Are we there yet??

We went for a great hike this weekend. It was going to be one of those exceptional days,for Vic and I.
We drove to Mills River NC and found the trail head for the Turkey Pen Gap trail. It wasn't easy to find!

Mills River is a town located in Henderson County, North Carolina. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. It lies in the northwestern part of the county, covering roughly 22 square miles, and located near Etowah and Fletcher.

The first couple we met, also getting ready to start hiking. When I asked them if they had hiked this trail before, he said, "we started once before but ran into a black bear and turned around". BLACK BEAR, are you kidding me?? Not far down the trail I started to see notices, placed by the park service warning of bears. Now, I am not a person who scares easily but that was making me nervous. 

Note the bottom sign….Bear Sanctuary

Luckily, the trail was gorgeous and I was completely distracted by the tremendous beauty. The trail was filled with rhododendrons and the Mills Creek ran next to the path. Nestle is our dog, and he is never happier than when he is with us and there is  water for him to swim in. He often will swim parallel to us  on the trail.  We were off to a great start of a hike/day. 

The trail is listed as strenuous, so we knew what to expect. About 3 miles into the hike the trail started up the mountain, Turkey Mountain. And up it went. Both Vic and were looking to the sky to see the ridge. Which got me thinking about mind over matter. If I can just see the light of the top of the mountain, I feel like I can make it. And we did. We stopped and had a little lunch, rested and carried on. But now the trail was going up again. I thought we had reached the ridge?! And up it went. We reached another plateau and a fellow hiker coming the other way informed us that we still had quite a ways to get to the top. Are you kidding me? We are not at the top, I thought. Mind over matter, just put one foot in front of the other, that was my mantra. That little bit of hope that can motivate me and keep me going through the hardest part.  We had just climbed over 1800 feet in about a mile. The views to the west, of the Smokies, were spectacular.

The funny thing is the down hill was almost as hard as the up hill. It was straight down. No switchbacks or no "steps" to ease the grade, just down, down down. By this point Nestle, who had been so full of life, had lost his "pep" and was just sticking right with us and looking for water to drink..   

all of this made me think….. isn't that struggle similar to our faith?
Aren't we working towards getting to the top? Trying to find that "holy" place that is beautiful, rewarding and yet we don't know when we will get there, how far it is, or what it will be like? Yet, we have faith, that if we put one foot in front of the other, do the right thing, we will get there and there will be a reward.

The land was ours before we were the land’s.

She was our land more than a hundred years

Before we were her people. She was ours

In Massachusetts, in Virginia,

But we were England’s, still colonials,

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,

Possessed by what we now no more possessed.

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely realizing westward,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would become.

The Gift Outright  Robert Frost

 Today is Easter Sunday 2013, he has risen! The ultimate day of hope and faith!