The Horror Stories of timeshares linger within us all. The time vampires lingering around all over Las Vegas & other tourist-dense destinations… lurking & waiting for the time to strike with the same skin-crawling… blood-curdling question… “Hey boss, are you guys staying in Vegas this weekend?” … “YOU GUYS WANT FREE SHOW TICKETS!?” If you sign up for our 3-hour timeshare presentation, we will waste your time & hard-earned vacation for information about a timeshare you cannot afford!
The R Ranch in The Sequoias is a timeshare… but in my opinion a timeshare like no other. Located in Johnsondale, California, the Ranch is smack dab between The Beautiful Kern River & The Trail Of 100 Giants. Roughly 30 min. from both… our private heaven. Our history with this place began roughly twenty-five years ago… Our best friends' parents purchased their share of the ranch when our friends were just babies. Over the years of getting to know our friends… whom we consider family at this point… shared their stories of visiting this oasis to escape the reality of the big city. The holidays they spent there… snowstorms… power outages… the many friends they'd take up & everything in between. This Ranch was a huge part of their family. Fast forward to 2019 when we were introduced to this place.
We met Lauren & Joel in 2018… the young & dumb times of our lives. Our days & nights are fueled by bad decisions & no sense of consequences. We in no way had our priorities straight. Lost souls following social norms… until one day Lauren mentioned a place where she grew up. Private lake, horses, old cabins & a river that runs through the region… She shared with us the stories of her late father Laurance & how much he loved that place. Laurance was a Man's Man. Loved the outdoors… he would gold pan the Kern River every chance he had. He fished the lake there & he loved to whittle wood he’d find to pass the time. Unfortunately I was not able to meet him in this lifetime… But the decision he made all those decades ago with his wife Pam… to purchase this timeshare… changed the lives of so many people to this day.
The second we drove into that property it was love at first sight. The beautiful tall green lush sequoias… the mountains that sit pretty in the background to enclose our souls with its painting-like beauty… & most importantly the silence. No noise pollution, no light pollution… no pollution pollution. Heaven on earth. At the time I wasn't able to grasp the true beauty of this place. I was more fixated on the stupid shit like having enough beer & weed to last us the weekend… but that ignorance did not last long. After a few more visits we started to grasp how special this place was. No cell service to distract us from each other… we were forced to fall in love with not only the place… but the people we were with. Deep conversations about life… opening up in the rawest most truest form a human can. The laughter until tears rolled… the whimsical innocent feeling we all shared when we first looked up & noticed the Milky Way for the first time. The hours we spent on our backs to catch as many shooting stars as we could. The days worth of music we listened to… the meals we shared… the games played. From the hot miserable summer days… to the gnarly hangovers. We knew this place as our home. Little did we know this would change the course of our lives for years to come.
One weekend, we were at the ranch going through the family storage trailer on property… when Joel & I stumbled upon Laurance’s old tackle box & fishing rod. Over the years of getting to know Joel, we grew closer by the hobbies we shared… Skateboarding, Snowboarding & other not so productive hobbies. I would at some point mention getting into fishing… he would immediately drop his pants & shit on the idea. He would say, “I just can't imagine sitting there for hours doing nothing waiting on a fucking fish.” To his point fishing is pretty boring… so I shelved the idea. We found that old collapsible Shakespeare rod & reel with God knows how old fishing line. I shot my shot again… “hey bro… let's take this thing out on the Duffy boat to the middle of the lake & give it a shot”… the lack of cell service & nothing else to do worked to my advantage for my sales pitch. We stopped by the general store with little to no knowledge of what we were doing & bought the coolest looking lure we could find. I'm pretty sure it was a Kastmaster. We put our two fried-brain cells together… tied the only knot I know how & we hit the water. We had the bright idea to hook last night's leftover hot dogs to the end of that lure & cast the thing out… Now if you don't know anything about fishing… you don't add bait to those lures. So as you would figure… we didn't catch shit. But we loved every “boring” moment of it.
We spent maybe a few hours on that water. Later that night we tried our luck once more… Still nothing. But after that moment… sharing an old rod that belonged to someone we only heard stories about… we were hooked. That one rod… from one man… from a place we only just learned about… would lead us down a path to outdoor adventures. We wanted more of that feeling. So we went on backpacking trips to catch native rainbow trout on the upper Kern River… fished our local lakes, ponds & streams… traveled out of state to try our luck… & bought so much gear that we hardly use. We fell in love with everything outdoors. So much so we decided to build this Outdoor Brand. All due to a decision made decades ago by a Man I wasn’t blessed enough to meet… a Woman who I consider a Mother to me… & their daughters who loved us enough to share their second home with us. Because of them… not only did we build this business… We built a beautiful family from scratch. Today those kids who were making stupid choices are now older kids making better ones…
-DJB
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