Rugged Access for All

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www.ChristopherKain.com

My first book, Rugged Access for All is being released today, October 28, 2020. To go along with this huge event, I'm also going live with my author's website. I've written my first blog post capturing some of the moments that led to writing a book. 

Kellisa's Path Blog will still be our main platform for sharing our stories, but I needed a page for people to hopefully find the book and me as an "author". 

Please check out the new page and sign up for updates. Thank you!

Here's the link to the first post: http://www.christopherkain.com/2020/10/a-long-path.html

4 States in 1 Day

Like so many things, COVID-19 has delayed the release of our book. I've been wanting to build some excitement leading up to the October release, but wasn't sure what to post. I started thinking about how the book went in alphabetical order instead of sequential order. It seemed like there might be stories to be shared that didn't make it to print if I just changed how I looked at our adventures. While looking at a map of the trails included in the book, I realized our record for most states pushiked in a day was 4.

 

Kellisa and I were way behind schedule and needed to do some crazy trips with everything working out perfect or at least very close to perfect. We were in danger of leaving some of the New England states without finishing a trail due to rain in Connecticut and two rocky trails in New York. We needed to successfully pushike in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island on our last day in the region before returning home to California with less than 3 weeks before the completed manuscript was due.

If everything went as planned, I would give us excellent chances to finish the task. But, there was a powerful nor'easter just off the coast with winds between 50 and 60MPH pounding the mainland. At least one of our planned trails was along the coastline. In addition, I didn't have an alternative trail selected for Connecticut and didn't have a solid plan for Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

After a long day, actually after a week of long days, we woke up early in a beautiful seaside motel. We had already pushiked in Oklahoma, Texas, Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire on this whirlwind trip. We only had four states to go east of the Mississippi and a very early flight home to catch in less than 24 hours.

Our first trail started out along the rocky Maine coast before going through a deep forest in full autumn display of vivid colors. The trail popped out of the trees for a short loop near the water again before returning on the same path back to our rental SUV. The wind and waves reminded me of bringing the girls to the beach to experience tropical storms passing by the Jacksonville, Florida coast.

I had an idea along the Massachusetts coast for a trail, but then I saw a sign for Walden Pond, "THE" Walden Pond. I took a chance and pulled off the highway knowing we couldn't afford to waste even a minute of time. We were relieved to find a suitable trail around one of the most famous ponds in the world. 

Rugged Access for All - Book Cover

I turned on my computer with the intention of sharing the cover of Rugged Access for All for the first time, but my homepage stole all my excitement. Right in the middle was the headline, "Rush drummer Neil Peart dies at 67".

Most people know Neil as possibly the greatest rock drummer of all time...definitely the most technical. What some don't know is Neil lost his only daughter (at the time) a couple of years before we lost Kirsten. He also lost his wife less than a year later and wrote a book about how he healed through traveling. He wrote several other books about touring and traveling. 

I found his books around the same time Kellisa and I really started traveling for adventures. At some point, a light bulb went off in my head and I decided I wanted to write a book about our travels and model them after Neil's books. That was the start of what grew to be a full on obsession.

I spent thousands of hours over 10 years working on getting a book deal and writing the book. I'm not sure I'd be so close to releasing my debut book if it wasn't for Neil's travel books.

I went through thousands of pictures and selected the top 54 for the publisher. We then narrowed the list down to only 6 pictures. My publisher created 6 different covers with the pictures and different graphics. Everyone involved listed the 6 in order of preference. The final version was actually my 3rd pick, but it was Lisa's 1st choice. I can't even win with picking my own cover! Actually, I loved all 6 and it was incredibly difficult to rank them. I loved them all. 

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Volo Bog State Natural Area

Illinois

November 2018

Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve

Ohio

November 2018

Beech Fork State Park

West Virginia

November 2018

Eagle Creek Park

Indiana

November 2018

Mt. Nebo State Park

Arkansas

October 2018

Prairie State Park

Missouri

October 2018

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Kansas

October 2018

Rugged Access for All - Overview

Rugged Access for All is the working title for our book project under contract with Rowman & Littlefield. 90,000 words are due to the publisher on November 1, 2019. One question we've been asked is about the book's content.

There are thousands of hiking books on the market (and we own hundreds) that cover just about every topic: guides, reference, how-to, memoirs, best sellers, books made into movies, narrative non-fiction, hiking with families, hiking with babies, and even a few are written about accessible trails.

The only thing missing is a book written for families who have a member that uses an all-terrain jog stroller for toddlers and families with a child or adult in a wheelchair who use special mobility chairs designed for trails that don't meet ADA requirements.

With Rugged Access for All, we intend to fill this gap considering there are millions of families in the United States that fall within this all-terrain jog stroller and mobility chair category. Pushiking (One person pushing another in an all-terrain jog stroller or mobility chair while hiking) is the word we like to call our hobby. 

Rugged Access for All will be a mixture of trail guidebook w/pictures and maps, how-to for those just starting out, and a little narrative non-fiction mixed in to make the book a little more personal.

Even though Kellisa has traveled and hiked in all 50 United States, we didn't hike those trails with the intention of writing a guidebook. Therefore, we will be heading back out across the United States to find the best rugged trails for wheels to include in the book. From mountains to oceans to deserts to swamps to forests to canyons...the United States offers just about every kind of wilderness experience you can imagine. The trails will range from easy to extreme and everything in between. Some trails will be short, while others will be long. We might even backpack a few. We'll hike in all four seasons and in all weather conditions. At the end, we hope to include a little bit of everything our beautiful country has to offer those who want to get out and pushike!

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