In numerous workshops and course design retreats, we have modeled the course design process using a fictional course (entitled "Colorado Mountain Hiking") to help instructors bridge the gap between course design theory and practice. We have found this example to be effective because it: a) is accessible to colleagues of different disciplinary backgrounds, b) highlights the importance of each component of the course design and the alignment between them, and c) allows instructors to easily see the impact of common course design flaws so that they can diagnose similar flaws in their own courses. In this paper, we provide the details of this fictional course and outline how we have used it to help instructors identify common course design flaws.