Tonight I just gotta take a short pause from the usual story posting and picture sharing and porn viewing to reflect, and to offer a personal message to 275 of the most amazing men in the world (you know who you are).

It’s been uplifting to spend the past five days with you. To those of you I played with, and those I wanted to play with, and those I had great conversations with, and carried bags of ice with, and shared a meal or a car or a cabin with, or maybe we just smiled to each other, or perhaps I admired what you were doing from a distance, and to those I wish I had a chance to speak with or reconnect with if only there were more time — it was an honor and a privilege to be among you!

Tonight every part of my body is sore, and I’m physically exhausted. Yet I also feel refreshed, reinvigorated and revitalized. Maybe some of you guys who were at the 2014 event have that same “flying high” feeling right now?

It’s wonderful, isn’t it?

—Metal

September 2, 2014