BCII Trek Details

Dear Ward Members,After the Bp spoke to us on Sunday, we realized that many of you might have ?'s about the trek. Here is the website where we will be staying. http://www.handcarttreks.com/BingCanyon/BingCanyonindex.html There is info about the restroom facilities, water facilities and the area in general (port a potties and a water tank are provided by the staff at Bing Canyon).
As a WARD we are required to bring our own:

FOOD
LEADERSHIP
ITINERARY
MEDICAL STAFF

As an Activities Comm we have already taken care of all of these areas.

Medical staff includes Hyrum Jones and Eric Koehn. Bro Jones has generously offered his camper as a medical station as needs be.

We have a food comm chair-Dorothy Eppich, who is currently planning the menu which includes MEALS FOR EVERYONE, SNACKS ON THE TRAIL, AND A "MID-NIGHT" SNACK.
The meals that the ward will be supplying are:

Thur PM (Thurs evening meal will be @7pm. If you are planning on being there sooner to set up camp, etc. and you know your kids won't make it until 7 please feel free to provide them with what they need to eat on your own. We are having the meal at 7 in hopes that everyone can arrive on Thurs night because we have a fun night of activities planned and want everyone to be there to enjoy it together)
Mid night snack
Fri AM
Noon
Snacks on trail
PM
Mid Night Snack
Sat Am
Snacks on trail
Noon (with watermelon)

Dorothy is working hard to get this organized but she is at little disadvantage as we don't have a real good number of participants to give her. She will let us know soon if we will need to bring items like cooking stoves, dutch ovens, etc. The ward will also be supplying the paper products and we can have fires with wood/charcoal provided by the ward as well.

Leadership: Our Bp is going to be our company captain, so everyone welcome to the Nielson Handcart Company.We will also be dividing into "Teams" (they also divided into 100's in each company, kind of like a Stake then a Ward then an organization) We are still waiting for a head count as to how many will be in each team but at present it looks like we will be having 3 teams. And yes, there will be leaders over each of those teams-leaders are still being determined.

As we've stated before, we want you to know a story or history about the name you are trekking for. We want this because along the trail we are going to stop and tell each other these stories. Not everyone will get a chance to tell their story but many of you will. There are also some specific stories that we want told so you might get to do that too. With the stopping comes the fact that, how can 150 people gather in one place and hear a story? Well, we have 2 solutions. We have been in close contact with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kaye (Elder and Sis Freeman). A couple of weeks ago, they came from WY to WA to get some building supplies and a trailer and some "farm stuff" as they are doing construction in WY. Well, they were kind enough to bring us the portable sound system that they use on their treks. So we have a sound system (that runs on batteries) that we will be able to use. We are also sending out the teams 20-30 mins apart. Meaning Team A will leave at 8:30, Team B at 9 and Team C at 9:30 (this is also how the pioneers did it. Everyone couldn't be standing one the banks of a river waiting 2 hours to cross it so they left in sections.) This will also help with the water filling and restroom using stations. We are hoping that we don't do a lot of standing around waiting for our turn to use the restroom but that alot of time is spent trekking.
As for you ward members, things that you definitely need to bring:

-A tent for your family (dome tents are best because they are light and easy to set up, but PLEASE don't go buy something) If you don't own a tent, please let us know so that we can find you one
-EVERY PERSON TREKKING will be given a 5 gal bucket w/lid to use as "luggage". You will put your personal effects in the bucket w/lid and then as we stop along the trail, you can use your bucket as a seat. It is important that you DO NOT make your bucket weigh more than 15 lbs. If there are 10 people in your handcart and everyone has 15 lb bucket, that is 150 lbs you have to pull around. Please be courteous to everyone on this issue. We will be weighing buckets a few days before the trek. You will RECEIVE your bucket at the MAY 31st FIRESIDE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.
-Attached is the PACKING LIST and the FIRST AID KIT LIST {FAK} (every HANDCART needs a first aid kit) Obviously some families are smaller and will be paired with others in our ward, you will just need to have one FAK for each handcart.
-GLOVES is a must for everyone planning on pulling the handcart

FOR THOSE WITH YOUTH OR CHILDREN: please encourage your children not to bring I-pods, MP3's, cell phones, games, electronics of any kind. We know of course that the men folk will probably need to have their cell phones but for the most part, we want it to be a tech free experience.
I don't believe that the clothing list includes:
shorts (longer ones, bloomer length, to be worn UNDER skirts) for the women. You will want these to prevent chaffing.
jackets or coat
Cameras (so that we can use pics taken to comply a video after the trek)
Rain Poncho

EACH HANDCART NEEDS:
1-5 gal water cooler (that can be filled by the water tank)
1-54-60 quart ice chest for snacks and lunch to go in
Tarp to cover the load in case of rain(other items might be added such as a dutch, as we know the meal schedule we will let you know.
The handcarts will have your 5 gal bucket, and the items listed above. All other items like bedding, tents will be moved in a vehicle.
SOME OTHER STUFF:
-Bedding will be trucked seperate so if you need an airbed, foam mattress, etc, you can bring it. You can even bring an RV, camper, trailer, whatever. Please we just want you to come enjoy the spirit of this great opporunity.
-Men, you are more the welcome to grow a beard.
-Continue to work on your pioneer clothing. There are many talented seamstresses in our ward who can help you if you need help, please call and let us know so we can get everyone outfitted.
-If needed we will place a order for (cheap) straw cowboy hats for your younger boys. PLEASE let us know soon so we can get those order.
-We are making a journal for everyone 8 and older. The Church has encouraged us to look to this great generation of people and learn from them. Just like parelleling our lives to scripture stories, there is much we can compare to our pioneer history. We want everyone to have a great experience on this trek and part of that is recognizing the Savior in the whole of this "trekking" opportunities that we get to do now and that our forefathers did.
-We are also making a "poke" (A "poke" is a bag that has one strap that goes over the shoulder and across the chest to hold your items in) or sachett for everyone 8 and older to hold their journal, water bottle, repellant, chapstick, snack in.
-PLEASE get me your names for whom you are trekking. If you need help, we can help you do that. Again the importance of being connected to these great pioneers will help us understand them so much better.