Come join me on my trek from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City

[Scott Lloyd]

In the coming year, we in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will study the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History in our “Come Follow Me” curriculum. 

In connection with that, and in homage to our pioneer forebears, I am embarking on a personal goal to walk (or walk/run) the equivalent distance from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake City, Utah, by Dec. 31, 2021. 

According to Google Maps, that amounts to 1,238.1 miles. It averages out to 23.81 miles a week, or roughly five miles a day with one day of rest in the week (Sabbath?) and one extra day for catching up. 

Challenging, but if you’re in reasonably good health with a passable fitness level, as I am, you can do it. Five miles a day roughly works out to 10,000 steps a day, which many popular fitness regimens recommend. 

And we have the whole year to do it. After slogging through the muddy plains of Iowa and wintering over in Council Bluffs/Winter Quarters (present-day Omaha), the original 1847 pioneers made the trek in only about four months. 

So how about it? Would you like to join me on my Nauvoo-Salt Lake trek? I have the trail (present-day highway route) plotted out on Google Maps. 

Log your own accumulated miles. It helps if you have a Fitbit or other tracker, but you can do it with a wrist or pocket pedometer and a simple spreadsheet. Or just use a pencil and notebook. 

I will post on Facebook (and here on this board) periodic updates of how far along we ought to be to stay on schedule and where that would be in relation to landmarks along the way, such as Des Moines, Omaha, Grand Island, Kearney, Chimney Rock, Laramie, Casper, Henefer, South Pass, Big Mountain, and Emigration Canyon. 

Post your own comments to tell us how you are doing and how far along you are. 

We’ll hashtag this #NauvooToSLC

Oh, and feel free to share this post far and wide with your social media contacts. 
 

[CV75]

Great goal! it reminds me of Brigham Young calculating how many steps normally taken in a day anyway, and applied that to the number of miles the saints could be expected to cover by handcart. Bon Voyage!

Speaking of which, I am a swimmer so maybe I can log the route of the ship Brooklyn (modified by a factor of 20 since 24,000 miles is a bit too ambitious!) 

Check this out if you haven't: https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/exhibit/mormon-trails?lang=eng

[Tacenda]

I love this, I'd even love to actually walk in the very places!

[Ahab]

If they could have taken a train, or rode on a jet plane, they would have rather done that than to just walk or run that distance.   The point was to get to where the Lord wanted them to be.  I will do that instead of just trying to get to Salt Lake City Utah.

[randy]

COUNT ME IN!!   When do we start?  I just got back from Christmas vacation in ole Indep. MO....and just saw this

[Robert F. Smith]

11 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

..............................

In connection with that, and in homage to our pioneer forebears, I am embarking on a personal goal to walk (or walk/run) the equivalent distance from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake City, Utah, by Dec. 31, 2021. 

According to Google Maps, that amounts to 1,238.1 miles. It averages out to 23.81 miles a week, or roughly five miles a day with one day of rest in the week (Sabbath?) and one extra day for catching up. 

Challenging, but if you’re in reasonably good health with a passable fitness level, as I am, you can do it. Five miles a day roughly works out to 10,000 steps a day, which many popular fitness regimens recommend. 

And we have the whole year to do it. After slogging through the muddy plains of Iowa and wintering over in Council Bluffs/Winter Quarters (present-day Omaha), the original 1847 pioneers made the trek in only about four months. 

So how about it? Would you like to join me on my Nauvoo-Salt Lake trek? I have the trail (present-day highway route) plotted out on Google Maps. 

..............................

How about an hommage to Forrest Gump?

[Ahab]

21 minutes ago, randy said:

COUNT ME IN!!   When do we start?  I just got back from Christmas vacation in ole Indep. MO....and just saw this

YOU ARE BEHIND.  SCOTT HAS ALREADY LEFT.  START RUNNING NOW !!!

[Scott Lloyd]

4 hours ago, randy said:

COUNT ME IN!!   When do we start?  I just got back from Christmas vacation in ole Indep. MO....and just saw this

I just posted it today. 
 

I’m loosely setting Jan. 1 as the start date, but you can go ahead and begin now and get a head start. That’s what I’ve done (I think I’ll need it). 
 

By the way, I don’t consider this a race or a contest, just an invitation to set a personal goal with a fun motivator. Ten thousand steps a day is a good fitness goal in any case. I’m pointing out that by sticking to it, one can cover the distance equivalent from Nauvoo to Salt Lake in a year. And I’ve built in a cushion of two days a week for rest and/or catching up. If I recall correctly, the pioneers did rest on the Sabbath. 
 

I love Independence. I’ve been there a time or two and even visited the archives of the Community of Christ, where I was shown the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon. This was a number of years before it was published in facsimile as part of the Joseph Smith Papers project. 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Scott Lloyd

[Scott Lloyd]

11 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I love this, I'd even love to actually walk in the very places!

There are segments of the Mormon Trail where you can still do that today. On one such segment, you can even see the ruts worn in the rocks by the passage of wagon wheels. 
 

Fort Bridger, a visitor attraction on the interstate in Wyoming, is on the historic Mormon Trail. A couple of years ago, I took my 15-year-old son there. It was a good day trip for us, and it helped him log some driving hours required for his driver’s license. 
 

In Nebraska, the auto route takes you past the grave of an immigrant grandmother from Scotland who died while on one of the handcart treks and was buried along the trail. Her dying words were, “Tell my son, John, I died with my face toward Zion.”

On the auto route in Nebraska, you can see Chimney Rock, a striking and unique natural formation mentioned in many pioneer journals. Visitors can actually drive right up to it. 

Its a bit out-of-the-way and hard to find, but in Iowa, you can drive to the location where William Clayton wrote the words to “Come, Come Ye Saints.”

And in Nauvoo itself, you can stand at the very landing on the Mississippi River where the pioneers in 1846 set out, the earlier ones crossing the river in flatboats and later ones crossing on the ice after the river had frozen over. 
 

And, of course, This Is the Place Monument and Heritage Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City marks the trail’s end, where Brigham Young said, “This is the right place; drive on.”

 

[Scott Lloyd]

10 hours ago, Ahab said:

If they could have taken a train, or rode on a jet plane, they would have rather done that than to just walk or run that distance.   The point was to get to where the Lord wanted them to be.  I will do that instead of just trying to get to Salt Lake City Utah.

 

5 hours ago, Ahab said:

YOU ARE BEHIND.  SCOTT HAS ALREADY LEFT.  START RUNNING NOW !!!

Just ignore him, and maybe he’ll go away. 

[The Nehor]

9 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

 

Just ignore him, and maybe he’ll go away. 

Doesn't work, I've tried.

[Tacenda]

10 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

There are segments of the Mormon Trail where you can still do that today. On one such segment, you can even see the ruts worn in the rocks by the passage of wagon wheels. 
 

Fort Bridger, a visitor attraction on the interstate in Wyoming, is on the historic Mormon Trail. A couple of years ago, I took my 15-year-old son there. It was a good day trip for us, and it helped him log some driving hours required for his driver’s license. 
 

In Nebraska, the auto route takes you past the grave of an immigrant grandmother from Scotland who died while on one of the handcart treks and was buried along the trail. Her dying words were, “Tell my son, John, I died with my face toward Zion.”

On the auto route in Nebraska, you can see Chimney Rock, a striking and unique natural formation mentioned in many pioneer journals. Visitors can actually drive right up to it. 

Its a bit out-of-the-way and hard to find, but in Iowa, you can drive to the location where William Clayton wrote the words to “Come, Come Ye Saints.”

And in Nauvoo itself, you can stand at the very landing on the Mississippi River where the pioneers in 1846 set out, the earlier ones crossing the river in flatboats and later ones crossing on the ice after the river had frozen over. 
 

And, of course, This Is the Place Monument and Heritage Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City marks the trail’s end, where Brigham Young said, “This is the right place; drive on.”

 

I would do this in a heartbeat, my husband wouldn't go for it. If I'm really brave I could try on my own. You wouldn't think someone like me would love this in my state of unbelief. But I've always loved LDS historical sites. I have drug my kids to several in Utah and my husband and I went to Palmyra and Nauvoo in the last few years. Thanks! Also, I'm pretty dumb with hashtags. How do I do this on my treadmill or ? again, or follow the program?

[Scott Lloyd]

38 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I would do this in a heartbeat, my husband wouldn't go for it. If I'm really brave I could try on my own. You wouldn't think someone like me would love this in my state of unbelief. But I've always loved LDS historical sites. I have drug my kids to several in Utah and my husband and I went to Palmyra and Nauvoo in the last few years. Thanks! Also, I'm pretty dumb with hashtags. How do I do this on my treadmill or ? again, or follow the program?

You may do it anyway you like, on a treadmill or walking around the block or going to a park or whatever. All you need is some means of tracking and logging your distance, such as a pedometer or a Fitbit. 

For my part, I’m including each and every step I take — doing yard work, shoveling snow, shopping — not just workouts. Many people who are fairly active find they can easily accumulate 10,000 steps in a day just in the course of daily living. It hasn’t been so easy for me to do that since I’ve been retired, which is part of the reason I’m undertaking this goal. 
 

I’m going to make a spreadsheet to calculate week by week cumulative increments for mileage.  As I said, from time to time I’ll post how far along we should be toward reaching the end goal in case others might find it helpful.