TRACK Trail

Congaree National Park

June 2019

Okefenokee Swamp- An Old Favorite

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Chesser Island Boardwalk

Georgia

June 2019

A True Friend...Florida Trails

Fort Caroline National Memorial

Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve

Theodore Roosevelt Area

Spanish Pond Trail +

June 2019

Open Pond Trail

Open Pond Recreational Area

Conecuh National Forest

Alabama

June 2019

"Trail is ACCESSIBLE to the first overlook"

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

Mississippi

May 2019

There is an art to selecting trails to pushike with Kellisa and I like to think that we've gotten pretty good from so many years of experience. We've traveled long and hard only to find accessible trails, well not so accessible. We've also stumbled upon trails with no indication of accessibility and they've been beautiful to push Kellisa on. 

We like to read as many trail reports as possible looking for key words (mud, stairs, rocks, climbs, etc.) that may tip us off to research another trail. If we are confident after reports, we then carefully study pictures looking for barriers. If all checks out, we have a good success rate. We are writing the first book on pushiking to help others navigate through the process of selecting and then pushiking trails. 

The trail we selected in Mississippi had a short section at the beginning that was accessible. Because there is so much information about accessible trails as many are paved, we're not going to feature too many miles of accessible trails in the book. The trail in Mississippi went beyond the accessible portion to complete a loop. 

Little did we know that the accessible part of the trail would have a barrier almost immediately. Now we could easily navigate the obstacles and I would guess most people pushing a jog stroller or off-road mobility chair could as well, I have serious doubts that most people wheeling themselves could complete the "accessible" section of this trail. Lastly, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure motorized wheelchairs would have no chance on the navigating the platform section at the beginning of this trail. While I'm thankful Kellisa and I were able to complete the loop, I can't help but think about those who might travel to this trail only to be turned around before really even getting started. 

Fontainebleau State Park

Louisiana

May 2019

Pushiking Book - Completed States

Britton Hill, FL

Back to Kellisa's Path Blog

Pushiking Book Update #1

 To say we are behind in the progress of writing our book would be a vast understatement. Kellisa and I need to hike at least one trail in all 50 states and write 90,000 publishable words with supporting pictures, maps, etc. by November 1, 2019. As of May 29th, we pushiked in 8 states and had just over 8,200 words written in a very rough draft.

Most of you know Kellisa and I already pushiked a trail in all 50 states by her 18th birthday and Laurel also accomplished this goal. Our book deal is to write a guidebook with some narrative non-fiction woven in our adventures. I did not view our first tour of the United States through the scope of writing a guidebook. I didn't keep the proper details and documents for a guidebook. Plus, we didn't complete every trail and sometimes we made our own trail. Not very guide worthy, in my opinion. So our second quest to pushike a trail in all 50 states started last October and due to many reasons, we are off to a very slow start.

With summer approaching fast, it was getting close to the point of not having a chance to have the book completed on time when I realized that we had a tight 7 day window between Kellisa getting out of school and Laurel's 10th birthday festivities. We actually had 8 days, but wanted to return with one day to spare just to make sure we would be back in time to celebrate Laurel's birthday. Even though Laurel was very happy to complete the original goal and is very proud of herself, she decided that she didn't want to participate on our new trail adventures.

Restoring a Little Faith in Humanity

 I know we are behind in updating the blog, but life has been busy. Our goal is to post like crazy all summer!

Those in the disabled world might agree that life is hard most of the time and often it seems like the world is against us. I don't like to complain, but I'm usually vocal about pointing out some of the discrimination and injustice we face on an all too regular basis.

While most people we encounter are probably neutral and at most guilty of staring a little. It is rare for individuals to go above and beyond to help strangers with disabilities. And when they do, they are usually "club members" themselves, because they "get it". 

I know we like to say people act like CP, Epilepsy, Hydrocephalus, "fill in your disability" is contagious because so many turn away and actively ignore. Yes, we get people who offer help like trying to hold a door open for us. While we appreciate the gesture, these people are usually in the way more than they are helping. How are we supposed to get through the door with you standing in the door holding it? And then when we say, "We've got it" and go through the door like nothing, we usually hear, "Looks like you've done this before."

Yeah, been doing this for more than 18 years! We just carried Kellisa for the first few years of her life.

So...Kellisa and I just returned from one of our epic father-daughter trips that will provide many blog posts in the near future. We often return home without our faith in humanity restored and that's OK. That's not our motivation for travel. However, this trip was different. Within a 24 hour period, we had multiple people offer help...real help!