The Day I Met Jesus Dressed in Eddie Bauer Cloths

Sometimes we need to do the things that our heart calls us to do, even if we ourselves do not fully understand why. For some reason I needed to do a 30-mile solo trek along the coast through a national park. To this day I am not quite sure why, but I do know that what I took from this little trek has inspired me, guided me, and will be with me for the rest of my days, and that may be reason enough.

The first 12 miles of my trek on the island ran along a portion of the beach where OSV (over sand vehicles) can drive onto the beach for surf fishing. I had surf fished for years, every other weekend on beaches just like this north of the island. During tourist season it can be full, but after season the beach is just dappled with salty locals who want to be left alone. This is what I expected on my first day of trekking. On this particular day this was not the case. There were extreme heat advisories and unprecedented amounts of biting, black flies. The Southwesterly winds after a hurricane only increased the fly population that day, any human with half a brain knew this was not a day to be on the beach. The ranger at the ranger station had advised me not to go, but my course was set. I was here and against every logical thing my brain was telling me, my heart said, "just do it".

With a heat index of 100-105 degrees, the pack on my back was 30 lbs. and an additional 8 lbs. strapped onto my chest and waist with camera equipment and extra water. The sand was soft and fine, even at the surfs edge the wet sand suffocated my every step, while the black, biting flies were unrelenting.

I trained for months, logging long miles with a similar pack. I had envisioned a pleasant hike, exploring and photographing nature. I had planned to take off my gear every three miles and take a little break, enjoy the scenery, take a few sips of water and carry on, easy peasy! OH MY GOSH I'm an idiot!! There is no amount of hard surface training that you can do to prepare for these conditions. By mile 8 I was thinking I was in a bit of trouble. I was extremely nauseous, and the dizzy spells were getting more frequent. I couldn't stop for more than a few seconds at a time because the flies were so intense. "Just put one foot in front of the other" wasn't even helping as the heat and exhaustion seemed to be winning. The pack was so painful on my neck, in an attempt to take some weight out I had pulled 2 water bottles out of my pack and carried one in each hand. My biggest fear now was passing out, this was my lowest point.

Zippeite Zip Zip this SUV comes tooling down the beach, swings up next to me and a guy who is dressed like he just walked out of an Eddie Bauer catalog rolls down his window and says, "How about I trade you one of those warm waters for an ice cold one?" That's right, Jesus in Eddie Bauer cloths is going to save my sorry ass self. He reaches back behind the passenger seat, pulls out an ice-cold water, dripping wet from the cooler, hands it to me through the window, as the cold air came rushing out and down the side of his SUV from his air conditioner. In good faith I immediately hand him my bottle of very hot water, he just smiled and said, "keep it, I've got plenty".

He drove off down the beach and I threw my gear in the sand, sat on my pack, let the flies have at me and downed that bottle of ice-cold water. I remained nauseous the rest of the journey, but I wasn't dizzy anymore and I knew then I was going to make it to my night camp.

I set up my tent at the state line, sleeping peacefully on the dunes with the waves crashing in the background, 15 miles in any direction from another human being, just me and the natural world...I thought, "this is what I came here for."

The next morning, I arose with the sun, and headed out for the last 15 miles. I had accumulated several blisters from the sand in my shoes, but still tried to enjoy the rest of my journey. I came upon a large channel marker that had washed

up on the beach after the hurricane. A whale vertebra was an amazing find. I still regret not adding it to my pack somehow to bring it home with me, but it was far too waterlogged and heavy. I did, however, collect a beautiful piece of driftwood. It reminded me of a woman running toward the sea, arms outreached, sea breeze in her hair. I set her up in the sand and photographed her, then carried her carefully in hand for the rest of my journey.

Once home and able to reflect on my adventure, I found it to be odd that I went out there to be alone with nature, away from people, when in fact nature almost kicked my ass, and it was a human that made all the difference, and not just any human...Jesus dressed in Eddie Bauer cloths.

Love to you all,

Shawney :)

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