Looking for great Pioneer Trek activities? We have participated in many Pioneer Treks as Trail Bosses, Ma & Pa, and family members. Here are some helpful ideas to make your Pioneer Trek a fun and uplifting event.
Morning Round-Up
Begin each morning on the trail by gathering everyone together. (This will take place after breakfast, family devotionals, and loading trailers. ) Start with a roll call, draw lots for pull position, family handcart song, announcements, and a company hug. All of this will take less than 15 minutes. It’s a great way to start the day!
Roll Call
The trail boss will call out the family colors or names and each family will respond with a cheer.
Draw Lots for Pull Position
Our favorite way to do this is by putting a handful of Legos in the Trail Boss Ma’s apron pocket. There is a Lego for each family. The Trail Boss calls a youth up to pick from the pocket. She stacks the Legos as they are pulled and that is the order for the day. The order can be drawn again after lunch.
Family Handcart Song
Ask every family to make up a verse to “The Handcart Song”. They can do this as they’re trekking or before Trek. The Stake leaders share their song on the first day before the first pull. Three or four families share their songs each morning at Morning Round-Up. Here’s the song and an example. Handcart Song Music
STAKE LEADERS HANDCART SONG
Stake Support:
The stake support is here for you.
We’ll haul some gear and water too.
And, Dan, he has a job that’s neat
He keeps the toilet smelling sweet.
Food Committee:
The food committee keeps the rules.
We wash our hands and clean our tools
Because we know it won’t go well
With diarrhea on the trail.
Trail Bosses:
The trail bosses will lead the way
We’ll lead a song and shout hooray
But we may go a mile too far
Because we don’t know where we are.
Chorus:
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on our way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.
Printable Stake Leaders Handcart Song
Announcements
Share the agenda and any announcements for the day.
Company Hug
A morning “company hug” is a great pioneer trek activity to promote unity. Our treks have been four day events, so we needed four company hugs. Here are some ideas.
- First Day/Practice Hug: Everyone forms a big circle, trying to stand side-by-side as close as they can, with arms around shoulders. Then everyone moves one step forward to add an extra squeeze.
- Sit Hug: Everyone forms a big circle. Everyone turns so their stomachs are close to the back of the person in front of them. Tighten the circle so everyone is close together. Then, on the count of three, sit down. Everyone should be sitting on each other, so no one should fall!
- Magnet Hug: Once again, everyone forms a big circle. The Trail Boss yells for everyone with a birthday in January to run to the center of the circle and make a big group hug. Then he yells “February!” and the February birthdays run to the center and join in the hug. He continues with all the months as everyone gets sucked into the magnet hug.
- Cinnamon Roll Hug: Save this one for your last morning. Everyone holds hands, making a big circle. The trail boss lets go of one hand and begins to walk to the center, pulling everyone behind him. The group then goes round and round, forming a tight cinnamon roll. I wish I had a video of our trek kids doing this. They loved it! Here’s an example from YouTube. https://youtu.be/inD620ss3Uc
Trail of Hope
In Nauvoo, during pageant weeks, actors stand along the trail to the river and tell their stories to the visitors as they walk the Trail of Hope. We recreated this powerful experience on our Pioneer Trek. It’s one of our favorite pioneer trek activities. We held our Trail of Hope on our first night, after dinner and a variety show. We staggered the families to begin the trail every five minutes. They needed to be spaced enough to listen to a story, then move to the next one before the following family arrived. We asked 12 adult leaders and youth to learn the parts. (Most don’t need to be memorized, but the actors should know the stories very well.) We gave each actor a lantern. They stood alone on the trail and told their story to each family as they passed. Here is our script: Trail of Hope Script
Variety Show
On the first night, after camp has been set-up and everyone has eaten dinner, it’s good to gather and have some fun. It’s important for the kids to know that even though trek is going to be physically hard, it’s also going to be tons of fun. You want them to know this from the start. Our variety show consisted of several youth sharing their talents, plus a skit from our Pa’s, a song from our Ma’s, and some entertainment from our Trail Boss. This can be really fun. Tap into the talent in your group and make it happen! I’ll attach copies of our Ma and Pa numbers to get you thinking. You’re welcome to use our scripts if they suit your needs. We asked a quartet of young women to end the night by singing “Happy Trails”. It was great!
Note: On our most recent trek, we had to postpone our Variety Show to the last night. I felt bad about this, but it ended up being really special. By the last night, we felt like a big family. Everyone was more confident performing because they knew their audience. We had a short break after the Variety Show for everyone to change into warmer clothes and have dessert. Then we gathered again for our testimony meeting at twilight. It was a really beautiful gathering that night. One of the boys in my ward shared his testimony the following Sunday. He told about the two events that last night. He shared that he thought the testimony meeting was so powerful because it followed a gathering of joy and fun. Somehow the combination of fun, joy, and faith brings out the very best in all of us. So, if you want to put your Variety Show at the end of your trek, that works great too!
Pioneer Rendezvous
On Friday afternoon, we always gather for games and competition at our Pioneer Rendezvous. We usually have several stations set up including axe throwing, stilt races, tug-of-war, potato sack races, three-legged races, sling shots, stick pull competitions, and stick and hoop throwing/catching. After all the families have rotated through the stations, we have a Rabbit Race. (I have no idea why we call it that.) Each family assigns their individuals to compete in specific events during a relay race against the other families. So, let’s assume the family has 8 people competing. The first two people have to catch a ring on a hoop, then tag their next family member who runs to the sling shot range. They hit the target, then tag their next family member to run to the potato sacks. That person hops to the finish line and tags two teammates who three-legged race across the field to their teammate at the axe throwing range. When they hit the log with their axe, they tag their family member who gets on stilts and walks to the final finish line. Any order will work, and you can add or remove events. Do what works for your group. It’s a great way to end the pioneer games for the afternoon. Make sure you have lots of water and set up some shade. Otherwise, folks won’t want to play for long.
Team Building/Get-To-Know You Activities
Here are a few ideas to help build unity within families.
- Make up nicknames for family members.
- Have a family yell or cheer.
- Assign jobs (Load/unload cart, place rocks under wheels when stopped, set-up/take-down shelter, fill water jugs, retrieve bedding from trailer, etc.)
- Seven Questions on the Trail: Choose one person at a time. The family gets to ask them 7 questions about themselves.
- The BIG Question: Ask a big question and everyone has to answer it. (What super power would you have? Do you have a phobia? Share an embarrassing moment. Who’s your hero?)
- Whomp! Memory Game: Sit in a circle. Person in the middle has a pair of socks in their hand. They run to someone. That person has to yell out the name of another person before he gets whomped with the socks.
Games on the Trail
- You Don’t Say: Game played in two teams- right side of cart vs. left side of cart. Here are the rules: You Don’t Say
- Encore: Call out a category. Each team takes turns singing the first few lines of a song until one team can’t think of a song. Examples: Songs from Mary Poppins or Songs with the word “Night”.
- Ghost Speller: Take turns saying a letter to form a word. When opponent thinks it isn’t a word, they challenge previous player. Point goes to person with a true word or the challenger if no true word.
- Line Up: Challenge another family or two on the trail. Caller yells category and the teams try to line up in order before the other teams. Category ideas: Age, length of hair, shoe size, # of visits to Disneyland, highest bowling score, alphabetically by middle name, height of favorite Star Wars character, alphabetically by first name of favorite Harry Potter character…More detailed rules: Line Up
- Family Feud: Stick a little stack of Family Feud cards in Ma’s apron pocket. It’s fun for everyone to play as they walk. (We asked 100 people to name a popular pizza topping. Let’s see if you can name the top 10 answers.)
Games for Down Time
- Human Knot: Stand in circle. Put right hands in and grab a hand. Then put left hand in and grab a hand. Try to untangle the knot.
- Lucky Stiff: Need lots of people. Everyone takes off their shoes. One person stands in the middle of the circle. Everyone else sits on the ground in a circle with their feet pressed tightly against the person standing in the middle. The person in the center crosses their arms over their chest, stands stiff and falls. The circle passes the person around. Super fun!
- Ten Fingers: Everyone holds out 10 fingers. Go around the circle and say something you’ve never done. Anyone in the circle who has done it has to put down a finger. Last player with finger wins.
- Norwegian Dodge Ball * Instructions: Norwegian Dodgeball
- Back Massage: Sit on buckets or stand in a circle. Rub the back of the person in front of you.
- Run Sheepy Run
- Kick the Can
- Steal the Bacon
- Four Men on a Log *Instructions: Four Men on a Couch
- Ape, Girl, Man: Just like Rock, Paper, Scissors: Ape gets Girl, Girl gets Man, Man gets Ape
Family Devotional Ideas
We believe that the experiences the youth have with their pioneer families are the most powerful of a Pioneer Trek. We encourage you to have morning and evening devotionals in your small family groups. These discussions will likely be the most important part of your your trek.
- Share pioneer stories, both historic and modern.
- Share great stories from Ma & Pa’s life or other people in the group.
- Have a talent show (on the spot, silly talents) or Untalented Show.
- Book of Mormon/Joseph Smith/Restoration of Priesthood on Earth- Talk about how the pioneers, who were new members of the church, must have felt about finding the restored gospel. Sing “The Spirit of God” and talk about how exciting it would be to find out that God was speaking to His children again through prophets.
- Discuss how to gain a testimony and recognize the Spirit.
- Teach about the power of asking questions- Talk about the first vision and follow with a discussion about Elder Uchtdorf’s quote, “Inquiry is the birthplace of testimony. Some might feel embarrassed or unworthy because they have searching questions regarding the gospel, but they needn’t feel that way. Asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a precursor of growth.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Reflection in the Water, Nov. 1, 2009)
- Ask youth to share their testimony or favorite scriptures. Invite them to pray and lead devotionals. This is not a place for lecturing. It is a place for sharing! The youth learn the most from each other.
- Focus on the youth theme for the year and build a devotional around it.
- Ask everyone in the morning to prepare a 60-90 second talk throughout the day on the topic “Why I believe.” Then, anyone who wants to share their one-minute talk during the evening family devotional can share it.
- Appreciation Game (Really great on last night): Sit in a circle. Explain rules at beginning. The speaker says, “I love and appreciate _____ because_____.” The person being complimented must look at the speaker and may only say, “Thank you.” Then it is that person’s turn to compliment someone else.
- It’s always great to sing together and kneel in prayer. This could be the first time some of your youth experience “family prayer”.
- Use the adult leaders in your family to help with devotionals.
**Note: Shorter spiritual thoughts more often usually work better than long ones less often. Really try to make devotionals a discussion instead of a lecture.
Plan with a purpose
A pioneer trek fosters appreciation for our pioneer heritage, but it also helps youth overcome challenges, observe healthy family relationships, and strengthen their faith. Make sure your Ma’s and Pa’s know how critical their role is in providing this unique experience for the youth. Here is a list of responsibilities to keep in mind.
Ma and Pa Responsibilities
- Love the youth in your family.
- Lead and direct by example.
- Provide a model of a healthy family relationship.
- Ensure that the trek experience is completed safely.
- Assemble necessary family equipment.
- Prepare and lead family devotionals and activities.
- Foster an environment for spiritual experiences.
- Know and share pioneer stories to discuss as inspired.
- Encourage use of journals.
- Prepare physically and spiritually.
- Create unity through games, cheers, music, etc.
- Have fun!
EXAMPLE AGENDAS
The first time we were asked to plan a trek, I found it very helpful to see past itineraries. It’s just nice to see what other people have done. Here is a sample trek schedule, Ma & Pa training, and equipment list for reference. I hope they’ll help you get started. You can do this. It’s going to be better than you think!
Ma and Pa Training with Equipment List
One last note on the Women’s Pull…
I can’t help but share one comment about the Women’s Pull. Every Pioneer Trek includes a section of trail where the girls and women pull alone. It can be one of the most powerful hours of your trek. When you plan this event, you may be tempted to choose a less difficult section of trail. You may be tempted to make it shorter or less challenging by combining families or taking weight off the carts. I want to encourage you to not do that. If it’s not really hard, it will be a disappointment to your girls. It will not be what they imagined. They will not feel the confidence and power that they will gain if they conquer the toughest part of the trail on their own. And your boys will not experience the overwhelming respect and compassion we want them to experience if they don’t get to watch their sisters do something incredible. I have seen so much growth during hard women’s pulls. I have watched girls drop their own handcarts and run to help other families so they could make it to the top. They will figure out how to get the job done, no matter the difficulty. Please, please let them have this. Don’t underestimate them. Even if your numbers are small and your girls seem tiny, let them have this moment of triumph. It’s going to be extraordinary.