A Walk Around the Wetlands & future plans for Mama Bear & Little Bear #explore #adventure - Wild Flowers Adventures

Ready for a little short day hike little bear? It's a very nice day. Hey guys so today we are at Rich Grissom Memorial Park. I know it's very windy isn't it? Yeah. And we're gonna do a bit of a walk. It's a beautiful day. It's windy. It's about 80 degrees which you know it's kind of cool for Florida. It's not super hot and the humidity is low so it's actually a great day to be outside The last time we were here we saw a lot of alligators and other wildlife so I'm hoping we get to see some cool things to show you guys today. So join us for our walk because we got a big surprise. We have a big surprise. Stay tuned. And of course there's always your typical warnings. Venomous snakes. Of course in Florida we have the cottonmouth moccasins and then multiple type of rattlesnakes. There's our alligators and fire ants which gosh the fire ants sometimes can be the worst of all. Here's what we may see. Cattle egret. Osprey. Ospreys are probably my favorite out of this whole list. Crested caracara. It's really cool things. So let's check out what we can find. It used to have a gazebo out here and a little overlooked tower but I don't see it anymore. I wonder if it was taken down. It used to be over like in this area. It's just a loop. It's about a two and a half mile loop around the lake. A Florida view what? Oh I actually thought for a second I'm like oh what is it? Yeah it's nothing. Just an open field and someone mowing. You're so funny. Clouds are so beautiful. I wish we could get closer to some of these beautiful flowers. Some of these white ones in here. I don't think we're going to see very many alligators today if any at all. In December they become, oh yeah what is it? November. Oh right. Where am I at? Geez. November. Right yeah November, December. In the fall they seem to hide a lot more. Now if you were to come out here in May, June, July area when it's mating season. Last time we were here remember that we just heard them growling. Yeah it was definitely pretty scary even though I mean we're far enough away from the water. I don't know how many feet that is but 15, 20 feet I guess. I don't know. You know it's still unnerving. When we walked it we were just hearing him constantly to our left and to our right. It felt like we were surrounded. No it really wasn't. Little Bear and I were also just talking about the last time we were here there were um I think I swear I remember some like a few little boardwalks that you can walk on. I thought there was even a little observation tower but I don't see them anymore. There used to be a couple of benches. I don't know where they all went. This purple flower is so pretty. Hello are there any gators that would like to make their debut on YouTube? Nope, I guess not. So we got distracted on our walk because as we were walking we thought we heard a kitten crying. Little Bear is convinced it's a kitten. I'm not sure if it's a bird or a kitten but let me show y'all where it is if it's anywhere. We can't see it and it's not making any sounds anymore so we've kind of lost where it could be but we may have to go through this brush and water to get to it. If it's a kitten we're going to get it. We're going to save it but we can't hear it anymore and again I'm still not sure if it's a bird. It could be a bird. I think it might be a bird. I think it's a cat because the sound's about up and then down and then made an ow sound at the end like a cat. I don't know. Here's what we're looking at though. Yeah so this is what we would have to sort of walk through to try to get to. I think it's in here somewhere. I'm not hearing it anymore though. There's all water. There's the big lake back here but then there's all water all through here but I think there's patches of higher ground through here and we're not hearing it anymore. We're gonna hang out for a few more minutes. We hear it again and we think it's a cat. We're going in. So I'm pretty sure this frog was the culprit. After a quick google search it was kind of confirmed. Thank god I didn't risk my life for a frog. Hey guys we're back. Hi. So we were going to tell you our big announcement as we were walking and hiking in the beautiful green environment but it's super windy and you wouldn't be able to hear us. Yeah. So we decided to come in in the quiet place in the car. Okay so this wasn't a part of the plan but I'm gonna hit you with like a little surprise. Um we are through hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2025 as a fundraiser for Appalachia. So yeah. There it is. One of them slipped out. Well I mean yeah there it is. We are going to attempt another through hike of the Appalachian Trail in February. Yeah. Like three months from now. December, January, February. Yeah three months from now. Oh boy. Um so you guys are probably like what? You're probably very confused. You're probably having a million questions. So in the shortest easiest amount of time and way possible we're going to try to explain sort of how this came about. So let's back up. If you guys do you remember September 16th? I think that's when I put out the video but that's when it happened. I know because it was my birthday so it's a pretty special day that um I'm not going to forget the date. But my husband and I went to Cloudland Canyon remember? Yeah. Um to celebrate my birthday just the two of us. Also kind of to celebrate our anniversary that we missed in April when we were on trail. Yeah. And as I don't even know how or what we were talking about but somehow or another he came out and just basically said why not just through hike it again or try to hike it again. Restart. Yeah just restart from the beginning because remember our plan was to start back at mile 758.8 in Roanoke and continue from there and section hike however far we got because as most of you know who have been following us and shared our adventure with us know that um we got all the way to mid-Virginia and then just completely succumbed to homesickness. Yeah. It just was overwhelming and I will say I don't know how you feel but for me I still to this day don't have regrets for coming home. It was a very prayerful response um before we made the decision and we felt from the very beginning until the very last step and all the way home that we were exactly where we needed to be at the exact time. Yeah. And that was like the overwhelming feeling that we kept getting and we talked about that like we're just such at peace even though it wasn't a part of our plan of course we had intended to go all the way to Katahdin like that is what we planned for for two years but that's just not what happened and we were at peace with it we were okay with it and I just kept thinking to myself like how can I be at such peace when it's not what we originally set out to do and I kind of just I don't want to say chalked it up to God because it is God's peace but that's that was just a good enough answer for me to say well you know it's it's God giving me the peace and so um now I'm starting to understand the plan a whole lot more in my opinion I don't think that we were ever really intended to through hike the AT this year. Yeah. I feel very strongly through prayer and discernment that it was just a warm-up for us and that we were able to invite all of you along for 84 days to join us and to share share the beginning of a much bigger and longer journey that we had ahead of us it's so much more about than just hiking the AT. Yeah. So again Hazel and he said why don't you consider you know just starting over and get back on trail and attempt another through hike. Yeah. And honestly my very first thought was nah we're good like yes we we had decided that when you graduate in six years and dad retires that the three of us absolutely want to do or attempt a through hike together and we were so at peace with that it was all good that's what we were you know deciding was the best plan for us section hiking now during this time period in our life was really what was best right yeah but then so because I trust my husband I trust his guidance and his leadership I said okay okay you know I mean probably not but I'll talk to a little bear yeah but first I'm gonna pray about it and I just don't even know like that's just not even where we were I was I was shocked when he suggested that to me so I prayed before I even text you right so I prayed my husband I continue to talk about it over the course of the next few days as we were hiking and just sort of talking things through and even honestly my first thought was logistically it's not even really possible we yeah we we needed two years to save up the money that it would take to allow us to do this attempted through hike and here we would have three four months well I guess back in September you know we would have September, October, November, September, January, February five months having to do my math on my fingers we'd have five months and I'm like that's just not even earthly possible like I don't know like I just kind of shot it down but I agreed to pray prayed about it um I heard a word from God and so I decided to text you right so tell me how that went on in your perspective okay so I was just chilling on like a random day of the week and I got a text from mom hey do you want to throw the AT in 2025 and I was like oh because I like I was in the middle of doing homework just like doing homework and I was like oh that's your text right she definitely caught me off guard but I prayed about it and one thing that me and God have a relationship about is dreams so that's how God talks to you yeah that's how God like so I prayed about it and had this amazing dream that I was on trail with Jesus right in front of me saying like there's like a mission something like how you're made to be in the forest and I was like preparing you last year also that was like kind of what happened and also what happened was in Neil's Gap she bought a pair of pants because she forgot to bring hers yeah I forgot my rain pants because she forgot to bring hers and I grabbed my old ones so hers are going to fit me so now basically we have two yeah so I know that was like just a tiny little detail to kind of jump ahead a little bit but yeah yeah as we're processing this and praying for more discernment and just talking this through we're finding all of these little which now we realize were clues but back then we didn't we didn't see it I mean we were just having a good time you know hiking but yeah so here's what's funny is so she heard from God it was yes to affirmatively attempt to through hike again in 2025 and it is a mission and he had already prepared us yeah she didn't know because I all I asked her was is what do you think about it I just wanted to like just give you like an I like a chance to think and and to we weren't together I was in you were in Florida so yeah just to kind of have an idea for you to have your own private quiet time to talk to God that was she didn't know that I had just heard from God pretty much the exact same thing I didn't have a dream that's not how God talks to me but um I had heard that we were being prepared he was training us up in that way and um it was a mission so fast forward there's so much more to the story you guys and and maybe one day we'll we'll talk more about it maybe when we're on trail it'll be a topic of conversation or maybe one of these days we'll go live where people can ask us questions I don't know but but this is a really really exciting time for us because when we first attempted this through hike it was for nothing more than just fun it was for adventure it was not for a purpose for a cause it wasn't to find ourselves it wasn't for healing it wasn't for anything very deep at all it was literally just for fun yeah and now we feel I feel extremely humbled and extremely blessed that we are being called back to do this through hike it is to continue this friendship that we have made with many of you guys um kind of like we we call it we call you guys our online tramly but also kind of like our online church which is really really cool and we feel so blessed that so many of you supported us all along the way every single step and we're inviting you to do the same next year yeah in February when we step off to attempt a through hike of the Appalachian trail as little bear mentioned straight from the beginning um in this process of prayer and discernment one of the things that we heard is we want to hike for healing for Appalachia so hiking for healing for Appalachia that's something that when we were on trail you know just this past year you know none of us saw coming of course but in witnessing the the absolute widespread devastation firsthand when we were in Irwin it has changed us forever I think and there's such a strong pull to do whatever we possibly can to let or to help them heal western North Carolina Tennessee parts of Virginia I mean you guys I can't I can't even begin to describe the devastation I can't even begin to put into words what we saw yeah I mean we looked at pictures and videos for weeks before we were able to go but I just wasn't prepared it's absolutely terrible I wish that hurricane never happened I know so this has become a bigger cause than us an important cause um yeah like we're excited to get back on trail but but there is definitely a heaviness on our hearts to be able to do whatever we possibly can to continue helping in whatever way that we can so we would ask you guys to join us and um let's let's do this together yeah because together many hands make light work we can be the hands and feet of Jesus many of us coming together can absolutely help Appalachia heal recover and then even eventually rebuild yeah let's do this together so I don't have all the details yet of how exactly we're going to do this but my preliminary thoughts are that we'll have just like an ongoing fundraiser yeah I'm not sure what platform we'll use I'm talking to several groups right now in conversation of who we would like to donate all the money to once it's done so once all of those details become available to me I will publish the link but we invite you guys to walk with us again and this time we're walking for a purpose that is so much bigger than us just having fun than all of us or than just having fun it is walking for healing in Appalachia so yeah that's that's it yeah we're gonna hike the Appalachian trail yeah three months sorry for the bomb drop but there you go if you guys are still kind of processing don't worry it's been months and we still are too but we ask that you guys pray for us that's why back in September we put out that short little video that asked you to pray for us so there's the answer we're through hiking and I guess we will continue our preparation we've already restarted our training yeah of course we're saving money and all the necessary things that we have to do before we step off from Springer Mountain in February yeah so we'll see you guys soon and we'll keep you updated with our progress thank you for joining us thank you for being a part of what we consider or what actually some people have said this is going to become a ministry so thank you so much for being a part of that love and light to you all we'll talk to you soon bye