Last week Jordan and I got the crazy idea that a three day weekend would be a great time to climb a 14-er with Seth. (For those of you who aren't from Colorado, a 14-er--or fourteener--is one of our mountains that is over 14,000 feet tall. I believe there are 53 of them in the state). We hadn't done much hiking with him but our wonderful small group at church had pitched in to get us a really wonderful hiking backpack and we had promised ourselves that we'd try a fourteener as soon as we could. Our friends Matt and Amy joined us and we were super excited for a great day.
Our goal: Mt. Quandary. Elevation: 14,265 feet. Hike length: 6.75 miles round trip. Elevation gain: 3450 feet.
The short version is that I was planning to let Jordan carry Seth up most of the mountain but Jordan started to get sick and I got a strong second wind. I carried Seth almost the entire way up the fourteener by myself by the time it was done. On the way up, Jordan took a shift of about 30 minutes toward the beginning but I had him the rest of the hike. We split the hike down about 50/50.
When I hit the top I was never more amazed at myself! I almost cried when I realized that just two and a half years ago I was in so much pain that I couldn't even walk from my car to my classroom without needing an hour of sitting to recover. For a long time I thought that I'd never be able to run, hike, climb, or do anything active again and I was really discouraged about it. When I hit the top of that peak I realized that I had now done something that I never imagined I'd ever be able to do. This was a gift from God to remind me that ALL things are possible with Him. I am so thankful to Him for the strength to recover and rebuild a life that I thought was gone for me. My muscles still act up and sometimes get the best of me but... what a victory.
Here's some pictures! I'm hoping to get some more from Matt and Amy and someone we met on the trail soon because I think they got the better ones from their camera.
On the Way Up: (Thanks to the guy from Oklahoma that took these fantastic pics as we were climbing and then sent me his flickr account via text message on the hike!)
At The Top:
On the Trail:
At The Bottom-- Total time on the mountain: 8 hours
2 comments:
Wow, Diana! You are a super woman, I know I wouldn't be able to do that even without a kiddo on me. Beautiful pics too!
Yea!! have you checked out our blog? we have it posted and more pictures to enjoy.
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