ST. LOUIS — The group of friends met in a St. Charles County commuter lot before dawn, cars packed.
“Plenty of water,” said Tommy Robbins, the organizer of the trip. “Your zero-degree bag, your tent, food,” he listed. “A lot of weight on our shoulders but it’s all worth it.”
Worth it, he says, to make the multi-day trip up an Ozark mountain — one he once climbed with his lifelong friend, Alexander Marley.
“He was the one who always got us into doing this type of stuff.”
But now, Marley isn’t going to be with them — at least, not physically. He was killed in a south St. Louis County parking lot in early September. Police say a man he offered to help instead stole his car and shot him.
“Taking his ashes up to the first place we ever went on a hike on—that was kind of the idea behind all of this,” said Robbins. “It’s what he would have wanted us to do."
Marley’s mom, Cindy Andrews, as well as several other family members gathered in the lot to send off the group of seven and pray for the men’s safety on the trip. Andrews also got them all custom dog tags to mark the trip.
“Carry Alex with you because today, you are all my sons now,” she told them.
While the energetic chef, outdoor-enthusiast, and optimistic young man certainly left his mark during his 29 years on earth, the hikers will also bring a plaque commemorating his life and place it at the top of the mountain--setting his legacy in stone.
“’Love the life you live, live the life you love,'” Robbins read from the stone. “Something Marley lived by. And if you're up there, then you're loving the life you're living.”
With his friends heading toward the heavens, Andrews thinks her son has a pretty good view of their journey.
“He's loving this today,” she said. “He's loving seeing his friends get together today: he will be with them every step of the way, I know.”
