Ear to the ground

“Is the car coming with us on the trip?”

-First time river runner wondering how the van was going to negotiate a stretch of the Colorado River

471 miles for MS

Seven Colorado natives are making a big slog for a good cause. Last Tues., July 5, the group left Denver and embarked on a 471-mile journey down the Colorado Trail to Durango. The journey is called “The Colorado Trail for MS” and the seven are making the haul to raise $250,000 in the name of one of their friends and trip partners who was recently diagnosed with the disease.

The journey is expected to take 50 days, with the members of CT4MS expected to be sipping local lagers somewhere around Aug. 22. The group of friends from Denver decided to make the push after Joe McConaty, 22, was diagnosed with MS.

In addition to being diagnosed with MS, McConaty suffered another major setback last December when he was hit by a car. He broke his pelvis, five ribs and four veterbrae and lacerated his liver and spleen. However, he has overcome both adverse situations and left the trailhead near Denver at Waterton Canyon with his lifelong friends on Tuesday.

The team hopes to raise $250,000 to benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center and is closing in on that goal taking in more than $180,000 to date. All of the funds will go directly to finding a cure for MS and not toward trip expenses. Updates and more information are available at the team’s website, www.ct4ms.com

MS is 10 times more common in Colorado than in southern areas of the country, affecting 1 in 625 Coloradans. That rate of incidence is drastically higher than the rate of 1 in 10,000 in southern states like Texas. 

Boom echoes downstream

“Prices: Up, up and away,” shouted the headline. “Locals are being priced out of the housing market,” read the subhead.

Sound familiar? Believe or not, the story ran not in a Durango paper, but in nearby Farmington’s Daily Times. And the paper isn’t placing blame on the recent energy boom. Instead, it is tying it to low interest rates and specifically purchasers from Durango who are either speculating or actually migrating into the land of Target and Sam’s Club.