A stroll in the woods

Jay and I have our days off together on Wednesday. Usually we spend it with other people, but yesterday we thought it was time that we spent the day just with each other, so we decided to go for a hike along the Manistee River Trail in Manistee National Forest. Jay camped out there on his own a couple of years ago, and I backpacked the majority of the trail in 2002.

After a couple of false starts, we were on our way. We set a path and stopped for some trail food on the way to the trail head. Jay remembered the part of the trail that we were going to hike as being about a 10 mile round trip - easily done in a day because we were packing light.

It didn't go exactly as we had planned.

Our trip was scheduled to go to the dam and back, but to the dam actually ended up being more like 6 or 7 miles than the 5 we had anticipated. Also, it was really hot and muggy and we did not pack enough water for the conditions, so once we hit the dam we had to go another 1.3 miles to get to a clean water source. Once we had replenished the H2O, we had to turn around and rehike the entire thing to get back to the car. We lost the path for a portion of the way back, which was fine for Jay since he was wearing his heavy duty hiking boots, but I was in my Chacos (c'mon - it was only supposed to be 10 miles on a well worn path right?).

After 6 hours of hiking, with only 15 min. of breaking, we made it back to the car - quite possibly one of the best sites I have ever seen. We scarfed down the box lunches we had brought while the Jetta sufficiently handled the worlds bumpiest road on the way back to the highway. After sitting for the 45 min. drive back to camp, standing proved to be quite difficult, but after treating ourselves to ice cream and an early bed time I think it is safe to say we will survive.

These are the faces that we thought would sum up our trip well, and here is a shot of our feet after the hike - these small body parts held up pretty well for the distance we put them through

Where's Toto?

I realize that in Nebraska big storms are the norm. Here in Northern Michigan - not so much. This past Sunday, June 8, Springhill was ravaged by storm front unlike any the camp has seen since it was created in 1969. In one half of camp over 200 trees are down. Our luggage pavillion was flattened and structures were damaged. Kids come in three days.

God was merciful and He saved us from any truly crippling damages. Obviously he has spared camp for a reason and we are all so grateful and so excited to see the work He does here this summer.

Please keep us in your prayers. Crews are putting 12-14 hour days in order to get the camp ready by Sunday, and tons of volunteers have come up for the week to help out.

I am wiped. . .

I have been here for over 3 weeks now, which, on a sad note, means I have missed over 3 weeks of my little Addison's very new life. On a happy note, it means I have been able to spend 3 weeks serving God at this place that God has used so much to impact my own life.

Jay got here two weeks ago, which has made being here a lot easier. All of my staff arrived today, which means that I am in over-drive - planning training, learning names, still staffing, rarely sitting down, and not getting any breaks.

Along with my staff came two dear friends, Scottie B. and Josh Hosak. They are a connection to Nebraska and they came with hugs and personal greetings from other friends who aren't doing anything quite as cool as working at a camp this summer.

On another note, Jay and I are trying to find plane tickets to come back to the states for Christmas Break. They, unfortunately, are ridiculously expensive and we are ridiculously broke. If you all could be praying for that situation that would wonderful.

Miss you all.