Heritage Gateways

Wendy Westergard Journals

July 14, 1997

Location: Yellow Creek, Wyoming - Between Bear River crossing and Castle Rock.

Summary: Walking the needles, salute to mothers, and birthday cake fun.

Journal entry: Today we went through went through the needles. I walked this day. I helped pull over the needles. It was a really tough pull. There were rocks the size our fists. It was hard to pull uphill. Its as amazing to pull over these rocks and have these huge boulders on the right. There were lots of press there to get some amazing pictures which I'm sure they did.

After walking, then pulling I helped Bonnie Merrill make the trip in. It wasn't an extremely long day, but she wanted to finish the day. Her legs had locked up after our last break. Keith and I put our arms around her helped her to make it in. She had an incredible experience, she said. As I brought her into camp Keith and I would switch places because my arms were going dead. By the time we got into camp I had dead arms.

I went back to the earlier camp and shuttled a car forward. I'd not done that for a long time. It was weird to go back to the abandoned camp and remember everything that happened here and to see nothing of what was there before except the land and a few cars. The spirit of the train was gone from the land. It was at the next campsite. The spirit moves with us.

I rested in a chair for a while until I could muster enough energy to get up. I rounded up the Sorenson kids and found a ride and we went swimming. I had fun swimming. I worked off any frustration that I had. I sprinted 5 laps. I swim a lot and that is not that much, but when you've already walked and pulled 15 miles and are utterly exhausted it means a lot. I didn't get dinner tonight because by the time I got back from swimming it was late and the docents had thrown away the last of dinner. We snacked on some salad and a piece of wheat bread.

Mothers are amazing people. I had never taken kids swimming before. Mother's have a lot of patience. It took forever to get them ready to go and then when we got there it was awesome. When it was time to get out it was a little more difficult. Mothers I now have a better appreciation for what you do on a regular everyday basis. Mothers I salute you. You are truly wonderful people.

Cyndi's birthday was today. She got three birthday cakes. We had an icing fight. Elder Pinnock saw us have this whole exchange. Some of the parent were really embarrassed. He had a smile on his face, so think he thought it was funny. We are now in Utah and psychologically we can feel that we are in our home state. It feels wonderful to come home. The wind truly does stop after Wyoming. Now we just have a nice gentle breeze.