Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1103: Frazer Buntin - Epic Yearly Adventures with Your Friends Revisited

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Ep. 1103: Frazer Buntin - Epic Yearly Adventures with Your Friends Revisited · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So the big trip we have just finished our fifteenth year of the big trip.
0:12
[SPEAKER_02]: The origin was back in my late twenties, so I'm forty-five now, and my late twenties, I can't remember I was talking to some friends and I think inevitably when you get a group of especially guys together, it's some point over their relationship, someone says, we ought to do a trip every year.
0:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Episode eleven hundred three.
0:33
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Fraser Button.
0:35
[SPEAKER_00]: How to pull off an epic yearly adventure with your friends.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: The big trip revisited.
0:42
[SPEAKER_04]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:45
[SPEAKER_04]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
0:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.
0:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey friends, this is a revisited episode.
0:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I listened to this when years ago.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: It came out in twenty twenty one.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mason interviewed Fraser about the big trip, which was the idea of a group of friends that get together every year to do some really cool adventure.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love the sound of it back then.
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And I realized it would make a great revisited episode.
1:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Matter of fact,
1:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a big trip planned for this winter, and I'll share more details about that coming up soon.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I really appreciate all that everyone does to enjoy, to support, to promote the Adventure Sports Podcast.
1:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not your job to promote it, but listen, if you hear an episode, the you think is fantastic, then tell someone about it, just share it with a friend.
1:43
[SPEAKER_00]: But there is another way that you can help.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is, if you would like to be on the Adventure Sports Podcast, or perhaps you have a friend who you feel should be on the Adventure Sports Podcast,
1:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Then go to adventure sportspodcast.com and there's a form there where you can send us a message or you can use our email address, which is also on info at adventure sportspodcast.com.
2:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But either way, you can let us know if you would like to be on the show, if you have a story to tell, and let me give you the parameters.
2:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to love adventure.
2:19
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
2:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
2:20
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people think you have to have done the amazing, most incredible around the world, everything sort of a thing.
2:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And while we really enjoy that, that's not a requirement for being on the adventure sports podcast.
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: What is a requirement is that you love an adventure sport and you're excited about sharing it with other people.
2:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So please do.
2:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Come and be a guest on the Adventure Sports podcast.
2:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much and, you know, I absolutely love the concept of a group of friends that prioritize adventuring together.
2:53
[SPEAKER_00]: There are lots of reasons why people adventure in this world.
2:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are checking off boxes because they love to do it like climbing all the fort tenors or running a certain number of marathons in a certain period of time or maybe it's a five K or biking to every US state.
3:08
[SPEAKER_00]: But some people want to do adventure with friends because it really is about the social connection.
3:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think no matter what your driver is, the social connections and the people that you need along the way will shape the adventure and beautiful and wonderful ways.
3:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not adventure with your friends?
3:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I love about this episode.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you love it too and without further ado, here's Mason.
3:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey folks, welcome to the podcast.
3:41
[SPEAKER_01]: You all heard a little bit about it in the intro.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just such a cool idea.
3:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't wait to hear more about it.
3:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot I don't know.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm very excited to talk.
3:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Fraser, welcome to the show.
3:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, thanks Mason.
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really glad to be here and look forward to catching up with you.
3:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
3:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So we were talking a little bit before.
4:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You told me that you're in Nashville, but tell us, you know, where is home for you?
4:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And where are you from?
4:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And just kind of your background in interest and sports in general.
4:09
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't mind going all the way back.
4:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
4:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So I am actually a live in Nashville.
4:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm a native Nashvilleian, which is extremely rare these days.
4:21
[SPEAKER_02]: We have become somehow a hotspot of
4:24
[SPEAKER_02]: of a city to move to.
4:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's rare to find someone who is from here.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And I have been an outdoorsman and an adventure all of my life.
4:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I grew up on a farm and was exposed to just always being outside.
4:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And then as I grew up, just always enjoyed.
4:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know canoeing and camping and, you know, later in life, trail running a lot and paddle boarding.
4:50
[SPEAKER_02]: have a good network of people here in Nashville and there's lots of outlets to do things here.
4:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So other than that, I'm a dad, I'm a husband, I'm a middle-aged guy with kind of a corporate job, but try to get out there quite a bit.
5:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, native Nash feeling.
5:08
[SPEAKER_01]: That does fill rare.
5:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody I know that's moved there or lives there now has not lived there originally.
5:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but yes, so very cool.
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, the region we're talking to you is this idea that you and your friends came up with about what you call a big trip or the big trip of the year.
5:26
[SPEAKER_02]: The big trip.
5:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell us a little bit about what it is and how it came about?
5:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the big trip we have just finished our fifteenth year of the big trip.
5:37
[SPEAKER_02]: The origin was back in my late twenties.
5:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm forty five now and my late twenties.
5:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember I was talking to some friends and I think inevitably when you get a group of especially guys together, it's some point over their relationship.
5:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Someone says, we ought to do a trip every year and ninety nine out of a hundred times it never happens.
5:59
[SPEAKER_02]: But I am a little bit stubborn and when I say I'm going to do something, I like to do it.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it was me who
6:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Open on mouth and said we should do a trip every year.
6:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So I co founded with with one other friend and launch the idea of the big trip with one kind of classic email out to a group of.
6:21
[SPEAKER_02]: of friends that described the concept and actually what we were going to do on that first trip.
6:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was the beginning.
6:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And once we get into the formula of what makes it work and what does it look like, I think you'll see on how we've made it to fifteen years.
6:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really started with me opening my mouth and wanted to, I guess, walk the talk a little bit.
6:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I get it.
6:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We do it all the time.
6:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We throw ideas around and it's, you know, you start realizing what it takes to put something like this together and it's quickly.
6:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to go watch Netflix instead and then six months goes by and you're catching up on a show.
7:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But so you sent it out to how many friends originally.
7:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so here was the
7:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Here was the original one and kind of the original construct.
7:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was about twelve guys and our first trip was to float eighty miles of the Yellowstone River outside of Bozeman, Montana.
7:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And the way the trip works is it's usually about twelve guys.
7:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Normally we do a Wednesday to a Sunday.
7:31
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a reasonable amount of time away from work.
7:36
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a reasonable amount of time away, you know, that our wives, you know, give a solution and not too long away from kids.
7:44
[SPEAKER_02]: As we've, you know, had kids and got an older, their first trip was eight hundred and fifty dollars all in and I'll explain what all that means.
7:51
[SPEAKER_02]: But we try to keep it around, you know, twelve hundred dollars per person.
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always a point to point.
7:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So each day we're moving from, you know, from
8:02
[SPEAKER_02]: This place to that place, it's far from civilization.
8:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're out in the wilderness on a river, on a mountain, in the desert, you know, on a lake wherever.
8:12
[SPEAKER_02]: For a long time, it was in no guides.
8:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a do it yourself, trip.
8:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We have done some guided trips, and it's adventure.
8:19
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not a golf club.
8:20
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not, you know, we're going to held and head and we're going to play golf every day.
8:25
[SPEAKER_02]: This is really getting out there.
8:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we finish Saturday night.
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, whatever close to city and we have a big dinner and celebrate and come home.
8:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the general construct of the trip and and that first one was was again and and on the Yellowstone River out in Montana.
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so first step for me is get twelve friends.
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I got about two.
8:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll do it with.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to work on the other, you know, nine or ten or so that I can get together.
8:54
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's incredible, man.
8:56
[SPEAKER_01]: How did you convince that many people to do something that's so that requires so much?
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us a little bit about what that first year was like, what were some of the, maybe the biggest challenges, the unexpected challenges, and maybe your favorite memory from that.
9:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so here's the formula here's how you start one of these trips and here's how you run one of these trips and it and it is a very distinct formula.
9:21
[SPEAKER_02]: The number one rule is don't seek feedback from anybody on anything.
9:26
[SPEAKER_02]: You you have to be a near dictator on all of this because if you send an email out and say hey guys, let's go on a trip.
9:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, let me know where you want to go or let me know when you're available.
9:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll never go.
9:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll never leave the doc.
9:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So what I did was
9:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, the second thing is have a partner, have one other person with you.
9:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you, you to plan the entire trip.
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And you plan it, soup to nuts, and then you send out one email.
9:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And that email says, you know, me and so and so have a plan to trip.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the date.
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the location.
10:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the activity we're doing.
10:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the outfitter we're using.
10:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the cost.
10:10
[SPEAKER_02]: This is going to be incredible.
10:11
[SPEAKER_02]: you pay in full, it's non-refundable.
10:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're not changing the dates for anything.
10:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And you have to make it that concrete, or you'll never leave the dock.
10:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And what people like about it is, it's a trip in a box, it's done.
10:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And the payment upfront and the all-in nature of it helps as well.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I say all-in, we would coordinate
10:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You pay for your flight, but then we would cover vans from the airport to the river.
10:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We would cover running the rafts.
10:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We would cover all of the food.
10:48
[SPEAKER_02]: We would cover all the beer.
10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: We would cover the hotel, the final night.
10:52
[SPEAKER_02]: We would cover the dinner, the final night.
10:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So everybody's paid their thousand dollars, eight months before the trip.
11:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And when they show up on the trip, you literally don't have to spend a dime at all on the trip.
11:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And the two planners are basically writing all the checks.
11:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And the non-refundable nature, it keeps people from bailing.
11:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the last piece is, if you go on the trip, you have first rights to go on next year's trip.
11:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you don't go on the trip, you lose your place in line and you ask somebody else.
11:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So the fact that if you go, you get to keep going, keep people from kind of bailing out for whatever reason.
11:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've had a little bit of ab and flow in the trip, but
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: That formula for starting it works extremely well.
11:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely love it.
11:45
[SPEAKER_01]: That is too cool.
11:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So this first one, where the rules set up, then or did it become clear that, okay, we need these really, really strict rules in place to prevent the chaos that was, you know, planning the first one.
12:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
12:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was set up.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I like to lead things and I just had a feeling that
12:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we, and I had been on other trips with, you know, with guys and, you know, smaller trips, but, you know, this was a pretty big deal, type of trip.
12:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we had two cargo rafts and three canoes.
12:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I had found an outfit or, I mean, a catering company in Boseman.
12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And they picked a menu and coordinated with the person we rented the rafts and canoes from.
12:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So we had all these meals.
12:31
[SPEAKER_02]: packed for us and labelled for every day.
12:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And we brought stoves and tents and all that stuff and slept on islands in the middle of the Yellowstone River every night.
12:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But I went into it knowing that it had to be very structured to keep twelve type guys marching in the right direction.
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So what turned out to work really well on that trip was
13:01
[SPEAKER_02]: on the trip, you don't ask for input either.
13:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, the first morning and you say, John, you and jowls are in the red canoe and you're on breakfast.
13:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Jim and Baker and the blue canoe and you're on lunch.
13:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And so and so you're, you're in the raft and you're on dinner and you just make the assignments and people are like great, you know, I'm with so and so and he's cool and I'll have a great time with him and tomorrow I'll be in a
13:31
[SPEAKER_02]: different boat with somebody else or a different, you know, whatever sea kayak or Jeep or you name it.
13:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And all I have to do is make, make lunch today and then, you know, and then I'm done.
13:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So making those assignments and just, you know, stepping up and being in charge and don't say, you know, who wants to cook breakfast?
13:52
[SPEAKER_02]: If you say who wants to cook breakfast at twelve guys, you're not going to get any hands raised or the same two guys will raise their hands.
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
14:01
[SPEAKER_02]: that end up working really well.
14:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Frazier, this is, uh, this is unbelievable man.
14:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You really do have to be a dictator.
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, is there any other way in your life that you have to be this way?
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can't necessarily take that same mindset into the business world, can you?
14:18
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you can't do this anywhere else.
14:20
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do this.
14:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Unless in a dictatorship, unless you're planning to start learning.
14:24
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do this on your professional life.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do this in your family life.
14:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do this with your friends or your social.
14:32
[SPEAKER_02]: The only place it works.
14:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It is actually with a group if you're not in charge of the trip.
14:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to make any decisions.
14:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to research trips.
14:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to.
14:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, coordinate flights.
14:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to make sure the rental car place has a ten person cargo van.
14:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have to determine who makes dinner.
14:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I just show up and do my thing.
14:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Now what was the key was that first trip was was epic.
14:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we had the Yellowstone River is beautiful.
15:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You float through Paradise Valley.
15:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We were doing it ourselves.
15:06
[SPEAKER_02]: We had amazing camp sites.
15:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, in the middle of the river.
15:10
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we swam.
15:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We floated.
15:14
[SPEAKER_02]: we just had a beautiful time in a great place.
15:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first one needs to be somewhere strong.
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So people at the end of it say that was that was incredible.
15:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I never would have gone to none of us would have ever gone to, you know, gardener Montana and and gardener canoe and and canoeed eighty miles down and spent three nights on the river.
15:36
[SPEAKER_02]: We're all adventurers, but it was just, you know, off the map for us.
15:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So if that first one can be really, really strong,
15:44
[SPEAKER_02]: you will have set the tone and people will want to come back every year and the slots will be filled and you know maybe other than babies and weddings people clear the deck they're like I'm going on the big trip so honey don't plan anything or we're not planning any you know or I might miss you know friends wedding or whatever so babies and babies and weddings you know of of ourselves or probably the only reasons you know a few folks of you know falling out
16:13
[SPEAKER_01]: There's times I've been like, yeah, I'll catch the next wedding there.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just right.
16:18
[SPEAKER_01]: But it babies, now you can't be missing that at all.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, so that first trip, what was the biggest miss hat that you would say happened on that first one?
16:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably the biggest miss hat was I severely somehow underestimated the amount of beer that we would need on this trip.
16:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And we ran out about the second day, or maybe third day,
16:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And we do that we were going to float right through the town of Livingston, Montana or very near Livingston, Montana.
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So we sent two guys ahead to go all the stuff out of their canoe.
16:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And we sent them ahead and they were good patlers.
16:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They got up early and they kind of did a several miles sprint down the river pulled the canoe over, walked up on the road.
17:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Hiked a mile into Livingston to the grocery store, resupplyed, pushed a shopping cart full of couple of more cases of beer, a mile down the highway and met us at one time to resupply.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was maybe the only hiccup of the trip and beyond that, our food was amazing.
17:29
[SPEAKER_02]: The catering company had packed trout and steak
17:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Chili for lime, and we had brought these two big Coleman stoves, dual burner stoves, and had these amazing, you know, islands and sand bars that we could sleep on.
17:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, it was really the weather cooperated, you know, the stars aligned for us really well on that one.
17:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And, and logistically, I just, you know, went off extremely well.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So, we actually didn't have, you know, any big hiccups on that one.
18:03
[SPEAKER_02]: went back to Boseman, which is a great town and had a big old fun night and dinner at the Outlaw restaurant.
18:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And next day, got up and left to the airport and came home.
18:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my gosh.
18:17
[SPEAKER_01]: What an adventure.
18:18
[SPEAKER_01]: What an adventure.
18:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me ask you this, do the leaders of the trip change year to year or the same two people?
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a good question.
18:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Our original plan was we would rotate it every year with a random card draw.
18:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So deck of cards, you know, end of the night or end of the, yeah, final night of the trip draw cards and, you know, two highest cards or whatever those guys would plan it.
18:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And what we found was, you know, just it is what it is.
18:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Some, some people like to, you know, do this research and plan and kind of have a logistics mindset and
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: and put all the pieces together.
18:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And some people just don't.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's just not there.
19:02
[SPEAKER_02]: They just don't like to do it.
19:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we rotated it for a while and then really found probably and had some great trips.
19:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So we still had great trips, but there just wasn't as much of an interest.
19:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's probably three or four of us who really enjoy doing the deep research to find the components that come together
19:27
[SPEAKER_02]: and work for a trip.
19:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So usually that group comes together once a year and figures out what the trip's going to be.
19:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And everyone, it works fine.
19:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone's glad to turn it over and, and, you know, the trip continues to get great, you know, remarks.
19:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's how it works.
19:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Planning a trip like that could be pretty overwhelming for a certain personality or, you know, you have twelve people taking a lot of time and money out of their life.
19:56
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want it to be, I don't know.
19:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, under, under.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
20:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, me, you know what I'm saying?
20:03
[SPEAKER_01]: See, I don't know.
20:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
20:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Has that ever happened?
20:08
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I wouldn't say so.
20:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's never been an underwhelming trip.
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, twelve friends together out in the woods having a great time.
20:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You could be walking in circles and it would be more fun than just sitting at home all weekend.
20:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and the hard work is honestly, you know, you have to find a
20:25
[SPEAKER_02]: to fit our mold, which is typically that Wednesday to Sunday, or some have been a little bit longer, but you need to be able to leave Nashville and be on the trail the same day, or on the river the same day, or on the mountain the same day, or in the kayak the same day.
20:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, we're having to fly land, rental car, drive, and activate the adventure all on Wednesday.
20:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And we try not to
20:54
[SPEAKER_02]: fly out and spin the night in some town and then start the trip the next day because we just don't do well in civilization.
21:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice twelve guys.
21:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So we try to avoid civilization at all costs.
21:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So to find a geographical place that's that's far enough out there and we we have gotten we have gotten out there for sure to do that all in one day and it makes day one really long but but it's kind of an essential component.
21:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you need to have a method of transportation each day, whether it's on foot, kayak, sea kayak, raft, canoe, snowmobile, sailboat, Jeep, whatever.
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Each day have good campsites, or backcountry, always backcountry campsites that are reasonably spread out and then be able to get back and fly back on Sunday.
21:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's really the hard
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And do something new, you know, you don't want to go do a river trip every year.
21:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, you might do a river trip and need to switch to a, you know, a different type of trip.
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So we try to balance water, you know, mountains, something else.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So speaking of that, the first one being the Yellowstone River, you mentioned a lot of different types of things.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us about, you know, you just celebrated the fifteenth one.
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us about some of the variations of what the trip has been and where you've gone to be able to get there and do something on the very first day you, you know, you're limited in a degree, but also there's still so much at your disposal.
22:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is with the fun part.
22:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, to look back now after fifteen years
22:32
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, this is a part of part of all of our lives to have gone to these places that we probably never would have gone to.
22:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, we, we all, you know, like to be outdoors and adventure, but to do these types of trips.
22:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We've gone to some really cool places and done some neat things.
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So not, not in any particular order, but going off of the memory.
22:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, the first one was eighty miles on the Yellowstone River.
22:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a
22:59
[SPEAKER_02]: four hundred miles on snowmobiles in the upper peninsula of Michigan and February, which if you haven't been to the UP in winter before, it is a really, really snowy isolated place.
23:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, imagine going from tiny, tiny town to another town for fifty miles in the woods on the snowmobile, you know, really, really cool experience.
23:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a hut to hut.
23:26
[SPEAKER_02]: hiking trip in Colorado near Ledville, the tenth mountain hut program, which is a cross country skiing backcountry skiing, but in the summer you can do hut to hut hiking there and tack on some, some thirteeners around you, which was terrific.
23:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe my favorite, we did an open cockpit sailing trip and the Exumas Bahamas, which the Exumas are a chain of ninety uninhabited.
23:54
[SPEAKER_02]: On the north end of Exumas is a chain
23:56
[SPEAKER_02]: a big crescent of ninety almost uninhabited islands some of them are tiny the size of a football field and some of our slightly larger and we had four sailboats that were basically large canoes with two masks and no cockpit or anything and and they would sail in about twelve inches of water and we could we would just pull up to a deserted uninhabited island and camp out there and so that was that was an amazing one
24:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And no motors, no engine, you know, you wake up, you look at them, I happen to say, all right, we need to go, you know, ten miles down and hope the wind works with you.
24:32
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no plan B if a storm comes in, you know, your stuck.
24:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a stand up paddle board trip on the Chama River, paddle boarded in northern New Mexico, which was, you know, class two occasional three rapids and camped on the side of the river each night was amazing.
24:52
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a Jeep trip and you're a few of these have had engines.
24:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The snowmobile and the Jeep one.
24:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's just hundreds of thousands of acres outside of tell you ride in your way to mountain bike and in Jeep.
25:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was just exploring.
25:06
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a ducky kayak trip on the main salmon river, which was incredible camping on the side of the river.
25:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And these amazing campsites, you know, super secluded part of the country.
25:19
[SPEAKER_02]: and absolutely terrifying rapids.
25:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a summit fall, a fall summit trip of the Grand Teton a few years ago, which was a guided trip, but a great one.
25:33
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a sea pack and trip in the San Juan Islands up in the Puget Sound, you know, people think San Juan Island and Orcas Island.
25:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We were, we were way north of those on these tiny little national park islands almost to Canada and sea packed.
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, around point to point each day to a new island.
25:53
[SPEAKER_02]: We did a multi sport trip in Cuba, did one international.
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the last one was a dirt bike trip down in Baja Mexico all the way down the Baja Peninsula kind of bouncing back and forth from the Pacific over to the sea of Cortes riding through the desert.
26:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's not all of them, but those are those are some of the highlights.
26:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, you think back to
26:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We never would have done those things to the level that we did and just really, really amazing.
26:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Fraser, every one of those could be its own podcast episode.
26:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that.
26:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You're saying this and I'm imagining a collage of pictures and I think you're representing ninety percent of what we talk about on adventurous sports podcast.
26:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The types of trips, the types of experiences, the the mediums that you're doing them through and the variation of where you're going and how you're getting there.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's unbelievable.
26:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that you can put one of these together every year, with such busy lives and wife and kids, it's incredible.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that it's going on so long is just awesome.
26:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I definitely commend you guys.
27:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can say, guys, because it's all guys.
27:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So how many people have gone through this?
27:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Has it mostly been the same few folks?
27:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Same, twelve folks, or has it changed quite a bit?
27:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's
27:18
[SPEAKER_02]: We have, and people are proud of the number of years that they've been on a trip.
27:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So we have maybe five that have made every trip, you know, a lot that have made every trip, but one or two.
27:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we've had a little bit of, you know, evolution of, you know, a few of those.
27:39
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'd say, seventy percent of the people have been on
27:43
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, twelve or more of these trips and and you're right that we could do a podcast on every one of these and last hysterically and talk about epic epic experiences and scary you know cool scary you know challenging times and hysterical moments and and we do a lot of that on the trip we we look back and talk about you know remember the time when you know so and so you know this happened or whatever and
28:12
[SPEAKER_02]: and the the breath of the experiences has been so so fun.
28:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a certain time of year you shoot for because you've talked about stuff and in very hot climates and very cold climates with snow is it typically the winner or is it does it does a very year to year.
28:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, when we started out kind of pre kids.
28:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We could pull off, you know, July time period, which is really good.
28:35
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, once we started having kids, that's more of a family vacation time.
28:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've really pushed it now to early September.
28:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Because kids are back at school and it's just an easier time window to pop out for a while.
28:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So early September, it's still warm enough in the mountains.
28:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still warm enough to be on the water and it's just a good kind of tight little window there to work with.
29:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually a huge fan of that time of year as well.
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Right around then is just about when we also plan big trips.
29:13
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get some really hot weather then, but it's usually before the snow, but the seasons are starting to change.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Great time year, and it's a little quiet around the mountains or anywhere that's popular with tourists or visitors.
29:25
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really interesting.
29:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm kind of, you know, selfishly putting together a plan for myself, because I want to do this, except the only problem, the only problem Fraser is me and all my friends, we're all type B people, so we're gonna have to put someone else in charge.
29:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we have a lot of these identities that are nearly packaged up, which, you know, I can give you fifteen trips, nearly in a box of where to go and what to do and
29:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So maybe you just get the type B plus then you'll be okay.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, yeah, we can do that.
30:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I can muster that up every now and then.
30:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when it comes to putting this together, so many people when they start something have this inkling to make it bigger or to make it more, you know, make it, I don't know, even a company or a service that you provide and grow it into something.
30:21
[SPEAKER_01]: bigger than this you know outside of that friend group has that ever been a temptation for you or is it intentionally been I want to keep this what it is and make it as good as it can be just the way it is.
30:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah I mean the the only thing we did talk to a really good local outdoor store here in Nashville called Comberland Transit for a while about
30:46
[SPEAKER_02]: you know giving them or licensing them or you know having some partnership on on the trip.
30:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we have put in all the work on these out tenor areas and and you know what we ended up with was they agreed to give us a gear discount if we needed to gear up on things you know in partnership we you know we support them quite a bit as their local year shop so you know beyond that.
31:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't have time, you know, we just, we all have day jobs and families and stuff to do.
31:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So we, you know, we just take it for what it is and try to try not to make or can't make, you know, more than more than it out of that.
31:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It's good.
31:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I love what it is.
31:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So you just finished your fifteenth one.
31:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, are you already in the throws of planning the next one?
31:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And what can you share about what you're planning to do in the future?
31:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Or is there a list of just, I'm sure you guys all talk when you're out there.
31:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, oh, be cool if we did this, this and then the idea is probably just grow.
31:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
31:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So we've got two guys who were signed up to plan it.
31:48
[SPEAKER_02]: COVID has thrown a little bit of a
31:51
[SPEAKER_02]: a curve ball into this year as with everything.
31:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, we plan to keep it going.
31:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got some good ideas.
32:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't yet have it calendared, you know, but still have that mindset of, you know, once that email comes out, you know, we'll have it on the book.
32:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So, even if we have to do something and take it back a little more local, you know, we'll do that just to keep them on that I'm going.
32:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's really, really where we are on it.
32:20
[SPEAKER_02]: and look forward to seeing where it goes.
32:25
[SPEAKER_02]: If you'd like, I've got some great anecdotes or stories from some of the past ones I can spend through if you want to hear some of the more wild or intense experiences that we've had out there.
32:39
[SPEAKER_01]: No, we wouldn't like to hear that.
32:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just playing it.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I wanted to hear the stories.
32:43
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this shows all about.
32:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But before you do, I have to reiterate, one email goes out.
32:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That blows my mind.
32:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I ordered socks for work the other day to get some design.
32:54
[SPEAKER_01]: It took a hundred and fifty emails to get socks designed in order.
32:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You get a whole trip together for twelve people with one email.
33:00
[SPEAKER_01]: That blows my mind.
33:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations on that, Jay.
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, the more you do it, the more it works.
33:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the threat of just, you know, you have to pay up front.
33:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, pay up front non-refundable and that's the forcing mechanism.
33:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Perfect.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, tell us some stories about some of the things that have happened, whether that's the good, the bad, the ugly, the highs, the lows, anything from logistics, just share some of your favorite experiences from from the past fifteen years if it's, if it's, if you can summarize it, that's crazy.
33:40
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I've got, I've got some good ones, you know, the ones I, some of the ones I usually tell
33:46
[SPEAKER_02]: The same in river trip, we flew into Boise, Idaho, and then we caught these crop dust or tiny airplanes to Stanley, Idaho, which is a cool town, barely has a paved runway.
33:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And we actually had to take three airplanes across twelve of us.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how small these planes were.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And the guy in the last airplane is a terrific guy from Louisiana, who's hysterical.
34:14
[SPEAKER_02]: They were late and taking off and there were a bunch of forest fires out there.
34:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we all flew around the forest fire and his pilot was trying to catch up and make up time and said, well, I'll just fly straight over it and I'm instrument rated and we'll catch up to them and about midway through the smoke.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The plane was getting bounced all over the place and pilot turns to, you know, our friend Allen and says,
34:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think this is a good idea.
34:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I've never done this before.
34:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And my friend Alan is white knuckle and grabbing, you know, this tiny foreseater airplane.
34:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So sure enough, he comes popping out of the sky and joined us.
34:58
[SPEAKER_02]: But that trip also is huge, big, big rapids.
35:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, big, big water river.
35:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And
35:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we have twelve, we're in those inflatable ducky boats if you've seen those that are, you know, you're not trapped in like a hard kayak.
35:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But our, we had guide, that's, you have to have guides on that trip to get a permit.
35:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, it would be flat and then you would hear this massive rapid up ahead, you know, class four or five rapid, just like a roar ahead of you.
35:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And we would pull over on the side of the river and the guide would
35:36
[SPEAKER_02]: draw in the dirt where to go on the on the rapid it like you know go to the right if you if you go last you were going to be in a lot of trouble and but then you would line up in these twelve boats and and by the time the end of the group came for you had no idea where to go so it was you know full on yard sale you know time after time so that that was a good one the sailing trip because you have no motor you are
36:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You're at the whim of the weather and we had a couple of major, major rain and wind storms and blow through where you literally are sailing across these flats and the other boat could be twenty feet away from you and you couldn't see it for, you know, thirty minutes and then the storm would blow out and you'd all kind of gather back up and shake the rain out.
36:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was those were pretty intense situations and
36:34
[SPEAKER_02]: what else on our paddle boarding trip.
36:38
[SPEAKER_02]: This was fun.
36:38
[SPEAKER_02]: We camped one day next to this pretty good little two plus maybe three rapid.
36:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And one of the guys had brought a little drone on the trap.
36:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So he just parked the drone about twelve feet over the water in the middle of the river.
36:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And we took turns going down trying to stick this rapid and wiping out and had it all on drone footage.
36:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was a good one.
37:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And then maybe last one, the sea kayaking trip up in the Puget Sound, the water there is so deep.
37:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And the channels are really, really narrow.
37:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And the tide is huge.
37:17
[SPEAKER_02]: The tide's like, I don't know, ten or twelve feet.
37:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So when the tide's coming in and out, the current is, and the tides are just massive.
37:25
[SPEAKER_02]: The water's moving so quickly.
37:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And we, I think it was our last day.
37:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We were leaving campsite.
37:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it was a confluence of two of these tides and just randomly, you know, the peudent sound was totally flat except for one spot where these tides collided.
37:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a giant circle, probably two hundred yards across of just standing three foot waves in every direction.
37:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And we, you know, we had to go through it.
37:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was a, that was kind of an interesting paddle and two person big long sea tax.
37:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Go and through.
37:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So those are some of the highlights.
38:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
38:02
[SPEAKER_01]: My goodness, man, that is so varied.
38:07
[SPEAKER_01]: How much do you have to prepare for these sports?
38:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Because sailing, you just can't walk and do a sailboat and know how to use it.
38:14
[SPEAKER_01]: How much goes into getting ready for these trips and getting each person prepared for what they're going to do?
38:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, you would be surprised.
38:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The sailing one is as unique and I've done a good bit of sailing in my childhood and growing up.
38:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So we had three or four guys who were good enough and then everybody else was kind of riding and then once you get the hang of it, but that one was a little unique and that it's kind of a technical skill.
38:44
[SPEAKER_02]: The others though, you'd be pretty surprised that if you're generally in good shape and we're all active and in a good shape, kind of fundamentally.
38:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can hop on a paddle board if you've never done river paddle boarding.
39:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You might fall a lot in the first day, but the second day you'll you'll pick it up.
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you've, you know, if you've never been kayaking in a duckie down the class for rapid, you'll fall out, but then you'll pick it up.
39:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, it does take us out of our comfort zone on some of these things, which is the cool part about it as well.
39:22
[SPEAKER_02]: But you're you're more shelf ready than you think you are if you just get out there and and give it a shot and
39:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, but we're also safe like we bring a, you know, we bring a spot device, you know, we, we make, you know, contingency plans.
39:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We were good at reading maps.
39:38
[SPEAKER_02]: We're, you know, we're not out there screwing around.
39:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We're having fun and we're, we're often pushing it, but, you know, we tend to try to prepare as well.
39:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have a story that you could share real quick from maybe some growth or just, I mean, someone that was apprehensive or an experience where someone really made an enormous personal achievement and you got to witness it and say, basically, think to yourself, I'm so glad we make this happen every year.
40:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, probably Grand Teton was was one for a lot of folks because it's
40:18
[SPEAKER_02]: or a salmon river.
40:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were probably the two that were, you know, that had the most intensity.
40:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Teton, you can, you know, you can go up Teton at a day based on, you know, which route you take and we were on one of the, you know, more challenging routes where you really have to be roped up for a lot of it.
40:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, you're standing on a, there's a section called Wall Street where you go up this, you know, this rock slab that's maybe a foot and a half wide and then you have to do this step over where you,
40:48
[SPEAKER_02]: take your left foot and step out onto something about the size of a fumble and below you is eight hundred feet of open air and then and then climb up so you know I think that one because of the just intensity of having to be mentally on for six hours up and you know five hours down was was a cool one that connected with folks from from that standpoint that you're talking about
41:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So what a, you know, in closing, what advice would you have for folks or groups of friends out there that are always kind of talking about this stuff?
41:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, really want to do something, but really just don't know where to start outside of your formula.
41:26
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think is just most important about making this happen and getting out there?
41:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
41:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, don't wait like life at, at, at, however old you are at, forty five, I look back and this is a flash, like all of these trips or a flash.
41:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can't believe that that much time is passed.
41:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So do not wait.
41:49
[SPEAKER_02]: The years will start clipping by and it's easy to just kind of be apathetic.
41:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'll go do a trip with one other, two other guys.
41:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Or I'll just go do one by myself.
42:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Or I'll go for a trail run or whatever it may be.
42:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It's worth the effort and don't wait just start with the first one.
42:13
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you have coming next, do you know?
42:14
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, hey, but email hasn't come out yet, so you don't know.
42:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
42:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, don't know.
42:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're going.
42:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Look forward to it.
42:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
42:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man.
42:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Too cool.
42:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, is there anything else you'd like to share?
42:25
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I think that's it here.
42:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a huge fan of your podcast and an avid listener and I love all the folks that you have on as well.
42:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Some keep doing the good work that you're doing and I've told a lot of folks about you and continue to do so.
42:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, I really appreciate that.
42:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, man.
42:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you so much.
42:45
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been great.
42:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll let you know when it comes out.
42:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That sounds great, Mason.
42:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me.