Good Morning Jesus!!!!. After a stormy night with plenty of discouraging rain we awoke at 5:00 am to face the elusive Alpi di Vitigliano and Mt. Citerna, but first we must contend with the unfriendly mountain man who won't let us park across from his house. He tells us it is private property so he sends us up the mountain road to park. 5:30 and he is already up chasing off people. Apparently the locals say he has a reputation for non grace behaviour, but God's grace prevails and a good parking spot in the bushes presents itself right away, because you really need a 4 wheel drive to be on this road.
Easy enough path with some spots filled with water from the rain the night before and nicely marked until we hit the "UP" part of the trail. Until now we have been walking on private property, which must be Mountain Mans which he has to share with the Forest Service (just must kill him to do this). It has a really nice valley area full of Chestnut trees with clearly marked "Do not pick the Chestnut or the Mushrooms" everywhere. But this UP part of the trail has not been tended to for a long time and is no longer private property, it is just the mountain and it is filled with rotten fallen trees ( which you need to crawl through) uneven paths, rocks, low trees, bugs and all kinds of things you would find in a forest that no one (but us) goes through. 
So we finally make our way to Mt Citerna and sure enough it really is
only about an hour into the walk. This Mt. actually looked liked a
moon scape scene. Perfect landing spot for lots of German troops to
see in all directions and set up camp. We prayed, staked in a crack in
the rock (because there was no dirt) and broke bread. I stood for awhile
just watching Joyce interceding for the nation and proclaiming forgiveness
for what was done in the war. It really is so surreal to be doing this.
We move on because we have to get up there and back down in time to meet our
guests. No goofing around. I (Joyce) still do not feel up to speed but
I have a goal and it is in sight. All I can say is that the next hour
was like none we have experienced this whole journey. We now saw why
this place was the most elusive, it was like uncharted area. This
section was beyond the normal fallen trees and over growth. It had a
spirit of "DO NOT ENTER". Well we went in with the glory of the Lord
and made way where others do not go very often. We were sopping wet
from walking through tall grass, covered in all kinds of bugs and
things, ducking overgrown trees and stuff and walking on the crest of
mountains. This is very cool, where there is nothing between you and the valley and
a little frightening at the same moment should you slip on really sleek
ground after a good nights rain.
We pushed on through and ended up where there was a broken down house and what would be a very nice lawn area if some one would mow the grass, lol. We thought we had arrived, there was even a trench Joyce was tromping through, I even was shooting video and we were getting ready to drive our stake when Joyce thought she should check it out on the Internet because it wasn't like there was a sign to say, you've arrived. I (Joyce) saw quite of bit of mountain still above us and we had only been walking 2 hours. To my surprise I had service, which I rarely do up on the mountains, which is also very strange to me because isn't that where all the antennas are? Anyhow I google it and we had not yet arrived. Aggghhh.
Onward and upward. This part now was no joke. We were really on the
edge of the mountainside at one point where you couldn't even stand with
both your feet together and we had to walk leaning uphill. Thankfully
that was only about 100 ft or so, but still I'm (Joyce) thinking, that's a long
slide down, and I'm not up to having to walk back up. We have to hack
through some overgrown bushes and another fallen tree and thigh high
grass again and finally we make it back into a forest like from the day
before. I'm thinking, were we really this close to almost being there, nahhh but
we were differently back to more the forest scene, tall trees with no
sunlight and about 6 to 8 inches of leaves covering the forest floor.
How could 3 mountains only an hour separated on foot be totally
different in scenery? One minute your in a thick forest, next on the
face of the moon and then back to what looks like hillside vegetation?
Eventually we arrived at Alpi di Vitigliano having fought the elements, physical and spiritual to arrive. The fog rolled in right as we got there, we broke bread, staked claim and just stayed and tarried in His presence. We were praising the Lord, weeping and didn't want to leave and yes Joyce even got her sign, the sun shone through in what had become a very cloudy day upon our arrival to the stone house an hour back. Love it when the Lord shows up amen. It only took us 2 hours to get down and off the mountain and rained on & off. Made a quick and timely phone call to our house guests who were just about to get on a train heading in the wrong direction when Joyce called. We literally arrived back to our house and were walking to the gate when our guests arrived also. We had such a wonderful time with Amanda, her Mom Danielle and her Dad Thomas from Florida. Love that you can meet people for the first time (her parents) and be so knitted together. Our Christian family rocks! So excited to part of the ever expanding Kingdom amen.
Now only one more mountain to do.
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