Over the past few days we’ve been packed into a Honda Pilot with two people in each of the three rows of seating. We drove a total of well over 2,400 miles over blacktop, concrete, gravel, rock, and dirt. On the mountains and trails we hiked many miles and went well over 7,000 feet up in total elevation gain. We had rain, sun, heat, cold, frosty rocks, and wind. Much of the time everything went as well as or better than planned, but there were also a few times when things didn’t work out as we’d hoped. We went to bed early and rose by 3:15am each day to get out the door by 4am so we could be well on the trail by 5am. We put in a lot of work on this trip.

Why did we do it? There are certainly more than a handful of very accurate answers including:

• Because we could
• To enjoy the outdoors
• To experience new wilderness activities
• To explore
• To push ourselves physically and mentally
• To rejuvenate and re-focus
• To become closer to the people we are meant to be
• To satisfy our wanderlust
• To enjoy time together doing something we love

While all of those answers are true to a point and 100% acceptable, there is something else that really drives me to to things like this. Technically, I guess there is one reason split three ways 😉

Dreams. Something like this comes from initially from one person’s dream. “I want to summit a mountain.” Once the dream is thought up it can be manifest. After the dream is completed it will quite often lead to another dream – “I want to climb a 14er.” From that dream this trip was sparked.

From this trip, the completion of a dream, more dreams spring up.

“I want to climb more mountains – specifically these dozen or so, including multiples in one day.”

“I want to bring a camper out to Colorado for an entire summer to climb as many mountains as I can.”

“When we get older we should hike the 400-ish mile Colorado Trail together.”

“I’m coming for you Mt Massive!”

“I want to watch a sunrise from either Hope Pass or atop Quail Mountain.”

One simple dream, completed. Another dreamt up from the success of the first. A bigger dream completed. More dreams, grander in scale, created through the success of the second. Dream momentum. That is what I am thankful for today, the dream momentum each of us has as a result of an intensely awesome experience like this.

Dream momentum, worth every single ounce of blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice. One of the greatest forces in all of life… and now my boys and I have it rolling stronger and stronger. I can’t wait to see where our next sets of crazy big dreams take us!

Thanks!!!