This past October 2009, Luis and Team Reeve, the athletic fundraising program of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, spent three days touring The Grand Canyon.
Inaugurating a wheelchair accessible path around the natural wonder of the world, Luis was able to take part in this unbelievable experience thanks to The Walking Connection.
There is a walk, hike or wheelchair accessible adventure to suit everyone. The Walking Connection has developed a special training program that helped prepare Luis and other Team Reeve participants to meet the personal challenges of one of several levels of adventures at the Grand Canyon. His small group was led by The Walking Connection’s Canyon experts who interpreted the intricacies of the geology, history, flora, fauna and environmental zones of the canyon.
Here are a few of Luis’ remarks:
“Ya the trip was awesome. We were a small group only three in wheelchairs, one woman in her mid 40’s who was in incredible shape, a man also about the same age but did not have the full use of his hands, his arms were fine but not his fingers. He was a bit over weight, but he had strong arms. Both were so friendly and nice. The rest of the group was family, friends and some others who were there to do an epic event and donate to a worthwhile cause.
We arrived in Phoenix on Thursday and spent the night in a nearby hotel. The following morning we woke up early and met everyone, and in two vans hit the road on our way to the Grand Canyon. We had to cover about 250 miles or so. We stopped in a very beautiful town called Sedona for lunch. It is one of the most beautiful towns in all of the USA. After lunch we continued to the Canyon arriving around 3 pm. We got our first glimpse of the Canyon, toured the area a bit and wow, it’s so impressive.
The following day, the day of the actual hike, we started early again. We were on the starting point for our walk along the southern rim of the Canyon by 8:30-9:00 am. It was cool but perfectly sunny and no humidity, low 60’s so perfect for me. We were put in different groups. I was with our tour guide Sheldon and the other people in wheelchairs with their family, friends etc. Manuel was with me. The walk from start to finish along the rim is 4.5 miles and so we headed off. Around noon we stopped by some benches and had lunch, with the view of the Canyon in front of us. The walk was a mix of ups and downs. All in all it was quite a workout.
When we reached the end, we decided to turn around and walk, or in our case push, back to where we started. By this time we were now heading west along the rim so the sun was setting in front of us. Along the way we stopped and there are areas where there are no fences so you can get right up to the edge of the cliff and look all the way down, a drop of over a kilometer straight down. That really got the adrenaline going. When we got back to where we started we decided to keep going. In total we did almost 12 miles. My arms were burning. So much more to the story. I’ll tell you more in the next installment.”
For more information on The Walking Connection, please click here.
For more information on Team Reeve, please click here.