If everything is on schedule, today should find 24-year-old Joe McConaty, his 22-year-old brother, Matthew, and five of their lifelong friends departing Aspen Campground to hike 13 miles to the north fork of the Swan River where they’ll do a little fishing and spend the night.
Come morning, they’ll set off on another 13-mile leg of the Colorado Trail that will take them to Breckenridge.
From July 2 to Aug. 20, the McConaty brothers – along with George Bishop, Matthew Celesta, John-Paul Maxfield, Daniel Murray and Chad Spurway – are hiking the 471 miles from Denver to Durango to raise $250,000 for researchers at the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center.
The physical part of their journey began in Waterton Canyon, but the demanding venture was hatched in August 2004 as they sat around a Missouri Lakes campfire at 12,000 feet. It was the first anniversary of Joe McConaty’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and the experienced hikers spent six hours tossing around ideas that would eventually lead to the formation of a charitable campaign they named The Colorado Trail for MS, or CT4MS.
“This conversation resulted in our decision to spend the next summer trekking the Colorado Trail,” McConaty recalls. “However, unlike (our) previous excursions, we wanted this one to have a greater good, a cause. We decided upon multiple sclerosis, the disease that affects so many of our family and friends, and a malady whose cure is in sight with the proper funding.”
Initially, the guys figured they’d solicit donations from family and friends, hike the trail and then give the money to a research team at Rocky Mountain MS Center. And, as can happen, the project grew like Topsy.
Sponsors and volunteers eagerly signed on, and donations totaling $105,000 were received before the first mile was walked.
Even more amazing, two of the seven sustained serious injuries in separate accidents in the months leading up to their departure.
Joe McConaty was struck by a car as he was crossing a street in downtown Denver during the Christmas holidays. He broke his pelvis, five ribs and four vertebrae, lacerated his liver and spleen, and sustained serious injuries to his anterior cruciate and meniscus ligaments. John-Paul Maxfield, 25, landed in the St. Anthony Hospital ICU after a May 18 car crash that fractured his skull, badly bruised his lungs and injured his left eye.
“I have learned firsthand how quickly life can change with something like a car accident or a diagnosis of MS,” Maxfield said. “I am lucky to be alive.”
When the hike is over, Maxfield, who has a degree from the University of Colorado and works as a real estate financial analyst at The Turnkey Cos., and Joe McConaty, who has degrees in history and political science from Denison University, plan to partner in a business venture.
Bishop, 23, is a Colorado native who recently earned a degree in real estate and construction management from the University of Denver. Like his brother, Matthew McConaty, 22, also was born in Denver. He played lacrosse at Boston College.
Spurway, 22, also is a Colorado native and, like Bishop, received his degree in real estate and construction management at DU. Murray, also 22, majored in English at Colorado College, where he was co-captain of the lacrosse team. His favorite quote is a line from a Grateful Dead song: “I wish I was a headlight on a northbound train, ’cause I’d shine my light through that cool Colorado rain.”
The hike can be tracked by visiting .
It’s only water
You know you’re a true Coloradan when a little thing like rain doesn’t interfere with the good times that abound at two summer favorites, the Do at the Zoo and the Cherry Creek Arts Festival.
Record crowds showed up for both – 3,000 for the zoo’s annual walkabout supper and 300-plus for the festival preview – and while the downpours were brief, they lasted just long enough to give everyone an us-against-the-elements mind-set that added its own special flavor to the proceedings.
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Do at the Zoo Shaw; Robby Gentry; Becky Gentry; and CJ Romig. Cherry Creek Arts Festival Preview Gala
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In fact, some credit the rain for upping the proceeds for the zoo’s silent auction. It was conducted in the roofed Conoco Pavilion, and those who sought shelter there had ample time to place bids for such goodies as a Vespa motorscooter and a Super Bowl XXXII football signed by John Elway and Terrell Davis.
Sue Stevinson chaired Do at the Zoo; Mike Long and Ken Gart headed the corporate committee.
The arts festival preview was the occasion for organizers to salute Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for his long-standing commitment to the arts.
Director Terry Adams introduced the mayor at a dinner ceremony held at the Inn at Cherry Creek. Afterward, guests were free to check out works by the festival’s featured artists ahead of the crowds that would flock to the site over the Fourth of July weekend.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
