I missed wishing Mark a Happy Birthday this year, but I know that he knows I wish him that and many more in his eternal future!  I have such fond and happy memories of Mark from High School.  I had the fortunate of experience of meeting his son Eric, who literally lives right around the corner from me in Louisville Colorado.  It really is a small world and we are all children of God! I have such fond memories of Mark in high school, and of our friendship. Of course, like many of the girls I was crazy about him!  Miss you Mark and I am so sorry we didn't get to hook up in 2009 since we had just found each other again on Facebook.

 My memory of this event may not be the clearest, but I am the only living witness of the adventure so, with that in mind, it will be difficult to prove my account untrue.  In my new line of work only 10% of the story has to be true to be worthy of telling… but I’ll do my best to be completely accurate in this brief summary.

It was late April of 2007 and I had just finished a semester at BYU.  Dad had planned a full couple days of adventure in Southern Utah for which he flew into Salt Lake City.  I picked him up in my beat up, family-hand-me-down, Ford Windstar (I wasn’t absolutely confident it would survive the round trip) and we turned south and headed straight for Escalante.  We spent the first night in a cabin on a ranch where our first adventure would be the next morning.

Come meet your horse and saddle up.  We were going horseback riding with a guide through miles of gorgeous rocky desert and canyon country.  Our turn back point where we had lunch looked over a steep canyon that turned tightly like an S with a small stream.  Dead Man’s Gorge I think it was called.  On the way back we crossed a small stream with rather steep banks on both sides.  Our horsed had to gallop down quickly in order to have enough steam to get up the other side.   This was my first time on a horse so these few moments of holding on for my life were exciting to say the least.

We then drove a little ways to the town of Escalante where we met our fishing guide.  The afternoon consisted of personal training on fly casting in a small creek.  Then we traveled up narrow country roads to a mountainous plateau where we then hiked up a trail for 20 minutes to try our hand at lake fly fishing floating in tubes.  Late evening quickly turned to dusk, then all light quickly left as we were in the mountains.  We hiked back down the steep trail relying on flashlights to see our footing.  This trip truly set the hook in me as a future fly fisherman.  Mission accomplished, dad.

Off to bed because we had an early start the next day – Canyoneering in Escalante’s guide’s favorite spot AFC Canyon.   A short drive and a short hike and we were anchoring to a tree and repelling 60 feet.  For the next four or five hours we repelled five more times with hiking and canyoneering in between.   For those who may not know, canyoneering is the sport of shuffling and squeezing and scrambling in and through narrow slot canyons.  Dad always impressed me with his ability to hike long distances and achieve anything he set his mind to in our many outdoor adventures.  The same story here as I watched him scramble and squeeze and shuffle through these canyons.   We had such an awesome time that we came back to that canyon twice in later years.  What an awesome experience with an awesome dad.

I was beat after that morning canyon experience.  But dad had plans.  We had another 5 miles or so to hike to see some of the most beautiful waterfalls of southern Utah.  I didn’t admit it to him then or ever, but I was extremely impressed with dad’s love for the outdoors and his stamina.  Driving to the trailhead of this last hike, dad said to me that it might be a good idea to have a honeymoon or getaway with my future wife here.  I agreed but have yet to get it on our schedule.  But I will not let it fall by the wayside – Escalante, we’re coming.

Thank you dad for that experience.  Nothing says I care about you and love you like planning that whole trip and spending that time with me, one-on-one.  

It has been a year since the death of Mark.  I grow up in the same neighborhood with him which included Ashlawn Elementary School, Kenmore Jr. High and Washington-Lee High School.

I think his son summed up all of his qualities, I hope I can pass the same to my two boys.

My heart goes out to all of his family. 

I knew Mark professionally.  He was a very caring and consciencious person, dedicated to what he was doing and to helping his "advisors" be the best they could be.