We climbed Berray . . . and it was a blast!
Just like in The Summer of Our Lives, I decided to hike up to Berray mountain lookout, so I could have the same experience that Mary Ellen does in the first book of the All for Jesus Gang!
The gang all showed up at our house after breakfast, since we lived the closest to Mr. Morton. Dad piled us up in the back of the truck and drove us over to his little cabin at the bottom of Berray mountain.
“Look at how high it is,” said Major, cranking his neck back.The Summer of Our Lives, The All for Jesus Gang book 1 ©Hannah Loviisa
The trail was 10.6 miles round trip, and ranked as moderately difficult. It took us 3 1/2 hrs to get up, including breaks.
There was a little pond about 3 miles up, and we followed a creek for part of the way. The mountain was covered in huckleberry and thimble berry bushes.
The lookout was awesome! We climbed up the three stair flights and went inside.
It was beautiful up top, and a little colder, like the Professor said. We all paused and took in the view surrounding us. Almost every way I looked I could see for miles. Something about it made me feel closer to God – just the stillness and beauty of His creation. Overlooking in awe what the Creator’s hand had fashioned made Mary Ellen Tucker feel very small, very small indeed.
The Summer of Our Lives, The All for Jesus Gang book 1 ©Hannah Loviisa
It took us about 2 hrs to get back down. I am looking forward to writing about the hike in the book!
Here are a few more pictures!
chasing fireflies 
Beautiful pictures! I’ll look forward to reading about the hike in the book. =D
I like the idea of having a specific location in a story, so you can go there and see it yourself and bring it to life for your readers. I especially liked the second quote you shared from the book. Did you write that before the hike? It sounds like you were experiencing it yourself as you wrote it. 😉 I’ve written about some things, using what I could find out from reading, past experiences, and creative thinking, and then later when I actually experienced it myself for the first time, I found that I was quite accurate to the feelings of the moment. Kind of weird. =P
Thanks for the interesting post!
Liberty Bluebelle
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” II Corinthians 3:17
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Hi Liberty,
I wrote that section before I did the hike from research. And yes, it was so awesome and strange climbing the mountain afterward. It felt like I was following a treasure map haha.
Hannah
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