Miss and love you buddy

The trip to the Crags began in the Firebird. Thats all I will say about that except that the trip up (and down) the US 24 pass was a sacred journey to me and the boy. Mostly Tears For Fears Songs From The Big Chair and speeds we won't go into here. (Quiet, girls).
We wanted to go to the top of Piles Peak, but Barr trail from Manitou Spings had been attempted before, and we wanted to actually make it so we set out for the Crags as a shortcut.
I'm pretty sure it was late June or early July and perfectly beautiful weather for exploration and discovery. With Daniel, the journey was more important than the destination so we were always on the lookout for treasure. We set out up the path and broke off somewhere past the Crags themselves. The only distinctive thing I remember about the forest was a spot where we stepped down into a clearing/valley to find the next hill up was blocked by a mass of hanging moss that I'd not seen before. We had to investigate because we both came up with Elves together. I'm certain we convinced ourselves that there were signs of Elves but they'd heard us coming. So onward we went. That may be where the stick came from....
Anyway, I don't remember much about the rest of the trip to the treeline, but I know we never stopped talking about stuff. Time is fuzzy too, but we did make it to the tundra. That kid went crazy about the sudden change in foliage and I remember him dancing and "bouncing" on the moss. I was becoming rapidly concerned about the sudden drop in temperature. But it was hard to stop a dancing Daniel so we pressed on. But not for long...I was frezzing and the kid suddenly stopped his hooligans and started shivering and holding himself. We stopped at a huge boulder hoping it would shelter us a bit and he looked up at me and said " Come on dad....we can make it", teeth chattering the whole time. I looked up the path and back down the path and said" Come on. No, we can't." He promptly agreed and back down we went.