From left to right: Josh, Margaret, Tim (a leader), me, Matthew, Nathan (a leader), and Megan. I couldn't have asked for a better group. They made the experience so much fun, and taught me a lot. Tim and Nathan were great; we could always tell that they had confidence in us. They pushed us to grow. Tim and I had a conversation all the way up a mountain one day about football, so that pretty much rocked! And Nathan, bless his heart, put up with all of our jokes about him being Canadian. The coolest thing about the group was that I knew that I could trust them. I have trust issues, and find it difficult to open up to people I don't know that well, but everything inside of me told me that I could trust them. I could go on forever about Molasses, but I'll continue on to the rest of the trip...
The Smokys were gorgeous! We had beautiful weather, which was a blessing because it usually pours rain when they go backpacking. Every group had a different trail to hike, and a different distance to hike. Our group actually hiked in the North Carolina part of the Smokys on the trail with bears (which we never saw any of), and we hiked the longest distance. Before we set off we were told that we would be hiking 39.5 ish miles, but when Tim and Matthew added up the correct distances for each day, we learned that we were hiking just under 50 miles! Some days were really easy with lots of downhill and shorter distances, but some days were awful. We had a couple of 8 mile hikes, and those were usually the days with the most intense uphill climbs. We all managed to survive, so that was all that mattered. Every night we all helped set up the tent, find firewood, and cook dinner. We got better at putting up our "tent" (two giant tarps) as the nights went by, so that was good. Each day we had a leader of the day, and then at night we would have the opportunity to interview the leader. They would share their testimony, and then the group members would have the opportunity to ask them any questions they wanted, both serious and random. It was an awesome opportunity to get to know everybody. The second night we stayed at a shelter so it was nice to not have to set up the tarps. There was a picnic table in the shelter, so we had a family dinner at the table, and then put our mattress pads on the roof and stargazed. The whole night was awesome! The next day after we hiked, we went on Solo. Solo is a 48 hour time period in which all the students went off by themselves with a small plastic tarp, mattress pad, and a page from the Bible. It was a time to fast, and be still and listen for God. After solo, Nathan made us pancakes, and they were so good! After pancakes we hiked, set up camp, and went swimming in a glorious mountain river! It was so cold, and felt so good. We stank so bad, so the water helped wash away some of our stench. It was Megan's birthday that night, so we turned the cheesecake into birthday cake and sang her happy birthday. And yes, I said cheesecake. We had incredible food during the week, I was quite impressed, amazed, and my stomach was very grateful! A few nights later we tried to watch a meteor shower, so we all got on this massive log in the middle of a river to get a clear view. It turned out that we missed the meteors by a night, but we had fun nonetheless. A few of us sang the entire soundtrack from the Lion King, so that was a testament to how cool, or crazy we all were, depending on how you look at it...
The last day Tim and Nathan hiked out ahead of us so that they could get showered and have a meeting with the leaders before everyone got back together. The last day was one of, if not the worst uphill climb we had, so it was good they didn't wait for us; we would have slowed them down. The 5 of us did fine, and we had fun together (in case you couldn't tell, we had fun all the time!). That night we had another shelter, so it was nice to be able to crash and not worry about setting up tarps. The next morning we had an easy hike, and then Tim and Nathan came and picked us up. It was nice to see them again, and they brought us poptarts, so that was a nice bonus! After everyone got back together, and I finally got to see, hug, and talk to one of my favorite people in the universe, Betsye (!), we had a 5 mile run (I opted to walk with Betsye so that her asthma would not go into overdrive). Then...we got to take showers! There wasn't much water pressure, but any sort of water pressure was nice after not showering for 10 days. After that we had an amazing feast of baked potatoes, salad, chicken, and steak. It was glorious! Each group then put on a skit of their experience, we worshipped together, and then we all took communion together. It was really cool. We got to offer the elements of communion to each other, so it was an incredible experience to be a servant to others and have an opportunity to lift them up in Christ. After that was over, the drivers went to bed for a few hours, and I guess most everyone else went to bed too, but Matthew and I stayed up all night in order to have an easier time sleeping on the way home the next day (I did fall asleep for about 10 minutes though). We left the Smokys at 3:30 AM on Thursday, and arrived back at Greenville at about 3 in the afternoon. The trip was incredible. I'm so glad that I got to experience it. I might write more later about what I got out of it personally, but I've blogged your face off enough, more than enough, for one post. I'll end with a couple more pictures of the week. Thanks for reading!
Happy Birthday Megan!
Star gazing log
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