 |
| Alynn's Butterfly Inn Warrensburg, NY Eastern Adirondacks |
This is where we spent our anniversary day, 30 June, Saturday.
Our goal was the bottom trail shown in the pic below: Treadway Mountain. That mileage?? that's ONE WAY! On a hot, humid day......we're just a little crazy! The happy news for me was that Dave was willing to hike at all. It had been a long time since we hiked a major mountain together. For the last 3 years, I've only hiked with my girl friends as he hasn't been interested.
Hiking in the Adirondacks, though, as you know if you've visited here before, is one of my passions. And this mountain is not one I chose but when Dave told me about it I said "sure"! Little did I know just how challenging of a trail it would be! And LONG......we hiked a total of 7.6 miles on that mountain. He planned this to be a special weekend for me to celebrate 22 years together. And it was special all right............
 |
| Treadway Mountain as seen from Putnam Pond |
See the picture above? that mountain is the one we climbed. Treadway. In the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Region of the Adirondacks (Eastern). Between Schroon Lake and Ticonderoga/Lake Champlain. See that pond? It's Putnam Pond, south end. Which means at this point we had already hiked about a half mile. We had a LONG way to go around the pond and then UP! But...there was a good breeze and instead of being 90 like it was near our home in Albany area, it was only in the mid-80s. But it was humid. And it doesn't usually get humid in the mountains. So we decided we needed 2 water bottles each. um.....trust me when I say we should have had 2 more at least.
So...we started out and all was well. This picture below shows us at the point where we still had another mile of actual climbing to do. We had already come a little over 2.5 miles. This was the hardest part. All rock and scrub pine. Snakes. (we saw two...thank God they were small ones but I still screamed!)
 |
| 3/4 of the way up Treadway Mountain |
And...we made it to the actual summit at 3.8 miles in and up! Isn't God's Handiwork glorious?? My spiritual temperament was really full that day......the Naturalist in me was loving every minute.
 |
| We made it to the top! |
 |
| On the summit of Treadway Mt with Pharaoh Mt in back |
We rested for about an hour (we got on the trailhead at about 11 a.m. We got to the summit at about 1:45 pm). We headed back down about 2:30 pm and........trouble hit.
 |
| Pharaoh Lake as seen from Summit of Treadway Mt |
My left knee (NOT the one that usually gives me trouble) started freezing up. I found a good, thick stick (my natural hiking stick was back home in MY car) lying on the ground and decided it would do for a hiking stick. It took us THREE hours to get off that mountain! Poor Dave.....he was so ready to bound down the trail and I had to limp along.
And of course this is when God decides to show me/teach me a spiritual lesson.
I cannot always be so independent.
I cannot always be in control with perfect plans.
I need to lean. On Him.
Just like I was leaning on the hiking stick.
And just like I had to allow my husband to take my hand ("but I wanna hike down by my self!!").....
.........and lead me..........
there's safety in the leaning......
.........and security............
........in the leading by the One who guides..........
"leaning on the Everlasting Arms" that beloved hymn.........running through my mind as I stumble down the trail..........
....trusting Jesus........"what a peace is mine".......
.........leaning on the everlasting arms...........
 |
| image taken from connectionlifechurch.com |
And I made it.....limping along, hot and sweaty....but the refreshing cold water we washed up in and the change of clothes brought such relief.........
..........and He brings relief to our souls when we allow Him to lead........
........allowing Him to wash us clean and wipe away the tears......surrendering to those Arms that lead and let us lean...............what relief there is in the leaning...........
.......leaning on Him all the way...........
Are you allowing Him to lead you today??
6 comments:
Oh the same type of thing happened to me the time we hiked Cascade. I had trouble coming down with my torn ACL knee. Such great spiritual lessons can be learned while hiking and reflecting. I loved all the pics of your trip on facebook, it looked wonderful Faith. So needed! :)
Happy late Anniversary friend!
That is quite a hike and beautiful. Dave's graciousness in doing a hike for you is wonderful to read about. Sorry your knee acted up in the end but what a great lesson the Lord showed you through the experience. Thanks for sharing it.
Hi Sandy, and Susanne!! thank you for sharing your thots! Dave was so surprising this year....LOL...he planned the entire trip, even a wonderful dinner on Friday nite and let me choose a place on Sat nite....it was just what we needed. God is GOOD and it's so important to get away sometimes....and yup...God always manages to teach me something when I'm out in His marvelous world!
Oh, beautiful Adirondacks! Haven't been there in 20 years, but what memories! I love to go hiking too but I've also had trouble with my knee in the past few years and it's been very humbling, hobbling along with my husband casting me anxious looks.
Sometimes we just gotta be humble and lean on someone.
ya got that right! :)
Happy Anniversary! You picked a beautiful place to celebrate and get in some healthy exercise too. Hope your knee fully recovers.
Post a Comment