First off, an apology for skipping two weeks of blog updates....So today ya'll get two for the price of one!
Week of August 15-21:
Went pretty well, this week was primarily occupied by two things. First off was the preparations for my climbing trip this past week. Second off was my first time leading a praise band at church. That praise band was mighty fine, and, as our bassist had claimed, "We were the best praise band in church today!"....
Week of August 22-29:
Here's the tale of my journey to Colorado...
Wednesday was our day to hike in and set up our base camp in South Colony Basin. So we parked the truck at 9,500 ft. and hiked up to our base camp at 11,000 ft. It was a fabulous camp site with some nice sittin' spots and Barbara was able to rig up a nice kitchen shelter with some seats and table made out of logs.
Thursday was the big day. Little did I know it would be one of the most challenging days of my life. We were up and on the trail before the sun and headed up to summit the Creston Needle, a class 3 mountain at 14,200 ft. It was an awesome climb, very senic, and very hard. The majority of the climb was scrambling, and the later half of that climb was so steep that it was difficult to find spots for multiple people to sit and rest. We made the summit around 1:00 amidst hail and with the company of some Georgia climbers....took our pictures (of course the monkey hogged all the shots), and started down. 6,000 vertical feet and 15 hours round trip and I had bagged my first 14er...The day had been very rewarding and fun, but also extremely demanding and quickly ranked as the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
We all slept in on Friday, and most of our climbing party was really sore, so I decided to climb the other mountain on our list, Humboldt Peak by myself. It was a really enjoyable climb, and after about 5 hours I had returned with my second 14er under my belt, and I had successfully summited a mountain solo. Being solo had some advantages and disadvantages. I had a great chance to hang with the LORD and I was able to climb at my own pace, take rests (and a nap on the mountain), and take plenty of pictures. The disadvantage was that I couldn't get a second opinions on route finding, and a simple ankle sprain could have stranded me on the mountain for a day or two. Ended Friday with a group meal of Tortilla Soup (Bear Creek makes awesome backpacker food)
Saturday came around and none of us were ready to leave (especially the "Little U") so we took our sweet time. But eventually we said goodbye to our new made friends (some climbers from Georgia and our neighboring camp-mates from Oklahoma), hiked down to the truck, and enjoyed a sweet sweet lunch in Westcliffe (burgers are SO good after a half week of pastas and dehydrated meals).
Overall, the trip was amazing. Trying to desribe it is just like trying to photograph it, there are so many things to take in, but no way to capture it all. We met TONS of cool people, had the best weather the Basin has ever seen (including moons so bright that it lit up the mountains). And next to no injuries. Overall, the LORD kept us safe and provided us with a great trip. He really did give me a chance to get up and away for a bit before the Fall started.
In the world of prayers, I want to thank the LORD forgiving me an awesome opportunity to climb and keeping me safe. It would be great if you could pray for the high school and college students as they go back to school and also keep our discipleship ministry in mind as we begin our Fall programming.
Refreshed and ready,
-B
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