Hi All,
I want to to share a true story with you all. In 1980 7 yeast post I was 25
and in college when I received my first van. My dream was to always drive 3,000
mile's cross country camping the entir way when I got the van, I just didn't
know who was going to go with me. My sister who was also in college, Patti who
is a year younger than me, heard about my dream and offered to help drive and
take complete care of me.
I got the van completed in June and we drove off July 5th 1980, it had under
500 miles on it when we left New Jersey. We had many planned stops, one with
friend's, who are teacher's, every summer drive out to Glacier Nation Park in
Montana with a large group of high school student's. We met up with them at the
end of July at a large KOA camp ground at Logan's Pass just off the "Going to
the Sun" highway, there were about 25 student's and 5 chaperons'.
Now, I must describe the manual chair I was in. I had gotten angry at my
"chair" one day years before and tossed in the trash the seat belt, 1 leg rest
(then I crossed my ankles) and BOTH arm rest's OH and back in the day this
manual chair weighed 40 pound's and I weighed around 110 pound's.
At the visitor's center the elevation is 6,639 feet with the top being 9,500
feet in 1.25 miles. So, if you think about the pitch/grade it is EXTREMELY
STEEP near the top. At the beginning of the climb there was a board walk with
177 steps then it turned into a gravel path, this is where most people turn
around. Patti, Tracy, Carol & Bill would take turn's pushing me up and up and
up but when the acned got VERY steep one would push me then the next would push
them, then the next push the next person until we had a chain of people pushing
me at the same time. There were a LOT of fellow climber's that just couldn't
believe that they were bringing me to the top of this mountain and they took
ton's of picture's, one person took a picture of our "chain push" as we sang
"…driving that train, high on cocaine, Casey Jones you better watch your
speed". As we got higher and higher we started seeing mountain goat's and
patch's of snow. Most of the time one person would push while 2 other's would
be on either side of me pulling until we got to a section were it was so narrow
that 2 people couldn't walk side by side.
(On the way back down it was VERY MUCH HARDER for them to hold me back. At
one point Patti had my chair tipped back at a VERY steep pitch which was all
gravel, she lost her footing and we both started skidding towards the cliffs
edge. When we stopped I asked Patti "…what would have done if I went over the
edge"? She just said "I was going with you then")
Well, we finally made it to the top which took about 2 1/2 hours and the
view was absolutely breath taking. (If you google "Hidden Lake Montana" you'll
see a picture of the top, you could ALS google "Logon Pass Montana" and see a
picture of the mountain from the bottom) I cried when we got to the top, I felt
- and still do - that if I can get to the top of this mountain ANYTHING IS
POSSIBLE FROM NOW ON!
So, that's my story. I truly hope it inspire's someone to try something that
they had trepidations that they could or couldn't do. Bobbie
Sent from my iPad
