Riding Reflections from Colorado

A Biker’s Colorado

I don’t think there are enough letters to describe in words how I feel about Colorado: Amazing. Beautiful. Colorful. Wonderful. Majestic. Marvelous. Spectacular. The guys would agree with me… some of our favorite drives yet have been through the mountains and rivers and forests of Colorado. Hands down. God is big. So big that I cant get my worship around His grand"ness", no matter how many languages I use, or how many words I have, or how I rearrange letters on this page, or how still I am to listen—He is so big. !Tan imenso! 

And when you spend time in the mountains, or biking along a beautiful river, or sleeping under billions of stars after an amazing sunset, it seems that creation is screaming out for me to recognize the Creator. And so I must.  My friend, Amanda, said after driving west through sunsets together, “Few things still point all men to eternity, and I think Beauty is one of them.” The beauty of Colorado sure has me thinking of eternity, and I’ll bet it drives a lot of people to ask big questions about God, and life, and why we are here, and what our purpose is… I think God intended it to be that way.

We made it to Colorado.  My imagination can almost be on hold while we drive…  I just soak up what I see, and try to put it into reality: this is real!

“When a person speaks or writes or sings about breathtaking truth in a boring way it is probably a sin. Imagination is the faculty of the mind God has given us to make the communication of His beauty beautiful.” 
–John Piper

I’ve been thinking about how we communicate this breathtaking truth, with the expressions that God has given us… words, song, dance, art. Creation communicates by itself; in a way, it is already communicating His beauty in a beautiful way.

"Watch Mom! No hands!" (Kevin, you're crazy!)

We feel blessed to be on this trip. We want to express that well.

Something I’ve learned about Kevin: He is very good at expressing his appreciation for beautiful things, all the time, with lots of excitement in his voice… It is so encouraging to hear.

“This is amazing! I can’t believe I’m seeing this right now! Mike would be so jealous!” –Kevin 

(over the CB as we drive through the mountains… he wanted his kayak, so badly.)

The Denver skyline

We camped west of Denver in a national forest. An amazing ride. We made breakfast for dinner by our bikes. Then we hiked up to a clearing in the mountains, away from the road, in the dark. We woke up to a spectacular view. Nate found his way to a rock up the mountain that overlooked the valleys below. Chad and I followed. On the way up, I told Chad that I wanted to be careful so I wouldn’t fall on a cactus. On the way down, I fell and landed directly on a cactus. My legs were beat up already from the branches, and on top of it I got cactus spines stuck in me... I probably shouldn’t post the pictures… but that was quite painful, awkward, and mostly embarrassing. (Maybe even more embarrassing than dropping our bike yet again... and having Dwayne and Nate just watch as we got it back up.)

Drop #6 for Chad and me... is that 3 each? How are we keeping score?
I love Nate's face in this picture...

This is pre-game meal for Sam's 1/2 marathon in the morning...

We then headed south to Colorado Springs. It was a sweet time of fellowship with some of Dwayne’s friends from Uncharted Waters, a chance to take a real shower (can't tell you how thankful I was to soak in a shower after landing in a cactus earlier that day...), relax, and wait for Kevin and Laban. We went to Westman Valley Chapel with Levi and Josh and had brunch at Wade’s, voted the best Spring Pancakes, with Sam, Amy, Ellie and Noah. It was neat to see the UW office, and to connect with such a great group of people.

Famous Pancakes at Wade's in Colorado

Thanks for showing us around the Springs, for the wonderful fellowship, and for sharing your homes with us!

After church brunch with Josh, Levi, Sam, Amy, Ellie and Noah 

The gang with our new friend and stud, Josh--thanks for letting us crash at your place!

before the hike...

I begged the guys to go hiking. It’s true. We were in Colorado, and I wanted to hike… so they agreed to hike the incline with me. This is a 68% grade, 1 mile hike that is so high up it is hard to breathe normally. Kevin wrote about it in the last post, but let me just re-iterate: it was TOUGH! I almost died, I think. And the guys really impressed me… Nate made it up in 35 minutes, Kevin, still recovering from his accident and surgeries, made an impressive climb, and I made it (not without the tempting of Swedish fish from Chad =)). It was beautiful. Laban thanked me for encouraging them to do it, and the hike down the Barr trail was so much fun… the guys make everything so much more interesting.

the incline... see why I almost died?

accomplished... the proud hikers!

the view looking down... whoa!

Something I’ve learned about Nate: He is a hiker. He can climb the incline in 35 minutes (and ladies, he’s single). He can jump really far, and change clamps and fix leaking hoses. He gets up earlier than anyone else and while the guys work on their bikes, he is always thinking of finding me a place to sit at a coffee shop or somewhere, thanks Nate!

Kevin loves this...

our beautiful hike... all those mountains and rocks make you want to climb!

Finding campsites and camping with five guys is so much more exciting. And it has been quite entertaining. We camped in Pikes National Forest… where the sandy, deep-ravine, washboard road caused an eventful search for the perfect campsite.

Chad loves this.

Let me tell you how fun it is to try to turn a motorcycle around in sand without tipping over: very. And let me tell you how hilarious it is to watch Nate run away from Kevin so he doesn’t get hit: super hilarious. And let me tell you how entertaining it is to watch five guys pick up Laban’s bike, put him on it, and help him get going again while on a dirt slope: great entertainment. And let me tell you what it’s like to listen to the guys talk about their afternoon around the campfire that night: words can’t describe it.

Here comes Laban... he's down, and there's a jeep at the top of the hill. 

This is drop #2 for Laban.

Something I’ve learned about Laban: He is a gentleman, he gives up his chair for me, always offers to help clean up, and can fix pretty much anything. He asks deep questions around the campfire. He is a good question asker, and a good listener. And the first night camping with him he pulled out his sardines and some great molasses cookies from his mom and opened up a big discussion with, “Hannah, why do you think that you are here on this earth?”

Getting Laban's bike up, with help from the guy in the jeep

At this point, we're having fun... it's just about to get better when Kevin has to turn his bike around and almost hits Nate...

I loved that campsite. Playing hearts and chewing on jalapeno sunflower seeds. Sleeping under the stars. Waking up to the warm sun. A beautiful morning with Jesus, and my journal, and a headband. Although I lost one of the new earrings I bought, and fainted for some odd reason, I still rank that campsite high. It was wonderful.

The adventures of Colorado continue... so stay tuned for stories about our Pikes Peak adventure, and getting lost in the mountains, and finding a campsite in the dark...