"As he walked on, all day, in the strength of the bread he had eaten, not daring often to look down into the gulf and keeping his head mostly turned a little inward to the cliff, he had time to turn his trouble over in his mind and discover new sides to it. Above all it grew upon him that the return of the Landlord had blotted out the Island: for if there were such a place he was no longer free to spend his soul seeking it, but must follow whatever designs the Landlord had for him." Pilgrim's Regress-C.S. Lewis"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." Ecclesiastes 4:9-11
"Seize Life! Eat bread with gusto. Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes-God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festive every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love each and everyday of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it. For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think in the company of the dead, where you're are most certainly headed." -Solomon MSG
It was late on Tuesday night when I received a phone call from my good friend Ed Downing. He said, "Brian and I are going on a backpacking trip this weekend do you wanna go?" Brian was planning a trip to celebrate his dream job he just got with ICR. You see Dallas Baptist University was foolish enough not to renew my friends contract and in my opinion Expelled one of the greatest minds of our time. Brian Thomas is a dad, husband, poet, scientist, and mountain man. Ed is the greatest dad on the face of the earth and has been my role model. In fact, Ed and Marla adopted two more children not too long ago. However, both of my friends are lunatics when it comes to the outdoors. Ed has done the 100 mile Hotter then Hell ride and Brian is an Eagle Scout and former backpacking missionary. Both are experienced backpackers...my gut reaction was to say "no" because I didn't want to pay for it in the pain I would experience... but these two guys are not only my good friends, they are men of God. I said "let me think about it and I'll call you in the morning." The next morning I woke up and was contemplating...You see it was my son's thirteenth birthday this coming week and I had tried to plan several "MAN TRIPS", one to the Grand Canyon and then one to Big Ben...both backpacking trips fell through for one reason or another. I got excited that morning as I thought about this trip with Brian and Ed. Was this the answer to my desire to celebrate my son's manhood?
Brian had planned a trip to Pecos Baldy in New Mexico. I discovered that Pecos Baldy was in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Sangre de Cristo means "blood of Christ" and we would be pitching our base camp just beyond Holy Ghost creek. I talked with Brian that day and I told him my story and how I wanted my son to go. He had some goals for the trip but he thought that we could make it work. Two hours later we were at REI buying gear.
We left Friday morning at 4am.
We arrived at our campground thirteen or so hours later and made a mad dash to get out of our shorts into our winter gear for it was snowing.
We pitched our tents and then tried to start our fire. Everything was wet and Brian, the Eagle Scout, refused to use "girl scout juice" to light our fire. After a while we tried the girl scout juice and still had no fire. Then, enter stage right, our new neighbors Max and Roy. Max was holding a pan full of coals and Roy was carrying some wood. Max is a mountain man and world traveler and Roy is a musician who plays classical music with a group in Santa Fe each Thursday night.
We consider Max and Roy to be our guardian angels. Max is an angel with a strong right hand and has comic timing. He would start conversations with a joke like, "A penguin walks into a bar and says, 'have you seen my father?' and the bartender replies, 'what does he look like?'" Roy was an angel with a Zen like quality and sang me a song using Tibetan throat singing. After Roy and Max left us with a fire we were able to have dinner.
The next morning we got up and set off for our journey up to Horse Thief Meadow.
After a six hour ascent we arrived at Horse Thief Meadow. Zach and I learned to take baby steps, keep our knees together, adjust our packs for uphill and downhill. Brian was an excellent teacher!
We were able to start a fire because Max taught us how to start a fire when everything is wet. You take a candle and place it in the middle of some old charred wood and slowly add kindlin' from some dry stripped pine. Zach was so tired he fell asleep blowing up his air mattress. Brian packed his trusty backpacking tarp and made this real cool camp for him and Ed to freeze in.
Max and Roy told us to soak our feet upon arriving at our destination.
The second day Brian started us with a pep talk about the tempo of the trip. He said that he had a personal goal to keep a tempo for the hike that day and that if we found it that we would expend less energy with more productivity. What happened? We kept time with the person we were paired up with and Zach tore up the mountain following Ed. Ed is a mountain sheep on the ascent and Zach led the way down the switchbacks!
We ended our trip that day receiving hospitality from a group at the bottom of the trail. Mary offered us some deep fried trout and water. Later that evening back at the camp Max and Roy brought us some sirloin steak fried in butter with onions and squash. Max also taught me how to use mistletoe to start a fire. You see I was in charge of the fire and arrive back at camp to Max showing me this little trick. Brian said, "I see you have done your job!" The next morning we packed up to head home. We stopped at a place called Charlie's Spic and Span in Las Vegas New Mexico. Yes it was at the prompting of Max and Roy.
Zach told me that this was the most spiritual trip that he had been on. I asked him "why" and he told me that he had prayed to God to give him the strength to make it. He said, "that it felt like someone was lifting his pack!" On the way home Brian and I wrote some poetry about our trip together along with the fine art of the many uses of the bandana.
We wrote this poem for Zach.
Speak to me, O aspen tree.
Snow capped peaks and field of green
The grace of God is in this scene
I'm listening to birds that sing
to the bright-colored flowers of the spring
God's voice is heard in the wild fling
My flesh reviles mountain climb
spirit take my reigns of mind
to find the tempo of the tide
that's right for ev'ry step and stride
stumbling stone, and bending will
The grace of God is in this hill
The devil is at ev'ry mile
"give up the ghost" all the while
the Aspen tree speaks to me
of the way that things were meant to be
I breathe God's clean air thankfully
I wonder how God could be so good
to send and angel to find dry wood
against Satan's cold the candle stood
My child prays "help me withstand"
the wanton tortures of this land
then God unfolds his power and plan
and so my child becomes a man
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