backpacking

This last weekend, Jenna and I along with our friends Ben and Jen Lindwall went backpacking on the superior hiking trail for the weekend. We parked the car in Goosberry, loaded up our packs and hiked in about 4 miles to a secluded place away from any other people where we set up camp. We feasted on some burritos, made a fire and enjoyed the peace and quiet. The only problem was that we realized that we had run out of water! So we went to find a water source (stream, river, lake, well, anything…) but after hiking up hill for about a mile, we realize we were not close to any water, so we went back to our temporary home. The next morning we hiked 5.3 miles to Split Rock in search of Water as well as a place to hang out for a while. After we got water and made some delicious pancakes complete with raspberries that we had just picked, we packed back up and traveled the 5.3 miles again back to our camp site. This time we were not alone. A solo minimalist backpacker had set up his tarp and bag. (that’s right, no tent for this guy!) His name was Nick and we inquired about his backpacking experience while treating ourselves to some fruit cobbler that Jen made for us. We were exhausted after traveling over 10 miles that day on foot, and so we retired to our tent as soon as it was dark enough. The next morning we ate a cliff bar, packed up all or stuff and were on our way back to the car. The hike back seemed to be much longer than we remembered probably because we were tired, and it was strange running into so many people after being relatively alone for a couple days. When we got back to the car, Jenna and I went for a quick dip in lake superior while Jen and Ben made some coffee. We then made our way to Fitgers for some great food and beverage! All in all it was a wonderful weekend and made us realize that “car camping” is nothing compared to backpacking. There is so much more satisfaction. We did learn that we may want to lighten up the load next time, as well as bring more water to start with, but we are itching to get back on the trail and continue heading north!

I’ll leave you with some photos:

Chicago

Well, Wes and I are back from Chicago. For those of you who didn’t know, I was in Chi- town for a C&MA conference. The conference is required for all newly licensed pastors in the C&MA, and so that’s why we were there. The highlights of my time there were definitely hanging out in downtown Chicago, enjoying the fine Chicago cuisine, going to a Cubs game at Wrigley, and hanging with wes and John Maves. For those of you familiar with Chicago style pizza, you know it was only fitting that we partake both of Geno’s East Pizza and also Giordano’s Pizza, and so we did just that. I think I like Geno’s East a bit better, but it is hard to not love them both. We also had a wonderful hot Italian beef sandwich dipped in Au Jus. My tastebuds were jumping for joy in each situation!

worship gathering

we had our first worship gathering for “sanctuary”. It was held at the local Dunn Bros, or as Wes likes to say, “the mighty dunn!”. It was a time of worship through song, scripture, prayer, teaching, and fellowship. It was fun to see some new faces and those that I’ve come to know over the past few months come together to glorify God. It was an exciting time for this community as we look ahead to what’s next, and fun for me to dust off my guitar and sing. Your prayers for us are greatly appreciated.