Paddy Creek Wilderness...Lessons Learned

This is the "little paddy creek" that I had to cross to get to the camp ground

This is the campsite I stayed at Monday Night

This is the path to the creek where I refilled my water bottles several times

No Bears Allowed!

The crick!

I sat here, read, and journaled for a few hours

The clouds rolling in

There were butterflies everywhere

In the campground I saw 4 turtles the size of dinner plates...I think this one was laying eggs in the sand

This is the trail head for the Big Piney Trail at Roby Lake.  I snapped this pic at 8:45am on Tuesday

About 1 mile in, I came upon 2 really amazing waterfalls

About 2.5 miles in I stopped here on these boulders for lunch...trail mix and jerky

This sign was 6 miles in

The Scenic Overlook was 8.5 miles in

10 miles and I was back to the creek and back to the campground at 4:15pm.

Lessons that I learned from the trail:

1. Hiking with a 60 pound pack is not as easy as I thought it would be...
2. I am slower then I thought I was...I thought I could walk about 3 miles per hour...it turns out I did about 1.3mph with walking and taking breaks...(who knew that your body would need breaks right?)
3. You have to worry about more than just your feet!  Every blog and everyone I talked to mentioned that you have to keep your feet blister free.  So I took every step necessary and after 10 miles my feet were in great shape not even one blister...However, as I mentioned in yesterday's blog...My shoulders, hips, and thighs were not so fortunate...I didn't even think about how my muscles would react to such an intense hike with such a heavy pack.  My plan was to hike to the campground (which I did) and then hike out on Wed. (Which I didn't)...
4. I've got friends in high places...I didn't have cell phone signal at all within 30 miles of where I was camping or hiking...in order to post the previous days blogs I had to nearly drive into town to get signal enough to post...So 8.5 miles into my hike I am feeling the worst I have felt in a very long time.  I quickly realize that I am not going to be able to hike out for at least 2 more days because of the time it would take for my muscles to relax and especially for my shoulders to be able to carry a pack.  I had a scheduled contact time to call Amanda and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to make it and there was a chance that she would freak out a bit.  So at the scenic overlook I took out my cell phone and realized that I HAD SIGNAL!!!...not only did I have a signal I had 3 bars and was in a 3G network.  I can only say that this was definitely a miracle.  So I called Amanda and she called her dad and he met me at the campground and drove me back to my Suburban that was parked at the lake.
5. I have some adjustments to make...I was planning on hiking the Ozark Trail beginning next week and be on it for 18 days...I would have had to do about 12.6 miles per day in order to tackle the entire trail.  I now realize that this will be impossible.  My window is only 18 days and I can't expand it because of the trip to the Smoky Mountains.  I think I realistically could do about 7 miles per day which would only get me about half-way through it.  So I think I'm going to spend the next 18 days hitting some of the campgrounds around the state that have some great hiking trails.  I'll set up base camp and do some day hikes where I don't have to carry an entire pack with me all day every day.  
6. Sometimes failure is ok!  The Paddy Creek Wilderness was a trial run for the Ozark Trail...It was a success.  I do not want to spend the first 4 weeks of my Sabbatical in misery so I have learned what my body is capable of early on and will make the adjustments necessary so I can stay focused during this sabbatical.

Lessons that I learned from God:

1. I have always known where I am supposed to be in life.  God has always made it clear and I just need to continue to be surrendered to be used in the here and now.
2. In Romans 2, there is a line written in Eugene Peterson's "The Message" translation that says "While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you?".  This really made me ponder the need to continue to seek out others who can speak into my life as much as I speak into the lives of others.
3. Lesson from the old house...click here
4. Lesson from the scenic overlook...click here