Storm Mountain Adventure

I didn't have the words today to express what I saw and I'm still not sure how to describe the day, but I'll do my best. Today was an unbelievable, amazing, wonderful, emotional, and scary day. Today was the day we took Uncle Toot to his final resting place and he is now in his "Forever Happy Place."  And here's how it went...

We gathered up the gang and headed into town to pick up the ATV's we had rented and picked up another at Jim's buddy's Sam's house. 

We started the drive toward the mountains and continued onto Storm Mountain Rd. which was scary enough for me. I realized at this point that it wasn't a good idea to sit in the back seat and was sick to my stomach. We were driving through a canyon and then turned into switchbacks. 

We finally made it to the place on the trail (they kept calling it a road, but it didn't look like one I had ever been on) to get the ATV's off the trailer. So far everything is going smoothly. 

We started up the trail hoping the gate up to the mountain would be unlocked. We were told with weather pending, it would open on June 15th. We got to the gate and it was locked. There was no way around it. Out of the blue, a man on a 4-wheeler came riding up behind us who lived up the mountain. He told us he wasn't allowed to let us past the gate since it was still locked. Matt explained our situation to the man and out of the goodness of his heart, he said he would make an exception and let us through. He would follow us up a ways and then let us back out on our way down. I know someone sent him there because there was no other way we would've made it to the top without him.

We took this picture about halfway up.

We rode about 5 miles past the gate to get to the top of Storm Mountain. What an amazing view it was. I know why Chris loved it so much but it was hard to believe he enjoyed the ride up and down. It was pretty darn scary and dangerous. Now I know why Matt has been stressing about it for the past 9 months. 

The weather was absolutely perfect for the ride up. We could see down to the valley which was gorgeous. The pictures can never show the true beauty of what we saw today. 

Jim had a plaque made to be set on the mountain. We found the perfect spot for it. 

We all had our moment to say a few words before spreading Chris' ashes. 

As you can see, the weather started coming in and we were literally in the clouds. It was like nothing we've ever experienced. It was almost as if Chris was telling us "thanks, your job is done now."  We all felt his presence in many ways...

Here's a few more pictures from our adventure. Thank you Chris for allowing me the opportunity to see such an amazing and breathtaking place in the world.  I will always wish you could've been there with all of us for experience of a lifetime. 

There's our friend Mike who was sent from God to let us complete our Storm Mountain mission:)

It was about a year and a half ago when Chris was first intubated. At this time, he told Matt that his wish was for his ashes to be spread on Storm Mountain. Matt was the only person he told this to, but we certainly didn't think it would happen this soon.  If anyone knows Matt, he is the best brother you could ever ask for and he will always fulfill his promises!!