Waymaker on the Colorado Trail 2025 - Introduction

 

Greetings and Blessings!

This blog is to chronicle my upcoming thru hike attempt of the Colorado Trail this summer (July/ August 2025).  After thru hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2021 (2193.1 miles), and hiking 450 miles of the Florida Trail in sections from 2022 to 2024, I was looking for a new challenge to undertake in 2025 for my 66h year on this planet.  While watching a video compilation of a friend's (Anvil) hike of the Colorado Trail in 2023, I felt a pull to undertake this endeavor as well, and gain a new perspective on the natural glory of God's creation.   After consulting with my wife Carolyn, and discussing the logistics with Anvil (Micah Faustin - a fellow AT thru hike alumnus), I decided to move forward with this thru-hike. The Colorado Trail is a hike through the Rockies from Denver to Durango that covers approximately 500 miles. It encompasses high mountain lakes and towering peaks of six wilderness areas and eight mountain ranges while climbing nearly 90,000 vertical feet. The average elevation of the Trail is 10,300 feet, topping out at 13,271 feet just below 13,334-foot Coney Summit in southwest Colorado.  I will be using the "trail name" from my AT hike of Waymaker, from Isaiah 43:19.

Like I did when hiking the AT in 2021, I will be using this hike as an opportunity to raise funds and awareness, this time for the international mission work being done through my home church of Calvary Chapel Brandon.  I recently returned with our team from two weeks in Africa, working alongside others at Calvary Chapels in Entebbe and Nogambe in Uganda, and Calvary Chapel Eldoret in Kenya. Funding raised through this hike will help to support ongoing outreach in these locations including: Bible distribution, support for widows and orphans, dealing with food insecurity, local school outreach, medical missions to remote island villages, and much more.   

This will be done through a pledge system (a hikeathon, for lack of a better term), where sponsors can pledge a monetary amount for each mile that I hike, culminating in a grand total based on miles completed.  A "standard" pledge of 5 cents per mile would equate to a donation of $25, assuming all 500 miles are completed.  Anyone is welcome to pledge more (or less) if they are so inclined.  All funds will go directly to CCB for mission work.  To pledge, please email our team with your pledge per mile at WaymakerCT@gmail.com.

While hiking the AT in 2021, I spent a portion of each day listening to an audio version of the Bible, from start to finish.  During the course of the hike, I completed the Bible from Genesis to Revelation twice, through two different translations.  This time around, with a more limited time frame, I'll be taking a more Spirit led approach, selecting sections of scripture to listen to for a couple of hours each morning as the Spirit moves me. I'll then note observations about how that specific scripture relates to the daily experience of hiking across a broad vista of God's beautiful creation as I recount each day in my daily blog.  I plan on starting in Isaiah, and spending time in a deeper dive into the amazing book of that unique prophet of the Old Testament.  In addition, I will be praying each day for a different student from the high school in Nogambe that we visitied in Uganda a few weeks ago.  The list is of students that came forward that day in response to the Gospel presentation.  Each day will be dedicated to prayer for one of these students.

I will be posting daily to a hiking blog at Waymaker on the Colorado Trail (waymakerct.blogspot.com), for anyone to follow along on my endeavor.  As with the AT, there will be days (sometimes a few in a row) where I won't have a cell signal to post the blog, but I will record my thoughts each day, and post them bulk as I have reception.  

I look forward to any prayers, encouragement, and feedback that you may feel compelled to provide, and I thank you all in advance for the support.

Blessings to all, and until next time.

Mike (Waymaker) Bass

June 13 2025




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