This weekend I went camping at Lake Walupt. It's a long story, I know. I was driving Brian's car with some people in it and Mandy was coming a few hours later in my car and some more people. After driving 2 more hours than we planned we reached the bottom of a mountain with a sign saying Lake Walupt 21 miles. This wasn't just any road it was a forest service road winding up the side of a mountain. The road was "gravel" aka big chunks of rock with huge pot holes. We had to go about 15 miles per hour, which would take approximately and 1 hour and 20 minute to drive. During the drive up I had a few mild anxiety attacks as I would look down the 3,000 foot drop from the cliff I was driving two feet away from. We went about 16 miles on the road and Brian's car suddenly stopped. There we were stuck in the middle of the road now at about 3,500 feet up, no cell phone reception, we hadn't seen a car for over and hour, no food or water (we had beer), and about 30 miles away from civilization. So we waited. About 45 minutes later a car came by. They had no room to take one of us off the mountain but they took down my AAA number to call them for us and gave us some water.
A bit later another car came going towards Lake Walupt and we decided to send Justin with them to the campground, hoping there would be a phone for him to get help with. Now it was just me and David stranded on top of a mountain, we waited for about 3 hours. Mandy still hadn't come and I was getting worried the Beetle couldn't make it up the road. Justin came back riding with the campground host, Randy, in a minivan. We figured AAA was never coming and who knew when Mandy would be here, so we packed all our gear and ourselves into the van and drove to the campground. It was about 5:30 and we knew there'd be no hope in getting the car off the mountain that day so I decided I'd just go the next morning. While we were waiting for the rest of the group Randy and Leila, the campground hosts, made themselves more than available to help us in anyway possible. Finally Mandy and the others showed up around 7. The next morning around 8 am, Angela and I started down the mountain to figure out the car debacle. It was Saturday morning so we had some trouble finding a tow company that was open. AAA said they wouldn't tow on an unpaved road so that was out of the picture. After trying to hunt down a few tow trucks we stoped at the local animal feed store and talked to Eden. We told her our dilemma and she was determined to help us. She called her friend Cindy who's husband, Monte, was a mechanic. Cindy told Eden to send us down her way and Monte should be home soon to help us. We drove to Cindy and Monte's house and when we got there Cindy and her dog Harley were there to welcome us with open arms. Monte was a few towns away so we had some time to hang out with Cindy. Meanwhile I was calling Brian telling him the story and asking what I should do. He called a tow company and arranged to have the tow truck pick me up at Monte and Cindy's on his way up the mountain to get Brian's car.
By this time is was 1 pm. I had planned on being back up the mountain and camping by 2, but shortly realized I was wrong. So Jimmy Beslow (who we didn't know at this time, but was rivals with Monte) picked me up and we started on our hour and half journey up the mountain. I was kinda concerned because I'm not the best at making conversation, but good ol' JJ (as he called himself) made up for it. He was a great guy. We had some really good conversation. He told me about his family and his son who had passed away a few years ago. He told me about snowmobiling and the mountains that he grew up in. I talked about my family, Ywam, school, and life. It was quite the experience. To read more about Jimmy Beslow check out this story about him.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003465485_missing07m.html
Finally we got back to Monte's. Angela had been waiting for 2 1/2 hours. He dropped the car off and Monte began working on it right away. Did I mention that it was Monte's day off? He told us he didn't have some of the parts so we would have to drive to Morton (the town two towns over) while he began taking the wheels off. We got back to Monte's around 5 pm, he fixed the car in under an hour and only charged us for the parts. Monte and Cindy waved us off and wished us good luck. Angela was driving Brian's car, I was driving my car....we ended up getting lost. After driving aimlessly for 2 hours and going on several other forest serive roads we decided to back track to Monte and Cindy's. They came out once again, arms open wide and so concerned. We asked if we could keep Brian's car there overnight and Angela and I would go up the mountain in my car, because neither of us wanted to drive up alone. Of course they said yes, and offered a place for us to stay if we didn't feel comfortable driving up the mountain. By this time it was 7:30 and we had about 30 minutes of day light left. We started up the road and at about 8:45 pm we were back at the campsite. A hole day of camping gone. The next morning it was raining and time to leave Lake Walupt (I only had about 4 hours of daylight camping over the weekend). We had a problem though because there was 6 of us, all our junk and one car. No one wanted to go down the mountain, get Brian's car, go back up the mountain and then back down again. It wouldn've taken 4 extra hours.
So we asked around, to see if anyone was going down the mountain around the same time, and hitched some rides with them. Jolene and I got a ride from Nick and Lacey. Two archeologists from Mississippi. They both now live in Washington and pass through Seattle quite often. We invited them to family dinner, exchanged numbers and hopefully we'll be seeing them again. After 5 hours of driving home in I-5 traffick, we were home. Even though I didn't actually get go camping, on the ride home, my heart was full. I had met so many amazing people this weekend, who genuinely cared. My faith in humanity was truely restored. These people had no reason for being so nice and hospitable or allowing me to enter into their life, but they did. They took care of us, and I could see Jesus in all of them. So, who wants to go camping next week?
This will be my fouth time seeing them live. It should've been more than that, but I couldn't see them live till I was 21 because they'd always play 21+ shows...lame. Also, I don't know if you've ever seen the move Once, but the lead singer from The Frames is the main character, it's an amazing movie. I love The Frames.
By this time is was 1 pm. I had planned on being back up the mountain and camping by 2, but shortly realized I was wrong. So Jimmy Beslow (who we didn't know at this time, but was rivals with Monte) picked me up and we started on our hour and half journey up the mountain. I was kinda concerned because I'm not the best at making conversation, but good ol' JJ (as he called himself) made up for it. He was a great guy. We had some really good conversation. He told me about his family and his son who had passed away a few years ago. He told me about snowmobiling and the mountains that he grew up in. I talked about my family, Ywam, school, and life. It was quite the experience. To read more about Jimmy Beslow check out this story about him.
So we asked around, to see if anyone was going down the mountain around the same time, and hitched some rides with them. Jolene and I got a ride from Nick and Lacey. Two archeologists from Mississippi. They both now live in Washington and pass through Seattle quite often. We invited them to family dinner, exchanged numbers and hopefully we'll be seeing them again. After 5 hours of driving home in I-5 traffick, we were home. Even though I didn't actually get go camping, on the ride home, my heart was full. I had met so many amazing people this weekend, who genuinely cared. My faith in humanity was truely restored. These people had no reason for being so nice and hospitable or allowing me to enter into their life, but they did. They took care of us, and I could see Jesus in all of them. So, who wants to go camping next week?
