Luke 9:28 “Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.” (NAS)
Hiking with a Mountain Club is sharing your favorite hobby with people who have the same hobby and then never seeing them again. The leaders of the groups have some basic leadership and first aid skills, but mostly organize the trip, advertise and drive to the site with some of the people. There are good leaders and bad ones. Some of them want company on their hikes, share their love of the hiking experience, meet new people, or protect the trails by teaching about mountain etiquette on the fragile ecosystem.
Hoosier Pass on the road to Breckinridge, is a hike that takes you through forest, across broad expanse of wildflowers above the tree line to granite boulders at the top of Pass. There is usually snow at the top no matter what time of the year you hike there. You can go your own pace and meet others that hike at your pace, but everyone has a common destination – the summit. Dogs can be off leash because of the broad expanse of open terrain.
A puppy fell off the cliff in its exploration and landed on a snow bank. He was not hurt, but had no idea how to get back to its owner who was yelling from way above him. All the strangers banded together to surround the dog from each side of the snow bank, keep it from running off by distracting it from above, and to get the owner there as soon as possible. We were not friends, but we developed a relationship based on our common experiences of exploring a mountain.
How do you make new friends? How do you meet people that may become friends? When have you taken a risk to go somewhere with total strangers?