Keep Your Eyes On The Light

From Why Is This Happening To Me?

by Wayne Monbleau

I had never experienced such a complete darkness and life-threatening danger like this before.

Originally, our plan was to make it a half-day hike. We were going to snowshoe a little more than a mile into New Hampshire's White Mountains National Forest. Our state's largest waterfall, Arethusa, was our destination.

Winters in northern New Hampshire are long and extremely cold. If you don't get outdoors every once in a while, you can easily develop what they call "cabin fever." In plain English, you go stir crazy. Living inside four walls from December through March can get to you if you don't watch out. It's usually pretty well into April before the snow finally subsides up here in the mountains.

We had been cooped up long enough. It was time to get outdoors. Since we had seminary classes Tuesday through Saturday, Monday was a free day. So my fellow studentDave Smith and I called our friend John Jaworowski and talked him into joining us. As we made the forty minute drive, we looked forward to hiking this familiar trail.

We descended into the Crawford Notch. Shaped by the movement of glaciers thousands of years ago, with mountains rising steeply on either side, the Crawford Notch is crisscrossed with a network of trails which, for those who care to make the effort, reveal the stunning beauty of God's creation. I parked my car in the lot at the entrance to the Arethusa Falls trail. We were dressed warmly, our lunches tucked away in our backpacks. I also carried a "space blanket," just in case.

The hike was strenuous and absolutely breathtaking. The saying "no pain, no gain" certainly holds true for hiking these mountain paths. On this crystal clear day, fresh fallen snow was draped over the virgin pines. Sunlight pouring through the trees reflected off the snow in a dazzling display of rainbow colors.

We finally reached our destination, the spectacular Arethusa Falls. A sheer two-hundred-foot drop over a granite cliff straight into the waiting basin below, Arethusa in the summertime would bathe you with its spray if you ventured too close. But now, in the dead of winter, the falls were frozen solid from top to bottom. A two-hundred-foot wall of ice sparkled in the sunlight. If you listened closely, you could just hear the sound of falling water behind this frozen facade.

Seated near the foot of the falls, we broke out our packed lunches. As we rested from our journey, enjoying our surroundings on this beautiful day, our spirits were refreshed. Have you ever walked so far into the woods that the only sounds you hear are the ones God's created? A profound stillness overtakes you. It's almost as if you shrink while God becomes magnified many times over.

As we finished lunch, we agreed it seemed a shame to head back and bring to a close our winter wonderland experience. There was another trail. If we wanted to, instead of turning around, we could continue on up to Frankenstein Cliffs. From there it would be a hop, skip, and a jump down to the smaller Ripley Falls and then out to the road. It seemed like a great idea at the time, so we decided to "go for it."

How do you follow a trail in the deep woods with over three feet of snow on the ground? Each of these paths is color coded; that is, you can follow the path by looking for the blue makers painted on the trees. When you arrive at one tree, look for the next blue marker ahead of you and then proceed.

This is what we decided to do. But as we climbed on, moving every deeper into the forest, the paint markers began to get lower. The farther in we hiked, the deeper the snow was becoming. We began encountering steeper areas and were starting to have some difficulty making it up the hills in our snowshoes.

After a couple of hours of strenuous effort, we reached a plateau. There was just one problem - we couldn't find the next tree marker. I looked at my watch. It was three-thirty. In the winter, darkness falls at four-thirty and by five it can be as black as pitch.

What were we going to do? It was too late to turn around. If we tried to backtrack, we would surely be overtaken by nightfall. This hike had taken a lot longer than we thought it would. And now here we were, out in the middle of nowhere, high up in the wilderness, with no marked path before us.

We spent most of the next hour trying to find a marker that would put us back on course. At first it was like a joke. We laughed at our situation. But as dusk settled our mood changed. Looking for a marker was becoming quite impossible. We realized we had gone so far into the forest that the snow line had actually risen above the paint markers on the trees,which were placed five feet above the ground.

It was now dark, and I mean dark. Have you ever been out in the middle of a forest at night? The only light you see is the moon and the stars, and that's if it's a clear night.

We didn't know how far into the woods we had gone. In fact, we didn't know where we were. We couldn't have been too far from Frankenstein Cliffs, we thought. And actually, that was a problem. You dont' want to be near the edge of a cliff when you're stumbling around lost, cold, and tired at night in the forest.

Just the year before, during the summer, this same thing had happened to a couple hiking in these woods. They, too, were looking for Frankenstein Cliffs when it became dark. The husband took the lead, with his wife following behind. The darkness was so complete that they couldn't even see each other. they decided to each hold the other end of a long stick between them.

They had been walking this way for a while when the wife felt a sudden tug, and then the stick fell to the ground. She called for her husband. There was no answer. Terrified, she sat down and, for the remainder of the night, didn't move from that spot.

The next morning the tragedy became clear. Without even knowing it, her husband had walked off the edge of the cloiff and plummeted to his death on the rocks below.

It was with thoughts like these that we decided our only option was to try to "bushwhack" our way out of the forest. We abandoned the trail (actually the trail had abandoned us) and began descending, we hoped in the direction of the highway.

We were experiencing great difficulty keeping our balance as we descended the steeply sloping gullies. We began falling down a lot. The hours of trudging through the deep snows were taking their toll on us. Each step, lifting our snowshoes high enough so we could put them down flat, was becoming more painful. We were exhausted, without food, except for one candy bar, and it began looking as if we would have to try to build some kind of shelter for the night. What would the temperature be this evening? Twenty below zero was not uncommon on a winter night in the White Mountains.

Just exactly where were we? Headed out of the woods? We thought so, but after a number of twists and turns, we weren't quite sure anymore. We were following whichever way went downward.

Wait. I thought I saw something. Was that a light in the distance? With all of these trees blocking the way, it was hard to tell.

There it was again! Praise God, something was out here. We became jubilant.

We had just been talking about how quickly hypothermia (rapid loss of body temperature) could, and had, claimed lives in these parts. A tired, wet, and cold hiker can expire in less than an hour when hypothermia sets in. You're really not aware of what's happening, and that's part of the problem. You become somewhat disoriented. All you want to do is lie down and close your eyes for just a few minutes. Yes, rest a little bit and then hit the trail again with renewed strength. There's just one problem. When you do close your eyes, you never open them again.

It wasn't at all uncommon to hear of at least one or two fatalities a year in the White Mountains. Most accidents occurred in the winter months. Occasionally we would read of some inexperienced hiker who would simply disappear and never be heard of again. in fact, many of the trails in these mountains were marked with signs saying, "Warning - this area has the worst weather in the United States. Only experienced hikers should attempt this trail, and only after registering with the AMC" (Appalachian Mountain Club).

Had we been lucky enough to discover some cabin out here in the deep forest? We didn't know, but for the next half hour or so that light shining in the distance was our connection with life. It was slow going. We were constantly losing sight of the light due to all the trees getting in the way. We would take a few steps, relocate the light, and then take a few more steps.

We were getting closer. Another few minutes and we would solve the mystery of this strange beacon.

Coming into a clearing, we found the light. There it was, a single bulb brightly burning high atop a telephone pole. There was no cabin or shelter in sight. But what we did see left us absolutely astonished.

Our eyes had been fixed on the glowing orb for the past thirty to forty minutes. And where had it brought us out to? The telephone pole holding this lamp aloft was less than two feet away from my car! We had miraculously found and followed this light right out of the woods to the very place where we had begun our journey all those long hours ago.

We were simply speechless.

This light had delivered us. Quite possibly it had even saved our lives. Could this have happened by chance? Was this just some incredible coincidence? You're lost in the woods, it's dark, you see a light, keep your eyes on it, and it brings you out to the very place you started from? Do you believe that?

As we drove home, a phrase kept repeating in my mind. It said, "Keep your eyes on the light. Keep your eyes on the light. No matter how dark it is, no matter how lost or hopeless you feel, just keep your eyes on the light and everything will be okay."

I've thought about this experience many times since then. I believe God saved our lives that day. He also gave me a valuable lesson about life from this incident.

Why were we saved? Because we saw the light and kept our eyes on the light. If we had remained looking at our circumstances, we would have remained in the dark. If we had gone with our feelings, we would have panicked. That light was our only hope. Interestingly enough, if it had not been for the incredible darkness, we might not have seen the light at all. You see, the darker it is, the brighter the light shines.

This is why we need to believe in and receive God's love on a daily basis. When we are surrounded by darkness, He is the light. God is the way through our trials. He shines the beacon that takes us out of the woods and into the clear. When we are lost, tired, and weak, God's light keeps on shining. Instead of cursing our darkness, we are far better off if we will look, and keep looking, to the light.