Forever In Our Hearts
With everything happening here in the community, following Bryan Sax’s tragic death, I can’t help but remember my friend and fraternity brother Chuck “Montana” Carlson as well… Chuck also died tragically young, from cancer at 36, almost the same age as Bryan. Chuck was a long-time Aspen resident, ski instructor, and hockey coach. He also left hundreds of friends here wondering how something like this could happen to such a great guy.
One day a few months ago, I was out riding my bike around town, taking pictures of the amazing fall foliage, after a great hike up the Ute Trail to the top of Aspen Mtn with some friends (see my 2nd ever photo on this site “Fall In Full Color“). After riding a fair bit up toward Independence Pass, and taking some pics at the North Star Nature Preserve (pdf), I came back into town and found that the East of Aspen Trail ran into a small winding trail leading to the new Snyder Park, which I’d never seen before…
As I was admiring the park and water feature there, I saw this bench! I didn’t even know there was a memorial bench for Chuck, and here, at the end of a perfect fall day, the setting sun shone right on it. It brought me a sense of peace, and really just made me feel so at home here, like I really do belong in Aspen.
Taken 9/28/2008.
