Colorado 14ers

So, with the stress of moving for the third time in one year, it seemed like a good time to take a break and head for the hills! Barry is a new intern at church, and he was itching to head up a 14er. So, he arrived at our new home at 2:30am (that’s right, it was early!) and we hit the road.

We made good time, and were actually hiking up Mount Belford at 5:30am. It was still dark, but we only had to use a flashlight for about 20 minutes. It was a steep start with lots of switch backs. The 3.5 miles to summit Belford took us 4 ½ hours. Nice weather all the way. Barry was wearing down, but wanted to give Oxford (another 14er) a go, which was another 1 ½ miles. I went on ahead, as the storm clouds were moving in. When I summitted Oxford, I could see the lightning moving in, plus Barry was having trouble with his ankle. So he turned back and I caught up with him. We were both praying that we wouldn’t die from a lightning strike! As it turned out, the rain and lightning went around us, but the snow hit us straight on! Fortunately, it lasted only about 15 minutes before letting up.

Finally we descended Belford together. The Belford descent took about 3 hours. All in all, it was a good day, with great conversations about faith and grace. God is good!

That makes summit #12 and #13!!! Anyone else want to climb a mountain with me??