The day broke clear and cold in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The 7079’ elevation kept the overnight low of 20 degrees within close range until 10 AM, when the temperature finally came up to 32 and we were layered up enough to venture forth. Our first stop, Wolf Creek Pass, was about 30 miles up the road and about 4000’ higher up in elevation. At nearly 11,000’, this crossing of the Continental Divide had already seen its first snow a few days earlier and it was still on the ground in places. It is known for it’s record snowfall at 600 to 700 inches per year, and received another foot or more of snow 2 days after we were there. It was Dan the Man’s last “mo-see-dungo” ride (“motorcycle” in Danny’s two year-old vocabulary - one of his very first words!), and we were taking him to Wolf Creek Pass if we had to ride through a blizzard. As we pulled the throttles up to speed, the crisp air filled our lungs with the smell of autumn and sweetgrass, and the gentle sounds of the Polynesian artist Iz’s ukulele strumming “Somewhere over the Rainbow” floated through my mind.

As we crested the summit, the snow-dusted peaks reminded us that winter was just a whisper away. We dismounted our bikes and I took Dan’s little gold bottle out of the pocket closest to my heart where he’d ridden the last two days with me. Warren and I surveyed the area, and were drawn to an open alpine meadow that stretched back to a brook, and then to the tree line. I think Dan would have liked that meadow, and I pictured him running through it over to the brook.

I walked a little path in that direction carrying Danny’s ashes with me. The ground was moist - like permafrost – and the brook had a thin sheet of ice encrusting it where the sun hadn’t yet touched it. We stood by the brook and told him we would not stand by his grave and weep; he was not there, he did not sleep. We knew he was a thousand winds that blew, the sunlight’s kiss on morning dew. We scattered some of his ashes in the sunny part of the brook, and some on the meadow, which would soon be deep in snow.