Grand Island National Recreation Area

Michigan

August 2013

Kellisa and I enjoyed 3 days and 2 nights on Grand Island...our little piece of heaven on earth. Many pictures, details of my bear encounter and the story of unexpected friendship can be found (here).  

Clark Creek Nature Area

Mississippi

January 2014

Steep trails and a broken frame on Kellisa's Freedom Push Chair add to the adventure of our 2nd state hike in 2014. (More)

Bloomingdale Bog Trail

Adirondacks

 

 

New York

 

September 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It takes a lot of effort just to start a hike with Kellisa and I wasn't going to let a little water stop us from having a nice hike. If we turned around without getting wet, it would have been too late to find another trail. We could have gone back to our nice warm hotel room...but why would we do that?"

 

(Read more)

Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park

British Columbia

Canada

October 2013

A short, but steep trail to the base of a waterfall would be our last hike on our trip to British Columbia. (Read more)

The Narrows

Zion National Park
Utah

May 2013

This was Kellisa's second visit to Zion National Park

Our goal for this trip was to hike/raft part of the Narrows trail. The National Park Service makes it clear that flotation devices and rafts are not allowed in the Narrows. I wrote to the chief ranger and explained our situation and provided a link to this blog. The ranger responded that her first thought was to answer no, but after looking at our experience, she decided that if anyone could do the Narrows with a disabled person, it was us. The ranger had one condition, we needed another hiker for safety reasons. This wasn't a problem because we had already recruited Primo Matt to be our partner.

We used the Freedom Push Chair for the mile long paved trail to the start of the Narrows:

Getting the 1 person raft ready:

Kellisa loved the raft:

Safety first:

The entire hike in the water was like hiking on wet, slick bowling balls. Every foot placement took careful thought and consideration. 

Here we go:

The first rapids we encountered:

Calmer waters:

More rapids:

It may not look like much, but the water was really flowing on this beautiful afternoon and the rapids below were a little too strong for my liking. I had to play it safe and carry Kellisa around the rapids:

Of course, Kellisa didn't mind:

Back in the raft:

Matt hiking along side Kellisa:

Kellisa's view from the raft:

Back at the beginning of the Narrows:

Matt taking pictures:

I cooled off in the freezing water as Kellisa enjoyed her last minutes in the raft:

Pictures 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 20 (courtesy of Matt Buckingham)

Casie Forbes from the St. George, Utah newspaper- The Spectrum, met us at the visitor center after our hike for an interview. Casie's story appeared in the Memorial Day edition and a week later, the story was picked up by the AP and ran in papers across the country. 

A huge thank you to Casie (sorry we were two hours late, it was a lot harder than we imagined), Matt, Egypt and Lisa!

Back to Kellisa's Path Blog

Historic Railroad Tunnels Trail

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Nevada

May 2013

Kellisa and I flew out to Las Vegas for Memorial Day weekend with Primo Matt. Our first hike was the Historic Railroad Tunnels Trail at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The sun was blazing and the temperature was soaring, but we didn't let that stop us from hiking 8.80 miles. After hiking through the five tunnels, we walked across Hoover Dam.

Hurrikains Collection:

Matt Buckingham Collection:

Virginia Creeper Trail

Virginia Creeper Trail
Virginia

May 2013

I've been wanting to hike a long section of the Virginia Creeper Trail with Kellisa since we visited the area back in June 2006. We finally had the chance while attending Trail Days 2013 and we hiked 6.81 miles from Taylor's Valley down to Damascus. We had hoped for 17 miles, but a late start and scattered thunderstorms altered our plans.

We need to thank Adventure Damascus for being our shuttle to Taylor's Valley and not being scared to take Kellisa's Freedom Push Chair along for the ride:

Kellisa enjoying the shuttle van ride on our way to the trailhead:

Taylor's Valley Trailhead:

Starting down the Virginia Creeper Trail:

Shortly after starting, we entered the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area:

Views along the trail:

We crossed several of the 34 bridges along the entire trail:

The greenery came alive with the fresh rain:

Happy to have the rain cover removed:

Trip stats:

Our hike along the Virginia Creeper Trail:

Sadly, Trail Days 2013 will be remembered for the car accident that hurt over 50 hikers. I wanted to get Kellisa back to the hotel for a good night of sleep and we left 5 minutes before the accident. If we didn't leave, we would have been just across the street from the accident. 

On a more positive note, we attended a presentation by Jennifer Pharr Davis, one of the world's most accomplished hikers, about her first thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Kellisa especially enjoyed meeting Jennifer after the presentation.

Trails

Home