Captains of Us

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." - T. E. Lawrence

We may not be able to control the chaos of the world at large, but we do control the choices we make and the paths that our lives will take. We — the dreamers of the daytime — choose not to sit back and let life wash over us. Instead, we choose to be Captains of Us.

Captains of Us began as a partner project between Dan (“Soapbox”) and Jonathan (“Pedi”) when they set off from St. Louis, MO to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014. Dan is an Eagle Scout and experienced outdoorsman. The PCT was Jonathan’s first camping trip. Cue the shenanigans!

Along the PCT, Jonathan met and fell in love with another hiker, adding Molly (“Frizz”) to the team. In the decade since, the Captains have all found their way to Colorado's Front Range, in the foothills of some mighty fine adventure territory. They’ve continued adventuring together and have supported each other through some pretty big changes: buying homes, starting new careers, recovering from injuries, and for Dan, marrying his longtime partner, Jo.

It has been a wild ride, and that’s the way we like it.

Buy us a Snickers bar

Jonathan (Pedi)

When Dan pitched the idea of hiking the PCT, Jonathan had no idea what he was really signing up for: that 2,600 mile journey was quite literally his first camping trip.

As a lifelong distance runner, though, Jonathan quickly found his pace. While on the trail, he met his hiker trash sweetheart and they moved to Colorado in 2015 with everything they owned stuffed into a car. Since then, Jonathan has learned to backcountry ski and rock climb, and has fallen in love with scrambling in Boulder’s flatirons.

Oh yea, and uh… he makes some pretty nice pictures.

Molly (Frizz)

Molly took a year off from college to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2012 and very nearly never returned to civilization. She met the Captains while on a casual, 2200-mile section hike of the PCT in 2014. In the spring of 2015, she and Jonathan moved to Colorado to find some real big mountains.

Molly grew up snowboarding in Vermont and her splitboard has found some good use up in Colorado’s high places.

She also loves plants, poetry, and butter. Butter is important to her.

Dan (Soapbox)

Dan feels at home in nature; hiking, biking and climbing. He spent two summers as a wilderness guide in New Mexico at Double H High Adventure Base and another summer as a program councilor at Philmont Scout Ranch while earning a B.S. in Biochemistry at Mizzou.

Dan loves science, art and design, which makes connecting with nature a unique experience. Thru-hiking the PCT was a dream finally realized. Encouraging others to be conservation-minded and connecting with people was just one of the benefits the trail afforded him.

This whole damn trip was Dan's idea, and his biggest achievement is that Jonathan made it to the end without getting himself killed.