Unexpected Surprises... (As Opposed to the Expected Variety)
This past week I had the great pleasure of being off school. I went home with little to do besides make breakfast for my sisters, read, and catch up with friends and family. I was actually able to go to the worship service for the "college and career" group at my church and it was awesome. It was the first time I'd been able to attend a non-sunday church event in quite sometime. So I saw great people like Aaron Wall and Joel Vanhove and we formulated a plan (which included Adam Herman) to go for a hike. What a great plan it was, not in magnitude but in simplicity for that is indeed where the greatest plans reside. The next day we set out after classes were done to Chilliwack. We found Chilliwack Lake Road about the time that darkness fell... and lots of rain but we were not at all dismayed and spirits remained high. After about a good half hour of driving up and down the same logging road looking for a trail access that we knew existed somewhere, we saw a man walking his dog. He was a kind enough soul to direct us into the vacinity of the trailhead (alright I'm not gonna lie, the guy was about six kilometers off in his directions but he did help us in the end because he mentioned something about a bridge over Pierce Creek).
So we found pierce creek and blundered around it trying to find what might be the nearby road that led to the trailhead. Needless to say we picked the wrong road and started up it without a moment's hesitation, packs in tow. Reaching the top of this unbelievably steep road and a dead end/river crossing, we turned around and headed down the same road to take our second wrong turn of the evening. After aproximately an hour and a half of surprisingly dry, moonlit, misdirected, night-time travel we found ourselves right back where we started. We piched our tents beside the truck, cooked dinner, had a fire and an all around good time not alowing our recent follies to get us down, for surely tomorrow brought a new day and a fresh start... with daylight.
We awoke bright and chipper. Packed up, left what we didn't need in the truck and set out with not but our daypacks around our waists. We found a path that would surely direct us to the trailhead and followed it faithfully until we reached a clearing. It was then, not investigating the full perameter of the clearing that we made our biggest blunder in assuming the trail ran beside the creek. Running with this haunch, we walked along the creekside which seemed like moderately good travel at the time but slowly digressed into moderate bushwacking. Time passed and the trail was nowhere to be seen. Using my plethora of map and compass knowledge we deduced how we should be able to find the trail as it intersected the Creek further along. However, we began second-guessing ourselves, Aaron's torn miniscus started acting up (what a wimp), and according to Adam we were "lost". All of these things contributed to our decision to turn around and head home but it is now in retrospect that God may have also played a small role in this course of events.
You see arriving back at home my family was busy cleaning in preparation for my Aunt and Uncle's visit from Calgary. This was an occasion that I was supposed to arrive just in time for (but probably would have missed entirely) had our adventure gone according to plan. However now I was back several hours early. That is when my day to a turn for probably the very best it ever could have. You see expecting my families arrival a knock on my front door did not even stir me to my feet. However, my dad's words, "We certainly weren't expecting you here," ignited my curiosity. Innocently I arose to inspect the scene. Ashley Jansen was standing in my front doorway. The feeling of embracing a friend whom you have been starved from for three months is irreplaceable. It can't be explained with words because it is the best. I didn't stop smiling for about two days. What made it even better was that she had explicitly told me that she wouldn't be coming home over Rememberance Day because her Volleyball coach had certain issues with family oriented individuals.
The next day I got to see even more of my friends whom I've been long separated from. I think I got too overloaded with excitement. It was pretty overwhelming. I could have spent an entire day with each of those people getting to know what they've been up to and hearing their stories but there was no time. I left the party with a smile on my face none the less.
Surprises like that bring joy to my little life :)
So we found pierce creek and blundered around it trying to find what might be the nearby road that led to the trailhead. Needless to say we picked the wrong road and started up it without a moment's hesitation, packs in tow. Reaching the top of this unbelievably steep road and a dead end/river crossing, we turned around and headed down the same road to take our second wrong turn of the evening. After aproximately an hour and a half of surprisingly dry, moonlit, misdirected, night-time travel we found ourselves right back where we started. We piched our tents beside the truck, cooked dinner, had a fire and an all around good time not alowing our recent follies to get us down, for surely tomorrow brought a new day and a fresh start... with daylight.
We awoke bright and chipper. Packed up, left what we didn't need in the truck and set out with not but our daypacks around our waists. We found a path that would surely direct us to the trailhead and followed it faithfully until we reached a clearing. It was then, not investigating the full perameter of the clearing that we made our biggest blunder in assuming the trail ran beside the creek. Running with this haunch, we walked along the creekside which seemed like moderately good travel at the time but slowly digressed into moderate bushwacking. Time passed and the trail was nowhere to be seen. Using my plethora of map and compass knowledge we deduced how we should be able to find the trail as it intersected the Creek further along. However, we began second-guessing ourselves, Aaron's torn miniscus started acting up (what a wimp), and according to Adam we were "lost". All of these things contributed to our decision to turn around and head home but it is now in retrospect that God may have also played a small role in this course of events.
You see arriving back at home my family was busy cleaning in preparation for my Aunt and Uncle's visit from Calgary. This was an occasion that I was supposed to arrive just in time for (but probably would have missed entirely) had our adventure gone according to plan. However now I was back several hours early. That is when my day to a turn for probably the very best it ever could have. You see expecting my families arrival a knock on my front door did not even stir me to my feet. However, my dad's words, "We certainly weren't expecting you here," ignited my curiosity. Innocently I arose to inspect the scene. Ashley Jansen was standing in my front doorway. The feeling of embracing a friend whom you have been starved from for three months is irreplaceable. It can't be explained with words because it is the best. I didn't stop smiling for about two days. What made it even better was that she had explicitly told me that she wouldn't be coming home over Rememberance Day because her Volleyball coach had certain issues with family oriented individuals.
The next day I got to see even more of my friends whom I've been long separated from. I think I got too overloaded with excitement. It was pretty overwhelming. I could have spent an entire day with each of those people getting to know what they've been up to and hearing their stories but there was no time. I left the party with a smile on my face none the less.
Surprises like that bring joy to my little life :)
posted by Stewart at
12:37 PM
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