“His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand; the serenity of a clear blue mountain lake”-John Denver; Rocky Mountain High

When hiking through the mountains of the centennial state, it’s almost as if the voice Colorado’s most famous native son softly echoes across the land.  The lyrics of John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High certainly vividly describe the landscape we were in but perhaps in light of yuletide festivities, perhaps another one of Denver’s songs Christmas for Cowboys is more appropriate to mark the occasion.

Another early morning, we made haste to reach our final pass that would take us back to Snowmass Lake. While a shorter day than the rest, we could see from our time on the trek at Snowmass Lake earlier that the pass was quite treacherous. We were heading uphill from the stream all the way to the summit and as we continued to climb, the mountain appeared to be a long way off. As we continued to head up the meadows became rockier and steeper.

After eventually reaching the top of the pass around 10:34 a.m. On the top there was a Christian student group praying atop a rock overlooking the landscape (Colorado, despite situated well outside the “Bible Belt”, has one of the largest evangelical Christian communities, especially for youth, in the United States). If I were to be completely honest, heading up the pass, they weren’t the only ones praying. However even after reaching the top of the pass, a handful of us still had enough energy left to take off our packs and climb to the summit. Once we went back down to where the rest of the crew was situated, we met a couple guys who had two dogs named Baby Ruth and Romeo (everyone in Colorado has a dog).

Below us lied a crystal-clear blue lake and above us was a clear blue sky. With a tranquil silence, I never felt more at peace, away from the struggles of problems of everyday life. I looked down at all of the progress we made over the past few days and the journey we still had to finish, staring at one of the most beautiful views on earth. I reflected on my scouting experience and my entire childhood, realizing that it was coming to an end, but at the same time I knew there was so much more to come. As we descended, we came across a patch of snow and despite being high above the tree line, a group of hikers had dragged a pine tree up the mountain and put it in the snow. They built a snowman next it named Chadwick for their high school principle, it was Christmas in July. Running down onto the patch of ice towards the tree we had a snowball fight and took turns taking pictures with the little snowman. One scout, like a storybook character of olden times, even decided to make a snow angel, though he did it in a t-shirt and complained the whole time.

When I think about it, it was like a Christmas in July. The holidays are a time spent with those closest to us, to forget about the problems of the world and enjoy ourselves. A time to reflect on our journey, the struggles and the triumphs, and look forward to the unknown potential of future. As the semester ends, I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about my experiences in Colorado and I hope you look forward to the culmination of the trip. I have enjoyed sharing it with “all y’all” as they would say in Colorado.  As those the Rocky Mountains now find themselves uninhabited by no one but the silent white blanket of winter,  I wish you all a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.