A few weeks ago I was asking Anthony if he wanted to do the Four Peaks Summit in Arizona. It’s an event where folks climb either 4 or 7 peaks in one day. Well, they had added an “accessible 4 peaks” where handicapped folks can participate and instead of doing the regular trails one can do an accessible path in front of the peaks. Daring Adventures called to see if Anthony wanted to do it since he missed last year due to nasty weather.
We just returned from a big trip kayaking through Glen Canyon for three days and camping so I felt like it was ok if he didn’t want to do it. So here’s how it goes down… “Hey AC, do you want to try the Four Peaks this year? They have accessible trails in front of the peaks so you can just stay in your wheelchair and do a modified version of the race”. His reply, spoken through his usual huge smile: “No Mom. I want the real ones. I want to climb the real ones, the real way”. Well, so much for knocking it out in his chair, scoring the kool t-shirt, and calling it a day.
So I looked it up. Anthony has trained me to never say no to his adventures without first doing my due diligence. Yep, 4 peaks in one day. That’s 20 miles of hiking plus loading then the driving from peak to peak. And one of the trails is dangerous and almost impossible to imagine getting his hiking chair up it. But as tradition would have it, I honored his request and put it out there to all the amazing friends we have accumulated from the canyon. I was certain I would hear that we were crazy. We were asking too much.
Even though many of our closest friends are out of town, we still had 12 carriers step up right away, several of them new. We have swapped out Squaw Peak (the crazy hard one) for another one of the seven summits so he will still summit 4 and it will still total 20 miles that day. We had to promise Anthony he will see the top of Squaw peak another day. The search and rescue guys are already talking about some “caterpillar” thing they will do to get him up there. But that will be better tackled on a day where that’s the only one we do. That will be safer for all.
When we got together to practice last week for the first time that old familiar feeling was back and everyone was so excited. We climbed Shaw Butte. It was tough and there were some new Phoenix firefighters that joined us. Totally glorious day that infected all! This Sunday we will be out practicing Holbert trail. It’s pretty technical and will really help us determine how much Anthony will be able to take in one day. I have NO idea how we are going to pull this off so fast but I know we will. I just know it.
As our dear friend Tina said when she sent an email to all her hard-core hiker friends looking for volunteers…. “carrying Anthony will change your life”. I know I have certainly found that to be true, but then again, I am his Mom. Carrying him for me is a privilege of the highest kind.
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