TREK!
So I got back from Trek late Saturday night and I believe I have finally caught up on my sleep and recovered enough to make a coherent entry about the trip. Yes, so...here goes....
We left early Saturday morning over a week ago, rode 15 hours or so, slept, went to church, listened to the most random preacher EVER!, went back, got our gear and slept in a giant tent. This marks the first night of several out of normal beds. For the next several days we hiked a mountain in the Colorado Rockies. Slept in tents, ate all kinds of food I'd just as soon never see again (but surprisingly enough, some was good, even repeatably so). Monday was the hike to low camp. The guides say it is one of the longest on any TREK mountain and after hiking 5 miles and still not arriving at low camp, we believe them. Many blisters and rain soaked articles of clothing. oh well. Tuesday: hike to high camp. Considerably easier than low camp hike. no rain, less painful blisters, and we arrived shortly after lunch. The rest of the day was ours. I slept then goofed around. dinner and another cold night in a tent. Woke up "late" Wednesday morning, they let us all sleep in an hour or two making wake up time 8ish instead of 6ish. :) Wednesday is solo day. A day of rest and a purposeful 3 hours with God in his creation. WOW! Its pretty much indescribable and a day of revelations and such. I will do my best to tell you if you choose to ask. Thursday. Summit Day. Awake at 430 to gain summit. its cold and dark but the day before had been restful so off we went. Summit was a hard climb, many rocks making me kinda scared of falling and the constant threat of throwing up all ways there. The view from the top of Rinker Peak was worth it though. 13,783 feet and we hiked to the top of it. We did it! (I def. wouldn't have if it hadn't been for certain people). I am probably the first person ever to take longer going down from summit than going up, but by that point I was completely out of energy. I finally got back down to high camp, thanks to Dad and Dustin (the guy guide). Then we put on our big pack again and hiked it down to low camp. I was feeling pretty strong again and made it almost all the way back down with out a problem, but I started to run out of energy again so I was draggin the last half hour but I survived. Friday is the hike back to the buses. I was moving pretty slow but was pretty strong. I ended up getting a bit behind because everyone else was going soo much faster and the other group caught up with us slow ones, but we made it down. Buses back to the lodge, another devo (one of the best parts of TREk is our nightly devos). Friday night's was particularly emotional, but it was also really really great. Thats all I know to say about it. words kinda hate me as far as some of this stuff goes. Saturday was a 15 hr ride home. The End.
Sorry that was so long, apparently I had alot to say and theres still soooo much more I couldn't figure out how to verbalize. Aren't you lucky? (The correct answer here is yes)
We left early Saturday morning over a week ago, rode 15 hours or so, slept, went to church, listened to the most random preacher EVER!, went back, got our gear and slept in a giant tent. This marks the first night of several out of normal beds. For the next several days we hiked a mountain in the Colorado Rockies. Slept in tents, ate all kinds of food I'd just as soon never see again (but surprisingly enough, some was good, even repeatably so). Monday was the hike to low camp. The guides say it is one of the longest on any TREK mountain and after hiking 5 miles and still not arriving at low camp, we believe them. Many blisters and rain soaked articles of clothing. oh well. Tuesday: hike to high camp. Considerably easier than low camp hike. no rain, less painful blisters, and we arrived shortly after lunch. The rest of the day was ours. I slept then goofed around. dinner and another cold night in a tent. Woke up "late" Wednesday morning, they let us all sleep in an hour or two making wake up time 8ish instead of 6ish. :) Wednesday is solo day. A day of rest and a purposeful 3 hours with God in his creation. WOW! Its pretty much indescribable and a day of revelations and such. I will do my best to tell you if you choose to ask. Thursday. Summit Day. Awake at 430 to gain summit. its cold and dark but the day before had been restful so off we went. Summit was a hard climb, many rocks making me kinda scared of falling and the constant threat of throwing up all ways there. The view from the top of Rinker Peak was worth it though. 13,783 feet and we hiked to the top of it. We did it! (I def. wouldn't have if it hadn't been for certain people). I am probably the first person ever to take longer going down from summit than going up, but by that point I was completely out of energy. I finally got back down to high camp, thanks to Dad and Dustin (the guy guide). Then we put on our big pack again and hiked it down to low camp. I was feeling pretty strong again and made it almost all the way back down with out a problem, but I started to run out of energy again so I was draggin the last half hour but I survived. Friday is the hike back to the buses. I was moving pretty slow but was pretty strong. I ended up getting a bit behind because everyone else was going soo much faster and the other group caught up with us slow ones, but we made it down. Buses back to the lodge, another devo (one of the best parts of TREk is our nightly devos). Friday night's was particularly emotional, but it was also really really great. Thats all I know to say about it. words kinda hate me as far as some of this stuff goes. Saturday was a 15 hr ride home. The End.
Sorry that was so long, apparently I had alot to say and theres still soooo much more I couldn't figure out how to verbalize. Aren't you lucky? (The correct answer here is yes)