed here he comes.

Thursday August 7 - Got up early and helped the group get ready to leave. They were up and had breakfast and broke down camp on on the road by9:30. We kinda of go from feast to famine as far as people are concerned. We do get visitors that come here by chance and others that have heard about the trail and monuments and stop to get more of the story. Cleaned benches and bathrooms again. Our next group was much smaller about 65 and were from Cardston Canada. They had been in a huge downpour at sixth crossing and had to go into Lander to dry out their sleeping bags, so we were really hoping the rain wouldn't hit them today. They arrived about 4:30 and the rain looked as if it would get them but it literally parted and went north and south of us. Small miracle. We had a very good dinner with them followed by their program. They didn't camp here but rather took their bus back to sixth crossing where they had left the camp pitched. Heard little noises but no catch tonight.

Friday August 8- Not an early morning since no one was in camp. The Lindsay's went to lunch at Atlantic City as they had heard everyone rave about the great hamburgers. We started to go exploring when they got back (one of us has to be here at all times) but we didn't go to far because we realized the trekkers were coming in a little early.

It was another large group with 6 buses and about 350 people. Everyone was very nice. Handcart wranglers came and we got all 35 carts onto 3 trailers. This group was from Denver North and had been one stake until a few months ago so they were trekking as one stake but had their program split by their new stakes. Both Stakes had nice programs with violin music as prelude and then a pretty musical number by two girls and a young man on his guitar. Almost a full moon tonight very pretty and no rain. No critter action but don't worry I stayed up late listening for them.

Saturday August 9 - Early rise to help this group get going. They were very efficient despite their bus drivers being late and were up, fed, cleaned up, and even had a program and were gone by 10:00. We decided to do a little project of cleaning out the storage/shop. We also went down and did a thorough cleaning of the bridges with buckets of water and scrub brushes. I also decided the registration area could use a good scrubbing. Selby and I went exploring again and went for miles out on the mining roads until we got to the river where there had been a lot of gold mining through dredging efforts. It feels so weird to be so far from anything and the sky seems so large and everything seems so expansive and seems to go on forever. We got about 5 groups of tourists and gave each of them a small tour of our site. We had a hot dog roast over our portable campfire with the Lindsays and had a nice visit.

Sunday August 10 - When you are at RCH you go to Lander for church because Martin's Cove is 2:15 away. You also take turns with the other set of Missionaries so there is always someone here to greet visitors and tell them the stories. The Lindsays chose to go at 9:00 and We went at 1:00. It takes about 50 minutes from here. The talks were very good one on Charity and the other on practical Christian Living (the 13th Article of Faith). The Plumhofs were there because they were doing the same kind of split because of sixth crossing's visitor center. Sister Anderson was there to because she was feeling weak from a bad cold and didn't want to travel and stay in Martin's Cove. They were all so sweet to tell us how much they missed us. We spent a very slow afternoon reading a couple of short naps and visiting with the LIndsays.

We have really enjoyed Rock Creek Hollow!

pretty cows