A great journey comes to an end this week for seven Colorado natives. This Saturday, the “Colorado Trail for MS” (CT4MS) team arrives in Durango having traveled 471 miles on the Colorado Trail, raising close to $200,000 along the way. The group of seven friends from Denver decided to embark on the trip after one the team’s members Joe McConaty, 24, was diagnosed with MS.

CT4MS began its big walk by leaving the Waterton Canyon trailhead near Denver on July 5. It arrives in Durango this Sat., Aug. 20, after a month and a half on the legendary trail. Durango’s Ian Altman also will undertake an ambitious task in support of CT4MS. He plans to mountain bike the entire 79-mile stretch of the Colorado Trail from Molas Pass to Durango in a single day and come in with the team.

CT4MS hopes to raise $250,000 to benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center and is closing in on that goal. The group has taken in nearly $200,000 to date, and all of the funds will go directly to finding a cure for MS and not toward trip expenses.

“The prospect of hiking through the state I love so much with the six finest souls I know is a dream come true,” McConaty said before the trip. “Ever more important than this dream is the fact that we’re doing it for a great cause.”

The Durango community will salute the CT4MS team, Altman and the success of 471 miles for MS this Saturday at Carver Brewing Co. from 5:30-7:30 p.m. The seven members of CT4MS and Altman will be on-hand at the brew-pub with 100 percent of all proceeds from the sale of Carvers’ Colorado Trail Nut Brown Ale going to CT4MS.

For more information on CT4MS or to support the effort, log onto www.ct4ms.com.

– Will Sands