Commitment...Pass It On...

Day 192
9-15-2006
Started: Outside Guffey, CO
Finished: CR 53
Today's Miles: 31.5
Total Miles: 2682.0


It's truly amazing how timing works! Just as we were struggling with the mental battle of digesting the opinion that we are coming through this part of country "too late and not going to make it" we were found by an amazing "trail angel" named Karen. She probably doesn't even realize the positive impact that she has had on us because it was extremely subtle at first. The more we think about the fact that everything happens for a reason the more profound the small newspaper clipping that is taped to her computer has become to us. The clipping is short and simple, but delivers a huge message. It reads, "Never, Never, Never Give Up!....Commitment ...Pass It On!" How perfectly appropriate can you get? We needed a positive vibe and Karen was just the person we needed to give it to us. She has endured the daily battles of a long distance Journey on her ride from Ocean to Ocean and reminded us in unintended conversation that we can tackle anything we are willing to put our full energy into tackling. She didn't give us a "go team" type of speech or anything, she just gave out positive encouragement and well wishes. A wonderfully timed "trail angel"! After some fruit and coffee at Karen's this morning we hit the trail headed for the tiny town of Guffey Colorado. Guffey was a bit of a ghost town when we walked through but we enjoyed visualizing Guffey's past. Not only it's recent past, but thanks to some of Karen's local knowledge we "discovered" that Guffey sits in the bottom of what was once an active volcano. The volcanic activity that created the landscape around Guffey is also responsible for the heavy supply of gold ore that made Cripple Creek the "world's greatest gold camp". Shortly after our stroll through Guffey we made our way into Pike National Forest. Being back in the wilderness of the deep forest was very enjoyable. Black Mountain stood tall in front of us and we spent most of the rest of the day hiking from it's east side, all the way around it's north side and eventually left it behind us as we continued to the west. The route was on pretty rugged jeep trails that had huge ruts and seemed to be constantly going uphill or downhill. We varied in elevation throughout the day from somewhere in the 8,000's to over 10,000 feet. Because of the terrain the hike wore us out today. It was beautiful hiking and in normal hiking scenarios wouldn't have been overly difficult. Our problem was the fact that we had the extra bonus of an anchor to push, pull, carry and drag through the forest with us. Knowing what we know now we would have undoubtedly stuck to our original plan of eliminating our jogger back in Cripple Creek. We tried to laugh our way through the tough stretches and eventually determined we must be crazy. If we weren't crazy before this, then lugging a jogger through Pike National Forest did the trick. Since we were already slightly insane we decided to put in a big mile day with the thought of getting closer to Buena Vista so as to ensure that we could make it in to town some time tomorrow. We are excited about Buena Vista because Randy's childhood friend Mike Feishtinger, or Feisty as we used to call him was coming down to pick us up and take us to enjoy his home town of Vail for a couple of nights. Our late day push got us out the other side of Pike National Forest and not quite to San Isabel National Forest. While we were standing at the junction of our next turn and trying to decide where a good spot to pitch the tent would be we had an East/West meets North/South moment. Two guys with heavily packed out bikes that were obviously designed for long distance travel came rolling up and stopped to see who was standing with the crazy looking three wheeled contraption. Matt and Steve-O were in route from Canada to Mexico. Once again Timing is everything! How crazy to meet for just a moment at a point where we were turning off to continue west. We shared a quick story or two and then went to pitch the tent as they rode off to the south. We are feeling like we have been dragging an anchor all day, oh wait a minute we did drag an anchor all day, so we are ready for a good night sleep. Today we reminded ourselves that everything happens for a reason, timing truly is everything, and motivation comes in all forms. The most important thing is to Never, Never, Never Give Up!...Commitment...Pass It On!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com