So now they have Wi-Fi in the wilderness. . .

So we left Oklahoma City on Monday morning and about the time we pull into the toll booth in Wichita, I get this really sharp, intense pain in my back. I just thought it was some strange pain that would go away in a few minutes, but in fact, I must have strained my back doing something stupid earlier in the day and it decided to manifest itself right then while sitting in the car. This one wasn't as painful as the episode I had last year (almost to the day) before we had our first service in the Dickson Theater, but painful nonetheless. Well, since we were getting ready to go BACKpacking the next day, I was a bit concerned. The big question loomed... Continue on to Colorado and hope it gets better or turn around and hang around Oklahoma or Arkansas for a week of vacation?

We decided to continue. It was a painful ride, but not unbearable. I took LOTS of advil, hoping to lessen the swelling and Elise drove a bit more than her requisite half of the trip. After a quick stop at REI in Denver, we continued on to Estes Park to stay at the home of the Weissman's. They were out of town on vacation, but graciously offered us a bed anyway. (On a side note, Wayne is the director of a bible school called Ravencrest Chalet). We decided we would choose our course of action after a good night's sleep, so we prayed that God would heal my back and hit the sack.

Tuesday morning, we woke up and my back did indeed feel much better. Still stiff, but it looked like I would be ok. We had talked to the rangers at the backcountry office of Rocky Mountain National Park, and determined that the original trail we had wanted to do wouldn't be prudent since it went above treeline along the Continental Divide on one day and there was quite a bit of snow up there. So based on that and my healing back, we decided to dayhike on Tuesday and car camp that night at the Moraine Park campground. Walking without a pack didn't hurt my back, so that would give it one more day to heal. We hiked up to one of our favorite lakes - The Loch (see a previous blog post for a picture of this beautiful lake). The Aspens were gorgeous! They change color from high elevations down to low elevations, so the ones up high were already past their prime and the ones down low were still green. But the ones in the middle were a brilliant yellow with some orange. I can't explain their beauty - maybe I'll post some pictures some time next week. We then camped and listened to the Elk bugling through the evening hours (in the fall, the Elk participate in what is called the Fall Mating Rut, where the bulls make this loud high pitched bugling sound and fight for the rights to mate with a herd of cows). I also got some great pictures of a couple of bull elk locking horns, so I'll post those later too.

Wednesday, my back was pretty much healed! Praise God! He really did answer our prayers. We got our permits at the backcountry office, rode the shuttle bus to the Bear Lake trailhead, then hiked up towards Notchtop Mountain and Ptarmigan Cirque on our way to Lake Odessa. It began to get cold and rainy as we got up high near Notchtop, but we certainly enjoyed the views of the Ptarmigan glaciers and the majestic mountains. We then turned to the north and hiked down to Lake Odessa. We camped and ate a yummy meal of Pesto Pasta with Chicken under a big tree, then dove into our tent to get away from the rain. We played some cards, then hit the sack.

The rain subsided at around 4:00 a.m. early Thursday morning. Then a little later I began to hear this fierce wind. However, our tent was barely shaking since our camping spot was quite sheltered. At 8:00 a.m., I unzipped the tent door to see that it was snowing! Sideways! We were in the midst of quite a snowstorm. It was just beginning to stick to the trees and the ground, so we decided to pack up quick and hightail it on out of there. We packed up all of our wet gear (there's nothing quite so fun as packing up a wet tent fly), and continued on our trail past Fern Lake. As we dropped in elevation, the snow turned to rain. We had lunch at Fern Falls, then hiked past The Pool and on to the Fern Lake trailhead. Our original plan wasn't to exit at that trailhead, we were originally going to go to the Upper Mill Creek campsite, then on to the Glacier Gorge campsite, but we weren't sure of what the weather was going to do, so we decided to hike out and plan accordingly. We rode the bus to our car, then headed into Estes Park to call our girls and get some Starbucks Coffee.

After looking at the weather forecast, we realized that the worst snow would be that night (Thursday). So, we adjusted our plans and got a hotel on priceline.com in one of our favorite towns, Boulder, CO. We cleaned up, layed our gear out to dry and got some yummy food at one of our new favorite restaurants, BD's Mongolian Barbeque. Then back to the hotel for some shuteye. And of course, I am composing this blog from our hotel room.

This morning, we are packing back up with plans to head back to Estes Park and camp tonight, hike again tomorrow. It is supposed to snow today there, but taper off in the afternoon. We'll let you know more in the next post...