ChristianHiker: May 2012

An Overnight Hike on the Appalachian Trail Near Waynesboro, Virginia

A Small Look Into The Window of Creation

Backpacking has always been a love of my life ever since I was born. I was born a second generation Polish American in the northern part of Virginia. I grew up in an old converted log cabin with very few modern conveniences. We had an outside spring for our water source and an old shaky privy for a bathroom. The outdoors was my play area. This may sound like I lived in any shelter along the Appalachian Trail but I didn't know I was any different until I started attending public school. That is why I love to backpack because I can still relate to life the way it was when I was growing up. I feel almost insulted when someone tries to tell me that all of the living and nonliving things around me were created by mistake or by natural selection. There can be only one way that all of the beautiful plants, animals, and geologic features were created and that is by God.

A Short Hike

One Thursday a friend and I decided to take a short five mile hike to a shelter, camp out, and hike back the next day. It had rained the day before enough to encourage many flowers to bloom the next day. Many red, pink and white flowers gave me an extra lift and a quick to my steps. The air was crystal clear and I knew in a moment that we were in for a pleasant two days on the trail. We passed many hikers along the trail and many of them were hiking long distances and a few could be considered thru hikers. We are both hammock backpackers and after hanging our food on the bear pole it only took minutes to erect our shelter. The temperature that night dropped near 40 degrees testing our skills on keeping warm. we enjoyed the hike and looked forward to hiking again soon. I am trying to get into shape for my rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon at the end of May.