As you read this, chances are I’m hiking somewhere above 10,000 feet in Southwest Colorado, where we have a family vacation home. While Katie shows her love for us by staying at the house with our dogs, we’re enjoying two weeks at our cabin. As much as I love the water and never want to live away from the Chesapeake Bay, I look forward to these two weeks all year. It’s here in the mountains where my soul feels refreshed and renewed. It’s where I’ve learned some important lessons about life, particularly about the markers God and others leave for us along our journey.
Anyone who follows me knows I’m a big walker. I typically walk five miles a day and am training for Camino number three. Out here, I could walk for days, breathing in the fresh, clean air and tilting my face toward the sky, feeling as though Heaven is just beyond the reach of my fingertips.
Finding Markers
As a hiker, I’m always on the lookout for cairns. These are human-made piles or stacks of stones used as markers along a trail. They mark hidden trails, safe passages, memorials, historic events, and even burial places. Hikers will leave them as a testament they were there, usually on a high peak or a remote trail. They’re a common site throughout the Rockies and along the Camino, as well as other famous and not-so-famous trails around the world.
Vacation planning time is upon us. Tis the season when families are cementing their summer plans and dreaming about visiting exotic locales. Growing up, our vacations always consisted of borrowing a friend’s condo at the beach for a week or traveling with my father on business to places like Dover, New Hampshire or Long Island, New York. We didn’t go far, but we always had fun. I’ll never forget the time we stayed at a motel outside of Williamsburg. I still remember thinking that it had to be the grandest hotel in the world with its strawberry shaped pool and vending machines right in our hallway. In my mind, it was truly a magical vacation that included stops in Colonial Williamsburg and the now extinct pottery factory, a must-see place for all travelers at the time. 
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