June 5, 2005

As promised in my previous message, here is the next segment of Adams Family Adventures.  The day after Daniel's graduation at DayStar Academy in Utah a week ago, we headed up into the LaSal mountains for a day full of really awesome experiences!

A caravan of four vehicles transported the Adams, Medina, Sage and Hunt families from the school at 5,000 feet elevation up into the mountains to more than 9,000 feet above sea level.  At first the weather looked stormy, and a few snowflakes fell while we ate lunch - inside our vehicles- by Oowah Lake.

We stopped to check out a series of awesome dinosaur tracks in solid stone at 9,000 feet elevation. 

After lunch the dark clouds vanished, the sun came out, and the conditions were perfect for rappelling!  However, getting me to the cliffs below the road was a challenge.  Lezli Sage and Heidi Hunt helped get me on Daniel's back.

But as I looked at the steep, slippery trail from my wobbly perch, I knew one slip could spell disaster.  I felt so helpless!

So, they put me back in my wheelchair, and with Daniel in back, Tom Hunt in front, and the girls on each side, we began the steep, precarious descent.  At the steepest place further down, we were amused as Tom commented, "When my feet slide out from under me, I feel totally out of control!"

Squeezing through the trees, bumping over big rocks and having three wheels in the air on the steep inclines were challenging for all of us!

Eventually we reached the bottom of the trail at the top of the cliff.  But I couldn't see very well from my "safe" perch.

I really wanted to get down on the next ledge with the others, where I could see everything that was going on!

So Tom Hunt and Steve Sage lifted me out of my wheechair and handed me down to Daniel and the girls on the lower ledge.

They gently placed me in a safe notch where we could peer over the cliff edge across the chasm to the rapelling area.  Now I could see everything!  A raging creek roared below.

Before anybody went over the edge, DayStar Principal Tom Hunt explained the basics of rappelling safety and techniques.

All set to watch and have fun!  Here you see Krista Medina, Kandice Medina, Diana, Lezli Sage, Steve Sage and Daniel.

Seventy feet down a vertical rock face is a long way down!  Linda had rappelled at Pinecrest summer camp about 35 years before, so she fearlessly zipped right down.

The fun part is near the bottom, where the rope is long and a person can push away from the cliff, swinging out and bouncing back as you let out more rope going down.