Hiking

We don't actually live too close to the mountains or any hiking trails really.  I tried to get us to the mountains a few times before school started.  The first hike was 45 mins away on a gravel road with a river running alongside the trail.  We didn't make it to the end (I think there was a dam at the end) because Felicity is not really a hiker.  She is only 2 1/2 so I can't really expect too much from her and I think she does fine for the most part.  This particular hike she didn't really enjoy for long at all though.  The boys knew I was bugged and helped carry her and tried to help everyone be cheerful and I really appreciated that.  

The next week a friend asked if we wanted to join them on a hike to Devil's head.  It was about an hour and 15 mins away.  The hike itself was about two miles up, I think.  Felicity did an incredible job on this hike.  Near the top she lost it and I had to carry her the rest of the way to the top.  That was really hard.  The boys had gone ahead so I didn't have them to help but thankfully it wasn't too much longer.  The hike was so beautiful. I really loved the hike.  Once you get to the end of the hike, there is a big set of stairs (149 steps, I think) to a lookout that you can see for hundreds of miles.  It's breathtaking.  We took a lunch so we ate our lunch in the meadow below the stairs and then headed back down.  I let the boys go ahead again and didn't need to carry Felicity except for a short period and kept her happy by pretending we were spies looking for the boys.

The parking lot was full when we got there so I had to park about a mile away in an overflow parking lot.  I had the kids wait halfway down to the van and hitched a ride to the bottom.  My friend asked if we wanted to caravan home and I told her I thought we would be fine getting home.  She said they might stop for a drink on the way home so we decided to follow each other until one of us went our own way.  The road up to the trail is a 30 minute wash board.  It is specifically designed to keep people from going too fast on that road.  It was awful.  Once we got on the gravel road I heard our brakes grinding and I pulled over immediately.  I tried getting a signal on my phone but had none.  I saw a trading post down the road and decided I'd try to drive there and see if they had a signal.  I got back on the road and couldn't drive any further.  I pulled over again and realized I was in trouble.  My friend had continued on so we were stranded an hour from home with no signal.  We said a prayer and I told the kids to stay in the car with the car running and locked the doors.  They all had their kindles since the drive was long so they were all distracted.  I walked up the road to the trading post but it was locked and no one was there.  I walked further up the road to a house but once in the driveway felt uneasy and noticed this gigantic dog dome.  I thought, "We are in the middle of no where.  You don't have a dome like that for a tiny dog."  I yelled, "Is anyone there?"  No one answered and I didn't feel comfortable to keep walking up the driveway so I turned around and headed back down the road.  I passed the kids and kept walking.  I finally saw a house up this big hill and walked up to the driveway.  This time a tiny dog started running down the driveway yapping at me and growling.  I am not a dog lover.  I don't care how big the dog is, they all make me nervous.  I kept telling the dog to stay and stop and then this little boy appeared to my left.  He was outside scrubbing off the graffiti he had written on the big rocks in his yard.  He has spray painted, "Yeet" on the rocks.  I asked him to get his parents and his mom came out to see what was wrong. 

I explained that we were stranded and that I had no phone service and my kids were alone in the van way down the road.  She let me use her phone to call Mike so I could tell him where we were and then her husband drove me back to the van to pick up the kids.  Just then, our friends returned.  The husband kept feeling like they should turn around and find us even though we had said we didn't need to caravan.  They came up to the house with us and I called a tow truck and we waited for Mike and the tow truck.  The family gave water and popsicles and the kids played pool and basketball with the boys that lived there.  The girls jumped on the trampoline and got to go see the animals in the barn and were perfectly happy to be stranded.  

I was nervous because I had no signal and had no idea how the tow truck was going to get ahold of me to tell me he was there.  Mike showed up and reported that the house I went to first had four huge dogs that tried to attack him and an owner who didn't want to call the dogs off.  When Mike asked if the man had seen us the man responded, "Why would I know where your family is?"  Then he just walked away while the dogs continued to try and get Mike.  So glad they didn't come running down the driveway and that I turned around.  

Mike told me he'd like to go look at the van so we got in his car and drove back to the van.  Just then the tow truck arrived.  Such perfect timing!  The van got loaded on the tow truck bed and I got a ride home with the driver while our friends took Piper in their truck and Mike fit the rest of the kids in his little car.

In the end, Mike discovered that the crazy washboard road made the bolts on the brakes fall off, causing the brakes to come off and wedge themselves between the tire, locking the tire.  He spent the weekend buying new bolts, glue to glue the bolts on, and fixing the breaks.  

There were a lot of tender mercies that happened that day and I feel incredibly thankful that we were looked out for and safe.  A bad situation could have been so much worse.  I am so thankful that the kids were cheerful, our friends came back, the tow truck came when he did, and that I was able to find such a nice family to help us.  I know it wasn't a coincidence that things worked out the way they did.