We're talking about some really ingenious people.

The ingenuity was incredible, but also some incredibly determined, gritty, never-say-no

individuals.

When things got weird and crummy, they had multiple strategies before things got dire.

These are the people's shoulders that we all stand on. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Welcome to the Trailhead of Trail Runners Nation. We go on virtual trail runs every single week and we have invited you to join us. We have guests that help inspire us and guide us and maybe bring a little more fun into our running. And hopefully that makes us better human beings. What do you do, Scott, when you're completely fit? You have a drawer full of finishers, t-shirts and belt buckles. You use that fitness to do something exciting and that's what we're going to talk about today. Hey, trail runners. Have you checked out John G's brand new fall gear?

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And trust us, this is the stuff that will set you apart on the trails.

Yeah, and this week they just launched something extra special.

The John G Collective Exclusive print called Flow State.

If you're part of the collective, you don't want to miss it.

And if you're not, you can join.

And while you're at JohnG.com, take a look at their travel log. Ricky Gates has been curating the trail runner's handbook, exploring iconic trails across America. The latest stop, San Francisco, think Lumbar Street, Quake Tower, and routes a climb over 4,000 feet. JohnGee is more than just here. They're about adventure, community, and giving back. So check out the new fall line, the flow state prints, and Ricky's travel log at Johngee.com. And as a bonus for trail runner nation listeners, you get 10% off when the code trail runner. We love our Amazfit Adventure Fitness watches. And now we're excited to announce the new Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro. This thing is built for runners who want a smart watch that can actually keep up. And you don't have to be a pro to buy the pro version. The first thing you're going to notice is how bright the display is. You can actually see the details without finding a cave or a shadow on sunny days. The new AI interface is amazing too. With a mic and speakers, you can interact without even pushing a button. It can actually go three weeks without a charge and as slow as Scott runs he could probably finish a 50k without plugging it in. Sorry buddy. I'd be lucky to run that fast. Plus it's rugged award-winning design means it looks just as good at the office as it does on the trail. No wonder 42 million users around the world already trust AmazeFIT. Go to us.amazefit.com slash trail and use the code Trail to check out for 15% off today. Welcome to another edition of Trail RearNation. My name is Don Freeman and I'm Scott War. What can we is an endurance athlete do to learn more about the past? Well, we have our friends, Bob Crowley and Tim Tweetmeyer, who are co-founders of history expeditions on the podcast today, starting on Monday September 29th at Pioneer Monument in Donner Memorial State Park, a team of veteran endurance athletes and history devotees will set out to honor the Stevens Townsend Murphy Party with a never before attempted 120 mile reprise crossing on horseback. Over five days are six people of Tim Tweetmeyer, Bob Crowley, Jennifer Hammond, Elke Reemer, How, Hal Hall, Cassandra Demaggio, and Ashley Samson, that's actually seven people as I'm counting, will retrace the long-lost route of the horseback party of six, which we're gonna learn about. From Donner Lake across Rugged Sierra train, Pasley, Tahoe, the Rubicon River, and Georgetown Div Georgetown divide before arriving in Auburn on October 3rd. Tim is best known for his incredible record of the Western states endurance run. He has won Western states five times and has completed the race 25 times in under 24 hours. Hey Bob, what did I leave out about Tim? Well, you know, Tim is, uh, he's a guy that likes to eat a lot of food from Costco. A major Costco shopper. In fact, I've seen him go up and down the aisles and you know, they rearrange Costco's no two Costco's are ever the same. So they make you go up and down the aisles. He holds the FKT for about seven cascades. Well, you know, Scott, to your point, we can use our endurance for any kind of activity in Tim's use of Prakasco. Thank you, Bob. You may recognize Bob's name from his past episodes, which include a report on the Arrowhead 135 where he pulled a Polk 135 miles through the snow and the discussion

we had on running after a hip replacement. Bob has completed the Western States 100 hard rock, Tahoe 200, Moab 200 and the Tour de Jansque. He served as past president of the International Throw Running Association, helped build trail-rolling clubs and pushed the boundaries of what we think is possible on the trail.

Now Tim, what did I leave out? Well, let's see, Bob spent a lot of time running in Europe and he was the president of Etre for a while, right? So he has this alternate ego, Jean-Bubbi. Oh, that's not Bob. So he's your people. He's Jean-Bubbi. That means he's one of his Euro pals talking to him and that's a whole different level for Bob. Scott, let's get into the show. For those who haven't heard some of our previous podcasts with the History Expeditions team, Bob give us a little rundown. What is History Expeditions? When did it start and why? What we do is we look at America West, so this is for the 1800s, and we try to find trails and tails that have been lost to history. You know, really good stories about pioneers and the immigration West about people that you know really opened the West up, and we study where the trail might have been. And it takes us somewhere between one and seven years to discover all the clues to piece it together. And then with that, our great stories about the protagonist, really inspiring stories about very gritty, very curious, very remarkable people, ordinary people that do extraordinary things.

And then, so we honor them by then repreasing the trail that we discover as an expedition. And then we take all those stories and we share them through presentations and films and whatever else, We'll stand out on the corner of a good will if we have to and shake cancer to raise money for nonprofits. So it's really been fulfilling for us because Tim and I, when we started this thought, and we'll do it once, it's a great idea. We did the Fora Learn Hope, which is the rescue group out of the Donner Party and realize that there's's dozens and dozens of other great stories out there. So we're in our fifth or sixth year now, doing one year, and it's really great fun. Tim, tell us about Bob just mentioned The Forlearn Hope. That was the first one. What are the other ones that you've done? Then Bob, we're going to go back back to you and you're going to talk to us about this specific one, the Stevens Townsend Murphy Party. Yeah, so we did our first one, the four-learn homeback in 2020, December of 2020, and then waited a little over a year. And then we did the Donna relief party in early 22. That was the group that went back from Johnson Ranch to Donna Lake to provide supplies for those people that were stuck at the lake. And then the next one was the Grosch brothers. So the Grosch brothers were the two original discoverers of the Comstock load in Nevada. And the reason that was so fascinating was they traveled from Silver City to Last Chance. And one of the brothers in that story is buried at the cemetery in last chance and that's Western's Western states runners run right past that cemetery when we get to the aid station at last chance at you know 45 miles or so The fourth one was Snow Sheet Thompson, which was kind of it differently than the others as others were more group drips groups of people to the research, you know, the grocery ones were the smallest. That was three people. Now we had Snoti Thompson, who was kind of a unicorn in those days. He was the guy who skied mail over the summit of the Sierra's to connect Placerville and Genoa, Nevada, which was pretty novel and original in those days. And now we're to our fifth expedition in 2025, which is the Stevens Townsend Murphy Party. Is Steven Townsend Murphy one guy? Or is that three people? Three people, three families. Three families. Yeah. So Steven Townsend Murphy is Elijah Stevens, Dr. John Townsend and Old Man Murphy. Those three were the leaders, if you will, of a group of 50. There were 11 wagons, 50 people, that left Iowa in the spring at 44 and moved their way. Their intention was to get to California with wagons. Now that doesn't sound terribly remarkable, except for the fact that his net had never been done before.

There had been a number of other attempts to get wagons into California but all of them fell short because as they got to the mountains, they found it was almost impossible to get up and over the Sierra mountains. And so what this group did was in December,

actually November 25th, 1844, they got five wagons up and over Donner Pass. And so they were the first people to prove you could get wagons in the California, which then began the migration, the immigration, West for thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. So that's the first remarkable thing they did was they were the first to get wagons into California. The second is they were the first white people to lay eyes on Lake Tahoe. We'll talk more about that later, but Fremont had seen it from a distance when he was

surveying, but really

Didn't have a close look at it. These were the first to actually walk right up to it and see that remarkable body of water

and then lastly

They this party was

50 people when they started and when they got the Sutter's fork

...