Project #1 Draft 3
for me that is Wilderness Trail. Wilderness Trail is a hiking ministry in Troutdale, Virginia and changes my life every time I go. The past 4 years I have been co-leading hikes all the way through Virginia and Tennessee with different churches, including my own. While out on the trail we don't have maps, cell phones, watches, or any communication with the real world. All we have are two walkie talkie’s that the other staff and I carried to communicate with one another. We also had a mental map. We also had these white blazes stroked on a tree every 100 yards or so. Those white blazes were our map, and every 100 yards, I would know I was safe.
Most people would think the white blazes on the trail are just paint stroke as I did, but last summer changed it all for me. There is a story that goes along with those white blazes: There was an old man who ran the Appalachian Trail and he came up with an idea to keep hikers safe, putting a white blaze along the trail so people wouldn't get lost along other trails like the Iron Mountain Trail and horse trails. The man was too old to paint the blazes himself, so he hired a young and fit boy to paint the blazes. The boy showed up the next day with his paintbrush and paint, and the man tells the boy to go out and paint as many blazes as he can, and he would get paid. The boy returns that night and tells the man he did 8 MILES worth of blazes. The man was very impressed only thinking the boy would get a mile or two. After the first day though, the boys numbers would drop more and more until eventually the boy was getting only one blaze a day. The man was furious at this point because there is no way the boy could have gotten this poor at painting blazes. The man finally confronts the boy, and the boy said “It gets really hard to get more than one when I have to return to the paint bucket after I paint one”. The boy was leaving the bucket at the beginning of the trail. This story symbolizes the white blazes as something you should leave behind, even if its really hard. This story really took effect the week I had last summer.
This past summer I hiked with a group called Black Mountain Children's Home. They were a group of annoying high schoolers that had no sense in following direction. I had been warned beforehand that they had a past of driving their staff insane and not doing anything that needed to be done within the group, but no one could blame them given their past. All these stories made me scared when they first drove up to Property. Black Mountain had driven their past staff into a mental institution, and I had never hiked the stretch of trail I was going to this week (so there was a good chance I would get lost). As they drove up in a shitty bus I ran down the big hill to greet them, while pissing my pants in fear of the week to come. They opened the door and poured out. I knew the week was going to be a tough one. On top of all this I had just broken up with my ex-girlfriend of three years, and she had already started having sex with a different guy.
I talked to the other staffer about my ex, and he told me the story of the blazes again, a story I have heard since I began hiking 9 summers ago, but this time reiterated the fact that no matter what happens, and even though it might be hard, I need to find a way to leave Abby back home in Pensacola and focus on the week ahead.
When Black Mountain got off their bus I immediately connected with a guy named Austin. For some reason he then listened to every word I said. All week he would tell me stories about his life. He told me how his mom was a drug dealer, his brother had gotten shot and was now in jail, and about how the next week he would get to see his dad for the first time in 5 years because he was finally getting out of prison. He opened up to me 1 on 1 and I got to have the blaze talk with him. Everything that has happened you can put it behind on the trail and focus on your faith. It took him a few days, but Austin went from being the most shut out to the most involved with the group in a matter of hours. The idea of the blazes changed his week.
The week went on and I worked my way through the group one by one earning all of their trust, and by the end of the week they all opened up and listened to direction. I had taken the time to listen to all of their story's and bond with them, listen to all of the shit they go through, and after that I was in charge. At the beginning of the week I was only second in command, but by the end the staff that was in charge gave me the reigns because Black Mountain wouldn't listen to a word that came out of his mouth.
All I had to do was sit them down and talk their troubles out of them. It was a life changing experience for me because it made me realize how silly my high school sweetheart troubles were compared to their abuse, or lack of parental figures. They made me more than able to abide by the blazes and leave all my troubles behind. I’m happy I was able to do that, because those other kids needed me, and I needed them. That 9th hike was supposed to be the hardest I’ve ever taken, but it ended up being the most fulfilling and the best hike I have ever had.