“Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you.”
I was reflecting on this verse from Colossians 1:2 (The Message) while we were hiking on the Grouse Creek trail last Saturday morning. We hiked steadily upward surrounded by pine and aspen trees. Footing was generally good on a fairly smooth trail. It was going to be an easy hike. Then the trail broke out of the trees on to a bare faced side of the mountain with lots of loose gravel and small rocks. The trail was narrow and slanted. Instead of ‘looking up’ and seeing the beautiful valley below, we needed to keep looking down with our eyes focused on the trail to make sure each step would not slip. Making a wrong step could result in a bad, long fall tumbling and rolling down the steep side of the mountain with no trees or other growth to stop us. And no, there is no cell phone service to call for help. The promise in Psalm 121 “The Lord will not let your foot slip---He who watches over you will not slumber” was especially meaningful. Even with this promise, in order to “look up” and enjoy the wonderful view, it was necessary to stop and make sure our feet were firmly planted. Then, and only then, could we look up and enjoy the magnificent view in front of us. (I really think I am going to run out of adjectives when sharing about the beauty of these mountains!) After what seemed to be a long stretch of stepping very carefully to keep from falling, the trail led us back into a forested area and on to a beautiful meadow. The aspen are beginning to turn to a glorious yellow and we were treated to a whole mountain side of amber splendor. We sat for awhile enjoying snacks on a rock close to a gurgling mountain stream. It certainly was worth the effort.
I have always felt that descending a mountain is more treacherous than going up. By this time my legs were a bit shaky and it was tempting to go faster than we should. Three and a half hours after we left the cabin we arrived back. The rest of the day was spent napping and reading in an easy chair in the cabin. It would be a few days before we would try another hike of any length.
It has now been over a week since we arrived. It has been a good week of reading, praying, reflecting, and talking about what we are reading in the midst of God’s awesome creation. We are settled into a routine and feel a lot more acclimated to the altitude than we did the first couple of days. Even though they had record highs in Denver and other cities, we never saw our deck thermometer over 70 degrees. The lows at night are in the low forties, and high thirties. We have running water and electricity, full kitchen and hot showers. The cabin is located up the Chalk Creek Canyon between Salida to the south and Buena Vista to the north, the closest town, which is about 16 miles away. We do have a land line telephone but no internet service and no cell phone service. We drive to a coffee shop with free wireless in BV about every other day to check our emails, voicemails, and look up information on the internet. At first I had withdrawal issues to not having constant email, cell phone, and internet connections but now it seems more like gift that I need for this time of sabbatical.
Before I close, I should say a little about where we are staying. “The Cabin” was a long time dream of Dianne’s dad. He loved the mountains and wanted to spend more time in them than his work vacations would allow. In the early eighties he found out about some land available in the old railroad town of Alpine. Alpine was established in 1877 with the railroad being built to go up the canyon and through the Alpine Tunnel that would greatly shorten travelling distances. It was a very lively place for about 20 years before falling into disrepair. People moved to the more popular town of St Elmo up the canyon and took lumber and logs from Alpine to build in St Elmo. But the original platting of the town into lots remained on the books and Dianne’s dad was able to purchase lots to build a cabin. Plans were drawn, the land was cleared, the cement was poured and the cabin began to take shape. Dianne’s oldest brother is a contractor and supervised the initial construction. We all helped with dry walling, insulation etc. We first came to the cabin while on our North American assignment from mission work in Congo. After that we have been here many times. While we lived in Kansas, it was a lot closer than it is now from Ohio. Our kids literally grew up going to “The Cabin.” There is still a basket of toys here they looked forward to playing with each time. It has been a wonderful place of refuge for our family. This is the longest time we will have ever been here and the first time we have been here alone without family. Lots of wonderful memories.
Next time I will fill you in on some of my readings and reflections and hopefully we can figure out how to attach some pictures.
May God bless each one of you.
No comments:
Post a Comment