Hinds Feet in High Places ....

I read a book in college called Hinds Feet in High Places. It was an allegory of our relationship with God - from when we first give our life as a sacrifice to climbing the mountain; being in the valley, temptation, etc.

Andy and I headed to Yosemite after leaving Napa Valley (another blog for another day - but it was AMAZING). As we are were sitting outside the RV near the ocean we chatted about hiking in Yosemite. I told Andy I had always wanted to hike HalfDome. Andy has had several friends climb (as in harnesses, ropes - technical climbing) up HalfDome and El Cap so he was a bit skeptical if we could actual hike Half Dome.


Back in the RV - windows open, hearing the water, sipping on wine from Arns Vineyard (again, Amazing) we scrolled through the hikes in Yosemite online. I anxiously read through the details of HalfDome. Andy, the older, wiser, rational Held says "We haven't been hiking in over a year, a 15 mile 4.5/5 star in difficulty, "strenuous" hike seems too ambitious for tomorrow morning" Me, the summit fever, can do anything says "But, I have ALWAYS wanted to do HalfDome" (see the zero rational?). Thankfully, for our hearts, lungs, feet and calves -you have to get a permit to reach the summit of HalfDome due to the risk level of too many people on the cables.....

So...we continued to search. The next most difficult hike is 4Mile. Which is a bit deceiving as it is 4.6 Miles One-Way, a gain of 3200 FT in elevation. Andy agreed to do the hike with "You won't be happy unless we are crushed"

We left camp at 7am - arrived in the Yosemite Valley 8:30 and started hiking at 9am. I wisely texted Marcus and Cari to tell them what we were hiking and what time to start worrying. (The website said it could take 2-4 hours each way)

 During the hike I had a lot of time to think about anything and everything. Hiking always reminds me of the book Hinds Feet in High Places. It is a story of love, struggle, sacrifice, faith, trust and victory. I started to think about how much I have been struggling to TRUST that is God is hearing our prayers. I think I trust and have faith - but do I really? I was thinking of everything - hiring new people, our pricing structure, living in the RV, our client relationships, where will we live in the winter, health of our families, our own health, money, travel, etc etc etc. Again, thinking about the book...am I willing to be blindly led by the hand of God? Will I allow Jesus to take me/us to unknown places and Trust Him. Andy has challenged me more than a couple of times lately - "Where is your faith?" God asks for us to put our worries at His feet and listen to Him tell us where to go. I think I keep picking it all back up! Anyway...it is a great read and one that I am going to read again soon.

Back to the hike...

I figured it would take us the full recommended 4 hours to get up since we had not hiked in some time. But...we hit the summit around 11:45! We could have made it in 2 hours but we took a ton of pictures and some video. Oh and Andy got blisters the size of silver dollars hiking up :(

We ate, took some pictures, unsuccessfully tried to doctor his blisters, relaxed a bit on top and then took another full 3 hours to hike down. It was amazing. Andy was right - We were crushed and I was happy :)