For four days, a group of 200 youth and nearly 200 adults braved the long stretch of hills through Eastern Washington for this year’s Trek Northwest ’09.

Traveling roughly 16 miles daily, the group adorned in hand-sewn authentic pioneer clothing, ate customary pioneer food, pulled handcarts and took part in evening activities including a Ho-down, black powder rifle shooting and scone making.

Trek Northwest takes place every four years, paying tribute to the pioneer trek westward. The program was developed by Brigham Young University more than 20 years ago and is held once every four years.

“Trek is a … way for youth to do more than just learn about pioneers,” said Wright Noel, the event coordinator. “In four days, they get to experience what it was like to be a pioneer.”

TREK Northwest ‘09 was sponsored by the Bellevue Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

During the long trek, many of the youth kept journals to document their journey.

Sixteen-year-old Daniel Abramson of Bellevue wrote in his journal about the lasting friendships he made on TREK Northwest ’09.

“The biggest thing was I came to realize we need to stay together as families and communities. We need to unite, now more than ever, if we want to prosper for the future,” he wrote. “We need to pick each other up when we fall, and we need to just keep going, putting one foot in front of the other.”

The LDS church plans to start preparing in 2012 for Trek ’13, and it will once again be open to community youths and adults.

Lindsay Larin can be reached at 425.453.4602.