The Climbers
To help me through this Labor Day Weekend, containing as it did Susan’s 60th birthday, I journeyed to North Carolina to be with Shari and Jamie as we escaped to the mountains around Asheville. One of my favorite movies is Last of the Mohicans, based on James Fenimore Cooper’s book by the same name, and starring Daniel Day Lewis as Hawkeye and Madeleine Stowe as Cora Munro. All of the film was shot in NC, and the last 20 minutes were filmed at the famous Chimney Rock Park. The latter is a privately owned reservation so named because of a large rock (320 feet tall) that resembles a huge chimney.
So, on Saturday, after a nice picnic at the base of the formation, we found ourselves waiting in line for an elevator to take us up the 320 feet to the top of the rock and the beginning of a mile and a half trail that leads to the famous Hickory Nut Falls where the final fight scene of the movie takes place. Since there was a line, the two girls–in their deceptively upbeat voices said–”let’s not wait for the elevator. We can walk!” Oh sure, I thought to myself, I’ll humor them; and then when they find out how steep the climb is they’ll turn back and take the elevator–just like Susan and I did about a year ago during the days when she was feeling well after her second remission.
320 vertical feet later I found myself huffing and puffing, with sweat rolling down my forehead and into my eyes, while I struggled to keep up with the two girls. It was OK to lag behind Jamie–she’s only 22 and works out. But Shari, too? She wasn’t that much younger than me. OK, she works out, too. But I do strenuous mountain biking, don’t I? It wasn’t fair that she should be so far ahead of me–and she wasn’t even panting!
After a long rest at the top (they wanted to go on immediately but I insisted that THEY needed to rehydrate), we set out on the waterfall trail. The first section consists of a four story set of stairs to get to the actual trailhead. As I wearily tried to keep up with the girls, I couldn’t believe that Susan and I had done this barely a year ago–and that Susan had no problem with it. I was so proud of her! Even with all the chemo and surgery she wanted to make me happy and endured all that climbing so I could see that special film scene location.
Finally we hit the trail itself, and no sooner than we began hiking it started raining. And thundering. “Isn’t this great,” the girls shouted. “I love it when it rains in the mountains!” Shari exclamed. “Ho, ho, ho,” I said–”do you know what causes thunder,” as I looked anxiously up toward the sky in the direction of the lightning. We were heading straight for it. I guess these girls are stronger Presbyterians than I am an electrical engineer. I immediately started counting the seconds between the lightning flashes and the succeeding thunder peals. Somehow, my warnings didn’t register with the two leading hikers. Even when we came to a rain shelter they rejected it. “Too many smelly bodies on the other hikers in there,” they said as they strode right by.
Soon we were at the falls themselves as the lightning storm peaked. I convinced Jamie to join me under the cover of a little bridge that spanned the creek. I noticed it was grounded: the perfect place to wait out a lighting storm. But Shari was by that time too enraptured by the “rain in the mountains” and stood outside admiring the falls. Somehow we survived the storm and since the rest of the trail was downhill I even managed to keep up with the girls as we trekked back to the base of the chimney.
That evening after we finally reached Asheville and checked into our adjoining rooms at the hotel, I heard Shari shriek from the next room. “Look outside!!” I turned and saw the most brilliant rainbow I’d ever seen spanning the window. It was not just one rainbow: there were two! A second slightly dimmer bow appeared above the first. “It’s the Lord’s gift to us on Susan’s birthday,” Shari observed. That double rainbow brought to mind the passage from Isaiah 61 where the Lord says He will comfort hearts that grieve. The passage closes with the following words:
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
In several ways that gift of the double rainbow, and the comfort of the two climbers (despite their blistering pace) were a double portion that helped me get through August 30, 2003–Susan’s sixtieth birthday.