Well… you only turn 50 once.
And somehow, I found myself in Denali Alaska… with the day off.
I’m not gonna lie… it was the best birthday of my life. Maybe even one of the best days of my life.
It started slow… I slept in. The sun was out, the air was warm… one of those rare, perfect Alaska days. I wandered over to the cook shack to make some breakfast before our planned run down the river.
But when I walked in… I was met with something better.
Alfredo… one of our best raft guides, all the way from Ecuador… had made me a frittata. And it was incredible.
From there, we headed up to the raft office to gear up. Dry suit on… the biggest one they had… the King XXXL. Size 15 river booties. Then they pumped me full of air until I looked like the Michelin Man.
I loved every second of it.
Hat on backwards… aviators on… fully in character.
We hit the canyon section of the Nenana River… big Alaskan water, Class III and IV rapids crashing around us. The ride was everything I hoped for… cold, powerful, alive. I even got a chance to row for a bit.
After the run… we loaded the boats onto the trailer, piled onto the bus, along with a couple dozen guests from our guided trips, and started heading back. That’s when Loomis stood up.
Chris Loomis… one of our most experienced guides and a good friend… decided to give a speech on the bus ride back about me right there in front of all the guests of the just completed trip .
And it was epic.
He spun this wildly exaggerated story about me growing up in the deep wilderness of Colorado… Crazy ex wives, and some larger than life tale about how I ended up in Alaska. It was part truth, part total fiction… and completely hilarious.
The whole bus was laughing… and honestly, I just felt honored. It made me feel seen… and celebrated… in a way I won’t forget.
Somewhere in the middle of it all… gifts came out.
My friend Misty surprised us with matching Denali Raft long sleeve tees… this perfect periwinkle color I still love.
Misty is a very influential person in my life. Despite being younger than me, she carries a kind of insight and wisdom that makes you stop and listen. She’s one of my only true born Alaskan friends… born and raised there. In Alaska, we don’t really use the word “native” for that… that’s reserved for Indigenous communities. But Misty is as Alaskan as it gets… from the small town of Nenana.
This season, I found myself at a crossroads. I’d run out of money, and with the season coming to an end, reality was waiting for me… time to work again after four years of drifting, exploring, and honestly… goofing off.
Somewhere in the middle of all that uncertainty, Misty helped me slow things down and look at it differently. Oddly enough, it came through something as simple and a little silly as a tarot reading. I don’t put much weight into the mystical side of tarot… but the process itself made me think. It gave me space to be honest about what I actually want.
I was trying to answer the big questions… where should I go, what should I do, what does my future look like?
And the answer turned out to be pretty simple.
I don’t want just one place.
I want to keep moving.
I want Alaska… the desert Southwest… parts of Colorado. Different landscapes, different seasons, different versions of life. What I realized in that moment is that it’s not about choosing one… it’s about building a life that can hold all of them.
That was the epiphany.
Not picking a place… but creating a structure that lets me live in many.
And then… the boomerang
Still sitting out on the airstrip… the same one that took me out the season before. The one that led to a broken ankle and surgery. I couldn’t help myself… had to give it another throw.
This time… just a reenactment.
And behind the camera… was Kayleigh.
My dear Kayleigh… filming, laughing, right there with me on my birthday.
Later that evening… I got to slow it all down.
Adrian and Kayleigh took me out for a birthday dinner at Prey… just down the road. Good food, good company… one of those simple, perfect endings to an already unforgettable day.
Kayliegh sadly passed away in 2025… and not a day goes by that I don’t think about her.
Love you. Miss you, Kayleigh.
A couple days later… we were right back at it.
Another fun run… this time in one of our old school rafts… a 30 year old “bucket boat.” This was before self bailing rafts… so every wave that came in… stayed in.
And we earned every bit of it.
I was at the helm… Smashley, and Lola alongside… Dani going to work throwing buckets of water overboard… and Drew holding it down in the back as guide.
Cold water sloshing… people laughing… pure chaos.
Just the way it should be, and dam did I just turn 50!?
journeyvision 