God's Amazing Creation!

So this past weekend I was given the opportunity to go backpacking/camping with my Outdoor Education Class. We went to Grayson Highlands State Park and hiked the trails near there. Friday night we took some wrong turns and ended up way off course. We set up the tents and camped out there. Woke up to AMAZING view of the sun coming over the mountains! BREATHTAKING!!! ahhh:) its cold but i'm all cozy in my layers of clothes! we gear up and hike all day. we hiked some of the AT (applachian trail) and it was tough but the view on the top was well worth it. it started raining on us around 2pm and we were still 1 1/2 away from where we were gonna set up our campsite. we finally arrived at 3:30 and set up tents in the rain...all of us were soaked to the bone and it was cold so we had to take off wet clothes and get in our sleeping bags to dry off and get warm. it continued to rain all night and we ate cold dinner instead of a warm one like we planned. the next morning we woke up to snow and sleet and rain...it was FREEEZING! clothes that were wet the day before were now FROZEN, the tents were FROZEN and everything was damp/wet/frozen! we packed up and drank hot chocolate at the same time and hit the trails back to the vans. we ofc missed our turn for the shortcut so we ended up hiking a lot more than just a few miles...but we finally arrived at the vans, changed into some warm clothes, and hit the road...we stopped at the welcome center and used the REAL bathrooms (not the wilderness!) and saw a map of where we hiked...figured out it was about 20-24 miles all together! WOW! it was an awesome experience to see God's creation with nothing but yourself and the wilderness:) We saw some wild ponies on the trail and they were very friendly. thankfully we didn't run into any other wild animals! :-) I was so happy to be back home and in my warm apt and have my bed waiting for me:-) I would definately do it again but maybe not when the forecast is supposed to rain!!! haha!

PICTURES WILL COME SOON FOR BOTH HIKE/CAMP and MISSIONS TRIP:) I love you all!!!