Mt. Brown Lookout Hike

The Mt. Brown hike was the best and most challenging hike we went on this year. Elijah and I attempted it first with Nathan and Ernie but could only go so high due to the snow. Later, we did the hike again with Dave and the twins, Tim and Dan.

What a great hike. It's a 4,400' elevation gain and about an 11 mile hike roundtrip. STEEP. I knew that Elijah could do it because he had done so well on the first attempt. The twins, however, had never done anything like this and needed a lot of encouragement. I kept telling them that they were men and this is what makes real men--making sacrifices and enduring the hard stuff to achieve our goals, which are not only rewarding in themselves but make it all worth while.

Throughout the hike, we sang songs and talked about God's majesty, what it was like in the Garden of Eden and what it will be like on God's new earth that He is preparing for the righteous. Dave told the kids that they were getting a different perspective, because they couldn't see things like this from down below.

When we got to the top, the kids were stoked. Dan kept shouting, "We did it! We climbed the mountain!" and "This was so worth it! You can't see sights like this from down there!"

I told him, "That's right. You did it. You kept going, even though it was hard, and you didn't give up, and now you get to enjoy the reward."

On the way back down, Dan stopped right in front of me on the trail, so I told him to keep going and not stop. I think he was afraid I was thinking he was giving up, because he replied, "We didn't quit all the way to the top of the mountain. We kept going and we made it all the way to the top. Why would we quit now?"

That was a response I was more than happy to hear. Actually, we only went to the lookout, which is where most people stop and come back. I will return though, without the kids and make the ascent all the way to the peak. I knew that 11 miles was a lot for three seven-year-olds, and I didn't push them any further. Besides, it was getting late and we still had to get back down.