Beautiful Feet...NOT!

From where do your memories come? Mine often come from imagining or daydreaming. Sometimes they originate in song lyrics. Occasionally they materialize in scripture. Such is the case with today's blog.

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV) states: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

In my younger days I used to backpack a lot. Two teacher colleagues of mine and I started a company we called Ozark Backpackers in the hills around the town of Ironton, MO. We led groups of teens on overnight trips in that rugged part of Missouri. Taum Sauk Mountain, the highest natural point in the Show Me State, was in that area of the Saint Francois Range. It was a towering 1,772 feet in elevation and was called an elongated ridge rather than a mountain peak.

portage with canoe

Our next move was to Shreveport, LA. I teamed up with the educational minister and led the Dirty Dozen (12 teens from the church) on a backpacking trip into Yellowstone National Park. One of our hikes was from the Canyon rim to the bottom of the river at Seven Mile Hole. Coming back up the same day was quite an adventure. The next year I led a group of those same guys back into Yellowstone. We had a several night pack planned. As a conditioner we did the Seven Mile Hole trek, once again in a single day. We surpassed our goal for that hike of coming back up from the Hole in less time than it took us to descend.

A few years later we lived in Dallas, TX. While there I joined with several other men and led members of the youth group on wilderness canoe trips to the lakes and rivers on the Minnesota/Canadian border. The portages were often short but strenuous backpacking hikes between lakes. We carried all our gear and the canoes on our backs.

RMNP backpack, 1975

I will never forget the time my brother and I went on a backpack of several nights length in Rocky Mountain National Park in the summer of 1975. The most memorable part of that trip was when I contracted a mild case of hypothermia one afternoon. My problem was I didn't adjust my wardrobe to match the quickly changing weather. Fortunately I taught the what to do if... to the teens I led often enough so I recovered quickly.

Remembering and relating some details of these adventures is pleasant. Rethink the Isaiah passage above. Think about the "beautiful feet" phraseology. In all the hiking and backpacking I did during my first decades as an adult, I never remember myself or any other group members having what could be described as beautiful  feet.

The scree wreaked havoc on our feet in the hiking boots despite our wearing two heavy pairs of socks. Adding moleskin at the first sensation of a hot spot that soon reddened and turned painful, never seemed to keep the blister from forming. Besides that, the feet got crusty and smelly. There was not much preventative we could do except change socks often and bathe our toes in the cool water at day's end.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who backpack...NOT! Thank you, God, for the experiences and the memories...but not for the blisters.