Savouring Little Things: The 50-Miler

The leaders who went on the 50-miler with Landon's quorum took pictures and posted them online. I'm so glad they did! Now Landon will always get to remember this amazing week.

On top of the world! Landon is the one in the white shirt.

They hiked the "Great Western Trail" in Utah. They started at Alta Ski resort and went over several mountain ridges including Mount Timpanogos. The last day, they hiked down to the Provo River Parkway Trail, jumped in the river to clean up and finally ended up at the Riverwoods Shopping Center in Provo, where they changed into clean clothes and gorged themselves silly at Tucanos Brazillian Grill. The perfect reward for a week of hard work.

This reminds me of the Sound of Music. :)

I have to admit, I'm not a very good scout mom. If my boys earn awards in scouts, it's because of wonderful leaders. Not me. But it's experiences like this, where they learn that *hard* isn't *bad* that are sooo valuable for kids this age. Just like Landon said in his talk, it was probably the hardest week of his life, but one of the most rewarding, faith-promoting weeks, as well. I can't tell you how grateful I am for his leaders, who spent their valuable vacation time in the mountains with the boys. This experience will be etched in Landon's memory forever.

Landon called me one of the days from his cell phone and said, "Mom, if you look out your window to the east and find the highest peak, that's where I am right now. I can almost see our house!" Wow, what a view.

On their last day, they encountered THREE rattlesnakes! This one was off to the side enough that they could get a stick and toss it out of the danger zone.

But there was one that was right on the trail. The only way they could go further was to kill it. So Brother Heiner pinned it down with a stick and threw a big rock on it's head and killed it. Way to go, brave Brother Heiner! Of course he had to keep his prize, so he cut off the head and brought it home to eat. Hmmmm I wonder if it really tasted like chicken.

The last snake could very easily have bitten Landon. Oh, my word, this freaks me right out. Landon was in the front of the group, trekking along and suddenly he saw it just to the side of the trail, all coiled up, rattling away in strike position. He said it was inches away from his leg. He literally had to jump back! Thank heavens for his guardian angels!