Welcome To Mountain Crab!
Greetings fellow explorers…Welcome to Mountain Crab!
My intentions for this website are few. Not being the biggest fan of social media myself, my number one intention is to be authentic. 100% Authentic. Something of which I think is lost on much of social media these days.
What Is Mountain Crab All About?
Mountain Crab is a site where you will find my shared life experiences, real life photos, my personal trip reports, my honest reviews of trails, places & gear & most importantly!- absolutely no b.s.! My second intention is to really have fun with this site & hopefully interact with & inspire like-minded individuals to get out & explore beautiful Mother Nature while doing so safely & respectfully.
There is nothing quite as healing for the soul, mind & body as Mother Nature. Those of us who know this already possess one of life’s greatest gifts.
If you’ve read this far now is probably a good time to introduce myself. My name is Christina. I am a wife, a mother of 2, a lover of Great Danes, 4-wheeling, hiking big mountains, hiking little mountains & hiking just about anywhere. I love sunsets, concerts, exploring new places, exploring old places & most of all spending time with my family & friends.
Mountain Crab is a site where you will find my shared life experiences, real life photos, my personal trip reports, my honest reviews of trails, places & gear & most importantly!- absolutely no b.s.!
My husband, Matt, & I moved to Colorado 11 years ago from California. Gasp. I know, California. Some of you are cringing, sorry about that. All I can say is I was raised by the beach but made for the Mountains. As much as I enjoy visiting the ocean, the passion I have for mountains is something so great I can’t even quite fully describe it as cliche as that sounds. Sometimes the truth is just the truth & there’s no other way to put it.
My love affair with the mountains began with a trip to beautiful Lake Tahoe when I was 15 years old. It was a winter trip, for my Uncle’s wedding & If you’ve been there I don’t need to say much more than that. I remember thinking to myself, “I am going to get married here one day.” Fast forward 12 years & my husband Matt & I were married there, on a very snowy January day. It snowed like crazy for days & I was in Heaven. Within the first 2 years of our marriage we had the incredible opportunity of realizing one of our biggest dreams & moving to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We moved around for a few years, had our daughter Michele who is now 7 & finally settled on the western slope near what has become my favorite mountain range, the mighty San Juans. Shortly after moving here we had our son Abel, who is now 2.
Living so close to these incredible mountains has been & continues to be one of life’s greatest blessings for myself & my family. Here we are able to easily & often take advantage of our love for the great outdoors. The mountains are just a short 45 min drive away. Fortunately for us, although we are in a heavily explored area of Colorado, traffic is almost nonexistent. For now anyways & hopefully the foreseeable future.
Although it’s slightly embarrassing to admit, my love for nature & exploring didn’t start super early in life. Unless you count chasing lizards in the wood pile by my house or “hunting” for muskrats in the creek bed. I guess maybe that does count as exploring when you’re 7 years old? I did love camping as a kid but don’t remember doing all that much of it. As far as winter adventures went, they didn’t, especially when you grew up in a place where it’s 70 degrees on Christmas Day. I did a small amount of hiking shortly before leaving California & I honestly I do far more exploring now when I go back to visit than when I actually lived there.
After moving to Colorado, I was immediately eager to get out & be more adventurous. My husband introduced me to an old college friend & his wife and she took me to hike my very first 14ers. We did 2 that day & at the time it was longest & most challenging hike I’d ever done. Something changed in me that day, up at 14,000+ feet in elevation. I can’t quite describe it. Again, cliche. But the truth. Fast forward 10 years & hiking has now become one of the biggest & most cherished parts of my life.
What's A Mountain Crab?
The idea for Mountain Crab came about in a kind of funny way. Near 14,000 feet, this time near the summit of El Diente Peak in the Lizard Head wilderness. I remember saying to my husband, “I feel like a crab right now on the side of this mountain & I assure you that’s what we look like too.” Vertical on the side of this mountain, clinging by all fours. Initially we thought, “Mountain Crab”, “sounds like it would be a cool name for an outdoor clothing line…”
Well, here it is. My first website. But I’m not selling any clothes.