I
planned for six months; pouring over maps to mark the trail I would take. I
prepared resupply boxes to be mailed to me at specific locations along the way.
I packed for any condition I expected to find. I was confident and believed I
was prepared for a three week adventure in the Scottish Highlands. My sins were failing to ask for God's
blessing and my own hubris in believing I was fully capable of undertaking this
solo hike. Deep down I knew I was not as prepared as I should have been. I was
carrying too much and my planning had been a shield of self-deceit. It was my
undoing. The boggy ground of the Cape Wrath area was actually rivulets of water
running everywhere. Every step was difficult and I was attempting a blind
cross-country hike to connect with the section I actually had on a map. I spent
one night in the lee of an old stone wall and hoped the next day would find me
on the right path. The reality of my journey was struggling along a fence line
through ravines and rushing burns. I
stepped on a rock without underlying support and fell, snapping my left leg bones
just above the ankle.
As in
Psalm 40 ,"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard
my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. Do not withhold your mercy from me O Lord,
may your love and your truth always protect me for troubles without number
surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see."
I was
rescued; help came from the heavens, quite literally, in the form of the
Stornaway Coastguard Rescue helicopter with angels aboard; one of whom
descended on a cable to hoist me up out of the mud and mire. "May all who seek you rejoice and be
glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, ‘The Lord be
exalted!’"
Dykes at Cape Wrath
By Anne Burgess, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13502636
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