Manly Men

I decided to throw this photo in as a teaser for the blog to come. This is a picture of me and five guys from spring break 08. We stayed in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tenesse (12 of us all together). There were 6 sophomores and 6 freshmen. Our desire was to explore what real manhood looked like, studying the life of David and camping out! So the six pictured above (probably the manliest there, others would say differently) decided to go on a hike to the highest point... Not just any hike, but a 14 mile hike! Knowing this would take most all day, we packed up some food and left for our venture early in the morning. One of the greatest things about camping is that you wake up early, the other is that time doesn't matter, it's all about the ammount of daylight! So, after having pancakes and hashbrowns over an open fire and hearing about David conquerring Goliath, we set off to conquer our own Goliath. It was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining. We tried to keep a good pace in order to finish within daylight, jogging uphill occasionally. After about 7 miles the weather turned to smoky, foggy, wet, and cold! We picked up the pace some more as we reached higher altitudes. Upon nearing the summit, we ran into some friends from high school (the world is really small). Then shortly after that, we made it! IT was very cold at this point, and we were excited to wait for Jase to arrive with the Suburban to give us a ride back....

Which brings me to the next great thing about camping... No cell phone service! Which it is a valid question as to why I lost my cell phone somewhere amongst the mountains while chasing a deer... So, we logically brought walkie-talkies to communicate, however we had run out of batteries and none of our cell phones worked. We were already late for Jase to pick us up, so when we couldn't find him we feared he may have already left... Then two bicyclists came up on the road and we asked them if they had seen a suburban. They kindly notified us that the road was closed... 7 miles ago! Now we couldn't communicate with our ride and we were REALLY late. At this point, Jase doesn't have a great reputation for being patient, but an even worse reputation for spending time by himself (eg. waiting for a few hours for lost friends by himself in Podunk, TN)... So, the 6 of us double time down the hill. We toss our walking sticks on the side of the rode and try to do 5 minute walk and 5 minute jog. Each one of us testing our patience thin and our physical capacity to its fine limits. I can safely say that if it weren't for Jonas Bergen's shear joy, we would not have made it! But, a while later we did... Conquering the infamous 21 mile trek.

All to be said, we are manly men! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJGwVBvJMPM