Prayers in the Mountains
In early May, the Methodist Monastics geared up and headed to an area just North of Smoky Mountain NP near Hot Springs, NC. Over three days we completed our trek. At the scheduled hours we stopped for prayer using the Glenstal book as our guide.
We hiked in under the cover of near-darkness and found the only suitable campsite for several trail-mies. Morning light revealed the weightiness of our packs and several group members decided to scale down to necessities requiring a short trek back to the trailhead.
The up and down hiking provided a rhythm that was less welcome than the rhythm of the prayers. On day two, we pushed past our designated campsite in order to shorten the final day's hike. After a night at a beautiful campsite, we hiked out to enjoy some down time in Hot Springs.
posted by Mark Youngman | 3:34 PM
2 Comments:
This post sounds wonderful! Obviously it was written by one of the "in shape" people. Those of us who were not in shape for the trip would describe the "less than welcome" rhythm in a less poetic manner.
I learned on this trip that I would prefer to separate the monastic lifestyle from the chore of walking up and down mountains with a backpack. By day two my prayers turned into bitter protest against whoever named places on the hiking map significant names while all the while knowing nothing was there, not even one small store with one small bottle of Gator Aide. All I could hear was Brother Edward's words from my trip the previous year as he pointed to the couch and explained that I could take a nap anytime I liked.
Did you look into the monastery near Hot Springs that provides overnight accommodations for AT hikers?
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