Lugano 2012 - Day 2

Tuesday morning brought a new onslaught of anxiety as I anticipated our upcoming hike. I had only hiked this route one other time and honestly hadn't paid enough attention to warrant being the lead hiker this year. But, God answered my prayers and allowed me to recognize so much more of the trail than I had expected. Before the hike I wasn't able to visualize hardly any of the trail, but as I approached each intersection along the way, I somehow knew exactly which paths to take and that was 100% God!! The only place I got a little muddled was the path to and from our lunch spot, but after three tries we finally found it!

I was also nervous about back and knee pain during the hike, something I experienced last year. So I came prepared this year: I took two Aleve before the hike and then put on my knee braces before going down the stairs. We had the kids count the stairs ... there were some discrepancies but the final count ended up just over 1,400 stairs, and I hiked them all without a stich of knee pain! Praise the Lord!!

We're not cruel enough to make the kids hike UP the mountain, so our day actually began with a ride up on the funicular.

Once at the top we climbed to the top of the church for the traditional photo shoot and shouting of "Sono Libero!" (Italian for "I am free!").

We then spent the next few hours hiking down the mountain. We stopped for lunch at the Parco San Grato and then completed our hike on the aforementioned Stairs of Death, eventually ending up in the coastal town of Morcote. It was an enjoyable walk full of sunshine, laughter, and conversation. I'm really proud of the students who hiked at the front of the pack and made a conscious effort to stay with me despite their youthful urges to take off running ahead down the trail.

The faithful few lead hikers on stair #700!!

Here's just a taste of the Stairs of Death. I realized after watching this video that you can totally hear my bum knee snap-crackle-popping with every step I take!! Sorry about that!!

From Morcote, we took the ferry back to our vans and drove back to our hostel. By then it was dinner time and the kids were famished, so they gobbled down their meal and headed to games and devotions with full bellies.

Everyone's checking out their pictures from the hike!

Leaders still smiling after a four-hour hike!!

Probably my favorite picture from the whole day!

Thank you so much for your prayers for us on day two of our trip! It was evident to me throughout the day that God was with us on each step of the hike and for that I give Him praise.