It feels so good

It's been more than a year and a half since my hand injury and I finally had the opportunity to go rock climbing.  November 11 2010, a glorious Veteran's day, started by meeting Stewart on the parking lot of Christ Presbyterian Church at 6 am.  We hit the road right away and arrived in Steele Alabama in 3.5 h. We drove to the top of the bluff to catch a great panoramic view of the valley.  However, my eyes were drawn to the cliff below us, wondering what today will bring.

The weather was crisp and clear.  The air was cool in the morning and slowly warmed up during the day.  We parked at the SCC's newest acquisition, an old trailer house up a stiff dirt and gravel road, and hiked our way to the base of the cliff.  We could 'smell' the rocks and it felt so good.  The leaves were beautiful shades of yellow, red, green and brown and the vegetation contrasted against a nice blue sky.

After a little while, Stewart's old climbing partners, Bernard and Sammy arrived.  These guys never stopped climbing and are still very involved with the SCC.  Stewart and Sammy are shown in the picture below.

So, they set up routes for us by lead trad climbing.  That means, for example, that they lead climbed up this cliff and installed device in cracks in the rock to protect themselves in case of a fall.  Pretty amazing.

Afterwards, they set up what is called 'top ropes' for Stewart and I to climb.  That way, if we happen to fall or get too tired to make it to the top, we can just hang there totally safely.  All in all, I was very pleased that my hand injury did not set me back too much.  I was able to do several successul ascents and even attempted a 5.10 route (which is pretty much where I maxed out before.

Stewart was also able to do a couple of climbs.  All in all, this turned out to be a great day.
Furthermore, Stewart and I got to fellowship for several hours driving to and fro Alabama.
God is good.