The mountains are calling and must geaux! Here's a recap of the latest Geaux Bearded adventure, grabbing life by the beard over 14,000 ft. 

Tommy Kissinger with Geaux Bearded beard products company, also a community and a brotherhood for the bearded. Thanks for joining us once again. In this video, we're going to be doing a recap of our Colorado 2023 trip, the exciting stuff we did, and what else we have coming up for the remainder of the year for the Geaux Bearded 2023 adventures.

I have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get right on into this. About a month ago, I just got back from the Colorado 2023 trip. July 19^th we flew into Durango. That was a Wednesday. That was a chill day.

On Thursday, we did horseback riding, a super fun time, right outside of Durango. The scenery was amazing. We enjoyed the ride. I was actually on a donkey and so was my wife. My son and his friend were on the horses. So we had a great time with that.

 

Afterwards, we went on into Silverton and Ouray. We took the Million Dollar Highway. If you've never been on this Million Dollar Highway, it's one of the coolest roads in the country. Spectacular scenery. I've been on it a few times. Finally, this time I got sunny days when I was on the Million Dollar Highway. Switchbacks, inclines, and just beautiful scenery, bringing you on into the town of Silverton and Ouray.

We went all the way into Ouray first and we did something called Box Canyon Falls. It just was a short hike. Brought you to an amazing gushing, flowing waterfall that was really worth seeing. And so while we were in town there, we ate lunch and of course hit a brewery.

Friday we got up at the crack of dawn. And Miss Jill, who is a local that lives in Durango, came and picked us up with her wonder dog, Wilson. We started the journey out to the trailhead of Handies Peak, which is, you know, we came in from the Silverton side, but it's the peak itself is kind of close to Lake City. And we had to go over an epic pass called Cinnamon Pass.

This was an adventure in and of itself. And all I can say is, thank God Jill was driving. She knows what she's doing. She's got a Toyota Tacoma with plenty of clearance. It is a tough pass to get across. You're on this pass for over an hour with switchbacks. You're crossing boulders, rocks. You're getting out of the truck, sometimes figuring out how you're going to get across these things and make these turns. But she did a great job, got us all the way back to the trailhead of Handies Peak.

Handies Peak is a peak in the San Juans. The San Juans are just breathtaking. They are spectacular. They're some of the prettiest mountains. And so we got out there that day. You're out in the middle of nowhere, the wildflowers were beautiful.

The hike was great. It's one of Colorado's great fourteeners. It's a 14,000 ft mountain. When you get up to the top, you are standing at over 14,000 ft. So yeah, it was an epic journey. I was so stoked and pumped because I got my wife up to the top. I got my son up to the top. His friend Dylan made it up. And, of course, Jill was with us with the Wonder Dog, Wilson. So that was just a spectacular time. We're so thankful for Jill. She's just a great person.

Saturday we recovered from that. It was a chill day, hung out in the Durango area later. That night we went to the Hot Springs area in Durango. That was really cool. You can get in these hot springs, these kind of little areas, all these little designated areas that you get in and out of. Some are very hot. They go down to warm, then down to cold and freezing cold. And we got in and out of those. It was just very refreshing for the body.

Sunday, we drove to Telluride. We did a hike to one of the great falls in that area and that was just really spectacular. Then we went to one of the local restaurants, had some great pizzas, some great craft beer, and just a really good time. It's beautiful there in Telluride.

Well, let's go over the breweries that I got to go to in that area. I'm a big craft beer enthusiast, so these were the breweries I hit over in that area, Ska Brewery, which is in Durango. Then we hit Mr. Grumpy Pants, which was in Ouray, and we hit Ouray Brewery in the town of Ouray. And then we hit Steamworks, which is in Durango. And then of course, we hit Telluride Brewery, which is in Telluride.

So that recaps Part One of the trip. Part Two started early Monday morning. I flew on into Denver, got the rental car, and met my buddies JP and Nate, and then we headed to Manitou Springs.

Monday, we did the Manitou Incline. This is an incline that goes about a mile up into the sky. When you're done, you're probably standing at about 8000ft. And it is just really tough on the legs, the cardio, the breathing. It's just a great challenge, a great exercise. And you get to take this barr trail back down. It's a side trail that you take on back down and took us about an hour and a half, I think, to get all the way up to the top of the Manitou Incline. And then that night we drove on in the back way into Breckenridge and ended up going through Fairplay over the continental divide and into Breckenridge.

Day two in Breckenridge was a chill day. We just hung around town. We ate at a great breakfast place called Amazing Grace. You got to check that out if you get in the town of Breckenridge.

We saw the really cool, famous wood sculpture that they have of this troll in town called Isak Heartstone. And that was just a chill-out day. We were getting ready because the next day we were getting ready to meet up with another local in the Breckenridge area.

His name is Greg. He was so kind to take us on and to take us to Grays and Torreys Peaks. It's also an adventure to get to that trailhead. You got about 45 minutes of off-road stuff and you need good clearance with the vehicle.

We did two peaks in one day. We went up to Torreys first and then you can go over to Grays and then back down. So we bagged two fourteeners, TWO 14,000 ft mountains in one day. Greg was amazing to do all that for us.

The next day, I was debating whether or not I wanted to do this, if I had the strength and the stamina to do it. But I did another mountain peak. I did it by myself. It was a solo hike of Quandary Peak. And this is the third time now I've done Quandary. It'll always be my first love. It's the first one that I ever did. So hey, I did it.

I started really early at like 4:30 in the morning. It was pitch black. I felt like at the time I was the only one on the mountain. It is quiet. Quiet. I was scared to death out there in the dark. But hey, man, had the headlamp on. Been on that mountain before, so I knew what I was doing.

It was pretty chilly that day. Windy. I got up to the top and it was really windy, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time at the top, but it was still epic. Got great pics and videos came on back down.

Friday we teamed back up with Greg again. He took us to Mount Bierstadt. Mount Bierstadt was really, really cool. Another Fourteener. It was very unique. When we got to the trailhead and you looked all around, it reminded me of something like from Scotland or Ireland. It was just all this greenery, a really green area. And it was a beautiful lake there at the bottom. And so we went up Mount Bierstadt had at the top the last section of it, a really challenging, unique, cool boulder scramble kind of down on your hands and all fours getting on up there. And it was also a windy kind of chilly day at the top. Came on back down.

We got a really great treat at the bottom. We saw two moose and they were in this lake at the bottom and they were just bathing in the lake. Everybody stopped. We were silent. We watched them for about 30 minutes. They got up out of the lake. These huge creatures, you're just in awe of them and got plenty of pics and videos of that. And then they took off and then so that was the Friday.

Saturday we rented some bikes from our good buddies there in Breckenridge from the Ridden bike shop and they drove us with the bikes. Mister Chris took us to the top of Vail Pass. Let us off there. We got out with the bikes, and we did this bike trail. It's all paved. It's all downhill. It is just really nice and relaxing. You're flying downhill.

And hey, the beard was parting like the Red Sea, man, when I was just going down. We rode the bikes all the way down from Vail Pass into the town of Frisco. On the way, we stopped in the Copper Mountain area and we had some lunch there, as I said, went all the way down into the town of Frisco, into Main Street, and we ended up at Outer Range Brewery. That was one to really remember.

And so the breweries we got to go to on that part, that leg of the trip, we went to the Manitou Springs Brewery, South Park Brewing, Outer Range, which is one of my favorites, absolute favorite breweries there. They have fried chicken, just great killer, hazy IPAs. Of course. I love Broken Compass. The owner, Ford is a really cool guy with a beard down to about here. Got some pictures with him. Nice guy and a great brewery there, Broken Compass. And then we also got to go to the Tommyknocker Brewery when we stopped in Idaho Springs. So that is a recap of all of that.

Now, all together, I have conquered about eight of the Fourteeners in Colorado. There's 58 of them! Hey man, I got a ways to go, but I've done eight of them. The mountains are calling and I must go. They call man, they're calling and they're waiting for you to go.

What do they represent? They represent conquering something. They represent getting to the top. They represent a challenge. They represent what it takes to get there. Your training and your dedication and your research and your study, man. And so it was just a great time in the heavenly land of Colorado. I absolutely love it. I encourage you to go there because as I said, the mountains are calling and they're awaiting your return or they're waiting for you to go and experience them.

So what we have coming up next in 2023, the big boy going to the Grand Canyon, baby. That's going to be in the last week of October. I'm meeting up with some friends. Also supposed to have one of my buddies coming who's going to do an epic professional video there.

What we're going to do is we're going to go to the bottom. We're going to take the South Kaibab trail, go to the bottom, and we're going to spend the night at the Bright Angel Campground, and then we're going to take the Bright Angel trail back up. Also, what we have booked, I'm super excited about this. We've also got a reservation for a steak dinner at the famous Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, getting to eat a steak at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. And then the next morning, we also have reservations at the Phantom Ranch for breakfast. And so, we're going to continue the training. I'm dedicated to the training man.

I'm dedicated to nutrition. Eating right. You want to eat real food? Mainly plants, not too much. You want to get plenty of cardio, You want to work the legs out, plenty of lunges, air squats, really just getting after it on the leg training. So that's what we do. We're committed to it. And these adventures, hey, they give me something to look forward to. They give me memories, they give me excitement and they keep me dedicated to training year-round.

This is a BIG part or what we’re about. Geaux Bearded is about great beard products, leveling up your beard and your life. We've got merch. We have excellent stuff. Give us a little time. We're going to work our way, by the grace of God, into one of the best beard product companies in the country. We've got a great clear brand, a great clear brand story, great products, great scents. It's all for you.

Now we've got a Labor Day special sale coming up. 23% Sitewide man, go look at it. You're going to love the oils, the butters, balms, wash, and conditioners. We have been getting great reviews. People absolutely love the scents. They love the viscosity of the oil. They've been raving over the butter, just getting super great reviews. So check out the Labor Day sale.

I want to leave you with some things here, some inspiration to go and grow. What does growing your beard signify? It signifies growth, maturity, patience, goal setting, perseverance, ignoring the naysayers. Okay? And remember these things. These are some of our phrases of inspiration that we want you to carry around with you.

Grab life by the beard, baby. What are you waiting for? Grab life by the beard. The mountains are calling, and you must go. What does that mean? Adventures, calling challenges. Your goals. Your dreams, your hobbies, your passions. What is your mountaintop? What's calling you? You need to find out what it is.

Stop wasting time procrastinating and go for it, baby. It's time to go.

It's time to go. And it's time to grow. So many people settle. They plateau. They never let their beards grow. And they don't grow as individuals either. Don't be plateaued, man. Come on. You are going and growing on to bigger and better challenges. Tommy with Geaux Bearded is challenging you. Go for it, man. Go and grow into your challenges.

We're all about growth at Geaux Bearded. Grow the beard. Grow as a man, grow into your masculinity and who you're called to be. We're here to inspire you to live your best life. Now you got it.

And finally, remember. Have a vision. Think big. Ignore the naysayers. Work hard and give back. Change the world and make it a better place.

In the words of John Muir, “Keep close to nature's heart. Break clear away and climb a mountain. Or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

As always. Go, Tommy’s. Go Tigers. And you better Geaux Bearded.