Sabbath Adventure

Our adventure started on our travels up to the Little Rock Pond Parking Lot. We realized we needed to leave at least two cars up at the White Rocks to bring everyone back to the L Rock Pond parking lot. We then dropped off a few passengers at the rode to Little Rock Pond (it had started raining). Billy Towsley showed up unexpectedly, and was able to offer them a ride. Meanwhile, Dad, Jim, and I headed up to the White Rocks parking lot to drop off the cars. On the way, we say a truck that had fairly well marooned itself in a mud hole, trying to get out. It finally made it just as we were leaving, but not without getting covered.

We made it back to Little Rock Pond parking lot, and began our trek in fairly chilly weather. The weather continued to drizzle and rain and throw wind at us, keeping us from having lunch at the pond. We even went a little ways on the wrong trail before getting on the right one. Once there, we realized we were in for a lot longer hike than we expected! The sign said 6.7 miles to route 140, which was just a little bit from the White Rocks parking lot, so all in all, with out detours, we hiked around 10 miles.

We had a quick lunch under the shelter of a tree, careful to stand up and keep our backpacks on, lest they get wet and muddy. We then continued our gradual trek up to the White Rocks. We entered a new world on that mountain, full of evergreens and brown dirt paths (a relief from the wet, muddy ones previous walked on). We even came to a couple different "Rock Graveyards" as I call them (places where hikers leave their mark).

The weather told us the rain would let up by 2:00. Well, it was still raining at 4:00, and didn't stop until closer to 4:30 or 5:00. We made it to the White Rocks a little after 5:00, with many of the group saying we should just skip the lookout, since it was another 2/10ths of mile down. Ginny and I overlooked their misgivings, and led the group down to what turned out to be the best part of the whole day! The sky had cleared and the beautiful blues and sun shed an unwaveringly beautiful glow on the peak fall foliage below! It was as if God opened up the sky just for His children to have the blessing of seeing His handiwork on that Sabbath day. We were overjoyed with the result, even though it was cool and windy! The ending was well worth the 10 or so miles our journey took us! But boy were we glad for the heat back in the car! And I was sure glad I packed large lunches for Adam, Dad and I. Nothing like munchies after the end of a great hike! Thanks God for a beautiful Sabbath!