The Path Less Traveled: Day 6: Thursday, July 17, 2014

This was the last day of the Freedom Climb. The ladies as well as Josiah, Thomas and Alex, did their list 14,000 foot climb. Josiah and Thomas got up and close to a mountain goat that came right up to them. They also said that there were some ladies that continued to be beasts on the mountain flying up to the top and back. Incredible!

Worship that evening was probably the best we had all week. The ladies really connect with worship and I have to say that for the first time this week, I was able to really worship and not concentrate on what I was playing.

Dan and I did our own Freedom Climb. We decided to go to the top of the mountain behind Breckenridge Ski Area. We thought we could make it to the top, ride for a few miles along the Colorado Trail, and then back down into town and back to the house...in about 5 hours. Well, that was a nice thought, especially seeing that the top of the mountain was around 13,000 ft and the house is sitting right around 10,000 ft...no problem! We knew we would be doing a lot of climbing, but what we didn't expect was how long it would take.

We got lost a couple times, but we got back on track, and for the next 3 hours we climbed to just a little over 12,500 ft, right where the service road met the trail. We made one of our goals which was to get above the tree line. While we didn't quite make our ultimate goal of getting to the top of the mountain, we got a new respect for these ladies and what they did by climbing to 14,000 ft. It gave Dan and I the experience of what the ladies were climbing for, and that is to help stop human trafficking and slavery!

We chilled for a few minutes on the mountain, even had a snowball fight, and then we started down. What took us 3 hours to climb, we rode down all the way to the town of Breckenridge in 35 minutes! What an adventure, and what a great cause!