2025 Geaux Bearded Adventures

Tommy Kissinger here, with Geaux Bearded Beard Products. Today’s blog post is all about the 2025 Geaux Bearded Adventures and where we’re taking our beards next year. Watch the video or read the transcript below and be inspired—to dream, to grow, to GEAUX!

Like a recap just to go over everything.

I will say, I'm just very thankful. I feel really blessed. When I was looking back on what I got to do this year, just… wow. I got to do a lot of cool stuff.

And that's what Geaux Bearded is all about. This whole company and vision was born out of adventure. Going to Colorado, experiencing the mountains, experiencing the outdoors. 

And it'll change you, man. It just makes you a different person. It makes you a better person. It just makes you enjoy the majesty of what's out there in the world to experience.

So, as I go over our adventure, I would encourage you to get out there.

What do you want to do?

Get up off the couch. Go run. Go walk. Go hike a mountain. Go swim, ride a bike. Let’s GEAUX!

What is it you want to do? What do you feel called to do?

The clock is ticking. What are you waiting for?

That's always one of my big questions to myself and to others. What are you waiting for This is your day. This is your time. This is your life. You're alive now, so go live it.

It, of course, brings health benefits. I'm a big advocate of health: eating right, taking care of your body, and exercising. I encourage you to do a quick check-in and see how you can step it up in any of those areas.

So… here's the recap. The 2025 Geaux Bearded Adventures.

We did several runs, mostly 5Ks and one 10K. I ran most, or all, of these with my buddy, Mark Bounds, a good friend of mine.

My favorite one was in Boulder, Colorado: The BOLDERBoulder.

Mark had told me about it, but he wished he hadn’t. He didn’t expect me to sign up right away, without any research. I just signed up for it and trapped myself into going.

Of course, he joined me, which I really appreciated. We had a great time.

This 10-K, called the BOLDERBoulder, is one of the biggest 10Ks in the country. Of course, it's in Boulder, Colorado.

So, while we were there, we toured around Rocky Mountain National Park. One of our hikes was this loop, where you can catch all these lakes. We saw Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake.

It was absolutely gorgeous. And, as it was around Memorial Day, there was still a bunch of snow. We had a great time at the park, hiking the loop, seeing those beautiful lakes, and even saw a really cool waterfall.

Then, in June, I teamed up with my buddies to go back to the Grand Canyon. This was my third year in a row getting to go. I still cannot believe it. Just so thankful, man, to be there in that canyon. Feel a little closer to God.

We call ourselves the Canyon Clowns. It’s me and my buddy we call Solvidor Ambulando. His name means “it's solved by hiking.” After talking about that several years ago, I’ll always remember that.

The other guys are Webb and Jimmy. Father Eddie came with us along with another guy we nicknamed Bubba Blue.

But that's a whole story about that Bubba Blue. I can't get into that one now, but anyway, we stayed on the South Rim. The next day, we started down the South Kaibab, taking the South Kaibab Trail all the way to the bottom. After crossing the Colorado River, we then went up the North Kaibab.

Man, this is one of the most epic and one of the hardest things I've ever done. And this is the second time I've done it. Rim to rim.

It'll get down in your soul, brother. This thing will. It'll talk to you. You'll get something out of it. I mean, it's a spiritual experience.

It took us 15 hours to hike the 25 miles rim to rim. We were absolutely whipped at the end of this thing, but it is so rewarding. And I would do it again.

The crazy sad thing was, just a couple of weeks after we got back from the Grand Canyon, wildfires devastated the North Rim. The famous lodge on the North Rim burned down, and I believe all the housing, everything, burned. Really hoping that they're going to rebuild, but we're going to have to see what’s available in 2026.

And then, the end of July was our annual trip to the Heavenly Land, baby, Colorado. We went back to Colorado with a band of guys. These are my guys. Roy, JP and his son Harper, and my son and I. We had a great time.

Feel so fortunate to go back again. We usually pick the end of July, so the snow will be out of the way and we can hike.

My son Micah and I did the Manitou Incline. I've done this a bunch of times. I love it. The Manitou Incline is something like 2768 steps going straight up into the sky, like a mile up.

It usually takes us longer, but we were trying to break a record. We tried to break 60 minutes, but I did just a little over 60 minutes. After just over an hour up, we took this side trail, called the Barr Trail, down

So, about an hour up, hour and a half to get down. About  2.5 hours to do the whole thing. I really recommend it. Check it out: The Manitou Incline.

And then we stayed in Woodland Park because we wanted to be near Pikes Peak.

Pikes Peak, America's mountain.

So, we arrived in Woodland Park and got acclimated for a day or so before climbing Pikes Peak.

This is a great one. Check it out. Do your research and do this one if you have not. It’s a fourteener—it's over 14,000ft.

Yeah… Pike's Peak, America's mountain. I believe, round trip was about 14 miles, and I think it took us close to 9 hours to hike it. 

It was great. It's civilized at the top. They have the Cog Railway, they have a gift shop, and they even have their famous donuts up there. And we went from what's called the Crags Trailhead, because it’s a little bit shorter—14 miles. But, if you do it from the other side, it's even longer.

It was an epic hike. The best picture we got that whole trip was from the top of Pikes Peak, standing near the monument. So epic.

The next day, we headed over to the Breckenridge area to get acclimated over there. Then we did a hike called the Decalibron, which is a group of fourteeners—mountain peaks over 14K ft. In one day, you can bag FOUR fourteeners – Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross. So, that was a great day. Coming down Bross was a pain because it’s slippery, steep, and what they call scree (loose, small, broken rock fragments), which I’m not a fan of. But we got through it.

It was great to grab 4 fourteeners, hike the Decalibron. It was a lot of fun on that trip. We also got to do some fly fishing and biking.

Then in October, my wife and I did an epic, EPIC trip to Italy. That’s right, I said Italy. We booked it through Rick Steve’s Europe Tours. I highly recommend Rick and his tours. They are absolutely phenomenal. They are organized. The guides are knowledgeable and friendly. Besides your main tour guide, in each city you meet up with expert local tour guides who live there and know all about each place. When we were in Italy, we got to go to Rome and see the Colosseum and, Pantheon, among other things. Something I will never forget. The Mamertine Prison, the Forum, it was all amazing. We loved the food.

Everywhere we went, the food was delicious. We did a bike tour. We went on the Appian Way, a famous ancient road built by the Romans. Tons more.

Then we moved on to Tuscany, and went to this BEAUTIFUL, enchanting town called Volterra. This was just a Gem. Me and my wife, Sarah, loved it. So warm. So cozy. So inviting. Volterra.

Then we went to the coast, to the Cinqueterre, which is five towns on the coast of the Ligurian Sea. My daughter and son-in-law met us there, and we just loved being there with them. We had a great time being on the coast.

We finished in Florence. Got to see the famous statue of David and much more. It’s so much to take in.   

It was a great year. It was a lot. I got to do a lot and feel very fortunate.

Coming up in January, we are already planning for 2026. We have some friends going to Peru, and they invited us along. We are planning to hike Machu Picchu. That’s the big plan for 2026.

Hope you liked the recap. We invite you to take a look at the website, try out some products, let that beard grow, and grab life by the beard this next year.

I invite you to go after your dreams. Go after your passions. Carpe Diem! What are you waiting for. Stop talking about doing that thing and DO IT!

And don’t forget… GEAUX BEARDED baby!