I’ve still got a week to go, but my mind has already left for vacation.  I leave next week for Colorado, where, after leaving Christi and kids with her parents, I’ll meet up with some guys from Kanas for a week of camping, fishing, and all-around good times in the mountains of Wyoming.

I’ve already started packing my backpack – and then unpacking and repacking.  It’s all I can really think about right now.  I’ve still got a lot of work to do so I can leave – but I can hear the mountains calling me back.   Must… stay… focused…

At first I was really hesitant to take a week in the mountains, and then the better part of a week with the in-laws.  Maybe I’m too proud and I think the church will suffer without me in the pulpit, maybe I’m too insecure and think they’ll find a much better preacher and be dissapointed when I come back.  But judging by the way my mind is so easily distracted by my upcoming trek, I think this trip will do me, and my congregation a lot of good.

This year we’re heading to the Snowy Range, just about 30 miles west of Laramie.  I’ve never been to Wyoming, but the Rockies are great no matte where you are.  I am hoping, however, that this trip is better than last years.  In 07 we went to Silverton, CO, and climbed to the upper basin at the feet of Fuller, Vermillion, and Golden Horn Peak. It was a tremendously challenging climb – and it was cold and wet.  We called the trip short after getting hailed on at 12,500 feet.  It was gorgeous, but I don’t think I ever want to go there again.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

This is view fo the Ice Lake Basin, right around 12,000 feet

This view is from the Lower Basin, about 11,200 feet were we made our base camp

This little lake was really hard to get to, but worth the trip – the picture doesn’t do the color of the lake justice – alt. was right around 12,400

Here’s me, and Kenny, getting hailed on at 12,500 feet.  Well above tree line, there was no shelter from the rain, hail, and lightening except for this 8 foot tall rock… thunderbolts and lightening, very very frightening me…