Victory in Jesus (played by Park Ranger Jason)

Our stellar group, courtesy of Love5

Love5 and Victory, taken during our brief glimpse of the mountaintop, blessing the world with peace (note the fingers)

Kev-o-nitaritadoobiesnoobiesnizzleforrizzle-aroni

5 and Nickel celebrating Jason's completion of the story: A modern day reinactment of story of Christ

Celebrating a job well done, Park Ranger-ette Victory looks to be in need of a bran muffin


Well, I've taken a few days to process my hiking trip last Saturday. Myself, Victory, Nickel, Kev-o-nita, Nicklaje, and Landry all set off for Monteagle and began our ascent up Fiery Gizzard, a 12 mile trail. The way up was quick, we were serenaded by group rounds of "Victory in Jesus" and various JLo songs (seeing as one of many nicknames for myself is ALo), and fun jabs at the KDoobie. About 1/2 way up the mountain, Victory took the lead and our pace quickened significantly, getting us to the top of the ridge in under 90 minutes.
K-Doobs allowed us to take "5", if you will, partake of melting Luna bars and relatively chilled water (suprising b/c Victory-who was carrying the pack-- sweats like a man, --but we don't hate her for it). As we all look up at Kevin who, as you can see in the photo, kept his distance from the pack and stayed above us, we saw over his shoulders the dangerous and darkening clouds of an ensuing storm framing him against the changing sky. We all hit the trail and tried to move quickly towards our 6-mile-away destination (aka--our cars). Here's where it gets good.
As Robert Frost would say, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and we took the one less traveled by...and that has most definately made all the difference." Kevin quite casually nods towards the river trail and says "which way you all wanna go". Clearly God, who controls the wind and waves, had given us ample warning of the weather forecast for the evening. Someone (who was it) says, "We haven't taken this way" and pointed down the slope. We all followed as the trail soon became a rocky path, which then became a dirtless path made of rather large rocks, which was soon nothing short of the steep side of the Grand Canyon. Rain began falling, the moon disappeared behind the forest's ceiling and the storm clouds...and as you can see in your mind's mental video of this event...we are all stumbling through the darkness with no natural light and no promise of home by the end of the night. Words probably don't exist to accurately describe the experinces which followed. What started out as a simple 12 miles continued for hour upon hour upon hour of pain, of emotion, of fear, of our lives hanging in the balance as the river (and the steep slope leading into such river) played games with our minds. Would we die? Which of us would be first? Could we somehow get Kevin back for what he'd done (sorry Doobs, but the thought was in my mind at one point. I think it was when you said "lovell, have fun." Or maybe when you stopped us for that supposed dead body you wanted to carry out of the woods.) Would someone break a leg? Would Landry run off with the mini-flashlight and leave us for dead? Would the darkness rob us of a night out of the forest? Would the raptors get us before we made it to the car? Questions abounded through my head, but no answers came---leaving us without hope in the dark forest of the night, on the mountain ridge of the shadow of death. But we did not fear. 3 hours passed and we did not fear, for he was with us. His word (being symbolized by the miniflashlight--a shout out to Nick) was nothing short of a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Just when we hit the place where the two trails joined one another in joyous union, and we knew we had 1.5 miles left, our Savior arrived, his name being Jason (of course it's really Jesus). But see, I waited and waited througout the entire hike for God to reveal the spiritual significance of such an experience---as I did with most things in life. Finally, as Jason's headlamp quickly descended down the mountain, coming out of the darkness, we knew we were saved. Jason led us to a safe place where 2 other park rangers in jeeps transported (not teleported) us to safety.
The reality of this evening is not accurately described in this blog. I didn't expound upon the rocks Victory straddled as she fell in the darkness, or Nickel's 80-year-old arthritic ankles, or Landry's tendency to run off with our only source of light, my own bruises and scrapes and sharp comments directed towards the Doobs (sorry brother). All these small parts made the night a constant comedy routine in development. It was indescribably scary and hard and fun and unifying and I'm so bloody glad it's over.
Here's to my hikers...cheers to a memory of the ages!