Having car trouble away from home makes you feel helpless. Getting the car back after the repairs is a helpless feeling as well. Everything seemed to be working properly, so we headed to the next thing on our five-time modified schedule.

There is some good news and some bad news about our campsite for last night. The good news is that it was in a beautiful setting. I have attached a picture below. The bad news is that everyone in Colorado was in this parking lot by 5:00 AM. The first person that I met was Tom from Nebraska. He is a believer, and we had a great conversation both in the evening and the next morning. Maddie cooked supper, pinto beans, and canned chicken with a Nutella roll. This has become our favorite dessert of the trip. You take a flour tortilla and spread a thick coating of Nutella on it before rolling it up. Man, these things are good.

After getting my backpack ready for the morning, I told Maddie that I was going to crawl into bed. I am so blessed to have the ability to sleep in the Jeep, but it is a bear to climb in and out of that thing. This was around 9:00 PM, and the parking lot was almost full. A young man had parked beside us, and as I waited for him to close his door so I could crawl into the Jeep, we began to talk. This may have been the most encouraging conversation that I have had on this trip. The young man’s name is Caden, and he is twenty years old. We started talking about the mountains that we planned to climb in the morning, and he mentioned that his pastor liked to climb 14ers.

Once Caden found out that I was a believer, he changed the subject to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He talked about the Book of John and the Book of Romans as he shared his testimony. He didn’t grow up in the church, and in fact, after he received Christ, his family was hostile towards him. Like many young men, his friend invited him to the youth group with the lure of girls being there. Caden went, heard the Gospel, received Christ, and hasn’t been the same since.

This young man is looking to finish college with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and he wants to use this skillset to go to the Middle East and share Christ with Muslim people. To say that I was blown away to be standing in a parking lot miles from anywhere speaking with a twenty-year-old man that I didn’t know who is on fire for the Lord is an understatement. Needless to say, I went to sleep with a smile on my face.

I have shared about our cool night. We awoke to temps in the high 30s. Now, I have to share about the entertainment. At about 4:00 AM, lights woke me up. Car lights and headlamps were everywhere. I crawled out of the Jeep just before 5:00 AM to find every parking space in the lot taken. There were cars parking on the sides of the entrance to the parking lot and on the sides of the four-by-four road for as far as I could see. There had to be 70 or 80 people moving around. Lights were shining in the cars, doors were slamming, and a stream of additional cars were coming up the road. I couldn’t believe that a Friday morning was this busy.

Several cars drove into the full parking lot looking for a space that wasn’t there. Some backed back out, and some made a thirty-seven-point turn before driving back down the road. The funniest thing was when a guy in a full-size four-door truck pulled into the parking lot. He decided that he was going to park between two cars. I will say that it might have been possible to squeeze his truck into the space, but there would have been no way for him to get out. I chuckled as I watched the owner of one of the cars fold his mirror in. He stood watching in horror as the persistent driver muscled his way in. Finally, the guy stopped the driver and said that he would move his car over to make a little room for him. I couldn’t stop laughing, so I told Maddie that we needed to leave before I made the guy in the truck mad.

Now to the hard work: Our goal for the day was to climb both Gray’s and Torreys’ Peaks. Both of these are 14ers, and you can climb both by doing an out and back that is shaped like a lollipop. We started just before 6:00 AM with dozens and dozens of other people. We made good time for the first mile or so, but the elevation jumped on Maddie pretty early. Unlike Mt. Sneffels, both of these peaks are Class 1. There was no route finding, but it was a steep slog. You can’t miss the trail from the start to the top. I can’t imagine how many volunteer hours it took to build this trail.

The climb up Gray’s was a long series of switchbacks. Maddie felt horrible, and she had a headache. I tried to encourage her to turn back, but she wasn’t having any of that. She motored on stopping to catch her breath from time to time before summiting with fifty to sixty people standing around. We had spoken with a group of three several times on the way up, so we took pictures of each other. The lady taking the picture of Maddie and I forced us to “do something cute.” Neither Maddie nor I cared for the picture too much, but Chris loved it.

After taking a break and eating some food, we headed off to climb Torreys. Here’s a view of it from about halfway down Gray’s.

After enjoying the downhill to the saddle, the uphill switchbacks started again. This time they were much steeper. The good news was that they were shorter than what we experienced climbing up Gray’s. Before we knew it, we were standing on the summit. This time, there were only thirty or so sharing the rocky area on the top.

This is looking back at Gray’s from Torreys’. You can see the long switchbacks.

The final numbers were: 4.41 miles on the ascent with 3353′ of elevation gain. Including the time on the summit of Gray’s, this took just over four hours. The descent was 3.58 miles and took just under two hours. This included a few conversations on the way down. I spoke with a gentleman from Ghana. He was pleasant to talk with. He splits his time between Minneapolis and Ghana. While we were talking, a little brown dog ran by. Please pray for a family who lost this dog named Archie on their way up the trail. The small dog was not on a leash, and the dad was about a quarter of a mile ahead of his wife and son. The dog was running back and forth between them. I’m sure his olfactory senses were going nuts with all of the marmots and mice that were in the area. I think he may have headed off-trail for something more interesting.

Once back in the car, we headed to Leadville, Co. We were scheduled to be in this town on July 25 to make an appointment that Maddie has been excited about for almost a year. A small company called Melanzana makes fleece clothing, but they have a peculiar business model. They don’t sell online, and you can’t just walk in and buy goods. You have to make an appointment. When we walked in the door, the sign said that the next available appointment was in December. Maddie explained our scheduling plight to the staff. They were gracious and let us shop today. Maddie is a happy young lady. They limit your purchase to two items, so she got a fleece pullover, and she bought one for a friend that has wanted one for a while as well.

We headed to find a camping spot for a much-deserved nap. We found a nice spot in the trees. As a bonus, we had cell service.

Psalm 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Trusting in God’s unfailing love isn’t always easy. I second-guessed my decision to have the Jeep fixed several times over the past few days. Each time I found myself laying in that motel room thinking such thoughts, I turned my focus to the love that my Father has for me. His love always gives me peace! Meeting brothers in Christ at the trailhead encouraged me, and hearing of Caden’s salvation caused me to rejoice. May we all rejoice in the salvation that God offers because His love is unfailing.

Because He Calls, Old Climbing Dad