There comes a time in every person's life when they are challenged to see what they are made of. Whether that challenge comes as an option is a completely different matter... some people choose to push the envelope a little bit, others need to do it as the road of life takes them over some "bumps." Either way, there are always challenges.Certain challenges are fun! Take for example, our decision to conquer the mountain we see every day... Pikes Peak. It looms 14,110 feet above sea level, and still rises above our city by about 7,000 feet. It is gorgeous. It is awe-inspiring. And we conquered it!
(sorry, the pictures are a little bit out of order...)
After walking upward for 7.5 hours straight, we arrived at the visitor's station at the top and had to get a picture with a gold miner!
We stopped for a short break alongside a pretty stream. We were about 4 miles from the top!
Pretty view, huh?
I had to stop and "ice" my foot down in the freezing cold water when we stopped at the stream. My foot had gotten so painful at this point! (Wonderful plantar fasciitis makes hiking so much more interesting sometimes!) After doing this, however, the pain completely went away (thank the Lord!) and I could finish the hike pain-free. :)
We stopped at Barr Camp for about 15 minutes to eat our banana-peanut butter sandwiches and trail mix. We didn't stop for long because we didn't want our leg muscles to completely lock up on us! We had hiked 7 miles to Barr Camp and only had another 6 to go. We weren't about to let Pikes Peak get the best of us!A few chipmunks also got to share our lunch with us... they were adorable!
This is a picture of the awesome beauty of Pikes Peak! As we rounded a corner on Barr Trail, there it was! We saw what we were going to climb.
This was actually the first glimpse we had of the peak as we rounded the corner on Barr Trail. Brian pointed it out to me and sure enough, there it was. (Admittedly, at this point, I was thinking that I would be perfectly content if we just made it to Barr Camp... but we made it the whole way!!)About 2 miles from the top, Brian completely ran out of water. I wasn't sure how much water I had left since it seemed like I was having to put a little more effort into each sip of my Camelbak (that's what happens when it starts getting low). But, nonetheless, I thought if God could instantly fix my foot like He did at the creek, then He can provide enough water for us to make it to the top! :)
Sure enough, there was just enough water to get us up to the top plus about 3 more big gulps of it, and then it was out. I can't help but think that God was watching out for us... whether or not it was coincidence, I think it was pretty cool!
As soon as we got to the top, we were literally IN a cloud. The top of the cloud had socked us in and we couldn't see much. We heard thunder from the top of the cloud (it sounds really cool from the top!) and it began to rain a little.
We ate a delicious lunch inside the visitor's center and had some random people take our picture next to the Pikes Peak Summit sign. It was a really rewarding feeling to have made it to the top!
We were hoping to find 2 seats on a cog train that was heading back down, but every train that was still to come was completely booked full. Thank goodness for Glenn (Brian's mom's boyfriend!). Glenn saved the day! Fortunately, he lives pretty close to the Peak and came up and got us.
Later that night we sat in Brian's mom's (Mary's) hot tub and relaxed our tired muscles. Surprisingly, neither one of us were very sore the next day! Even after hiking 13 miles over 7.5 hours straight, we were surprised at how not sore we were!
I think I hear the Peak calling my name again sometime soon... ;)
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