Desert Hiking With Daddy

“Warning! This trail for experienced desert hikers only!”, the sign read as we began a quick afternoon excursion in the Grand Canyon.  The trail was the Bright Angel Trail, the year was 1989.  My father and I had ridden his 1974 BMW R90/6 Motorcycle all the way from the green hills and well watered valleys of Tennessee to the arid deserts of Arizona, some 1800 miles one way.  I was 16, my father was 48 and it was my second motorcycle trip with my dad.  On this trip, it was just me and him, riding two up on his bike.

We weren’t experienced desert hikers at all and even though we only went a mile or so down the trail that day, it was good experience for the next day when we did the 15 mile hike all the way from the rim to the Colorado River that snakes its way through the bottom of the canyon.  We didn’t have backpacks as we were limited to how much we could carry riding on the motorcycle.  What we did have was a two liter bottle on a lanyard and some beef jerky and M&M’s.  As my dad and I reminisce about that hike, we laugh at how we were so woefully prepared for the experience!  We did have sturdy boots and outerwear, and the trip down to the river was exhilarating.  But, the trip back up was a different story.  We ran out of water before making back to the halfway station where there was a water spigot, we didn’t have nearly enough food, and it took us twice as long to hike back up as it did to go down.  It was almost humorous.  We walked and moved like old men by the time we got back to the canyon rim as the sun was setting in the West.  We were covered with trail dust and nearly starved from the extreme expenditure of calories!  I remember hitting McDonald’s with a vengeance!

I didn’t really realize it back then, but my father was taking almost two weeks of his precious vacation time away from his factory job and his pastorate, just to be with me.  I truly cherish those memories now as I look back.  I still have the many photos we took and once in a while, I love to look at them again and just remember.

I am no longer the boy I used to be as I am now in my forties with a family of my own.  My dad and I, my brother and uncle, as well as the occasional additional family member or friend, still try to go on motorcycle trips every two years or so.  We still have great times riding and hiking together, but with those early experiences behind us, we go much better prepared!  I am now trying to teach my children the valuable life lessons that I have learned.

Looking back, my father always seemed so mature to me.  He knew so much about God and repairing and building things, he was good at art and leather-work and he was so steady and filled with wisdom, that I looked up to him in so many ways back then and my admiration for him has grown even deeper over the years.  If I can be half the man that my father is, I will have accomplished much in life.  He always encouraged me in my activities as a youth and now in adulthood continues to support me and pray for me in my endeavors.  I am the person I am today because I have a wonderful, loving, consistent, faithful, godly father who demonstrated his love for me over and over again and after almost 50 years of marriage to my mother is still teaching me how to be a better husband to my own wife and a better father to my own children.  Thank you, daddy, for your example and for your faithfulness all the years of my life!  I know that I can count on you if I ever need help and your prayers will follow me all the days of my life.

They say that your concept of God, the Heavenly Father, is greatly helped along if you have a good earthly father as an example.  Well, I know that I have a wonderful Father in Heaven!  And that is because my dad showed Him to me on a daily basis.  Through good times and bad, in the ups and downs of life, daddy was faithful to God and his family, his jobs and his ministry.  Even though I have never seen God with my own eyes, I have seen Him for years through the life of my father.

How about you?  If you’re a dad, are you being a good example of the Heavenly Father to your children?  Do you spend your precious down time and vacations with your family?  Indeed, may all of us this Father’s Day, be a godly stand-in for our children.  May they all grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and someday be healthy and well-adjusted adults with a strong faith because we lived and demonstrated the Love of God to them!

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James B