SUMMARY:  A beautiful, cool morning with a breeze rustling in the cottonwood trees felt so good!  There was a church service with Psalm 46 included, which was very encouraging–“The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear…”  This has been such a tough trail, and many times I have been at the end of my own strength.  But God truly is “very present”.  I spent time doing “chores” but very relaxed, with lots of eating the great food.  Fixit mostly just lay down and “turned into jello.”  We so needed this!  Sabbath rest is wonderful.  Tomorrow back to the trail!

DETAILS:  This morning we stepped out into a cool, fresh morning and stood there taking in the sweeping views across the Abique valley.  The breeze was rustling in the cottonwood trees and birds were singing their morning songs.  No hiking today–time for a Sabbath rest.

After a great breakfast, we headed over to the chapel for church.  Turns out that the husband of Ghost Ranch’s administrator is a retired Presbyterian minister, and today he was preaching.  There was a small but colorful congregation of about 10 people attending.

Behind the communion table up front, there was a large clear window, with a panoramic view of the valley–what a view of God’s awesome creation!  It’s Memorial Day weekend, so the service focused on Psalm 46  “The Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear.”  I sat there thinking about how awesome it is that God is BOTH refuge (where we can go for comfort and safety) AND He is also our strength (so we can go out again and face whatever is happening and take it on).  I remember when I was basically an arrogant atheist/agnostic, and my reaction to people who were Christians was to pity them–“Poor little wussy babies!  They need to believe in God for a crutch because they’re too weak to stand on their own.”  That was before I discovered the powerful, awesome, loving beyond anything I ever could have imagined Person that God is.  Sure, I could stand on my own two feet and be strong, for myself, but to do that, I had to harden myself inside and concern myself more with “me” than with “others.”  Not good.  All that has changed since I stopped blowing God off and pushing Him away.  I “laid down my weapons” and surrendered to Him. Now I get to hike with Him, have adventures with Him, and make a difference in this very messed up world with Him.

Anyway, this HAS been a tough trail, this CDT.  I’m tired and uneasy from so often having to stop and say, “Where’d the trail go?”  Being able to sit and rest in church and listen to the Bible and just soak it in, was wonderful.   I’m 68 years old, and  many times in the last few weeks, I have been at the end of my own strength. But God truly has been “very present”, over and over again.  The minister also read some excerpts from the book “Grace Under Fire”, which is a collection of letters written by U.S. soldiers all the way from the Revolutionary War to Iraq/Afghanistan, about how they personally experienced God’s presence, strengthening them, when they were under fire or a prisoner.  I thought about the Wounded Warriors, who are hiking the CDT this year.  They are ahead of us by a couple of weeks.  Hope they all make it to Canada!

After church, I did our “town chores”–sorting food came first.  Once I knew what we still needed to get, I raided the awesome, well-organized hiker boxes at the Ranch, and found everything I needed to finish loading up our food bags for the “run to the border” (the Colorado border!).  Then I took the laundry, and while it was going through its wash cycles, I sat outside in the sun under an old apple tree, took my shoes off and gave my feet a good sunning.  They needed it!   For the “dry” cycles, I went to the library (just across the lawn) and indulged in a soft comfortable couch to sit on and read a book.  Like everything else here at Ghost Ranch, the library is very clean, well-organized and comfortable.  There’s no librarian–they operate on the honor system.

At lunch, while we were enjoying more great food, in walked HoB!  He was exhausted, fresh off the trail, and so hungry.  He plans to zero here tomorrow.  Other hikers also started coming in off the trail.  Everybody has tales to tell of their adventures up in the Pedro Peaks, with the snow, the icy swamp meadows, and the disappearing trail.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon lying down and studying maps for the upcoming section of the trail, trying to get an idea of what to expect.  We have both Ley maps and Bear maps, and I looked carefully at both.  After that, I just rested.  Fixit and I both feel like we are just turning into jello.  Wow, we are tired!  After dinner, Fixit went to the library so he could get wifi and do some internet stuff, while I wandered off to look at the plants and gardens and old buildings.

Tonight we’ll get a good rest, and tomorrow, we’ll be headed back UP to 10,000 feet again, in the northern New Mexico mountains!  Ghost Ranch has been wonderful.