I was vacationing with my family in Cloudcroft, NM, and I saw this route. Thanks to Mark and Michael for putting it together, and Lord have mercy on Heart Attack Canyon. If any more motorcycles go up that route, the next person will need climbing gear to get up those ruts. As a trail runner and priest, I got a lot of time to contemplate the psalm for this Sunday, so here's a little Lincoln National Forest interpretation of Psalm 84:
1. For my running tribe,
a song of praise.
2. How inspiring are your dwellings,
O Lord of the Sentinels!
3. My soul longs, indeed strives,
for the high places of God.
My heart and my lungs,
cry out for the Source of Life.
4. Even the raven finds a home,
and the woodpecker an excavation for herself,
nurturing her young at your evergreen altars,
O Lord of the Sentinels, my Queen and my God.
5. Content are those who dwell in your branches,
ever praising you in song.
6. Invigorated are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are on the pilgrim path,
7. traversing the summits of Sacramentos,
they find a place of lee and warmth,
the boughs of firs shielding the winter winds.
8. They go from cliff to cliff,
their joy echoing before God from the summits.
9. O Lord of the Sentinels, hear my prayer,
Quiet the roads, O Defender of the still.
10. Behold, our serenity, O God,
validate the peace of your pilgrim
11. For an hour in your forests are better
than a thousand in a city,
I would rather be a vagabond in your wilds,
than call the mansions of technology my home.
12. For the Creator is a furnace and friend,
she warms and encourages.
No channel of power does the Source withhold,
from those who strive ever onward.
13. O Lord of the Sentinels,
content are those who follow your paths.