For the second summer in-a-row, my friend Elaine and I have started the summer with a hiking goal  in mind. It’s pretty simple: get together one day a week and hike, with an ultimate hike at summer’s end before school begins again. Neither of us can believe we are already there, but our culminating hike is next week.

When we hiked Mt. Meeker at the end of last summer, we celebrated with Salted Nut Rolls. Part way through this summer’s hikes, I dubbed our provider “the Salted Nut Roll fairy,” and she has been very faithful to us. Not only do we get a good shot of protein, but some carbs and sugar for energy and endurance. Plus, they taste good.

We’ve done progressively more difficult hikes to prepare for Mt. Bierstadt and Mt. Evans next week. So this week, we headed up to Chasm Lake on the Long’s Peak Trail. We’ve hiked this trail before, a few years ago when we climbed Long’s Peak. Most of the first four miles we’d hiked in the dark, so we rediscovered the beauty of this trail as we headed off around 6:30AM.

Waterfalls and log bridges, so many wild flowers to delight and ooze joy, blue skies, pungent pines, sheer rock faces, wetlands, tundra, marmots, two high mountain privies with unbelievable views, and the best hiking partner a friend could have.

I told Elaine as we rounded a corner into a stand of columbine that took my breath away that God did not skimp in the creative juices department when He stopped on this trail to breathe.