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Saturday, May 13, 2017

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Trail

Kevin made it to Lake Morena early this morning.  No, he didn't hike through the night, but he stopped and slept.  It's my wish he had a good sleep, because it hasn't been good for a while.  He's been stressed about getting it all together for the hike.  Now the time for prep is over and the hike is here, Big as life and twice as Natural.

Kevin's Ten Commandments

It seems that everything has a top ten, or a ten commandments.  Everyone wants to copy God, but no one gets close.  Kevin developed these commandments to help inspire him along the way.  Some of these he borrowed from our son, Garrett, some he made up on his own.

  1.  Live your testimony
  2.  Be grateful (Take nothing for granted)
  3.  Encourage others & hike for those who can't
  4.  Embrace all challenges, including continuous steps.  (A thru-hike is not easy. See the obstacle before making a judgment)
  5.  Take the long view (Don't overdo today)
  6.  Take care of your feet and body
  7.  Stay hydrated and eat well
  8.  Be responsible (Pack it in--pack it out)
  9.  Do the math (you gotta do the miles each day)
10.  Don't forget to have fun (Find the joy in the simplest things and stay in the moment)

Advice from a Runner

Part of the long view is realizing how much of yourself you have to put into a hike like this.  So Leanna sent a text to her dad that said:  It's like running a marathon.  First third with your head, second third with your gut, and last with your heart.




We Stood Upon the Stars by Roger W Thompson

The last bit for this post sums up pretty much something all thru-hikers have in common.  There is a bit of wildness in all of us and it comes from our very creation.  The Creator in making the first man, made him in the wild.  There were no houses and there were no buildings.  We are the ones who messed all that up,  but we have to reach down and find that wildness in us.

Roger says "To recover the wild in us, we must first recognize our making.  Every man has flames of wilderness ignited in him at birth.  We are created from passion and bear the likeness of an untamed Creator.  There is a voice of the wild, and as men we know it.  When it calls we must go, in spite of the clamor of opposing voices that tell us not to.  Our lives will be defined by what we choose.  Along the banks of Rock Creek, I rediscovered a wild that never had been lost.  I just had to return to the voice."  

Hike well, Kevin, and I hope you are hearing that voice as you go.

Next post, I hope Kevin has a trail name to share.

2 comments:

  1. I discovered this poem today and it made me think of Kevin's hike.

    YOUTH”
    Samuel Ullman

    Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

    Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

    Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

    Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

    When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

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