Date: 2005-05-12
From: Partnership Shelter

To: Atkins, then "The Place"
Miles today: 11.7

Today has seemed like two days to us. One of those days we hiked 12 miles to I-81 at Atkins and caught a ride back here to Damascus. The second part has been since we've been here. We have run into so many "old friends". Our whole world out here we've only known for about 6 weeks. So, relatively speaking, a freind whom we haven't seen in three weeks honestly seems like an old friend. We've seen Sweet Fish and Wind Sock from last fall, Clearwater, Ski Bum, Craig & Suzy Miles, Sweet Sixteen, Africa, Miss Janet, Torch, Fatty, Batman, Vogue, Pumpkin and sevearl others already, whom we haven't seen in weeks. Every time we walk down the block we know that we'll run into even more conversations and people to add to that list. It's good to be at Trail Days where many from the hiking community will be in one place.   At the peak of creation, God created living creatures, including man. So far, we've actually seen very little wild life due to higher ridges not having the vegetation needed for animals to thrive. We saw a deer a few days ago, have seen evidence of bears (paw pringts and scat), there are all sorts of squirrels, cows in a couple pastures we passed through, dogs that travel with hikers, the wild ponies in the Highlands, and of course, mice. We expect to see more animals now that temps are on the rise.    The Bible says that man, of all the animals, was created in God's image. I don't take this to mean physical appearance (although in the end maybe I'll learn there are similarities). Instead, I assume that we're more like God in that we have a soul and the capacity to connect in a spiritual sense. That is how we were created in His image. As we look around at the other hikers, we come to believe this even more. God created us all so uniquely, yet we all seem to have similar thoughts and feelings tugging on our hearts. The trail community is diverse in so many ways (careers, educations, where we call home, age, etc.) Somehow, though, when we ask hikers what they think about all day , they have some common answers... it may the last dumb song they heard is stuck in their head, it may be (well often is) the next meal they will get to it, but often too it is God and spiritual questions. I can safely say that most of us see this as a spiritual journey as well as a physical journey. In the end, I feel certain that this is what we were created for. God created us with a soul, which gives us an inate a longing to know Him, and the capacity to have a relationship with Him. No other animal is like that. It is good to be out here with this community where so many of us are admittedly asking questions with such great significance.   "And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that is was good. Then God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-- the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array." Genesis 1:24-27,31 & 2:1