Spartan Wheel Chariots

 Tahoe National Forest

August 2023

Kellisa has many chairs with wheels, she has a wheelchair with bus tie downs, a travel folding wheelchair, and two off-road chairs built for rugged trails. In her 24+ years, she's gone through just about every kind of wheelchair and adaptive jog stroller we could find. With our vast experience, we always found a significant gap in the market. We've never found a chair that can maneuver in a hotel or restaurant and hold it's own on the average non-ADA trail.

Everything changed when we saw a post from Ben Huntzinger, the owner of Spartan Wheel Chariots. Ben is making a wheelchair that doubles as an off-road chair. It was everything we dreamed of in a dual purpose chair.

Kellisa will still need her other chairs for everyday life and extreme trails, but when we are out and want to hit moderate trails, Ben's chair is the perfect medium. We travel a lot and it's a pain to travel with two chairs, one for trails and one for everywhere else, especially when we aren't planning on hiking anything too crazy. Or maybe we are visiting family and leave the trail chairs at home, but find an unexpected few hours free and know we can't find a trail because we don't have the right chair. 

After a few emails and measurements, we ordered a Spartan Wheel Chariot for Kellisa. Ben was super responsive and open to some adjustments to meet our needs, like the push handle customized to my height. The communication was outstanding with pictures of the chair in each phase of development. After a few weeks, Kellisa's chair arrived and it looked like our problems were solved, but we had to test the chair to be sure.

It was another couple of weeks before Kellisa and I had time to head out on a trail. We didn't have one in mind, so we just headed out for a drive through the Tahoe National Forest. We drove around for a couple of hours enjoying the views before we discovered a large lake far below the gravel road we were navigating. Through some trees, we could see the edge of a cliff band rising from far below. We didn't see any established trails, but knew this was the perfect spot to test Kellisa's new chair.

This would be Kellisa's first time even sitting in her chair and her excitement was off the charts. She was ready to go as soon as I had the seatbelt on and within seconds she was bouncing and giggling as the chair easily navigated the rocky terrain. The lake really opened up once we got near the edge of the cliffs and we just took in the light breeze and endless beauty. We explored a little while taking some photographs. Unfortunately, we didn't have unlimited time because I had to get back for a parents meeting with Egypt's water polo coaches.

Even though our time out was limited, I have no doubt Kellisa's new Spartan Wheel Chariot (aka Purple Beast) will continue to exceed our expectations! 

Thank you Ben!

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It's Officially A Christmas Tree Tradition

 For the second year in a row, we got a permit to cut down a Christmas tree in select areas of the Tahoe National Forest. Like last year, Egypt was my partner and she selected the perfect tree after driving down a few snow covered roads. The tree didn't look so big when compared to other, far more mature trees in the forest, but after a few clips here and there, it was a dream come true type tree for our house. 

 

A New Christmas Tradition?

We don't have many traditions in our family, but most of the few we do have happen at Christmas time. We often travel on other holidays and are rarely home for Easter and Thanksgiving, but we are always at home for Christmas. Lisa makes a traditional meal, the girls wear new dresses, and we visit the tree on display in the downtown area wherever we live. As far as trees, Lisa and I didn't put one up before kids. We lost Everett on December 7th and Christmas was a rough time for us. When Kellisa was born, my dad wanted to make sure she had a tree at home and bought us a small fiber optic tree which we used every year until it died. We did replace it to keep the tradition going...guess we have another one.

When Kellisa was 4 years old, we purchased an artificial tree that we used every year, but we threw it out when we moved to California. Instead of buying another artificial tree and storing it all year in our limited space, we decided to purchase real trees. For some reason, we always wait until the weekend before Christmas to pick a tree from a mostly empty lot near our house. We are always shocked at the high prices and Lisa is usually able to negotiate $20 - $40 off a $200 tree since it's so close to Christmas.

Egypt was asking to get a tree earlier this year and I somehow read an article about the national forests in Northern California offering permits for only $10 to cut your own tree. I did a little research and found the closest to our house, Tahoe National Forest was included. The idea is to thin the forest to help lower wildfire dangers while also allowing more mature trees thrive. I got a permit and a map of areas where harvesting live Christmas trees was allowed. I picked an area I was familiar with about an hour from our driveway.

I was hoping it would be a family outing, but Lisa stayed home with Kellisa as she was still recovering from her surgery. After purchasing a small chainsaw, Egypt and I headed out to the forest. As we gained elevation, the temperature dropped and patches of snow decorated the forest floor. We enjoyed some spectacular views before Egypt saw the perfect tree a short distance off the dirt road we were driving down. 

We got out and walked over to the tree and Egypt had already made up her mind. I could see at least 6 other trees that were just as perfect. Our permit limited us to trees less than 20ft. tall and trunk diameters of no more than 6 inches. I asked Egypt to at least look and consider the other trees. To her credit, she humored me and checked each tree out. Egypt was adamant about her first choice still being the best. I couldn't help but agree.

I went back and got the chainsaw as Egypt walked Evie. We posed for a few pictures before Egypt helped me cut down our first ever Christmas tree from the wild. I dragged it back and tied it down before driving back home. 

I had visions of clipping the tree once it was home to make it the perfect Christmas tree shape, but we decided to leave it natural even though it was a little uneven and stuck out in our main walkway from the front door to the kitchen, living room, and Kellisa's bedroom. 

Our tree was perfect and we started talking about "next year" and doing it again before we even decorated this tree. 

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Omega Diggings Overlook Trail

Tahoe National Forest

July 2020

Grouse Falls Overlook Trail

Tahoe National Forest

Placer County, CA

Day 75 of the COVID-19 lock downs. As the country starts to open up, we are still mostly hunkered down out of an abundance of safety for the girls, especially Kellisa since she's considered high risk. I took a few days off of work and decided I needed to take a hike. Since this was my first trail since last October, I selected a short, but challenging trail near our home to explore. Based on pictures and trip reports, I selected Grouse Falls Overlook Trail for my hike and it didn't disappoint. 

The Placer County Big Trees Grove

Big Trees Grove

Tahoe National Forest

December 2017

We have traveled far for specific trails, but I don't think we've ever driven so far off any beaten path as we did to reach the trailhead for the Big Trees Grove in Tahoe National Forest. After leaving tiny Foresthill, we drove 25 miles on a beautiful two lane road that zig and zagged as it climbed and descended many ridges of the Sierra-Nevada foothills. There was not a single straight or flat section for the entire length. Also, you do not pass a single house, business, or really anything other than trees and sweeping views. I didn't keep track of how many cars we saw on this part of the drive to the trailhead, but I'm confident it would have been far less than five.

Not surprisingly, we were the only car in the parking lot at the trail head. My Garmin told us our elevation was just under 5,600 feet above sea level. The temperature was 40F and there was a pretty good wind whipping through the forest. The sign for the trail was missing, but it was fairly obvious and we started our lollipop hike down the ridge. The trail was littered with large pine cones which are not a friend to the person pushing the Hippocampe. However, Kellisa loves these little annoying obstacles because she either bounces over them or lunges forward a little if they lock up a wheel.

The highlight of the trail is of course, the big trees. There are six giant sequoias in this small grove far from everything, including other giant sequoias. In fact, these six trees represent many anomalies: smallest grove, northern most grove, and most isolated grove. If you count the two giant sequoias that fell in 1861, the grove actually has eight trees. 

We enjoyed our hike and found it well worth the effort to reach this remote trailhead. The trail was wide enough for Kellisa's chair and we enjoyed the challenge of the elevation changes we found on most of the trail. There were a few rocky areas in addition to the pine cones, but the trail was mostly friendly to us. Despite the grove's desolation, it was only a little more than an hour from our home just outside of Sacramento. On our way out, we couldn't resist going off-pavement on a few forest roads. Kellisa loved the "bumpy" as she bounced up and down and around in her seat.

I made a note to count the cars on our 25 mile drive back to Foresthill and that number would be one. I pulled off at large parking area to give Kellisa some water through her g-tube and one car passed us from behind. This was the only car we saw on this Saturday afternoon and if I didn't stop, we probably wouldn't have even seen the one. Kellisa was hungry by the time we reached Foresthill and I stopped at a gas station to get her a Clif Bar. As I was getting out of the Pilot, a kind woman asked if I knew that my "bumper was hanging off?" No, I didn't know and was surprised since I didn't hear anything dragging while driving. Maybe the music was a little loud?

Thankfully, it wasn't my bumper, it was just the skid plate that protects the engine. I wasn't thrilled, but I was able to crawl under the car and kind of "pop" it back in place. It held the rest of the way home and I'm hoping it's mostly fixed, but will look at it closer in the near future. A small price to pay for an amazing afternoon out with Kellisa.

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