Whilst on our way to yet another weekend camping trip in the late 70's or early 80's, the destination now forgotten, Jozep, Bob and I were driving Bob's Monte Carlo up I-70 outside Idaho Springs.
In those days I-70 was a pretty smooth drive up to the ski areas, the population of the state was 2.2 million or so, now it's 5 plus million, so traffic jams on the highway were very rare even during the winter.
But there one was. 20, 30 cars backed up and not doing the 55 mph speed limit.
In the right lane, eight or so cars ahead, a damn Winnebago doing 30. (I began singing the classic blues song "I'm got those ole chasin' a Winnebago Blues" thinking they were the real culprit of this entanglement.)
In the left lane, with the curves of the highway, we couldn't see who was matching the Winne mph for mph. But there was something holding up our progress.
After a few moments of scoping out the situation, Bob deftly dropped the Chevy into the right hand lane (the Winnie was making some headway) and we moved car by car forward finally within sight of the offending left lane laggard.
I was in the back seat ranting about the highways going to hell and Bob pulled closer.
I rolled down the back window, hung half my body out the window and yelled.
"Get the fuck outta that lane!!!"
At a car occupied by three nuns.
After Bob and Jozep's laughter died down and the nun's swerved out of the fast lane. Bob finally said:
"AJ, you're going the Hell."
Yup. Guaranteed.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
The Commandos Conquer Longs Peak
The Commandos decided to climb Longs Peak as their first 14er sometime in the summer of 1978. I'm not really sure if we'd purchase a copy of the iconic guide "A Climbing Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners" by Borneman and Lampert, but had we, we would have picked Mt. Sherman for starters.
Jozep, Bob, Steve Roberson and I planned a Saturday climb since we all worked during the week and along with Wally and Cathy Surel we head up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday night.
Camping in a overflow campground, which should have clued us in as to how many people would be on the mountain, we had a tame night by Commando standards and began our ascent on Saturday morning at 6 AM.
After registering at the trailhead, the Keyhole Route is a easy two and a half mile walk to timberline. Continuing on along the East Longs Peak Trail you walk around Mt. Lady Washington with views of Longs that make you begin to wonder why you're doing this.
At 12,000 plus feet you finally enter the first of several difficult stretches that pretty much kick your ass, if it wasn't already. The first is the Boulder Field. Reading about it you think, okay boulders just step up and over. Well on some you can, others are the size of houses. There is a trail, kinda, but it's tough and you've already walked 5 plus miles at this point so you're tired and hurting if you're not a mountain goat like Bob, Steve and Jozep, which I'm not.
The Keyhole surrounds a shelter built in the 1920's that looks like a great place to go ahead and die from exhaustion, but there are another 2 miles or so to go. At this point you're around 13,200 ft. and only a thousand feet to go.
One of the deceptive things about this climb for me was that everytime to thought you saw a great place to stop, it wasn't. When you arrive at the Keyhole you're at the foot of the Ledge with it's 75 degree slope that goes a long, long way down.
You walk along this portion of the trail, which is reasonably flat, for a half mile probably until you meet the next obstacle, the Trough. If you weren't feeling defeated before you are now.
The Trough is a 500 foot, 75 to 80 degree slope and you stare up at a it and have no choice but to go up. The trail has long since turned into loose sand and gravel and it's a cliche to say it, but it's three steps up and one step sliding back all the way to the top.
One of the things that gives you hope is you see people at the top sitting and resting and you tell yourself that if you can make it there you too can rest for a while. After what seems like hours you arrive only to find a small ledge where two people can sit and the start of yet another nightmare segment, The Narrows.
Bordered by another 75 to 85 degree slope that drops thousands of feet straight down, the Narrows runs for 500 or 600 fairly level feet to the Homestretch. On this particular day, Jozep, who had graciously waited for me at the top of the Trough, and I had a added obstacle on the Narrows. About 100 feet or so along there's a boulder that sticks out over the trail and you have to grasp one side and swing yourself out over the exposed drop. It's really just three or four feet but its scary.
To add to the fun that day a woman who was with a fellow hiker was stuck at that point. One arm on one side, the other on the other side. The guy on the other side was trying to convince her that he could take hold of her arm and she could let go, but it wasn't happening.
I pitched in and told her that I too would hold her and make sure she wouldn't fall. No way go around me was her response. Uh, lady. It's like a thousand feet straight down. How am I going around you?
So excuse me while I rub my sweaty body up against yours. I grabbed one side of the rock and went for it. Jozep did the same and off we went towards the homestretch.
By the time we got back down from the summit, she was gone.
The Homestretch, is yet another pitch of 60 or so degrees and 200 to 300 feet up. It looks really hairy, but was suprisingly easy as I remember.
Over the lip and you're on the summit. 14,259 feet with stunning views of the plains all the way to Kansas and Nebraska.
The summit is a surprise as well. It's relatively flat with small boulders and rock about the size of a football field.
Steve R, Bob, Jozep and I were treated with a couple fly overs by a glider while we rested on the summit and waited for Cathy and Wally.
A hour or so after Jozep and I arrived, Steve and Bob had been on top for two hours by then, Wally and Cathy still hadn't summited so we figured maybe they had turned around and so we headed down.
A surprise on the Trough awaited us though. Cathy and Wally were about about half way up and still climbing. It was around 2 or so by then and they were only a hour or so from the summit and wanted to continue climbing. We wished them good luck and told them we'd pick them up at the trailhead to go to dinner.
About three and a half hours later, 11 and a half hours, 14 and a half miles of mountain behind us, we arrived at the trailhead. We logged out. Found Jozep's Jeep and headed for the campground to change and head back to pick up the Surel's.
Seven o'clock arrived, it was still light then in Summer, no Surel's.So we decided to head into Estes Park and get some dinner since we were all starved.
Back at the trailhead by 8:30 and it was beginning to get dark. Still no Surel's. Bob and I saw some people heading up the trail and we were wondering, what the hell, are these people nuts?
We went over to the trail register and talked a bit to a Park Ranger who I believe might have been heading up. "Do people really climb this at night?" "Oh, sure. Climbing by moonlight is really popular" Uh, no. Not me. Over 250 people were on the mountain that day.
Around nine, Bob, Steve and I decided to call it a night. It was strange. For some odd reason and I don't know if it was based on our conversation with the Ranger, we weren't really worried about them. Jozep ran us back to the campsite and then headed back up to wait.
At around 2:30 that next morning we awoke to the sound of Jozep's Jeep pulling up next to our tents. 20 hours on the mountain, but they had indeed summited and made it down in one piece.
The next day, Cathy informs us that she had asthma. I was even more stunned.
Here's the summit photo. The Commandos first 14er.
Jozep, Bob, Steve Roberson and I planned a Saturday climb since we all worked during the week and along with Wally and Cathy Surel we head up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday night.
Camping in a overflow campground, which should have clued us in as to how many people would be on the mountain, we had a tame night by Commando standards and began our ascent on Saturday morning at 6 AM.
After registering at the trailhead, the Keyhole Route is a easy two and a half mile walk to timberline. Continuing on along the East Longs Peak Trail you walk around Mt. Lady Washington with views of Longs that make you begin to wonder why you're doing this.
At 12,000 plus feet you finally enter the first of several difficult stretches that pretty much kick your ass, if it wasn't already. The first is the Boulder Field. Reading about it you think, okay boulders just step up and over. Well on some you can, others are the size of houses. There is a trail, kinda, but it's tough and you've already walked 5 plus miles at this point so you're tired and hurting if you're not a mountain goat like Bob, Steve and Jozep, which I'm not.
The Keyhole surrounds a shelter built in the 1920's that looks like a great place to go ahead and die from exhaustion, but there are another 2 miles or so to go. At this point you're around 13,200 ft. and only a thousand feet to go.
One of the deceptive things about this climb for me was that everytime to thought you saw a great place to stop, it wasn't. When you arrive at the Keyhole you're at the foot of the Ledge with it's 75 degree slope that goes a long, long way down.
You walk along this portion of the trail, which is reasonably flat, for a half mile probably until you meet the next obstacle, the Trough. If you weren't feeling defeated before you are now.
The Trough is a 500 foot, 75 to 80 degree slope and you stare up at a it and have no choice but to go up. The trail has long since turned into loose sand and gravel and it's a cliche to say it, but it's three steps up and one step sliding back all the way to the top.
One of the things that gives you hope is you see people at the top sitting and resting and you tell yourself that if you can make it there you too can rest for a while. After what seems like hours you arrive only to find a small ledge where two people can sit and the start of yet another nightmare segment, The Narrows.
Bordered by another 75 to 85 degree slope that drops thousands of feet straight down, the Narrows runs for 500 or 600 fairly level feet to the Homestretch. On this particular day, Jozep, who had graciously waited for me at the top of the Trough, and I had a added obstacle on the Narrows. About 100 feet or so along there's a boulder that sticks out over the trail and you have to grasp one side and swing yourself out over the exposed drop. It's really just three or four feet but its scary.
To add to the fun that day a woman who was with a fellow hiker was stuck at that point. One arm on one side, the other on the other side. The guy on the other side was trying to convince her that he could take hold of her arm and she could let go, but it wasn't happening.
I pitched in and told her that I too would hold her and make sure she wouldn't fall. No way go around me was her response. Uh, lady. It's like a thousand feet straight down. How am I going around you?
So excuse me while I rub my sweaty body up against yours. I grabbed one side of the rock and went for it. Jozep did the same and off we went towards the homestretch.
By the time we got back down from the summit, she was gone.
The Homestretch, is yet another pitch of 60 or so degrees and 200 to 300 feet up. It looks really hairy, but was suprisingly easy as I remember.
Over the lip and you're on the summit. 14,259 feet with stunning views of the plains all the way to Kansas and Nebraska.
The summit is a surprise as well. It's relatively flat with small boulders and rock about the size of a football field.
Steve R, Bob, Jozep and I were treated with a couple fly overs by a glider while we rested on the summit and waited for Cathy and Wally.
A hour or so after Jozep and I arrived, Steve and Bob had been on top for two hours by then, Wally and Cathy still hadn't summited so we figured maybe they had turned around and so we headed down.
A surprise on the Trough awaited us though. Cathy and Wally were about about half way up and still climbing. It was around 2 or so by then and they were only a hour or so from the summit and wanted to continue climbing. We wished them good luck and told them we'd pick them up at the trailhead to go to dinner.
About three and a half hours later, 11 and a half hours, 14 and a half miles of mountain behind us, we arrived at the trailhead. We logged out. Found Jozep's Jeep and headed for the campground to change and head back to pick up the Surel's.
Seven o'clock arrived, it was still light then in Summer, no Surel's.So we decided to head into Estes Park and get some dinner since we were all starved.
Back at the trailhead by 8:30 and it was beginning to get dark. Still no Surel's. Bob and I saw some people heading up the trail and we were wondering, what the hell, are these people nuts?
We went over to the trail register and talked a bit to a Park Ranger who I believe might have been heading up. "Do people really climb this at night?" "Oh, sure. Climbing by moonlight is really popular" Uh, no. Not me. Over 250 people were on the mountain that day.
Around nine, Bob, Steve and I decided to call it a night. It was strange. For some odd reason and I don't know if it was based on our conversation with the Ranger, we weren't really worried about them. Jozep ran us back to the campsite and then headed back up to wait.
At around 2:30 that next morning we awoke to the sound of Jozep's Jeep pulling up next to our tents. 20 hours on the mountain, but they had indeed summited and made it down in one piece.
The next day, Cathy informs us that she had asthma. I was even more stunned.
Here's the summit photo. The Commandos first 14er.
The Zep Commando Summit Team
I'll try to dig some shots from the route out of storage to show that I'm not exaggerating about the route. It's a tough one that none of us every repeated.
How It All Began...Part 2
The Zep Commandos were a close knit family for 2 or 3 years until we began to cultivate some local Colorado born and bred talent. The addition of Commando Bob opened a whole new field of candidates for membership amongst his circle of friends.
The woman who forced me to learn how to cook, Susan Hawks, was a co-worker of mine that worked the same graveyard shift as Computer Assistants at Ma Bell and became instrumental (accidentally) in the growth of the Commandos.
As Susan and I became friends and my culinary talents grew from Cup of Soup to Scrambled Eggs with Toast, I eventually was invited to a party that she and her room mates at the time had one weekend.
It was right around the time that I got accepted to PBT (Programmer Basic Training that I met Susan's boyfriend at the time who was none other than Bob. He had also been accepted for PBT and would be attending the class before mine and with that in common we talked for awhile and found that we had a mutual love of hiking and camping. The addition of Commando Bob opened a whole new field of candidates for membership from his circle of friends.
Sometime after we both had graduated from PBT, at another party, and made plans to do a camping trip to Long's Peak. We had both wanted to climb a 14er and since Long's is right on the Front Range we thought it would be the best to start with. It wasn't, but it was the first.
The woman who forced me to learn how to cook, Susan Hawks, was a co-worker of mine that worked the same graveyard shift as Computer Assistants at Ma Bell and became instrumental (accidentally) in the growth of the Commandos.
As Susan and I became friends and my culinary talents grew from Cup of Soup to Scrambled Eggs with Toast, I eventually was invited to a party that she and her room mates at the time had one weekend.
It was right around the time that I got accepted to PBT (Programmer Basic Training that I met Susan's boyfriend at the time who was none other than Bob. He had also been accepted for PBT and would be attending the class before mine and with that in common we talked for awhile and found that we had a mutual love of hiking and camping. The addition of Commando Bob opened a whole new field of candidates for membership from his circle of friends.
Sometime after we both had graduated from PBT, at another party, and made plans to do a camping trip to Long's Peak. We had both wanted to climb a 14er and since Long's is right on the Front Range we thought it would be the best to start with. It wasn't, but it was the first.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
What The Commandos Became Famous For.. Part 1
The Zeps were famous (infamous?) for their party celebrations of everything from Halloween to the Summer Soltice. Many a party grew to big to the point hired help was required to park cars!
In addition, the invites distributed to inform the millions about the upcoming parties, were themselves, created with a bit of artistic license. Some of these rare flyers can still be found....but not in the Smithsonian!
AJ here: What Bob neglected to post here were some of the additional pages of the invites.(Maybe I neglected to share the jpeg with him.) Our invitations became elaborate multi-page reflections of the cultural and political climates of the 80's. Here's one:
Timeless. Right?
In addition, the invites distributed to inform the millions about the upcoming parties, were themselves, created with a bit of artistic license. Some of these rare flyers can still be found....but not in the Smithsonian!
AJ here: What Bob neglected to post here were some of the additional pages of the invites.(Maybe I neglected to share the jpeg with him.) Our invitations became elaborate multi-page reflections of the cultural and political climates of the 80's. Here's one:
Timeless. Right?
Saturday, February 15, 2014
The Night of the Living Jack
THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING JACK
A Friday night that turned into Fright Night for some unlucky RVers.
The night that Jozep danced in the fire for the first time.
On this particular occasion Jozep and Bob R and I packed up his big honking Chevy and headed out for a weekend of camping in the Rawah Wilderness. In the 70's and 80's it was still a very pleasant two hour drive from Denver. This was way before the population explosion in Colorado that occurred in the late 80's and early 90's and the highways weren't nearly as busy as they are now.
We, contrary to state law, had a few nips of Jack Daniels on our way up Poudre Canyon and Bob cranked up the tunes. As we passed one of the many campgrounds that are in the canyon we were singing along to some Beatles tunes when we noticed that people were actually stopping what they were doing when we drove by. Just a minor disturbance in their Wildness Experience. Or maybe they dug the tunes as much as we did.
We arrived at the Chambers Lake Campground, where we had planned to spend the night, at around twilight. A quick drive thru found that all the sites were full, so we opted to find a place on the other side of the lake on the Laramie River Road and just pull off and walk in a bit to set up camp.
For reasons long since forgotten, we found a small turn out that sat at the base of a 15 or 20 foot bluff that we had to climb to find a spot level enough for us to build a fire and set up our tents.
We were well into our first bottle of Jack and night had fallen when Jozep pulled out his guitar and he and Bob began taking turns playing and singing fireside.
I think it was Jozep that first heard the sound of a vehicle rumbling up the road towards where we had parked the car. I was busy keeping the bottle of Jack from getting dirt on the bottom.
"Commando alert" he said and the three of us slunk over towards the edge of the bluff. We all dropped to prone positions and belly crawled up to the edge.
Looking over we found that a big Winnebago Class C (not really that big in those days) had pulled over into the turnout just below us.
The three of us, four if you count Jack, could hear the people inside the RV talking.
"So what do you think? Is this a good place?"
"Oh, I think it will do just fine."
Un-uh. I don't think so.
Without thinking I leapt up from the darkness and screamed down at them.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!"
Man, you should have seen that Winnie peel out down the road. You'd have thought it was Charles Manson yelling at them.
We had a few more thugs to finish off Jack No.1 and on to Jack No. 2 as we walked back over to the campfire for a good laugh about it.
Later that night Jozep treated Bob and I to his version of "Stagger Lee".
"Stagger Lee shot Billy
He shot that boy so bad"
Jozep was so into it that he had inadvertently (?) stumbled right into our campfire. Bob and I sat there for a moment amazed by what we saw until Bob finally said. "Uh, Joe, you're in the fire."
Not fazed by his feat of fire walking, Jozep just continued on to finish up his song and moved slowly out of the campfire.
"Yes, Stagger Lee shot Billy"
Bob and I laughed till we cried about that. Little did we know that it wouldn't be the last time we saw Jozep dance in the fire on a camping trip.
The Night of the Living Jack. The night that inspired our Halloween T-Shirt that year.
How It All Began: Part 1
I first met Zep Commando Co-Founder Jozep in 1974 after I joined Ma Bell as a directory assistance operator. Jozep's wife at the time was a co-worker and invited a bunch of us to a end of summer party at their Capital Hill apartment complex.
Honestly I don't remember a whole lot about the party but Jozep and I met on other occasions at other parties and bars for after work drinks and got to know a bit about each other. Not really friends at this point, as I was with his wife, but I think we liked each other enough to do things together at some point.
Sometime the next summer, Tommi, Jozep's wife, approached me with a very strange request. Tommi knew that my girlfriend and I camped and hiked a lot during the year and wanted to know if I'd invite Jozep camping for a weekend.
Well sure, I can do that, but what's really the motive here?
Well, Tommi says, I think Jozep might be gay.
Okay. Just what makes you think that?
He's always spending time with his friend John and never with me. (Okay, there's some logic there, right?)
Let's look at the timeline here. I'm 24. Served 4 years in the Air Force. Moved to Colorado to spend some time with a woman that I'd met in Spain. Ended up falling in love, both with her and the Rocky Mountains. I'd met gay people, both men and women, at work and never had a problem with any of them, but I probably wasn't the open guy in the world. I was playing sports and drinking and cussing and doing all the manly stuff that was expected of a guy in the early 70's.
So what do I do, besides saying yes I can go camping with him? I invite a wing man for protection.
Dan F. was a co-worker that started at Ma Bell on the same day as I and I'd become good friends with him and his wife, who was also a co-worker. So Dan became my back up in case Jozep decided to try anything funny.
Well, Jozep isn't gay. The three of us had a great time camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking and smoking weed and drinking Jack Daniels.
I reported back to Tommi that she had nothing to fear, other than the divorce which would happen a year or so later.
When my own marriage failed, Jozep and I became better friends and spent many a evening sitting around his dining room table after he got off work and before I went in for Graveyard shift.
Jozep played his guitar and was an accomplished painter even then and one night as we were taking Jozep showed me a "ZEP" hat that his brother in law, who was a rep for the cleaning products, had sent him.
I immediately laid claim to it (read: I stole it) and proclaimed that from then on we would be known as the ZEP Commandos.
And the rest, as they too often say, is history.
Honestly I don't remember a whole lot about the party but Jozep and I met on other occasions at other parties and bars for after work drinks and got to know a bit about each other. Not really friends at this point, as I was with his wife, but I think we liked each other enough to do things together at some point.
Sometime the next summer, Tommi, Jozep's wife, approached me with a very strange request. Tommi knew that my girlfriend and I camped and hiked a lot during the year and wanted to know if I'd invite Jozep camping for a weekend.
Well sure, I can do that, but what's really the motive here?
Well, Tommi says, I think Jozep might be gay.
Okay. Just what makes you think that?
He's always spending time with his friend John and never with me. (Okay, there's some logic there, right?)
Let's look at the timeline here. I'm 24. Served 4 years in the Air Force. Moved to Colorado to spend some time with a woman that I'd met in Spain. Ended up falling in love, both with her and the Rocky Mountains. I'd met gay people, both men and women, at work and never had a problem with any of them, but I probably wasn't the open guy in the world. I was playing sports and drinking and cussing and doing all the manly stuff that was expected of a guy in the early 70's.
So what do I do, besides saying yes I can go camping with him? I invite a wing man for protection.
Dan F. was a co-worker that started at Ma Bell on the same day as I and I'd become good friends with him and his wife, who was also a co-worker. So Dan became my back up in case Jozep decided to try anything funny.
Well, Jozep isn't gay. The three of us had a great time camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking and smoking weed and drinking Jack Daniels.
I reported back to Tommi that she had nothing to fear, other than the divorce which would happen a year or so later.
When my own marriage failed, Jozep and I became better friends and spent many a evening sitting around his dining room table after he got off work and before I went in for Graveyard shift.
Jozep played his guitar and was an accomplished painter even then and one night as we were taking Jozep showed me a "ZEP" hat that his brother in law, who was a rep for the cleaning products, had sent him.
I immediately laid claim to it (read: I stole it) and proclaimed that from then on we would be known as the ZEP Commandos.
And the rest, as they too often say, is history.
The Man Beneath the ZEP Hat by Jozep 1977
Friday, February 14, 2014
Why you ask?
I've been blessed that I've known most of my friends, none of which I grew up with, for nearly 40 years in most cases.
Bonded by a love of good, loud music, whiskey, the love of the outdoors, stimulating conversation and more partying than we probably should have done, we've endured differences of opinion, politics, new men and women in our lives and all those parties and continued to be friends.
We are and have been VP's of companies, Artists, Lead Software and Hardware Engineers, Union Members, successful self employed entrepreneurs, musicians, 10 to 30 year state employees and in my case, just lucky to have had a career.
So I've opened this blog to share some of my memories and I'll be inviting every ZEP Commando that I've got an email address for to post and share their versions of the truth (while there's still time), so maybe you will get to see what I've always said about my friends.
"We're some funny motherfuckers."
A brash statement I know, but one that I think that the stories that we post will bear out as fact.
I hope you enjoy reading these stories (not all will be safe for work or easily corruptible young minds), but all will hopefully entertain you and give you a glimpse of our lives over the last four decades.
Later.
Bonded by a love of good, loud music, whiskey, the love of the outdoors, stimulating conversation and more partying than we probably should have done, we've endured differences of opinion, politics, new men and women in our lives and all those parties and continued to be friends.
We are and have been VP's of companies, Artists, Lead Software and Hardware Engineers, Union Members, successful self employed entrepreneurs, musicians, 10 to 30 year state employees and in my case, just lucky to have had a career.
So I've opened this blog to share some of my memories and I'll be inviting every ZEP Commando that I've got an email address for to post and share their versions of the truth (while there's still time), so maybe you will get to see what I've always said about my friends.
"We're some funny motherfuckers."
A brash statement I know, but one that I think that the stories that we post will bear out as fact.
I hope you enjoy reading these stories (not all will be safe for work or easily corruptible young minds), but all will hopefully entertain you and give you a glimpse of our lives over the last four decades.
Later.
The ZEP Commandos (v 1.1) circa 1976
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