Backpacking Believers

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. W...

 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 th...

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.                                                 ...

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 wo...

      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,...

     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 har...

Greetings Friends, Family and Fellow Hikers,               We have been held up these last few days due to the terrible  weather around our Nation. We call the no hiking days, Zero Days. We have been truly BLESSED though,  as we have had these days to be encouraged by the LORD and HIS followers. We have had a wonderful time here in W.V. still at the Brenneman's home. Yesterday,  we were picked up and treated to lunch and then supper again by Mr. and Mrs. Hemlick. Dick and JoAnne have treated us like family. They had us for lunch and to meet their breakfast group and had us share our mission with them. It was wonderful to be able to share with others the love of our Lord.               Mr. Dick and Mrs. JoAnne, then took us out for supper at a nice Italian place to eat. Of course,  this was after taking us around towns to resupply and ...