the adventures of B and K

I know, we haven’t posted in a while. Our goal is still to make this blog a place where you can keep up with major B & K happenings but we aren’t exactly regular in putting up new information. Hopefully this post will the beginning of a new era of blogging (have I said that before???)

We just got back from a hard, fun, relaxing, and incredibly scenic vacation in Colorado and wanted to share a few pictures and memories with you. We flew out to Colorado Springs to spend a few days at Glen Eyrie, the Navigators international HQ. As always visiting the red rocks and hiking our favorite trails was fun, but bringing family along who have never seen its beauty made the trip that much better. After a few days of winding down from a busy summer we headed to Durango, CO.

Durango is a cool town with a lot of shops and restaurants but it is also the gateway to the 488,000 wild acres of the Weminuche Wilderness. Kandice, Kari, and I spend seven days and six nights hiking, camping, and exploring this masterpiece of God’s creation. Spending a week in utter wilderness may not seem like a vacation to you but it has its benefits. After arriving home we were met with about 1000 emails, phone messages and a stack of mail that takes multiple sittings to open I realized how relaxing it really is to be “unplugged” and unreachable.

If you are curious about the Weminuche you can search for it on Google earth and get the inferior but informative digital version of the scenery. We hiked up Elk Creek, over the E-W continental divide twice, down Valecito creek, up Johnston creek to the Chicago basin, and back out to Needleton. We hiked higher than 12,500 feet four different times and saw breathtaking views every day. We had planned an extra day incase we needed it but we ended up using it to summit Windom Peak, Colorado’s 33rd highest mountain at 14,082 feet. The view from the top will likely remain unsurpassed for the three of us for most of our lives.

Psalm 97:5 says “The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. ” Being among mammoth peaks and rocks the size of our house a thought continues to penetrate my mind. All this splendor, the power of the mountain, the danger of wildlife, the force of every mountain stream to sweep you off your feet, the breathtaking beauty of high meadows and lakes, they are mearly a refleciton of the beauty of Christ. They are only his creation, and barely begin to display his awesome power. It took us 7 hours to go up and down from Windom peak, and God could cast that mountain into the sea in 7 seconds. It took us seven days to cross a path that he holds in the hollow of his hand. So in the spirit of Psalm 145, I “commend his works to you.” Not the works of the mountains, but the work of the cross, the work that surpasses even creation, the work of Christ to restore a dead creation to life. A feat harder than making the needle mountains, more amazing that gouging out the deepest valley, and more beautiful than any sunset.