I had quite a day yesterday, maybe you'll find this interesting, I'll try to keep it short. Several Thai friends and one 'farang' (foreigner) were heading up to hike up the second tallest mountain in the province and they invited me (Blake). Mindy, the other farang, told me it would be one of the hardest things I've ever done. Well, I was thinking that she might not know all that I've done. So, even in my un-in-shape condition I agreed, because it sounded like a lot of fun.

We started the day by meeting at 6:30am sharp to leave with the plan to be back by 6 or 6:30pm that night. Well, people were still showing up at 6:45, so we really didn't leave until 7:30am or so.


I have never been on a motorcycle before, so it was an adventure from the first minute. I was riding behind one of the stronger guys, who could handle the extra weight of a heavy farang. I was a little nervous at first, because I was not in control. It took a good 20 minutes to get over that.

First, we traveled up the nearest mountain to a village we often visit to pick up our guides. After that, we loaded up again on the bikes and headed off road. At first we were on a very rutted out dirt road, I was again nervous and having control issues. The road turned into what we call in the mountain bike realm, singletrack. The trail was probable two tires wide, and winding through some amazing landscapes. I felt like we were going through the Lord of the Rings movies, zig zagging through tall white trees, and then through rocks that were dangerously close, and then down into the beautifully lush, green jungle. When I wasn't wondering if we were about to crash, I was enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

We parked our bikes on the side of a hill facing our goal and walked from there.




That's the mountain above. I was a little concerned with the apparent distance, and then more so as we began our hike down, instead of up. I kept thinking, for every step down, is another one up. We had to go down a valley and then switchback our way up a less steep mountain, until we got to the ridge. Then we could walk all along the ridge to the summit of the mountain.

The land was beautiful, the scenery and the weather were perfect. We were truly blessed. It was probably 70 degrees the whole time. The part I thought was interesting was how the guides knew where to go. You see, in your mind, I think you are picturing a little trail, with trailhead markers, lookout points, and little signs for restrooms and vending machines on the side. Let's go ahead and dispense with that. Our guides were in front of us wading through shoulder high (sometimes higher) trees, weeds, brush, stickers...etc to make a path so we could at least know which way they went. Often we had to whoop and yell to figure that out.



I was a little comforted to have me GPS my parents gave me before I left. So that when our guides were eaten by Bengal Tigers, I could help us find our way out. But we trudged on. . . It was exhausting. We used every bit of energy we had at our disposal that day and more. I was carrying around 3 liters of water for myself and I could not have carried more, or drank less. The Lord gave us a lot of grace.

We stopped at a stream (the only one in our path) for lunch, which after over an hour or so of hiking through the dense foliage, my oatmeal and eggs were long gone. I was grateful for the clear stream, and glad I had brought my water filter that the WMU ladies had provided us before we left. Thank you "Pure Water, Pure Love"!!


We hiked on for several hours, up mountain sides reminiscent of the movie "The Princess Bride" right before the entered the "Fire Swamp", except in our case if you were to fall as Wesley did, you would definitely hit one or more of the millions of large, sharp protruding rocks and not walk away from it. The views were tremendous, and a good excuse for rest.



When we arrived at the top (I honestly didn't think I would make it.), I was super excited, and I showed this by promptly laying down where ever. After I regained my sanity, I was very impressed with the little bald peak we had found. An enormous panoramic view like few I'd ever seen. The Smokey Mountains have got nothing on Thailand! We spent an hour up here just admiring God's handiwork.



God was so good on our trip. Mindy told the teens that's rule #1 was "No complaining". I found the rule challenging, but the teens did so great. I mean, seriously, flip-flops and socks? Awesome. In the past I have rolled (twisted) both of my ankles, and I was worried about how they'd hold up, especially since the most recent incident was only a few months ago. We stumbled a lot, but God's blessing was the sure-footed next step. He was always there when we tripped or fell, and always gave us a good next step. No injuries! Praise God!

We got back to the bikes about 30-45 minutes after dark. It was even more difficult to hike when we forgot flashlights. But the Lord was faithful, and lit our path. What a trip. . . I slept good that night!

More pictures and some videos in the Latest Pictures area... Click on "Hike of the Year". Check them out!