Sabbatical Day 7

If you've missed a few posts, Jason and I drug a camper trailer to the San Juan mountains. We're camping in the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado. Our church has so graciously provided us with some sabbath time. This post shares a day in our journey. 

(Here's a picture I just spotted on Facebook of some of our church family having their Tuesday meal which Jason is missing.)

It's not even one in the afternoon and we've already walked almost six miles today.  I hadn't planned on that. I was thinking, when we got up this morning, that we should do some sight-seeing. You know, the kind where you drive down the road and pull over to one of those paved side roads that says "scenic overlook". 

Instead, we climbed two heights. They'll both go down in the book of stories I'll tell my children and grandchildren. I'll describe, more times than once, how we climbed these two places. 

Lobo Pass is situated right near the continental divide. From the top you can see, ... oh I don't know, maybe a hundred miles. It's breathtaking, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WALK. 

The elevation is somewhere around 11,000 feet. The road was closed for vehicles so we (mostly Jason) got the bright idea to walk up it. Off to a good start we saw a mule deer with a nice pair of antlers walk in front of us. I didn't grab my camera, sure we'd see more. 

The main thing I saw for the next hour was a dusty trail that got steeper. We saw more of the mountains across the landscape. Oh yeah...and snow. I'd decided to wear my cuter shoes, some thin canvas Converse shoes, as opposed to my better cushioned walking shoes. Not a great idea. 

After two hours of walking we came near the impassable top where a mound of snow covered the little bit of trail left ahead. 

Oxygen starved and cold (but in better shape than I would have been had we decided to walk on) we headed back down the mountain. On the way down I saw a girl in proper hiking attire headed up the way we'd been. I started to warn her that "it wasn't worth it!". But then I decided, that's my account. Jason's might sound quite different. Her's might be too. 

 Treasure Falls is a different story. 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

You can see it from the highway when you're curving toward the bottom of the mountains. It's beautiful. I'd have treasured it had we never got out of the car. I marveled at it from the little railway placed at its base. But there was a trail you could climb to get closer to its top. 

The trail looked pretty worn so I decided it must be safe. Not too many steps along I changed my mind. There was no guardrail. We quickly saw a sign that said "Trail is hazardous when wet". The closer we got to the top the more damp the narrow trail beneath us became from water spray from the falls. 

To my disappointment, the trees seemed to hide the waterfall that was so visible from the bottom. I wondered why no one had warned us that there wasn't much to see from the top. 

Despite the fact that the rushing of the waters through the trees was getting louder, I decided  I must be more afraid of heights than I realized.  I thought "This can't be worth it". 

I wanted to stop and turn around. Grace would allow that. I've learned about the grace that's available when "I didn't" or "I couldn't".  (I found that kind of grace on the top of Lobo Pass BECAUSE it was impassable. I'm not sure I could have made it another 400 yards.)

Back to Treasure Falls. Partly because there wasn't room to turn around and partly because this time grace said "Keep going, I kept carefully stepping until we came to a corner. Immediately my senses were assaulted at the falls before me. We walked on to a misty and magical bridge. It celebrated my courage and endurance, if not my trust (maybe next time). 

Then grace urged me up once more to the highest place one can go. I was covered by the mist of the waterfall and by grace. 

I'm rather fond of times when grace tells me it's ok to turn around. But today grace allowed me to keep going. And it was worth it.  

My favorite Psalm (46)

1 God is our refuge and strength,  an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;