Search for Civilization

Well, anyway, Chuck and I got up and put our ponchos on. After we were dressed, we got the bear bag down out of a tree that I had to climb the previous night and quickly devoured a ‘high-energy’ breakfast (chocolate, hard candy, pop-tarts, trail cookies, beef jerky, etc.). We saved some granola bars for food on the way and then headed out, back-tracking our trail to the road we were on last night.

But before we got started a long way, we stopped and prayed. For we had no idea who or what we would find, or if we would find anyone. We had no real solid or sure idea of where we were, but we trusted fully in God, knowing He had brought us safely thus far. We had faith He would see us through.

 We hadn’t walked more than a quarter of a mile and we were really feeling it in our legs already. At that point I prayed to myself, “Lord, give me your strength, for I can’t make it on my own!” it was that split second of the looking upward to God that I suddenly walked swiftly in a steady, untiring stride. I told Chuck that I felt  better than ever.

For I couldn’t look inward for strength—I was completely drained from the previous night’s hike. But with God’s strength, through Christ Jesus, I can do all things! 

Isn’t that awesome?!

Water—finally! And Rain.

All of a sudden someone, I think it was Sarah, said they heard Eric and Ana returning. My eyes strained through the darkness in search of their light and sure enough, I saw it glimmer.

I prayed incessantly and hoped they’d be walking slowly because that would mean they were carrying the heavy and awkward water jug. As they drew near, I could faintly make out the water jug that would block the light from their flashlight with every other step and I yelled, “Do you have water?” with an exasperated cry of hope.

 I heard Eric reply with his notorious confirmation of, “You betcha!”

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! We’re saved. For Chuck and I would have had to go that very night in search of help if they didn’t. So with water now, we could put it off till morning. I ran to them and helped de-contaminate it with Polar-Pure. But my thirst was so intense that I drank some from a ‘contaminated’ water bottle anyway.

Well, that night what we really needed was rest. So we set up two tents. The four-man and one two-man. There were four who decided to sleep outside on their plastic.

We all sacked out, unaware that it would pour cats and dogs later that evening! I slept horribly on a bed of jagged roots and had to get up to go find help with Chuck at about seven or eight in the morning. Two of the four outdoor sleepers ran into the tents, after being soaked to the skin. The other two, Dan and Eric, ignored their extreme lack of dryness due to their excessive exhaustion.

More tomorrow.

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!