Hike for Haiti Recap

Last year, a few members of Diakon Wilderness Center's Flight program had the opportunity to go on a trip to Haiti and spend a week volunteering their time with several children in 4 different orphanages.  Doing everything from building shelving to making jewelry.  Lives were changed that week.  This year, a few students have the opportunity to go again.  We recently held a 20 (18.5 actual) mile hike in an effort to raise funds for the life changing trip.   To the best of my ability I will try to recap some of the highs and lows from this journey.

The hike didn't start on Saturday August 9 2014.  For many it started much earlier, raising money, training (just kidding), mental preparation and even just deciding on whether to go or not.  For the students, the agreement was that in order to qualify for the trip, you must attend the Flight Hike Weekend.  One of our students was presented a last minute opportunity to go to Six Flags Amusement park.  He had a decision to make. A trip to Haiti was on the line as well as loyalty to his Flight brothers.  But Six Flags?  That would be a fun day!  Through much deliberation, he chose the hike.  And to his surprise, the trip to Six Flags ended up being rescheduled so he could go.  Call it what you will, but I see it as a reward for making a good decision. With every decision we make, their are consequences.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

As usual, the Friday or our hike we had to negotiate everyone's arrival time and travel arrangements.  These can sometimes be last minute, but we do everything we can to get any of the guys that want to come there. When a flight student comes to flight weekends, we have an opportunity to influence them to making better choices for their life.  Attendance is critical to success in the program. After a great dinner of sandwiches, hot dogs and sausages we settled in for a pre hike fire circle (this is our bi-weekly accountability time).  Afterwards, beds were made up and most of us had a great night sleep.

Saturday morning began a little chilly. Breakfast was light, watermelon, cantaloupe, pop tarts and cherries.  And off we went, starting at Pine Grove Furnace to finish in Boiling Springs Pa.  The first 2 miles of our hike was uphill followed by a long 6 mile downhill and 2 mile up and down to our lunch meeting point.  There were 9 of us.  The first ten miles were smooth, for most of us.  Flight Program director Matt is showing some signs of age and had to exit the hike halfway due to a knee injury.  Very proud of him for finishing the first ten with no verbal complaints at all.  However, his son Logan finished the hike for him completing all 18.5 miles.  That's how families work.  That's how Flight works.  Unfortunately, things in the program don't always go as well as you hope.  One of our students is currently battling with some drug issues.  He keeps coming to flight, but we can only do so much when dealing with an addiction.  He was caught in another lie and had to leave the hike at mid point.  This was not our decision, it was his.  The only time one is asked to leave Flight is if they refuse to make any attempt at forward progress or the choose to leave.  We can't always force people to stay.

Saturday afternoon, off we went.  From Sheet Iron Roof road to finish in Bubbletown.  We were fresh.  Had a water refill, gatorade and subs for lunch.  With slightly mixed emotions that two of our flight brothers were not with us.  The second half of the hike was ten fold more challenging.  More climbs, more descents, more mental battle's with ones self to continue forward.  One of members was dealing with strong mental battles about the physical abuse his body was taking, as well as the mental battles that come with that.  And I watched him power through fatigue, dehydration and a mile of leg cramps to finish strong.  The last mile brought so much joy to me watching him finish and know how hard he was pushing himself in all areas of his life this day.  I hope he remembers that feeling of finishing strong after well fought battle along the way.

One of the things we tried to do along the hike is stay together as a group.  Now, we had all types represented on this hike.  Some in better shape than others, some young, some older and all of us with at least one figurative thorn in our side.  So, one can understand the difficulty of either trying to keep up or trying to slow down.  That gets worse when you have 20 miles ahead of you.  You want to go at your pace. But we are group.  I watched as some of the students would walk ahead a ways, stop and wait.  And then we'd walk together for while and repeat that process.  You give and take.  Thought you'd like to see those walking ahead realize that it's a group effort and sometimes sacrifices need to be made, you can be happy that those guys are at least in fellowship with one another.  So we made a few exceptions, but at some point, usually about 18 miles in, emotions and mental clarity aren't always as sharp as they should be.  More to come on that though.  I watched one flight student join the faster group, but stop and wait more often than the others.  I could see his internal struggle of wanting to move faster, but also wanting to stay with the group.  At the end of the hike, he made a great decision by waiting for the slower group to finish together.  Very proud of this young man who has so much to offer and is working very hard to get himself out of the hole he dug himself in earlier in life.  And I noticed another flight member, who stayed with the slower group the whole time because he understands the value of moving at the groups pace.  I am very proud of this young man for challenging himself physically and mentally in many different ways.  I am also very thankful that he had the med kit!  If an injury happened, which they did, everyone could stay and help.  If there is a turn in the trail, we could turn as a group.  When part of the group is left behind, what if something should happen to them?  How long would those ahead realize that they lost some?

We pushed through The Devils Staircase, The Rock Maze, across Whiskey Springs Road and past Diakon's Wilderness Center up to Center Point Knob.   We (actually not "we" but one of us) encountered a HUGE rattlesnake as well as a hive of bees.  Unfortunately both these were found by the same person, both times when trying to find a convenient spot to poop.  Apparently doing a number two in the woods is often times inconvenient.  The descent from Center Point Knob, a 3 mile trek into Boiling Springs, proved to be one of the most difficult sections for some of us. Those struggles included cramping on one individual, patience with another, various aches and pains as well as mental battles as well.  With about 1.5 miles left to go at our last water fill up, Some of the group decided to move forward without the rest of the group.  This was disheartening to me that they did this.  But this is Flight, and we used every experience as a teaching moment.  There is seldom room for punishment inside of Flight.  It just doesn't jive well with the culture, nor does it really work.

 Two- thirds of us began our final stretch just behind the other two, our 7th hitched a ride back to the house.  When LeBron James pulls out in a championship game due to cramps, this seemed like a good option at the time for one of us as well.  And that is perfectly ok.   I decided that something had to be done about the two that went ahead, so with permission from the group I ran ahead to stop them so we could finish together.  As well as let them know that wasn't the best decision to leave without us.  I was able to catch a glimpse of them about a quarter mile ahead so I knew they weren't far.  When I got the bridge in Boiling Springs and hadn't found them yet, I began to worry.  They should be here.  I asked another hiking group where they were and they said they had seen them walking through the fields in the wrong direction.  Well, at this point in the hike that is the last thing that one wants to hear.  ESPECIALLY, when one of these students was in a situation just like this not long ago.  Fortunately, they had realized they were going to wrong way and met me as I was on my way back to find them and a confrontation happened.  It was strong, I admit.  And several emotions were at play.  But the recipient handled it well and didn't retaliate.  If I was talked to the way I had talked to him, I may have leveled myself at that point in the day!  But he didn't, and I am proud of him the way he responded.  The other flight member, who is newer understand that sometimes when you love and care about someone, you have to be strong with them sometimes.  When he saw the other student become stressed he reached out and put him arm around him.  I was also impressed at this show of compassion.  I learned a lot from this encounter about three people.  Myself being one of them.  Many things that could have been said and done differently, but ultimately, we talked through that experience and have grown deeper in our relationships with each other.  So even when things don't always go the way as planned, you can still learn and grow together.

We finished our hike to the bubble and those that wanted to soak for a minute in the 53 degree water did, and we moved on to my home where some wonderful Flight supporters and Matt had dinner waiting for us!  It was an excellent hike, challenging, rewarding and at some point it couldn't suck any worse.  But at the end of the day, we hiked for those children in Haiti who don't have it nearly as good as the worst of us.

Here is the GPS of our hike. Hike For Haiti