17 Hours or was it 18?
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:12
When I read this I got so excited, it pretty much describes the way our first trip together was. Hills seemed to hug us as we (11 of us DTS students and three leaders) ascended the Ozark mountain. Flowers and trees decorated the sides of our road and widely placed old homesteads were painted between the trees and valleys.
Games exercised our ability to trust each other and a time to grow closer. There was plenty of time to grow close too, like hiking for hours and witnessing a cool stick bug or trusting your leader and navigator to get you to your appointed destination before dark!
October 1st: we woke up before dawn and hiked for several hours up hills full of brush and fallen trees; sometimes you couldn't even tell where the trail was! The climb was hard, yet among all our personalities we are encouragers of some fashion, which made the hike so much more enjoyable! As we reached our destination we then faced our climb down a canyon (I believe). The beauty was alluring, intimidating, and an adventure! With that you add in very steep climbs with slippery rocks and that equals memories~
As we neared the middle of climbing down we snacked on dried fruit and sugar cookies. What a beautiful view we had! Rocks were above us, rocks were our future steps and the walls, with green growth, surrounded us! When we reached the "bottom" we prepared to repel the rest of the way down. That took about two hours I think, yet it was relaxing. I was one of the last to go and enjoyed every moment of it! This is not where we stopped our journey though. Night was nearing and we still had a good maybe three hour hike to camp. Dare I say this, but I had the pleasure of "doing the squat" with some pretty funky spiders during this time of day too ;) [tmi I know, thought you all should appreciate your toilets a little more! ;)] Nonetheless we crawled through a really slim opening which opened up into a stunning steep rocky cave and waterfall!
Moving things along, a storm rolled in and rain soaked our rain jackets. Walking in the rain wasn't so bad it was the mud, steep cliffs, crossing the creeks and rivers that was hard. At one point one of our guys slipped down a small slope with the unpredictable mud. That's where our teamwork took some extra action! Goodness it was a long hike back with four river crossings, which was my least favorite, however there was a lot of laughter and fun made. Then we reached camp and Emily and I cooked dinner into my birthday! It was awesome =D
Isaiah 55:12
When I read this I got so excited, it pretty much describes the way our first trip together was. Hills seemed to hug us as we (11 of us DTS students and three leaders) ascended the Ozark mountain. Flowers and trees decorated the sides of our road and widely placed old homesteads were painted between the trees and valleys.
Games exercised our ability to trust each other and a time to grow closer. There was plenty of time to grow close too, like hiking for hours and witnessing a cool stick bug or trusting your leader and navigator to get you to your appointed destination before dark!
October 1st: we woke up before dawn and hiked for several hours up hills full of brush and fallen trees; sometimes you couldn't even tell where the trail was! The climb was hard, yet among all our personalities we are encouragers of some fashion, which made the hike so much more enjoyable! As we reached our destination we then faced our climb down a canyon (I believe). The beauty was alluring, intimidating, and an adventure! With that you add in very steep climbs with slippery rocks and that equals memories~
As we neared the middle of climbing down we snacked on dried fruit and sugar cookies. What a beautiful view we had! Rocks were above us, rocks were our future steps and the walls, with green growth, surrounded us! When we reached the "bottom" we prepared to repel the rest of the way down. That took about two hours I think, yet it was relaxing. I was one of the last to go and enjoyed every moment of it! This is not where we stopped our journey though. Night was nearing and we still had a good maybe three hour hike to camp. Dare I say this, but I had the pleasure of "doing the squat" with some pretty funky spiders during this time of day too ;) [tmi I know, thought you all should appreciate your toilets a little more! ;)] Nonetheless we crawled through a really slim opening which opened up into a stunning steep rocky cave and waterfall!
Moving things along, a storm rolled in and rain soaked our rain jackets. Walking in the rain wasn't so bad it was the mud, steep cliffs, crossing the creeks and rivers that was hard. At one point one of our guys slipped down a small slope with the unpredictable mud. That's where our teamwork took some extra action! Goodness it was a long hike back with four river crossings, which was my least favorite, however there was a lot of laughter and fun made. Then we reached camp and Emily and I cooked dinner into my birthday! It was awesome =D
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