Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Homeward bound...

We hiked 6 miles, made it up Buckskin pass (12,460), and made it to the Prism before 2 o'clock. We ate Buffalo Wild wings in Denver. Bad idea. When you eat nothing but nuts, pasta, and dried fruit for a week, buffalo sauce is not good for the stomach. We made way too many stops and drove with the windows down.

Made it home by 5 a.m.

Praise God.

Good times Gary.

-Team Gunz n' Money

Videos and Pictures

I will post more videos and pics soon.

Cold Morning

FEAST DAY!

Day 5

Today was a great day. We slept in and left camp around 10 and hiked till 1:30. We traveled through thick forest for 2 miles and then began the slow and steady descent up Buckskin pass (12,400). We hiked another mile on a steep incline and eventually made camp near a stream and on the edge of the treeline. We made camp and then started eating. We all packed way too much food, so we designated today as "feast day". I think Andrew the Giant ate half his body weight in Ramen noodles and rice. We rested up and started mentally preparing for are epic finish tomorrow. It's gonna be a tough day.

Woof, Bark, Ribbet


Day 4,

Today was epic. It began as we left camp around 9 a.m and hiked 3 miles through the rest of the basin. We crossed a freezing ford and began the steady incline up Trailrider pass. Imagine 2 miles traversing through snow, rock, mud, and other horrible conditions while heading up an incredibly steep incline. Not to mention storms could be seen heading are way so we had to move quickly. Reaching the top (12,400) was a relief but it was a short lived victory since the storm kept creepin' closer. We tried hurrying down the mountain but the snow made it difficult. There were certain areas where a simple misstep could be the end. It was a very intense decline. We finally hit the treeline when it started to rain, and we were still a half mile from Snowmass Lake, our destination. The next segment was an incredibly difficult section of rocks that was impossible to cross in the rain. We decided to turn around and find some trees to make shelter. Then the hail came. Our little poncho's were not holding up to well as we ran up a steep incline to reach a small cluster of trees. We took the rain cover for my tent, some rope, and made a make-shift hail shelter. We stood freezing cold under this shelter for an hour and a half waiting for the rain to stop. Oh yeah, and there was lighting everywhere. Eventually the rain stopped and we put up a tent and huddled for warmth. Once we were warm we made camp and a nice fire. We had to walk a good half mile to get water. Everything is wet. Our tents are on an extreme decline and I am currently sleeping on roots. Oh, and it just starting pouring again. But this is what it's all about I guess. Gotta roll with the punches. Tomorrow is an easier day. Goodnight.

Team Gunz n' Money

Fish....

Day 3,

Today was challenging but it was nowhere near as hard as yesterday. We began by slowly ascending along Bellview mountain until we eventually made it 12,350 feet to Frigid Air Pass. It lived up to it's name. The view was to die for. After lunch on the peak, we descended down a very steep incline and hiked around 3 miles to Fravert Basin. We hiked through lush pines and thick forest with various small waterfalls along the way. We continued on past Fravert to another forest and made camp around 3ish. We are literally within 100 yards of a 300 foot waterfall. It's truly incredible.

Mike went fishing without any expectations since he had no luck at Crater Lake. In a span of 3 hours he caught a total of 7 good sized trout. We ate real good. None of us really knew what we were doing so we tried various methods of cooking it. I remembered seeing a guy just throw slabs if the fish over the fire in the movies once, so I tried that method first. Epic failure. The fish kept sliding into the fire and I burnt my hands twice. We then tried cooking it in a pot with a little water. This worked much better. The fish was definitely a nice treat after eating rice, Ramen, and beans for 3 days straight. This is definitely bear territory, so we took a lot of precautions tonight.

We are currently in our tents right now at 8:45 simply because the bugs are so bad. As much fun as were having I think we are all relieved we have reached the halfway point. Jon has blisters and misses his girlfriend, Andrew the Giant is sunburnt, Mike would sell all his possessions and buy her presents, Trenton keeps wandering off and getting lost, and I am doing well minus the fact my neck is still sore from last nights sleep. But overall spirits are high. Big day tomorrow. 6-8 miles plus maybe our most difficult peak. Goodnight.


-Team Gunz n' Money

The Death March

Day 2,

It is taking every last bit of my energy to write this post. We are exhausted. This morning (1 am) I heard yelling from the tent next to me. Sure enough Mike and Jon were yelling at a porcupine. The critter chewed Jon's flip flop to pieces. That was fun.

Today we left around 9 a.m and hiked until 5:30. We crossed two huge fords, a plethora of small streams and reached 12,500 feet as we crossed through the West Maroon pass. We hiked around 7 miles. The views were absolutely breathtaking. We decided to save the Frigid Air pass for tomorrow and walked about a half mile off the trail to make camp. My body aches...I'm going to bed.

Crater Lake

Day 1,


We hiked two miles today. We wanted to take it nice and easy on the first day, and we already had our campsite in mind. We crossed two small streams by rock hopping and getting our boots soaked in the process. Luckily the sun has dried them out well. We hiked some tough and rocky terrain, but I'm sure it's nothing like we will see tomorrow.


The water here is beautiful, it tastes pretty incredible too. Our campsite is maybe 25 yards from a stream, and the sound is starting to lull me to sleep. We saw all kinds of wildlife today, two deer, many strange looking squirrels, trout, and no bears thankfully.


Andrew the Giant found a sweet walking stick and is in the process of whittling it to perfection. Trenton the Canadian seems to just wander off without telling anyone. We are learning to just let him do his own thing. Spirits are high. It feels good to finally be here.

Tomorrow is a crazy day. Sleep needed.

-Team Gunz n' Money

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Stuck in Denver

Turns out things didn't quite go according to plan....

The Prizm died on I-70 and we had to get it towed....Luckily a friendly old guy named Bob was able to help us out and he drove to a campsite where we made camp for the night. We maybe got a total of 4 hours sleep due to the fact we were literally sleeping on sharp rocks.

Today we went on a day hike to pass time and played made up card games.

Ben Edwards, our dear friend who lives in Denver, was able to give us a ride to pick up the prizm. He seems to be runnin ok and we should be in Aspen by 11 am tomorrow.

This could be the last post for ahwile. This new phone's keyboard is so small it takes me forever to type. We will have plenty of video diaries posted at the trips end.

Thanks for reading.

Team Gunz n' Money

Monday, July 6, 2009

Misread map.....

It will take 10 hours to get to Aspen, not 8.

Whoops.

We are off.

-Team Gunz n' Money

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Busy day

As a team we spent over 1000 dollars today on various equipment/food/clothes. Will it be worth it? Probably not. But that's alright.

We bought two canisters of bear mace. They came with sweet holsters. We loaded up on rice, granola, beans, pastas, and other various food items.

Andrew's pack is hysterical. You will see pictures soon, but it bulges out very awkwardly and he strapped a yellow construction cone to the top. Why? No one really knows. But it looks ridiculous.

Bad news = Van out of commission. Good news = We're taking the Prism.

We leave tomorrow morning for Aspen.

Much love,

Team Gunz n' Money

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Pre-trip Planning

It's Saturday afternoon and I am currently in the process of getting the details of the trip in order. Due to countless people telling me how stupid doing 70 miles of the CDT was, I've decided to re-evaluate which trail we will be hiking. I have finally settled on doing the 4-pass Maroon Bells trail which is considerably shorter, and less intimidating. We will still be scaling 4 peaks above 12,000 feet and doing approximately 30 miles of hiking (on the trail that is, we plan on wandering into the wild abyss quite a bit). It should take us 6-7 days God willing. For those who do not know, here is a quick outline of the team.

Mike "Gorilla legs" Jaderston- Mike is 6"3 174 pounds and has ridiculously hairy legs. He was born in the wilderness and raised by mountain goats.

Andrew the Giant- Andrew is 6"9 320 pounds of pure muscle and brute girth. He decided to join us at the last minute and we hope bears will be scared of him. Andrew lives in Wichita and will be a sophomore at Sterling college this year.

Jon the Hippy- He has dreadlocks. He will be a junior at Sterling college and he likes wandering the world without any direction or purpose.

Matt "?" Jaderston- The mysterious one with a beard and a walking stick.

Trenton James- Our dear Canadian friend. He is in town visiting family and asked if he could join. He will be a great addition. He's very quiet and camera shy, but we think he will open up once we are on the trail.

We will be leaving Monday morning for our 8 hours drive to Aspen CO and will be sleeping in our van for a night. We will then be hitting the trail tuesday morning. We hope to finish the
trail in 6-7 days, but it could take much longer.

Prayers would be much appreciated.

God loves everybody.


-Matt