The team was very intimidated by the immensity of the great divide and approached it with their usual caution towards safety and desire to conquer it. After all it was just another mountain to defeat in the eventful lives of four very determined and focused individuals.     

It didn’t help when the locals we so often stopped to chat with scared the hell out of us with their description of the Kicking Horse Pass and the steep grades and winding roads. By the time we started our final assault were were psyched right out. Now I look back and wonder if just maybe they all walked away from us with a mischievous chuckle knowing the hook was set. This is something that neither Charlie nor myself would admit to ever being guilty of doing. Right charlie.

 

We split the team on the steepest mountains and as we departed Vernon and moved on to our next stops everyone was upbeat and the excitement of our accomplishments was hard to contain.

We already had the ear of the local press and everywhere we went people stopped to talk, accepted our challenge to become messengers and now almost everyone passing in cars was honking and waving.

After Vernon it was on to Sicamous where we were graciously met by Mayor Marie March. 

We had a very interesting meeting and were able to let Marie go for a run on one of the cycles. By the laughter and smiles all around it was evident that Marie’s charm and kind giving nature again fueled the fires inside the four athletes giving them yet another emotional boost to lift them up the immense grades of the mountains in the great divide.

Thanks Marie for an enjoyable evening and thank you to the community for the generous donation you gave us during our meeting.

The next morning we left Sicamous and pushed on to Revelstoke where we met with acting mayor David Raven.

Revelstoke is just another of the many small communities with a heart that we passed through on our journey through BC.

As we talked it was evident that something wasn’t just right in our conversation. We gave our usual message of the Miracle Medicine conducted in McMaster University Medical Center, we talked about the research www.wheeltowalkcanada.org, and we challenged the Acting Mayor to have his town donate the equivalent to 30 cents for each citizen in the community. We asked him to become a messenger just like us.

We we opened up our informal chat to the media attendee and started to answer questions. Dave interrupted and stated that maybe we would want to hear his story.

He then told us about his son who was 6 foot 2 and dove into 18 inches of water and injured his spinal cord. His son is now in a wheelchair and is a Quad which means he has no use of his fingers and limited use of his arms.

We asked if we could meet with his son to deliver a message of hope to him directly but Dave said he lived independently in Kelowna.

We were all choked up by this story and offered Dave and his son moral support and encouraged him to check out our web site and refer the information to his son.

We would like to learn more about Dave and his son and their struggle and tell their story. We also had a chance encounter with a Quad at our meeting in Kelowna. He was 6 foot 2 tall and was in a chair living independently.

Thanks Dave for sharing this story with us and we encourage your son to view the web site and if you have any questions email me mij@sympatico.ca or phone 905 869 6125. We will be glad to talk with you and help out in any way we can.

The next stop on our busy schedule was in Golden BC where we were received well by the community.

Radio show host Gary Irving from the local radio Station interviewed Harvey and Myself and became a messenger that day delivering a message of hope to a lot of people suffering in their chairs.

Through Gary’s on air message and support our tides were changing and the recognition the radio coverage gave us was evident by the reactions of passing motorists and the man on the street.

Thank you Gary for being a part of your community, caring, having a heart and being one of our messengers.

The Mayor Jim Doyle was a most interesting and genuine gentleman. He spoke well about his community and the history of it.

Our meeting was held on the only covered pedestrian bridge in Canada and it was wonderful as the river rushed beneath our feet and the community went about their business crossing the bridge on their daily routines. The bridge is constructed of massive wooden beams and was completed on 911 by a team of international contractors.

Thankyou Jim for being a friend and becoming yet another of our messengers. I’m sure a strong voice like yours will help our cause and the Irish accent will add dimension to the message you spread.

We then travelled up over the mountains from Golden and conquered the final frontier passing through Kicking Horse Pass into Lake Louise. You can only imagine the one liners coming through kicking horse pass by these four jokesters. Comments like were kicking a** in Kicking Horse pass. Kinda rhymes doesn’t it.The humour, excitement and determination were infectious as these four courageous men hand peddled up over the last major hurdle of our BC leg of the journey.

We all sighed a big sigh of relief as we passed the border of BC into Alberta and glided downhill towards Lake Louise and Banff.

Along the way there were many trials and tribulations. We encountered some rain, fog and boy was it cold at times. I bet Chuck wishes he hadn’t of shaved his head.

The guys were like children as they savoured all that Canada had to offer. Les’ close encounter with a huge Elk and the antics of the Prairie Dogs. Game and wild life were in abundance and didn’t go unappreciated.

Half our team disappeared in Banff and we found out later had gone up the ski lift to the top of a mountain for lunch then on to a well earned dip in the hot springs. The excitement last night was infectious and most enjoyable. This is surely the trip of a lifetime for Chuck and should inspire all persons tied to their wheel chairs to follow Chuck’s example.

We had finally passed on away from the intimidating mountains of Kicking Horse Pass and the four now even more determined men peddled their specially modified wheel chairs on into Alberta passing through Lake Louise.

The trek through BC was tough and we expect it to be the worst of our journey. Right from the start in Victoria at mile 0 on the trans Canada highway it was the people we met along the way, those that shared their stories with us about loved ones and friends in chairs and the look of hope we saw in the faces of them that gave us the motivation to succeed in our adventure. These folks were the adrenalin that took these breve men high over the mountains allowing them to soar like the eagles and live a dream.

I am sorry for the delays in some of my blogs but I am running on such a sleep deficit that at times I wake up to see a series of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s across my screen and I can tell by the number of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s I have to erase how log I had napped.

I have taken on a huge project and have a lot of minor duties to perform at times all at the same time and something has to slide so that I get at east 4 hours sleep. I am enjoying my adventure, have experienced a lot of emotion, met a lot of new friends and will have memories to cherish for life.

I am glad to be a part of this project to make a miracle happen so that all those I have met will have a second chance and be able to Walk Again Just like the rats.

Jim Anderson, Wheel to Walk Canada, http:/www.wheeltowalkcanada.org. 905 869 6125