I wasn’t sure what to expect when Moe let me know that a writer from Outside Magazine had contacted him and was looking to interview us for a story that he was working on. I think even when we first started talking with Grayson, I wasn’t totally sure how it would all play out, but after a great conversation with him, and then seeing the final product in Outside Magazine (with our picture leading the article), I was blown away. I feel really lucky that I live in a time where I can openly love a man, where that love is now celebrated, and that just after this article came out, Moe and I were able to celebrate our 24th anniversary together. I don’t think those two kids in a dorm room, asking each other to be the other’s boyfriend had any idea of where our lives would take us 24 years later, but I sure how that they would be proud and amazed at what Moe and I have been able to do.

I’ve lost track of all the places we’ve lived since that late night on March 15th in 1997, or of just all that we’ve done, but I do now that there’s been one constant — and that’s us. I won’t try to fool anyone to say that in 24 years there haven’t been rough patches, because there sure have been, but Moe and I have worked hard to always ensure that we stay front and center in each other’s’ minds, and that we don’t forget that even though we think after all these years we can read each other’s minds, we still need to communicate a lot!

It’s easy though to lose site of those simple things and that’s where I think something like this article in Outside Magazine helps remind us what’s important. Moe and I have always valued our relationship and our time together, but hiking helps remove all that extraneous noise in the world and since we’ve both really gotten into hiking as part of our life, just not as an activity, it really has shown us both that our quality time, our time spent together is what makes celebrating a milestone like 24 years or being included in a story about trail love, really mean something.