Saturday

Lizzy and I started the morning off with S&I In-Service where we were richly feed.

Then we changed into hiking clothes and headed to Clark State Forest to hike.  It was beautiful in an almost winter kind of way.

Do you notice all of the leaf litter?  It covered up the path.  There were markers along the path, so we watched for them.  There were creeks and streams.  So fun – we loved the different types of moss and lichen and the beautiful water! I had been thinking how this was like life – really we just go out and try to find our way.  There are markers along the way that help us know that we are on the path – baptism, church programs, scriptures, prayer, leaders, temple experiences, ordinances.

Then we reached marker 16, and the trail was just gone.  Nothing.  We were lost.  We knew we were nearing the end, but we didn’t know which way we were facing.  We didn’t know how to get back to the path. So we just kept walking.  We prayed.  We knew that there was a storm coming (found out later it was snowing 94 miles north of us).  And we kept walking.  By this point, my phone had died.  We could hear the wind picking up.  I could sense Lizzy starting to panic a little.  And we kept walking. We talked about how this was like life.  We talked about staying on the path.  We talked about enduring to the end.

We parked at the purple arrow.  The hike was a big circle.  We ended up coming out of the forest at the red arrow.  We were then able to walk along the road back to our car.  We sat there a second and then offered a prayer of gratitude that we were safe.  Then it started to rain and the temperature dropped.  How grateful we were to be safe and dry!

I felt a hot chocolate run was in order to warm up! 

Overall, a great hike!  I definitely want to go back when we can see the trail a bit better

Meanwhile, back at home, Jason and the girls were watching a Star Wars marathon to prepare for the release of the new movie!  My husband is hugely excited!!