Sons of Anarkansas - Touring the Buffalo

January 08, 2017 by Cameron Muilenburg

Labor Day weekend of this year, I had the privilege of joining some of my best buds from back in Texas on a kayak tour along the Buffalo River. Here are some words about the trip from the dudes themselves.

Photos by Cameron Muilenburg

Todd Matthew Farnsworth. The dude is younger than me, but one of my heroes.

HDDN: Were you excited about this trip? If so, why?
Todd Matthew Farnsworth: Excited? Yea two reasons, best buds and wilderness. I sit at stare at a computer most of the day at work, in a city that I love but let's be honest SA isn't exactly known for their awesome outdoor scene. There are certain groups of people that you can throw together for a random trip and it doesn't even matter what the trip is, you're guaranteed a good time. That's how this trip was.

HDDN: How did the trip come about and did the plans evolve?
TMF: How? I think initially it was brought up by Jordan (Vonderhaar) wanting to send Nick into fatherhood on a high note but it quickly developed into an opportunity for adventure in the backwoods of Arkansas. Ky randomly found the Buffalo and was easily the biggest proponent in getting us there.

HDDN: Any takeaways from the trip worth noting?
TMF: Takeaways? One of the things I loved most was adventuring with Cam. The dude is one of the best friends I have and is always doing incredible things. It seems like ever since we left Rockport, getting together and experiencing the many things this world has to offer outdoors has become more and more difficult. So the fact that we got to get together on the Buffalo was something I really enjoyed. On trips like this when you're out there in it, and you don't see anyone else but your crew for a few days naturally good conversation wells up. Perhaps my biggest takeaway is that Mark Gove still has a thing or two to learn when it comes to mild Rapids navigation in a kayak. (Mark may have gone overboard a few times) Honestly though if there is one thing that stuck with me its that trips like this bring men life, and they are necessary and they are worth sacrificing a little bit for in order to make them happen. I'm grateful that I have a family that encourages me to partake in those kinds of adventures.

Most of the dudes on this trip have tattoos that represent Proverbs 27:17. These guys truly understand brotherhood and community and live them out well.

Some got quite creative with meals. Jordan demonstrates the "Tuna-lula."

The average evening after a full day of paddling.

Ryan Bovey didn't lose this smile for a moment of the trip. Contagious good attitudes are a welcome ingredient for a trip like this.

I'm sure that at this moment, Mark has just shouted some hilarious insult at the group as they map out the next day's paddle.

Hanging in a cave to hide from the afternoon sun for a few minutes.

Chicken, cheese, Cholula, honey, salsa and sausage. Absolutely one of the best tacos I've ever eaten. — Chicken, cheese, Cholula, honey, salsa and sausage. Absolutely one of the best tacos I've ever eaten.

HDDN: How did this trip come about?
Nick Coxwell: I had talked to Jordan at the beginning of summer about doing a trip in August or September. For me, it was going to be the last time to venture out into the wilderness with my best friends and a time to refresh my soul before the next adventure comes - fatherhood. We initially talked about going to Big Bend, but after several discussions we landed on a river/fishing adventure. Kyler had recently read about the Buffalo River and pitched it to everyone. After seeing a couple pictures, we were in. I was excited about the trip for lots of reasons. I love packing my bags and going places. I love spending time with the group of guys that had committed to the trip. I love rivers. But really I don't think it mattered where we went, as long as we were out doing something together.

HDDN: Any takeaways from the trip worth noting?
NC: Deep discussions were had at 3 am in the truck while driving through The Middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma. Fish went uncaught. Mark fell into the water. Multiple times. Cliffs were jumped off of. Campfires were cooked on. And Jesus was talked about. I loved every second of it. Trips like those always feel sacred to me. Going out into the wilderness with your best friends will always be one of my favorite things. It will be a trip that I tell my son about and hopefully get to do with him one day.

There was a recurring theme as I spoke with each of the guys as the trip was coming to a close. Yes, we all thought that the Buffalo River was beautiful, but you could have thrown us all onto a creek running through our hometown and we would have been stoked. Time together with men who challenge you to be a better man. Now that is a truly beautiful thing.

Video coming later this week. Stay tuned.

Some Mountains and Some Bikes

October 05, 2015 by Daniel Miller

About 3 months ago Josh told me he wanted to celebrate Luke’s engagement. Since Las Vegas is a disgusting, death-hole, the only thing we thought was appropriate was a mountain biking trip in Moab. Sounds like a good time!

If you’re not familiar, Moab is a mountain biking paradise. It is more than desert and slick rock. The La Sal Mountains stretch to over 11,000 feet providing aspen groves and looooooamy, smooth trail to zip through.

Near the top of the La Sal’s starts the pinnacle endurance ride, The Whole Enchilada. I think it should be called The Entire Moldy Burrito but no one has asked me to rename it yet.

So we knew that we would ride the Enchilada at some point but had to pick a few other rides to occupy ourselves. There are some new trails near our campsite at around 10,000 feet so the first evening we explored those.

Only one of the guys on the trip lives above 5,000 feet so the rest of us suffered. I thought I was finally getting into better riding shape but this trip confirmed otherwise.

The next day it took a while to get everyone up (it was probably around 30 degrees) so we didn’t get riding till mid-afternoon. Captain Ahab was the trail of choice and it was a good time. Chris took a nice tumble but pressed through, Andy tried to break his bike but wasn’t successful, and Josh and Luke rode up and over this silly, little, massive boulder that wasn’t meant to be ridden.

The only thing left was the Enchilada. A few figures so you get an idea of what you’re up against: the trail that most people take is around 26 miles with over 7,000 feet of elevation change. It’s mostly downhill but that doesn’t mean it’s easy on your body. The way we chose to ride it included a new section of trail, which added 7 miles. Once you get through the whole trail you either get picked up by your predetermined shuttle or ride another 6 miles into town (which of course we chose because we’re cheap and it’s better that way.) So we rode around 41 miles on this day. Not bad!

The ride starts with a super strenuous climb, which, early in the morning when it’s extra chilly, seems nice. You can get your muscles moving and warm up. The problem comes when you’re warm (about 2 minutes later) and you still have 1,000 feet to climb to Burro Pass.

From Burro Pass you work your way to Hazard County. This is definitely the most exciting part. It starts in a campground and you quickly build speed into a brambly, smooth bobsled trail full of blind twists and turns. At this point I was leading, for some reason, and couldn’t help but catch up with some slower riders who had passed us during our stop to fix tubes. But, after they let me pass it was full speed Zoomin’!!!

At the end of Hazard County is where you can keep going straight down a fire road or take the new section called Jimmy Keen. It winds through the sagebrush and was pretty fun. Once it gets ridden more the corners will be faster and it will make more sense. Somewhere in the middle of this section we found a nice ravine that was eerily similar to the first place I learned to ride BMX bikes. It’s just a smooth roll in and lip to flat so you can do sweet tricks for all the fans; the fans being the trees, your friends, and imaginary impressed masses. It was here that Luke decided to jump it, land sideways, kind of, and completely explode over the bars. Luckily Andy was there to catch him with his face. *No one was injured. It was most excellent.

This is the point where I start to run out of gas. You haven’t covered that many miles but the arms are gassed and the tummy rumbling. It is also the point where you don’t want to feel this way. You’re about to enter Upper and Lower Porcupine which are a labyrinth of boulders, roots and unforgiving, rocky fire road that seems to never end.

I don’t know how else to describe it and you can’t fully understand it without trying it yourself so I’ll just move on.

The last section is Porcupine Rim, which descends, finally, to the Colorado River. It is similar to Upper and Lower Porcupine only steeper.

The finish is quite nice though. Jump over a couple rocks and turn to the right. Go through a large tunnel under the highway and dive straight into the river. From there you can let the cool muddy sweep you away and enjoy your secondary vacation through the Grand Canyon where you’ll never be seen again… (which is what Luke tried to do the day before when we were swimming across to the other bank and both his legs cramped! yikes) Or don’t and ride the last 6 miles back to town in a race to beat the clock so the bike shop doesn’t charge you an extra $25 for being late returning your rental bike.

Everyone was completely pooped so we ate some pizza, packed up the camping gear and went home.

I left out a lot. There is only so much you can put down in writing. I guess you have to be there if you want those details. Sorry?

-dan

Home Made SUPs and Hopping Fences

September 03, 2015 by Cameron Muilenburg

The Edwards, the wonderful, gospel-centered family I was able to spend time with in Cheyenne.

South bound from Cheyenne, Wyoming and headed to Colorado Springs, I was soaking in every moment of the drive. It was my first time to spend more than a weekend in Colorado and I was so excited.

The plan was to visit my good friend Tim Jones, his beautiful wife Charity and their friend Luke Paris, whom I had met earlier in the year at Tim and Charity's wedding! We knew we wanted to do some exploring but no specifics were to be nailed down until I rolled into town.

My time in Colorado Springs could not have gotten off to a better start. I pulled into a long dirt driveway with wooden fences and trees on either side. As I reached the Jone's home, my buddy Tim was outside in the yard, shirtless, shoeless and greeted me with a great big hug. He immediately told me about his plan to make DIY SUPs (Stand Up Paddle-boards) and go out on a camping trip near Blue Mesa.

He had purchased some foam from a hardware store and some gnarly adhesive, and the goal was to craft paddle boards out of them and use some bits of scrap wood and tree branches for the paddles. I was completely on board. (Pun intended)

Tim is seriously one of the most incredible individuals I've ever met. He is a loving and caring friend, an extremely passionate and brilliant teacher... and makes me lattes. I could go on forever though. He pours into every relationship in his life, mentors those younger than him and seeks council from those he respects. The little time that I have spent with Tim has made me into a better man. We also share a love for the mountains, so the drive to our destination was just an absolute treat.

We all had our doubts about the boards, but were so stoked to get out on the water and test them out!

It took about 2 seconds on the water for us to realize that this was going to be a very different experience than we had anticipated. Though it doesn't look like it, the water was rough! It took us all a few minutes before we were even able to stand up on the boards, which we also realized were MUCH shorter than standard paddle boards. We all fought the lake waves for about twenty minutes until one of us (I can't recall who was first) screamed that their board was breaking in half, followed quickly by a splash. All of our boards snapped or came unglued around the same time. There we were, three dudes in the middle of a lake in Colorado, laughing our balls off as we swam back to shore in hilarious defeat.

Luke with the remains of his paddle board.

We drove a bit further and met up with another friend, Susan Williams. Click her name to check out her website that catalogs her "sue-batical." She has travelled the world, constantly and intentionally attempting to live a life that will reflect Jesus. We showed up to a park-area where there was one state-park ranger that looked like he was closing up for the night. There was no camping in the direction we were walking with our camping gear and I was a bit nervous the ranger would ask us to leave and find an official camping area. But as we passed, he gave us a nod, and though he was a ways away, what I assume to be a smile, which we took as a bit of an approval to head off into the wilderness.

We hopped the fence just past the parking area and began what would become one of the most peaceful and beautiful hikes of my entire life. Because you don't want to end up at a camp site after dark, you usually plan a hike early enough to set up camp before the sun goes down. We, however, got a bit of a late start, resulting in our entire hike being lit by one of the most spectacular sunsets. All of the photos below are straight out of the camera... no editing. It was breathtaking and such a wonderful experience all around.

This entire trip and every aspect of it were planned pretty last minute and we had no idea what the outcome would be. The paddle boards ended up failing, we ended up not finding an official camp ground, and I would not change a thing. These are my favorite kinds of adventures, shared with friends who are psyched no matter the outcome, and the night ended up being better than I could have imagined, even waking up in the middle of the night to a large animal sniffing around my feet. Yikes! Get out there and do something awesome this Labor Day Weekend!

Thanks to Tim, Luke, Susan and Charity for making my stay in Colorado so amazing.