Well, as we’d hoped in the last post, we were able to get back to the Dry Creek Basin area of Colorado and pick back up on our journey. Thankfully, we were blessed right out of the gate. After spending an extra day and night at our friend Lonni’s house to catch up, re-pack, and re-group, it was time for us to mosey on down the road toward Norwood, CO.

Before we left, however, we got to meet with some hunters staying in Lonni’s cabins. The group was from Missouri, which was fun because Lindsie and I had been living in Springfield, Missouri, before starting on the journey. One of the younger guys, Cale, was incredibly friendly. We had a great conversation with him the night we got back into town, and he helped us out with a few other things as well as we prepared to leave. For all we know, the Lord might put Cale back into our path when we go across Missouri. As we’ve learned on this trip so far, nothing is impossible.

Anyway, the morning we decided to head out of Dry Creek Basin, Lonni was kind enough to drive our carts up ahead of us about 9 miles, which helped us avoid a huge (and beautiful) canyon that we would’ve had to go down and back up to get through (on a gravel road, no less). Instead, Lindsie, Jaeda and I were able to safely, casually, and comfortably walk through the canyon in order to reach our carts, which we’d left at a place in Redvale, CO.

From there, we grabbed our stuff and headed toward Norwood. It meant that our first day back was a 17.5-mile day, but we had a destination ahead of us, which always makes it easier. Our plan was to stay at Norwood Southern Baptist Church whenever we reached town, and with that goal in mind, we pushed on.

We ended up reaching Norwood that night, but before we got to the church, a woman named Sam Guthrie caught up to us and invited us to stay with her and her husband, Joe. They had seen us walking down the road that day and knew Emily, a mutual connection we’d made a few weeks before. Sam and Joe fed us a delicious dinner of chips and chili, let us take showers, and spent a fun night sharing really interesting conversation with us. All in all, we were thankful for their generosity and are appreciative that they wanted to help.

The next day, Sam drove us back into town (they lived a few miles outside of town back the way we’d come) and dropped us off at the church. The church pastor, Joe Bowman, was really friendly and offered to let us stay at the church that night. We gave our overwhelming thanks and enjoyed a walk-free day of foot rest as we performed a few much-needed tasks like sewing up tears and holes in our carts. The Bowmans also offered us showers, which, as a rule, we never turn down, so we were thankful for that as well.

The next day was Sunday, which was perfect because we really wanted to attend the church service that morning. Pastor Bowman gave a truly inspired (and inspiring) sermon, which we thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. We had originally planned to start walking toward our next town after church, but the Bowmans invited us to have lunch with them, and the opportunity for more food and fellowship was too good to pass up. We decided to just stick around an extra night, which gave us time to have lunch with Joe, his wife Judi, and their kids Cameron and Casey. It also gave us a chance to spend the afternoon enjoying fellowship with them, going to look at elk (which Lindsie was very excited about), and getting a little bit of laundry done as a bonus.

The next morning, Cameron and Casey did us a favor by driving our carts down the very steep Norwood Hill, which had a sharp drop-off on the side we’d be walking down. Once again, we felt much safer walking without our carts, and we definitely appreciated their offer to drive our carts down for us.

We pushed hard that day, but still ended up needing to sleep outside for the first time since the weather had gotten colder in the area. Fortunately, my Aunt Penny and Uncle Lenny recently offered to get us warmer sleeping bags (Aunt Penny basically said she’d sleep better knowing we weren’t going to freeze to death), so we got some sleeping bags that are rated down to -20 degrees, and we stayed warm and toasty in them even though the weather was pretty chilly that night.

The next day we pushed again, and made it to just a few miles short of the Dallas Divide. The Dallas Divide is right around 9,000 feet high, which meant it would be COLD if we stayed up on top of it that night. As a result, we stopped about 8 miles short of the Dallas Divide so we could stay at least a little bit warmer at night. Then, after a truly cold night of sleep (it was 22 degrees in our tent when we woke up at 8 am, and the sun was out at that point…but our sleeping bags kept us safe and warm all night—have no fear Aunt Penny), we packed up and made our push toward Ridgway, CO.

On an interesting side note, Ridgway is the area where the original True Grit was filmed. And it’s beautiful.

Anyway, we had called Ridgway Community Church that morning to see if they knew of a place we could stay, and we were happy to discover that they were having their “HarvestFest” celebration that night at the church. Besides having a place for us to stay, we were going to be able to get free food, fellowship, and even enjoy a bonfire at the church. All we needed to do was get into town that night.

That meant an 18.75-mile day of walking for us. And thanks to the mountains, 19 miles is a little harder to pull off than it used to be. Like we said in the title of this post, we knew it would take some true grit to reach our destination that night.

Obviously we were motivated, and that motivation (and God’s strength) helped us push on, even when we were out of breath and exhausted. After a full day of walking, we dragged ourselves into Ridgway about 20 minutes before the event started, and we could smell the delicious food before we even walked in the door.

We ended up having a blast at the HarvestFest. Besides the free food, we met some great people, including the Darcy family, who offered to let us spend the night at their place in a nice, warm bed. Of course we said yes, and we enjoyed such a great night of sleep that when they asked if we wanted to stay an extra night, we told them we would love to stay an extra night.

This also gave us a chance to grab a quick lunch with Alex, a guy we’d met at HarvestFest the night before, as well as a few other high schoolers who meet for lunch once a week. Alex is a high school senior who is considering his own cross-country journey (most likely by car rather than by foot), and we really had a great time talking with him at HarvestFest about his plans and, more importantly, what God has planned for his future. The lunch we got to enjoy was rushed, but we did get to meet Pastor Hank, a pastor from Honduras who is doing some amazing work for the Lord down south, so we were happy we got to do that.

Later that night, we got to enjoy yet another unique experience on this journey. The Darcy kids, Trevor and Alexis, are into rock climbing, and there’s an “open gym” for rock wall climbing in Ridgway certain nights of the week. We were invited to go, and we readily took them up on the offer. As you can see from the photos, we went at it pretty hard for newcomers, but it was really fun (and incredibly challenging).

We woke up the next morning a little stiff, but generally ready to hit the road. After getting a ride into town from Cheryl, we picked up our carts at the church and were just about to leave. Then, a new friend—John Zacharias, who we’d met the night before—pulled up. He saw us leaving and loaded us up with extra food, water, and all around kindness. Needless to say, we were thankful.

All in all, Ridgway was a true blessing. Even though the weather has gotten colder, we felt as warm as ever (both literally and figuratively) thanks to the people we met in town.

We are excited to keep moving on down the road, and we’re praying that God keeps us safe, warm, and dry as we go. We would be pretty thankful if you didn’t mind praying for those things too. And if there’s anything we can pray for on your behalf, please don’t hesitate to let us know, either on Facebook or via email at StormingJericho (at) gmail.com.

Thanks everyone, and we’ll have another update coming soon!

-Mike and Lindsie