Introductions Part One

Where to start? I don't know why I decided to start a blog. I used to keep a journal and it satisfied a desire to share my thoughts and just chronical my life. As I've gotten older, this habit has fallen by the wayside. Tomorrow I turn 38 (I don't feel a day over 18!), so maybe this is a mid-life crisis sort of thing. Who knows?

I've been through many iterations of myself, but the one constant is the need for adventure. I've found adventure in the outdoors since that first camping trip with my parents, cruising around in their van in the Rocky Mountains in the early 70's. My folks were definitely "hippies", and we found ourselves in places where maybe we didn't fit in, but the lure of the great western landscape was so strong we returned year after year- living in the van, my mom painting, my dad playing guitar around the campfire. I'm sure these experiences are why I was determined to live a life in the outdoors and why I live in Salida Colorado today.

Tami and I married right out of highschool, and it wasn't long until we moved west, eventually working our way to Prescott Arizona where I went to Prescott College. PC focuses on the Liberal Arts and the Environment, and many of my classes were in the outdoors- backpacking, rafting the Grand Canyon, visiting Mexico. The experiences I had there were amazing.

I graduated from Prescott College in 1995 with my focus on park and wilderness management, but my first job after graduation was as a whitewater rafting guide here on the Arkansas River. This later led to work as a River Ranger then as a Flyfishing Guide.