It was at a house warming gathering after I'd first moved to Nederland, Colorado. I was looking, with a neighbor, out at the continental divide. It seemed a fantasy. Untouchable. He turned to me and said, "Ya know, you can walk up there..." No way, I thought, but then I did, and then did it again. Those walks, those mountains, became church for me. The song has been percolating for 14 years. Check, done.