I love chaos. My room often reflects chaos, I love spontaneity, and I love adventure! And although I’m learning the joy of creating order, I guess there are still times that I’m stretched to allow the expectations I still have to be broken to enjoy life and to learn to trust in God.To begin our hike, we climbed to the top of Sacajawea peak, the tallest point in the range at 9665 feet, and enjoyed the amazing views of the Absaroka Range to the East, the Tobacco Root mountains to the West, and the Spanish peaks to the South. Three people in our team decided to split and turn back down the short hike towards the trailhead, and I made the decision to continue hiking the remaining 17 miles to Bozeman with whom would soon be three new friends. I calculated we could be done no later than 8 in the evening to finish packing and saying goodbye to friends for the next year before catching the bus.
As we hiked on the ridge above the treeline, enjoying a goat and the wonderful views, the trail slowly split into several faint paths through the scree. We began hiking along an exposed ridge to stay above the steep slopes and watched as a storm tracked towards us, bringing very brisk winds, fog, cold rain, and soon hail. I split from the team hoping to find a better trail a few hundred feet below, and even in the frustration of our slow pace in the confusion, I began to enjoy getting drenched in the rain and hail while loving the blue skies forming in the distance. Quite a bit of my frustration comes from me — I have the expectation that after so many years of mountaineering that I’m failing people if I make mistakes in route finding. And I began to worry that we might not make it back in time. But I chose to pray and trust in God that if He wanted me to catch that bus, I’d make it.
For the most part we did find and follow a decent trail the rest of the night, although we did lose our path every once and a while after the sun set. The rain continued throughout much of the dark as we climbed up and down many steep ridges. I learned to lead in patience and to love as we approached what seemed to be a crawling pace throughout the night encouraging some of the slower and exhausted members of our team to continue moving. I eventually began walking away from the flashlights in the dark of the night loving how beautiful the ghostly white Autumn leaves arching around and over the trail looked in the faint moonlight as the skies cleared to reveal beautiful stars surrounded by the shadows of the mountains. The air was filled with the pungent and sweet odors of Fall, and I began to love once again the adventure of finding the trail in the dark. I did have the constant temptation to be frustrated and worried throughout the night, but I resolved to pray and trust in God and do my best to enjoy the night with these amazing guys.
