A Pause In The Journey

As I begin this week’s article, I am traveling across the plains of New Mexico with the Wild Bunch, a group of guys who are a significant part of my journey. We are returning from a backpacking trip to the Pecos Wilderness in the mountains northeast of Santa Fe.

As I was anticipating this trip, I knew it would complicate my regular writing schedule. My original plan was to get this article written before I left, and was feeling some pressure around that. But then God reminded me that these articles are about sharing my journey, and that I shouldn’t get ahead of that journey.

So this week, we are going to take a detour from our ongoing discussion for a retreat into the wilderness with God.

Thanks for joining me.

This little expedition was intended to be a trial run for a longer, fast and light trip we were contemplating next summer. The plan was to attempt a 15 mile loop in a little more than three days. I knew that our goals were ambitious, especially since we would be setting out the first day, after having driven all night from sea-level to 8200 feet elevation. The combination of sleep deprivation and extreme elevation change would certainly stack the deck against us. But we wanted to get an idea of how our legs would respond to consecutive days on the trail under pack. Read more