"Mine angels will be round about you"-D&C84:88

On Thursday, July 25th, This little girl and I set off to hike the highest mountain in Idaho, Mount Borah.  She just turned 8 years old.  She is smart, funny, sweet, and my absolute favorite hiking buddy.  

This is what I have lovingly dubbed the candy can tree, and I couldn't wait for her to see it.

We decided to hike to the top of the tree line on Thursday night, to break up the trip just a little bit.  I love the bark on this old tree.  The trees on the Borah trail are so interesting to look at!

She smiled, told stories, and made games the whole way up.

Every once in awhile, she would sit down on the trail and ask me to take her picture.  As I was carrying a framed pack, with all of our sleeping gear, her requests were a welcome break up the steep trail.  

Right before the sun went down, a huge smoke cloud blew in from the North and clouded out the sun.  It made for a pretty picture, but a pretty smoky night.

We slept in a hammock at the top of tree line.  Our view was beautiful, and our location was perfect.

The next morning, when we heard the first hikers pass our hammock, we put our shoes on and started hiking.

We hiked for about 2 hours until we got to Chicken Out Ridge.  Eve Scrambled like a Mountain Goat.  Once she realized that she needed to just look at her hand and footholds, and not worry about the cliff face below, she slid over Chicken Out Ridge, like butter on toast!  

I never think to snap pictures of Chicken out Ridge, I am too busy scrambling for my life, however, I took this one from a friend.  It does not do the drop justice, but I really believe it is something you have to see to believe. Imagine climbing hand-over-foot on a crumbly sidewalk, with a several thousand-foot drop on either side, and you will have a good idea where Chicken Out Ridge gets its name.

Once we finished scrambling on Chicken Out Ridge we dropped down a 10-foot cliff face on to the Snow Bridge.  There are a couple of paths across the snow bridge.  One is across the top, as shown by our new friend Kim.  The other is the path that Eve and I took, that nearly ended our mortal existence.  It is the lower path that you can see in the image above, angling toward the bottom right corner of the picture.    When we dropped off onto the snow bridge, we started scooting along the top trail, when I realized we would be coming up the trail at an incline, that seemed a bit steep.  Eve had on slippery shoes, and I didn't want her to slide off the snow bridge, so we turned around and took the lower trail.  This ended up being one of the stupidest decisions I had ever made in my life.  We started down the trail and after making it several steps, I slipped.  There was nothing for me to cling to, and no way for me to stop myself.  I heard the scout leader above me call out to hang on, but there was nothing.  I believe this is where the first angel(unseen) came to the rescue.  There was no way that I should have been able to hang on.  Everything about the trail was slopping to a 1,000-footlong snow slide, that I should have been at the bottom of. The scouts above us worked there way across the upper trail, and this sweet scout leader from Twin Falls, named Clay dug back across the lower trail to help Eve and I cross.  I will forever be grateful for Angels seen and unseen on the snow bridge!  In my mind's eye, I see angels surrounding Eve, Clay, and I, as we all made our way to the safety of the rocky trail on the other side.  

Eve and Clay on top of Borah

The rest of our hike to the top was uneventful.  Eve was a trooper the entire way.  When she got to the top, she cashed in her bandana for a key chain.  She was pretty proud of the exchange!

After enjoying the view from the top with the 6 visible mountain lakes, Eve was ready to go, trying to get me to find an alternate route down.

When we got back to the snow bridge, there was a second scout group there to assist us.  The carefully guided us step by step across the top of the bridge, and then they helped Eve to climb back on Chicken out Ridge.  Once we topped Chicken Out Ridge, I could tell that there was something wrong with me.  I couldn't make my brain think about how to climb.  I was fuzzy and making really poor choices.  Eve was hardcore, and amazing.  But, I didn't know what I was doing.  I got us into a really bad position.  We were on a cliff face, looking for the next hand and footholds, and I couldn't find any.  I told Eve that I was worried, and she said, "Don't worry mom, Heavenly Father sent us helpers when we crossed the snow bridge both times and I know he will send us help now.  I didn't have that faith, though I was praying for help.  Pretty soon some really talented climbers came and worked us off of the cliff and back on to a trail that Eve could climb.  I was so grateful for their experience, strength, and calm.

 When the group got to us, Kim asked if I needed help.  I told her that I did.  This awesome man,  in the picture above, is a teacher from Swan Valley, named Daniel-Kims cousin.  He came right over and with Roccos assistance they helped Eve get off of the cliff face.  Daniel stayed with her the entire way down the mountain.  He was so great with her, I had to ask how many kids he had of his own, because he was just such a natural.  He told me that even after IVF he and his wife were never able to have children, so they became teachers and now they have a new batch of kids each year.

 Eve and Daniel are the ones farthest away in the image- this is coming off of Chicken Out Ridge and on to a less dangerous trail.  We all made it back to the parking lot and Eve was just wonderful the entire way!  I am so grateful for the Angels that surrounded us that day.  After this harrowing experience, and during one point in particular, just after Eve was off the cliff, We had 4 recently graduated ISU students scouting the trail, and 4 in Daniels group, with Rocco, Kim, Daniel, and Ashley. Eve was in the middle, next to Daniel but absolutely surrounded by support.  That is when this scripture came to my mind, Doctrine & Covenants 84:88 "Therefore I will be also, for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." We did not hike Mount Borah alone, and we are better for it.  God was surely with us and his angels all around us, seen and unseen.