Underhill Update Blog

Well on Monday Andrea & I got back from a nine day road trip that took us from Montana to Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and back. The purpose of the trip was to attend the spring Christian Adventure Association (CAA) conference held in Prescott, Arizona. The CAA is a community that exists to glorify Christ by encouraging, edifying, and equipping wilderness and adventure leaders. This was the third conference I was able to attend and Andrea’s first.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time before the conference seeing some of the amazing beauty of the southwestern United States. I love going down there because the area is so different from anything we have here in Montana. We traveled down with Dave & Judy McPhee (guest service directors at camp), Leanna Guinn (program team member), and Jordan Stoner (camp intern). Stops on the way down included Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. In Zion we were able to hike to the top of Angel’s Landing. This hike takes you up a knife-edge ridge that rises out of the valley floor 1500 vertical feet. It is fairly exposed but offers incredible views to the south and north where you can see the Virgin river exiting out of the narrows. After hiking Angel’s landing we were able to go up to the narrows and wade up the virgin river for a bit. The water was very cold and our feet ached quite a bit! After wading in the narrows we went on a trail that affords a beautiful view of Zion Canyon. I am continually amazed at the beauty of God’s creation in Zion National Park. Personally, it is my favorite National Park and one that I hope we can get to again to do and extended backpacking trip.

After Zion we went to the Grand Canyon and spent the day hiking along the rim trail and stopping at many of the popular canyon overlook points. The size and scope of the Grand Canyon are hard to grasp and we were caught in a stupor trying to accept the immenseness of this beautiful place! From here we went to Arizona and spent some time in the Red Rock area around Sedona. We went to Slide Rock state park for an afternoon and then had to get on to Prescott.

The conference had about 40 people attending. Andrea & I established many great contacts and were blessed with encouraging conversations with others about the ministry God has us involved in here at Camp Bighorn. There was a lot of age & wisdom at the conference and we benefited from that for sure. The workshops were insightful and brought many thoughts as well as questions to mind. On Friday we had the opportunity to go to a canyon outside of Flagstaff, AZ that I went to three years ago called James Canyon. Andrea, myself, & 5 others did a half-day canyoneering trip down James Canyon in wonderful Arizona sunshine. The water was fresh snowmelt and was no warming the 1 or 2 degrees above freezing, so the sun was very appreciated.

Our trip back was pretty much a straight shot with an overnight stay in St. George Utah getting us back to Montana at 10:30pm on Monday night. We are getting back into the swing of things here at camp now and adjusting to the colder weather. We both feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to go down to Arizona and spend time developing relationships with those we work with and starting new relationships as well.

This is Andrea beginning a rappel down James Canyon. She is wearing a drysuit to help with the freezing cold temperatures of the water. At the bottom of this rope is about 10 feet of water and a narrow slot that you have to swim through. We were lucky to have a 5 foot wide and 4 inch thick slab of ice down the left of Andrea that we could stand on while we disconnected here. Normally you have to disconnect from the rope while wadding in the water (cold!!!).