Tunnels, Tunnels and Haunted Tunnels...........

Silver Run, the haunted tunnel! For miles on the rail trail people kept telling us not to walk through this tunnel because it is haunted. We even saw t shirts with the haunted tunnel on them and heard stories of smoe dogs and even some horses will not go into this tunnel. So when we finally made it to this tunnel we saw that the mist was coming out of the tunnel and it was even alot colder than any of the other 10 or more tunnels we had been through. You can see the mist coming out of this one in the picture. We have to use head lights in all of the tunnels when you walk through them and some of the tunnels are nearly a half of a mile long. So, we entered the tunnel and this one was so cold and foggy, misty and this tunnel turned at the end so we could not even see the end of the tunnel. Talk about walking by faith not by sight! KatyDid began to sing, Give me that old time religion, as we walked through to help with the thoughts that enter your mind of all of the stories we heard. We have since found out the story of the tunnel..... A long time ago a train conductor would stop his train in this tunnel daily because he said there was a woman in a white brocaid dress with long white hair in front of his train. He said this happened so oftened with him stopping the train that he was replace with a new conductor. Well, the new conductore said the same story about the woman in the tunnel. This conductor though saw the woman and sped up the train and did not stop. The town people said they saw a train with a white dressed woman on the front of the train going very fast through the town. When they looked on the front of the train for fabric or something there was nothing there. So, this tunnel has said to be haunted by this woman in a white flowing dress and she is suppose to still haunt it today. She did not bother us though, I hope she liked the singing. We really enjoyed all of the train tunnels it was scary at first but then became neat. All of the tunnels have such unique architecture about them. Well, I hope you enjoy this post.

God Bless you and we love you ALL,

Backpacking Believers

Brick Tunnel

Free Air Conditioning

Rock Tunnel very Unique....

You can see the light at the end of the tunnnel

Lush and Wet Tunnel

Very Bright and short Tunnel

Snakes on the NBRT



Snakes, Snakes and more Snakes, Oh My! Since we have been hiking on the North Bend Rail Trail we have come in contact with at least one snake a day, maybe two. All of the snakes have been nonpoisonous except this BIG GUY! This snakes was the most vicious aggressive snake we have seen in many years. This snake was in the path on the grass in our way. I screamed at the top of my lungs Copperhead!!!!! Chris and I were beside eachother with the push carts and he was where Chris was about to step. Our daughter KatyDid had just past him,Praise God he was not coiled and ready to strike when she stepped by him. Thank you God! I saw this snake and screamed and Chris pushed the cart out and was able to just step to the side of him when he started striking with mighty force. He was striving so fast at Chris' knee level, it scared me half to death. I just knew he bit him. This snake was so fat and aggressive, he just continued to lunge at Chris. I got so frightened and shook up at the thought of being on the trail and having to call 911 or something that I broke down in tears and could not stop crying. The thought that KatyDid had just stepped beside this vicious creature and then Chris getting struck at was enough for me to fall apart. We made it and Chris got the camera out and the snake still lunged at him striking with all he had. This creature was the meanest snake in all of my years in the woods, he meant every strike. This was the first time KatyDid was able to see a real live snake mean business. It was lightening fast with its strikes, seconds between strikes not minutes but seconds. This was a miracle that one of us was not seriously harmed. KatyDid and I both thought for sure Chris had bites in his pants but Praise God he was inches, if that from the fangs. Please continue to pray a head of protection around us as we need it out here on the trail. It is helping! We pray every day for God to protect us from things like this and He did. The other pictures in this blog are of the nice snakes we have seen on the trail. Thank you for God's protection daily.

God Bless and Happy Hiking,
GentleFir

Black snake that scared Gentle Fir he was slithering right at her toes.......

Black snake peeking out on the trail

Beautiful Garter Snake....So Pretty

Almost through West Virginia

Since our last blog post we were blessed to be able to spend some time with New Vision Resources in Philippi West Virginia. We had to leave the trail for a few days to go to Nebraska. We started the North Bend rail trail we will be on it for 72 miles and we've been through many tunnels and have seen many amazing things. We were able to spend some time with Paul and Sharon weekly as they host us for a couple nights and we were able to attend church services with them. we are currently at North Bend State Park and we should be through West Virginia within a couple of days and then onto Ohio. We also now have good service so we should be able to blog much more. Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement.                    

                           

Volunteer Green Team.....New Vision Mission, WV

Hello Everyone,


We were able to participate in our first voluntary service project on our walk in love across America.
Those of you knew that this was part of what this walk is about, helping others along the way. We stayed at New Vision Ministries here in WV on Monday night. We were able to be included in their GREEN TEAM meetings that they have open to the public on Monday evenings. If you are in the area you should go and help out. KatyDid and I helped pick up garbage along the roads and bag it up. Grounded Haug helped move repurpose grease tanks and helped with solar lights. They are trying to get the community involved in leaving a lighter foot print on God's Creation and to get children and neighbors to give some of their time to helping others in their communities. This was wonderful to be able to walk along the roads and pick up trash. It is amazing how much trash we see on the roads on our walk and to know that there is a ministry intrested in this is wonderful. I would like to challenge you if you live near New Vision to get involved and help them to help your communities and the over sea missions as well. They meet every Monday night there at New Vision. Get outside and make a difference in God's Creation and leave a lighter footprint.

Thank you to New Vision Ministries for trying to conserve your resources and for trying to light the world.


Lord Bless,

GentleFir

Phillippi to Tygart Lake State Park, WV

      Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since we have been able to blog and catch you all up on our
walk in love across America. We are taking a zero day again due to all of the severe  storms lately.
We have been blessed by so many people out here on the walk in WV. We have been given cold bottles of water, lunch boxes with sandwiches, meals paid for, cold ice tea and nice cool porches to rest from the heat, we inspired a lemonade stand, a night stay for KatyDid's migraine and yards to pitch our tent in......What a blessing! Thank you to all of you nice WV people that have helped our walk in love  be possible also, all of you back home that are constantly supporting us monthly. You may see in our pictures that we seem to be in the same clothes. Well the sun is damaging our clothes quickly, so we are trying to save them by wearing the same ones and save the others for town wear and for later. We have seen alot of history out here and the springs,rivers, and lakes have been beautiful. we have been running from thunder storms alot lately and in these tall hills/ mountains it is hard to get anywhere fast. Keep us in your prayers,please .We will be in Ohio within a week hopefully and will have another state behind us. I hope you continue to follow our walk in love across America and we will keep posting as we can.

Thanks again to all of the nice people whom have helped us along our journey!

Lord Bless,

GentleFir

                                                                                 



Seeeking Shelter from a storm

KatyDid at a Beautiful Falls



One of many Beautiful WV Farms

Crossing the Dolly Sods

     We are doing well on our Walk in Love Across America, and we want to thank everyone for the prayers and support we have received. We know everyone is praying hard because we are all here today to blog this post, more on that later. This post is on our ascent and descent of the Dolly Sods.

     We woke up and were ready to leave our campsite at about 8:45 a.m. on May 4th and we decided to take some family pictures on a pretty rock in our campsite. We all took turns laughing at different poses we were making and somehow trying to put off the hike ahead of us. See we were camping at 3000 ft. and we had to make it to 4000 ft. over the next few miles on a very steep road and were uncertain about the Dolly Sods everyone kept telling us about. At about 9:15 we left camp and started our ascent. It was a slow go and we were taking our time moving at about 2.4 miles an hour taking many pictures and getting spring water to drink. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but it did this all night so we thought it was normal. After about 1.5 hours we could see ahead the trees were getting short and it looked like a summit. Sure enough the sky got bigger and the wind blew harder but we were excited to be at Bear Rocks a lookout at the Dolly Sods. We stopped at the sign to take a picture and GentleFir walked a little ways ahead and a gust of wind started pushing her to the edge of the rocks. I ran to her with the big cart which was being pushed sideways by these gusts of approx. 70-80 mph, and when I got to her we heard KatyDid scream and when we looked back she was being blown towards the edge with her cart sideways (the cart was moving but the wheels were not turning). I ran to KatyDid, but the wind was almost completely stopping me from getting there because my backpack was acting as a sail in the wind. When I finally reached her I told her to get to her mother and hold themselves together around the big cart and I would take the smaller one. As soon as KatyDid left the wind blew the 40-50 pound cart out to my right side and it took everything in me to hold on to it. The cart was like a flag stretched out on a windy day, the wheels were not on the ground. When that gust stopped I ran with the cart past GentleFir and KatyDid to a pile of boulders and turned the cart on its side between two of the large rocks, and then set my backpack there also. I went back to take GentleFir's backpack from her and we slowly moved everyone to the spot where the gear was. We were safe for the moment but still trapped about 200 yards from where we needed to be and we had to get back into the open to move. Gust after gust pelted us with gravel and sand to the point where KatyDid's new sunglasses were shattered and GentleFir had to remove gravel from her lip. Finally we just moved what we could and I came back for the rest after we got to where the wind was only about 40-50 mph. We continued to walk to our next point about 2 miles ahead where we were hoping to camp. On the way KatyDid told me if this is ADVENTURE she is not adventurous. After surveying everything we realized we lost our water bottles, some food, and KatyDid's Gummy Bears, I think they are probably in Maryland somewhere. We made it to the campground and thought our fun was over for the day, but after looking at the map we noticed there was camping about 6 more miles ahead and it was still early so we left for the next camp site. In this place you can only camp in designated areas or at least 300ft off the road due to unexploded ordinance left by the military many years ago. So we had to find another campground before camping. A hiker a few years ago detonated some ordinance with his campfire. When we arrived there was a large sign saying NO CAMPING. It was about 2:30pm and we were pretty tired from the ordeal earlier but we knew the next definite place was 10 miles away. So, we set out to descend the mountain we were on and we walked until about 9:00pm and had to get a ride the last 1.5 miles thanks to a trail angel named Steven Thompson. There are many things we could say about this day, but one thing I learned is, I think I know how a flag feels. God truly blessed us and protected us. We are shown daily of his loving kindness and mercy. He is worthy to be praised. Hallelujah

                                                                                                                                        In Christ,
                                                                                                                                 Grounded Haug