hiked a hike without any hikers.

Spent all week this week trying to find a great place to take the YW hiking, with bad knees, a broken toe and Abby on my neck. I was called as Camp Director, which i was excited about until i found out that the stake has chosen to be in charge of it ALL and i really only get to be a tent mom... I'm just going to try and not think about it, because the way they have the whole thing set up makes me frustrated, like the stake missed the boat on the purpose of girls camp. but.... oooohhhh weellll. When I was called, I was told that I would be in charge of Pre-hikes for girls camp. So we were to have a pre-hike yesterday.

Andrew had finals Tuesday and then had the rest of the week off to help me find a hike for Saturday. We finally found one on Squaw Peak. It's a nice 1.2 mile loop that has hardly any elevation. There were bathrooms and covered pavilions to eat lunch at by the trail head and a nice bench towards the end of the hike where we could have a nice spiritual message. Plus the hike wasn't too far away from home, about 45 minutes, which for our area is good.

We've had the hike on the calendar all month and had planned for it back in March. I came in and talked to the girls Sunday and handed out cute little fliers for them to take home and remember to come to the hike. 5 of the 6 leaders said they could come Sunday and help give rides to the trail head, hike, and then give rides back to their homes.

The YW President talked to the girls that came to the activity on wednesday and 6 of 11 who were there, said they were going. I emailed the girls again, the day before to remind them..... ...... then six o' clock the day before comes around and all of the sudden i only have ONE possible leader that can come, my assistant director and every one else bailed out on me... and according to the numbers on wednesday we don't have enough spaces in the car to take the girls to the trail head. I talked some leaders into moving their appointments around to come, so that there's enough car space and leaders. And hoped it would all work out.

Saturday morning comes along.... I woke up at 5:30am, to get my spiritual message and hand out complete. Sliced tomatoes, lettuce, red onions and strawberries for sandwiches and snacks. Put together the rest of the lunch and put them in the cooler. Tried to get ready and get abby's things ready for the babysitter (that only happened thanks to andrew), we sent abby over to the neighbors to be watched while we went hiking. I picked up olive oil from a co-op, which took longer than it should have and 7:50 comes around (the girls were supposed to be at the church at 7:30) and we have only one girl. .... Who obviously didn't want to hike by herself with leaders, or well... a mom that insisted she didn't want to hike without any friends). Which, who wouldn't want to hike with friends? I can understand that, but how come her friends didn't come?... or even her sister who was supposed to be there...? So all the time and work that went into our hike was canceled because none of the girls showed up.

I was frustrated and disappointed to say the least.

The mom and daughter left, and the two leaders that came, stood together for a second. and then decided just because the girls didn't come doesn't mean we can't go. We all had babysitters for our kids (Andrew was there too, to be the priesthood for the activity), so we drove in a car and went hiking. We choose a different hike, which was MUCH harder than the hike we were going to take the girls on. It's called Piestewa Peak trail (formerly known as Squaw Peak trail). It was good, I don't know if the other leaders liked it because it was a moderate to difficult hike. It wasn't very long, but the elevation changed from 1400' to 2608' and had a LOT of stairs and rocks.

It was great to go hiking still, but didn't make up for the fact that no one showed. I'm trying to fulfill my calling but lack support.

I'm pretty sad and disappointed that the girls AND/OR YW leaders didn't show. I'm going to be spending the next few days trying to figure out in my head why leaders and girls didn't show up so i can see what to do better next time.

Pictures of the hike to come later.