Real Stories. Real Growth. Practical reflections for fathers.
Welcome to the PathForgeXP blog—a space for fathers, families, and leaders seeking deeper connection, personal growth, and legacy-building. Here you’ll find reflections from the trail, insights from our retreats, and practical tools to help you live with intention across Self, Family, Community, and Work.
Whether you’re exploring fatherhood, designing meaningful rituals, or navigating leadership with heart, these posts are here to guide, challenge, and inspire. Our focus is on intentional living for fathers who wish to enrich their family lives.
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The Wilderness Gap (or, the day my phone took the hit)
What a hard crash on a familiar trail taught me about leadership. A few weeks ago, I crashed — hard. I was riding a familiar trail for the first time this season, but the crew had added a few new features. Instead of taking things cautiously, I hit each one.…
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The Things They Left Me
What three grandparents taught me about what actually lasts. Happy Friday. Memorial Day weekend is here, and I want to spend a few minutes with some of the people in my life who have passed on to the other side. Three of my four grandparents are gone now. My paternal…
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What Will Be Etched on Your Stone?
On legacy, intentional fatherhood, and the question the petroglyphs keep asking—what does it mean to be etched for a thousand years. In the canyon behind my childhood home, there are petroglyphs. They have been there at least a thousand years. Figures pecked into black desert varnish, hands pressed against sandstone,…
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THE SONG I DON’T PICK
Or, why I haven’t taken a singing lesson in thirty years. Last week after our kids were in bed, my wife and I were in the kitchen and I told her, again, that I sometimes think about taking singing lessons. I said it, casually, the way you mention something you’re…
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Strike Anywhere
A campfire, nine boys, and what they know that we’ve forgotten. Last night I took nine boys up the canyon to roast marshmallows. They were eleven to thirteen years old, and when we got to the campground I started in on a lesson about how to build a fire. They…
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The Fire That Asked the Real Question
What seven men around a campfire taught me about the real foundation of fatherhood. A few weeks ago, I was in Moab for a beta run of one of our PathForgeXP retreats. Seven men sat around a campfire after a long day in the desert, and I have been thinking…
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The Man Who Had Nothing Was Home by 4.
Something We Don’t Have The other day, my friend sat across from me and said something I have not been able to stop thinking about. He had just returned from Mexico, not a resort, but the actual country, and he was still processing what he saw. He watched men who…
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The Stream That Never Questioned Itself
On invisible wor, sandstone patience, and learning to trust the current. I’ve crossed this stream a hundred times. Maybe more. It runs through a stretch of desert I know well, close enough to home that I don’t think of it as a destination. It’s just part of the walk. Background…
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A Father’s Competitive Edge
The Old Story of Strength Most fathers assume their competitive edge comes from the same places the world rewards: strength, productivity, discipline, and the ability to push through discomfort without flinching. I believed that for a long time. It’s what I was taught and what I tried to live up…
The path to intentional living starts Above the Treeline.
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