The Fork in the Road

During the hike in the dark I came to what seemed like a triple or possible quadruple fork and there were no markers.

I sensed and felt the Lord’s leading, because without a moment’s hesitation I turned right and sure enough I saw a trail marker. Praise the Lord!

The three of us came to a steep, sloping hill going down into and along a ravine. We saw another sign which just said STS. The three of us were getting real tired but wanted to press on. We dropped off our packs at the signs near the base of the ravine and hiked on until we couldn’t see anything anymore.

 We headed back to our packs and suddenly saw another flashlight in front of us. It was Eric, leading the rest of the group! They made it, and in good time.

We got together and thought things out. Shirley needed rest and a doctor, and everyone needed to sleep. So we set up camp. 

There was one thing that we really desperately needed and that was water!  

We were nowhere near it, as far as we could see or hear. We sent Eric and Ana down the ravine with the jug and a couple water bottles.

I made a fire and we tried to comfort all the others. The girls were in tears and I was sooo thirsty. I had hiked for so long without water. I can’t express in words how much I needed a drink.

I prayed so earnestly that Eric and Ana would come back with water. The situation we were in was the most stressful ever on this trip, because we all didn’t know if we were on the right track or where we were or how we would ever get out. 

It was a time of total trust and reliance on the Lord for we didn’t know what lay ahead.

The Longest March

So now we had a long trek ahead of us. We were headed toward Prouty Park, but we blew four hours. We hiked and hiked and hiked some more. We had to make it to Prouty before nightfall.

The sun was setting slowly in the west and we hiked on, still in search of Prouty Park. We hiked over high ridges and mountains, which at their base looked promising. But they just went up again, onto another mountain.

We hiked for about four and a half hours when we entertained the dreadful thought of possibly having passed our destination. By the map, we should have reached it hours ago. But we saw no sign. So we hiked further. We crossed several roads and we were losing our strength.

Shirley, who was very sick, pressed on amazingly, but needed to rest. Julie started hyperventilating. Everyone was hurting pretty bad. We stopped on one road. It was the fourth or fifth road we crossed.

We again got in a circle and prayed. We prayed for strength, patience, courage, and health. Also wisdom in finding our way.

At that point Chuck, Dan and I went ahead to see if we could find our site. The sun was almost down, so we needed our flashlights. The markers on the trail were hard to see, so we went without packs. 

Chuck told the group that stayed behind to wait a half hour, and if we weren’t back, to head after us.
The sun set and it was dark. Real dark. 

We were moving quickly and prayed we wouldn’t get lost. I led the small group since I had the strongest light. During the hike in the dark I came to what seemed like a triple or possible quadruple fork.  

And there were no markers.

To be continued . . .

Desperate times call for desperate measures

"Mom and dad" got together to formulate a plan. The plan was to send two people down in search of a stream to get water. Chuck and Dan went back-tracking to find the trail markers or to figure out where we got screwed up. The rest of us would just sit tight and rest. The water was found and we drank our fill.

We were sitting about a half an hour, wondering how nice it would be if Chuck and Dan came back with the good news that they found the trail, and the next sound we heard was, “Yahoo! We found it!”

Chuck and Dan had found the path. We had gotten on an old path and had missed the sharp turn of the correct path. So we all hiked back up and found what we thought was the path. I was in the back, and I realized the path looked mighty familiar. There was another path we thought we had already crossed, but we didn’t.

So pretty early on and after I recognized two familiar signs, I told Chuck and we all realized we’d been there. We got back to where we were and took the correct path. We finally got it right. Praise the Lord!

Lost!

The Hike! I’m writing this after the fact. But the plain truth is that the Ingalls Family Highlander group got LOST!

We hiked for hours and came to a crossroad where we lost our signs and trail markers. We decided to go left, which was seemingly all right, but was wrong. We ate lunch and headed out with different couples to find the right way.

Dan and I went off and found what we thought was the trail, but when we all got there, we found out the trail ended very abruptly. We all wandered aimlessly for about an hour, then decided to go back to where we had lunch and go beyond that point to try and find a trail.

After about a mile and a half, we decided that wasn’t the right way, either. So  next, we stopped to pray, asking the Lord for strength, wisdom, and guidance. At that point, we voted to turn around to try the other road. So we went all the way back to the crossroad, and walked down the other path about two miles until the road just ended.

Now what were we supposed to do? We were so tired, and desperately needed water. The map was no help to us. It was getting late in the day and we were in need of rest.

To be continued . . .

Hornets!

I survived! The solo was so awesome; it was something I really needed. It felt so good to just be ALONE! Away from the “pack”. I needed to give God all the undivided attention and time that He so rightly deserves.

There are so many times when I’ve put God aside because I’m too busy, but, doing my solo, I felt so close to Him. That constant fellowship was a feast for my hungry soul, which was in desperate need of spiritual food. I almost—actually, I do—wish I could have stayed another day, being that I enjoyed my time so immensely. But we must go onward, upward, and outward!

When we all got back to the campsite of our “fearfully fearless” leaders, we ate a hearty breakfast—and, boy, do I love blueberry pancakes. Our group got back before Jeff and Jenny’s group, so we left earlier to spread us apart. We hiked for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before we came to a stream, which we had to cross.

 Some were crossing and others were on the side waiting when, all of a sudden, Sarah started screaming. She was stomping and waving her arms frantically. I was nearest to her, and rushed over, thinking maybe there’s a snake—but Sarah was being attacked by angry, vicious hornets!

I started running the other way, but not fast enough, for one of those angry little buggers nailed me in the right calf. Ouch! All my bad memories and experiences came rushing back. I yelled at everyone else to clear out and high-tail it out of there. And, as it was, only Sarah and I were victims. Sarah got stung four times, twice on each calf, just once for me. We lost a half an hour of travel time, but what can you do about things like that?

The hike itself was so BEAUTIFUL! I loved every step of the way, even with the pain of the sting still lingering. I thought to myself, coming from a very large city and seeing all the millions of houses crammed together, it’s so nice and refreshing to know that there is some untouched and unspoiled forest-land to fully enjoy. During the hike we saw many deer, and boy, are they beautiful. Further on, we came across the bones of an animal who we think may have been a small raccoon or ‘possum. It was so neat. I took the skull for a souvenir.

We finally ended our hike for today near the Williams’ house. Dan, Eric, Jim, and I went exploring up and down the stream nearby in our now-wet sneakers. We found large crayfish. After dinner we boiled them till they were a gorgeous red and shelled and consumed them. Yum! Boy, were they delicious. They were so good that the four of us and Jeff and Oliver went to look for more as a late snack. We found sixty small crayfish and feasted on them later with Tabasco sauce (thanks to Jeff). They were really good, but not too filling. The raccoons, I’m sure, will have a feast of all the crayfish scraps we threw away.

But, anyway, it’s late and I’m real tired, so I’m off to “La-La Land”. Goodnight, y’all!

Solo, Part 7

As I started rereading the ‘loneliness’ booklet and heard of Paul, the apostle and Jesus who were lonely at various times, I began to think back to my ‘quiet-time’ study of the book of Job.

Job, at first, had no reason whatsoever to be lonely because he had all he needed. God greatly blessed him as the most righteous man at that time. But Satan was given the opportunity to inflict Job with great loss and physical pain as a test of faith. Job experienced great loneliness and isolation.

But even when Job’s three friend taunted him and did not speak of what was right of God, Job perceived and clung to God throughout and took comfort and encouragement in knowing that God was with him always and had a plan for him. Job had human companions, such as his wife and his three friends, to deter his loneliness, but they only caused him grief and misery. It was God that gave him comfort and kept beside him always.

Just now as I was whittling a stick to pass some time, I felt lonely and hungry. I don’t feel really lonely but I wish I could be back with my group. I sometimes, without realizing it, glance up at Sarah, who has no fire at all and is bundled up, but she keeps singing songs which is so very pleasant and lifts my spirits.

I’m pretty near to our main campsite and can occasionally hear either Jeff or Chuck belch real loud (But I could be wrong, it might have been Caroline or Jenny who belched loud!) I also heard someone jump in the small swimming hole and they sounded like little kids. Boy, I wish I could be there with them.

But I can wait patiently another night. I’ve really had some awesome quality time with the Lord and look forward to what else he has in store to teach me about myself.

Solo, part 6

This afternoon I had a fabulous time with the Lord! I was doing the page 6-7 couple time sheets on loneliness.

I read in I Kings the story of Elijah and the Baal worshippers and marveled at his faith in God’s awesome power, which turned a whole people from Baal worship to trust in the one, true, living God. Jesus Christ, the Lord.

In the following chapter, we see a big change in Elijah’s attitude. He finds out that he has a ‘price on his head’, so to speak, and flees. He hides under a tree and asks—pleads—with God to take his life, for he is no better than his ancestors.

Elijah didn’t trust God in that situation. He saw his life was at stake and fled. Elijah felt alone and isolated at that point and felt failure, too, I’m sure. He felt unworthy in God’s eyes.

But as always, God has other plans and delivers us from these lonely times. God put Elijah on another mission which resulted in him finding an attendant, Elisha, who in turn lessens his workload and solves his problem of loneliness.

God always provides for his children. In the same way, I’ve learned to always rely on God to help deliver me from whatever troubles me.

Solo, Part 5

The time, by the sun’s position, seems to be about 4:30 or 5:00 pm, around dusk. I’m laying on my plastic, just relaxing and thinking of how beautiful today has been and also looking forward, Lord willing, to another beautiful night.

I really don’t have anything to write about, but I feel like writing anyway. I have enough firewood to last me five days and my fire is still burning slowly with red hot embers glowing more with the passing of each breeze.

For lunch today I had that vile-tasting nut bar. Oh, how awful. I had them once before during our time rock climbing. I had to eat that little strawberry candy to get rid of that horrible aftertaste. But still, I'm thankful that I have food to begin with; no matter how small the amount.

Solo, Part 4

I’ve learned so much these past few days and I’m still learning more as the time goes by.

I’ve learned my physical limitations during both the ropes course and the rock climbing. I was stretched and pulled in directions and areas that put me in a position where I could only trust in the Lord for help, guidance, and strength.

I think now how shallow and hopeless it is for man to trust safely in himself and his own strength. For a person such as that has lost out in life and will only inherit death everlasting.

Man needs God and God has, over this period of time, increased my desire to go out and tell others in any way I can. For I know I can do it because I have Christ’s strength and blessing in that task.

Solo, Part 3

As I write, pestering flies (by the thousands, it seems) are flying overhead and are crawling all over me.

I never really looked at a fly very much. Maybe I was bored or something, but I looked at this one as God’s creation. It’s just a small, minute part of the whole, yet as small and as seemingly insignificant a fly seems, it exemplifies God’s creation.

Man can conjure up all kinds of crazy and inane theories about how man was created or evolved, but it is so far-fetched that it sounds silly. But the sad fact is that man will always search for his own way and his own meaning. They don’t want to believe there is a God who is in control, because that means they’re number two, and not number one. Man will always be seeking ‘self’.

But the tiny fly possesses an intricately detailed structure. Abilities to fly, eat, reproduce, see out of those large eyes, all around with intense accuracy, and also sense danger when overcome by the shadow of someone’s hand, etc. The fly alone can disprove any theory of evolution and make it crystal clear that it was created by a superior being who has total and infinite control.