Marc helped me put my back pack together. It felt like it weighed as much as I did. But with Marc's encouragement, I put it on. Then of course, Marc tells me that I also have to wear snow shoes!!!?!? What the ...? I can barely lift one leg off the ground due to the weight of the back pack let alone have to walk in snow shoes.
So I start to follow this crazy group of guys into the woods - we're all following Marc. I'm bringing up the rear...struggling to bring up the rear. Marc - in his excitement and general encouraging nature keeps moving from the front to the back to the front to the back keeping all of us together -kind of like a sheep dog. Except this sheep dog was also wearing snow shoes and had an "8000 pound" back pack. It was really annoying how he could move from the front to the back to the front of the group again while wearing all his gear while I could barely move 3 feet without taking a break.
I'm sure that Marc wanted to hike deeper into the woods but it was clear to him that I just could not make it any farther. We set up camp and someone mentioned making dinner. I was so hungry that I was about to eat off my own limbs. I figured that the reason our back packs were so heavy was all the fine food and drink that we were hauling out into the wilderness.
Nope.
Marc pulled out these little freeze dried packs of "food". You know - the kind of stuff that people suffering from starvation would eat and then STILL be suffering from starvation. After "feasting" on freeze dries peas, we figured out the sleeping arrangements. I was to bunk with Marc in his tent.
We got in the tent, chatted a bit and then Marc fell asleep almost as if he was at home in his own bed...except that instead of a comfy mattress, we were SLEEPING ON SNOW!!! Needless to say, that didn't work our so well for me. I was awake for the whole night shivering. I was surprised Marc could sleep given that eardrum-shattering sound of my teeth chattering together at 300 beats per minute. Several times that night, I looked at Marc and was completely perplexed. How on earth could he be sleeping!?!?
Finally the sun rose. It warmed up a lot. After a delicious breakfast of freeze dried eggs, everyone started hiking around. It was beautiful. Of course, I wasn't hiking. I planted myself in the snow, directly in front of the sun in hopes to raise my core temp a few degrees. I think I fell asleep. I warmed up finally. It was a fun day. We hiked out that night and drove home.
By the time I got home, anyone could clearly see on my face that I had fallen asleep in the sun. I was burnt to a crisp. On top of that, I had caught a brutal cold. I was in bed for a week following this little adventure.
Every year after that, Marc invited me to go snow camping with him. I never went again.
This story has always been funny to tell. I'd tell it from time to time - especially with Marc in ear shot - just to give him a bit of a hard time about the pain that I suffered on HIS snow camping trip. This has become one of my favourite memories of spending time with Marc. So many of the
qualities that I came to appreciate about Marc were all exhibited in that single night of snow camping - leadership, compassion, encouragement, gentleness, humour...
I don't know what the Bible says about snow camping and if that's an activity that gets done in heaven or not...but just in case Marc is up there trying to convince someone new to go snow camping and eat freeze dried peas, I'm going to continue telling this story with one change - just in case it can be heard from heaven. GO snow camping with Marc. It will be the best time ever.
joel
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