Memorial Day Weekend

     We headed to the mountains for a couple of days of hiking for Memorial Day weekend. The pics below are from Saturday: a glorious, gorgeous, sunny and 70, clear blue skies kind of day. Perfection. In fact, it was so perfect that there is absolutely nothing else to say. Now Sunday. Sunday is where things get interesting. We picked a new trail from our hiking book called Cat Gap Loop that wound around Cedar Rock. Simple enough, it seemed. Supposedly it had waterfalls and open mountain views and very doable for a day hike at a little over 8 miles long. At about 4.5 miles in, at the Butter Gap shelter, things went awry. Several trails merge there and we were a bit confused about which one was our trail. I'd bet you're guessing it already. Yep. We took the wrong one.

     When we reached about four hours into this hike, we were all ready for it to be over. Over, I tell you. We sang our rendition of 'The Song That Never Ends' that changed the words to 'The Hike That Never Ends'. We joked that we now knew how Frodo felt hiking to Mordor. In fact, we were going to change the name in our guide book from 'Cat Gap Loop Trail' to 'The Road To Mordor'. Who has that ring, anyway? I'd dare say we all felt like we were carrying it's burden, especially Lauren because when Carlyn became fed up and started crying, she offered up her back to carry the little Halfling. We were all getting grumpy. No waterfalls, no views, no nothing. William was like, "I've done nothing but look at trees and the ground for four frickin' hours trying not to fall. Worst.Hike.Ever."Agreed.

     At about four and a half hours in, I started praying. It was getting late in the afternoon and we had been on the trail for a long time, and I hadn't seen a single blue blaze trail marker since the shelter. The last thing I wanted was to be lost in the woods in the dark with six kids. At about the five hour mark, the trail intersected with a road, and I felt a twinge of relief. Just a couple of minutes after we hit the road, a lady came driving through and Scott flagged her down. He asked her how far to get to the Fish Hatchery where we were parked. She pointed back to the trail we just came off of and said, "About four miles back that way. You've missed it by a lot." Groans all around. Aaron threw up his hands and threw back his head and said, "Nooooooooo!". Agreed.

     Scott asked her if she would mind giving us a ride back to our car. She didn't have enough room for all of us, so me, Scott and the Littles rode with her and left the Bigs on the trail to wait for us to return. It took us over 30 minutes by car to make it back to the Fish Hatchery. Oy. I can not for the life of me remember the name of the lady who helped us, but I can tell you this: I will never forget her. She was, undoubtedly, the answer to my prayers. She said that she had originally left to go to the store to pick up some yogurt for her cat, but apparently God had another appointment for her to attend. Agreed.

     In fact, it gives me chills even writing about it because it stands as witness that my God hears and answers prayers and dispatches help in our time of need, even in the woods in the middle of nowhere. No cell phone required. I love that.

     We made it back to the trail to pick up the Bigs and then slouched our tired bones back toward home. I was glad when the day was over, glad to fall into bed and sleep like the dead, and glad that this story has a happy ending. It makes me a bit queasy when I think about all of the things that could have happened, but I don't linger long there and instead think about what did happen. The perfect days are wonderful, and I am thankful for them, but some of the best stories come from the rough, rocky trails and I'm learning to be thankful for them as well.