TEAM PHOENIX | The Challenge Tours

	The 2nd Challenge Tour was held in a relaxed atomosphere with flexible planning designed to fit all the particpants' needs. This tour had a different flavor from the prior challenge tour. Enjoy the report with many photos and movies.

||| a TV Weather Lady in a Wheelchair ||| N.S.C.D. Tour ||| Whitewater Rafting |||

||| Hut Trip & Fun-Ride Downhill ||| Rocky Mtn. National Park ||| Tower Climbing & Teamwork Building |||

||| Independence Boardwalk & Camping ||| Classic Concert ||| Good-Bye Party |||

7.5.2000, Denver

A TV Weather Lady
in a Wheelchair, Pam Daale

On the first day of the Challenge Tour 2000, the tour party headed to Denver 7 News station in downtown Denver. We visited Pam Daale who was well known by Colorado people as a weather forecast lady who was wheelchair bound. She also supported several non-profit organizations in her private life. This active lady was also Ms. Wheelchair Colorado and Ms. Wheelchair America.

When we arrived at the station, Pam came down to welcome us and took us on a tour to look at where she works, the Weather Station, Media Control Room and News Studio. It was set up with handmade accessible slopes everywhere she worked. She made her way around on her path smoothly and was well practiced. “I can go anywhere with those slopes in this building. The crews are all helpful. There is nothing I cannot do ‘cause I am in a wheelchair”, Pam told us with her beautiful smile.

At the news studio, they let us play hard, sitting at the news host chairs, pretending to be news casters, and showing us how to broadcast the day’s weather forecast with the high tech equipment.

Next, we were invited to the guest hall where we met Pam’s family, including her two lovely kids, waiting for our arrival with light meals and snacks prepared and waiting for us on the table. We were surprised with such unexpected hospitality from Pam and the people who worked there. We also enjoyed listening to her about her support of non-profit organizations specializing in wheelchair activities involving therapeutic horseback riding.

* Condolences*

It was shocking news for everyone who knew her couragous spirit. In April 2004, Pam Daale passed away after battling breast cancer for 20 months. She and her many activities for the disabled meant the world to Team Phoenix and her smile cheered us up.
Thank you, Pam
We all are thinking of you and praying for you and your family.

7.6.2000, Winter Park

National Sports Center for the Disabled

The National Sports Center of the Disabled (NSCD) we visited was established in 1970 to teach skiing to a group of children with amputations from The Children’s Hospital of Denver. Today the NSCD has been receiving many physically challenged individuals from all over the nation who are looking forward to having fun. The NSCD has one of the most well known facilities, including instructional services, for the disabled in the United States. They teach a variety of summer and winter sports to individuals with almost any mental or physical disability.

The NSCD guide lady gave us a primer to what kind of equipment they used for the winter and summer programs and a description of how the different equipment was used in the field.

One feature of the NSCD programs is the perfect equipment for each participant with different levels of disability. Experienced instructors are important with extensive knowledge of the sports and the equipment needed to servive a wide spectrum of disabilities.

The NSCD offers the following winter programs: Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding, and Whitewater rafting. They also offer the following summer programs: Sea Kayaking, Hand-cycling, Tandem-cycling, Rock Climbing, Fishing and Hiking.

In the United States, there are an increasing number of organizations which provide a wide-range of services that everyone can enjoy, no matter the range of disability.

7.7.2000, Winter Park

Whitewater Rafting

All right, this is Colorado. Time to stretch out outside. Next on our agenda was whitewater rafting! We were given directions to the rafting site an hour from Winter Park, Colorado, by the NSCD guide. This rafting program was also provided by NSCD.

After receiving instructions on land, life-bests were put on and we left shore. We had spectacular views from the river. Tall rocky walls looking down at us commanding our views. Swallows' singing above our heads. Making our way down stream, we find that rafting is teamwork. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment overwhelms the crew as we pass through the rapids of the stream by calling out directions for the team. On the way down, we stopped for sandwiches and a soda on shore that was included in the tour package. After lunch, we continued to paddle downstream toward the take-out.

After rafting, we drove to the accessible lodging at Sol Vista Resort and enjoyed swimming under the summer sky at the recreation facility.

That night, we enjoyed a condominium party with delicious food that one of the participants served.

7.8.2000, White River Nat'l Forest

Hut Trip & Fun-Ride Downhill

On the schedule sheet, this day was the day we would drive to the hut located at an elevation of 11,180'.

The hut is managed by the 10th Mountain Division. The name honors the men of 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army, who trained during World War II at Camp Hale in central Colorado. It gives easy access to several wonderful trailheads near the hut. The hut is used by mountain bikers, hikers in summer, and by skiers in winter. This time, we used the Eiseman Hut, the 10th Mountain's most alpine hostel.

We got some food and plenty of water for the hut trip and drove 4x4 to the hut on the rough jeep road swaying the participants' bodies from side to side. Getting higher in altitude, the air was getting cooler. We were breathing the fresh clean air just released from the forest and feeling the healing effects of the cool mountain air.

The Eiseman Hut, a large wooden house is thick with the smell of pine-wood, and designed with an open floor plan. There are two with-door-rooms and a large common area with several double-decker beds. The restroom was on the outside of the house and wheelchair accessible. In the kitchen, our volunteer chefs prepared a popular dinner fit for an outdoor occasion, curry rice. The people not cooking enjoyed walking around the hut until dinner was finished being prepared. After a beautiful pink-purple sunset, the fun after dark included licking our lips after a delicious curry dinner and enjoying he stars and the beautiful Milky Way above us...

The next morning we woke up at the hut. Breathing the crisp mountain air, some members of the party were already taking a walk outside. We ate breakfast and packed, then started the main event of the day, the Fun-ride Downhill. On the same rough jeep-road trail we drove in on, we were delighted with breathtaking panoramas of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. We were once again enjoying gravity, with a fresh song in our hearts.

7.9.2000, Estes Park & Independence Pass

Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park
&
Camping

This day, there were two plans, visiting Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park and mountaineering. The sightseeing group visited Rocky Mountain National Park Observatory, elevation 14,259 feet. The mountaineering group climbed La Plata Peak, the fifth highest peak in Colorado, elevation 14,336 feet, with experienced volunteer guide Edwin Foster.

In the evening, both groups met at the campsite, Twin Lakes Campground, close to the next day's event place. The sightseeing group arrived at the campsite earlier and they had already set up their tents. Due to Colorado's continuing drought, campfires weren't permitted, so we went to bed early this night.

7.10.2000, Granite & Grant

Tower Climbing
&
Teamwork Building

After morning coffee, the tour party campers headed to the day's event site, the Gold Camp Resort, near Granite, Colorado.

This day, we experienced tower climbing & teamwork building. First, we tried Tower Climbing with a partner wearing helmets. The tower is a 60-foot tower with an attached ratline, a hanging big log, and climbing holds. Yes, we were going to climb up using those tools in pairs. The tower feels higher than it looks, and we were all a little tense. On the climb, the knees started dancing Elvis Presley. It was scary, but each pair used their own technique and reached the summit. On top, participant's received a sense of great satisfaction and accomplishment and the pride of teamwork. We then played other teamwork games with the guides. It was a valuable experience in teamwork building.

7.10.2000, Grant

Independence Boardwalk
&
Camping

This was the socond time to visit Wilderness On Wheels(WOW) on the Challenge Tour Series. It had a different taste from the other visit, from just inspecting the independence boardwalk to actually using the campsite and boardwalk on this visit.

The campsite managed by WOW appears to be the same as a regular campsite, except this site was built wheelchair accessible. There are wood decks. What are they used for? The pamphlet said, "Pitch your tent on a deck elevated to the height of the seat of a wheelchair." What a great idea! This little idea brings more fun and comfort to stay and sleep outside for wheelchair users. Ideas and people's hearts come together on these planks.

When the last Challenge Tour in 1999 visited this facility, Mr. Yashiro brought back a seed of this independence boardwalk to Japan and planted it near Daitou-cho, Iwate Pref., Japan. Today, the seed has received nutrition from donations and sprouted buds from the vision of the local people. As a result, since April 2000, it has been building the first independence boardwalk in Japan.

Four participants of the tour party were from Daito-cho. This WOW visit was a part of their boardwalk building project. They were eager to learn. Putting pencils to paper and taking notes, they wrote down detailed information about the boardwalk, like how the pier foundations were built on each type of mountain soil. Today, that Daitou-cho Forest Boardwalk, from the original seed that came WOW, has been growing with the warm hearts of the locals, and those who visit the boardwalk from all over Japan.

7.11.2000, Morrison

Classic Concert
@
Red Rocks Amphitheatre

For something completely different from the time we spent on our other outings, this day, we joined the Colorado Symphony Orchestra concert at Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, where the Beatles performed in 1965. According to its explanation, "Red Rocks is a geologically formed, open-air Amphitheater that is not duplicated anywhere in the world. With Mother Nature as the architect, the design of the Amphitheatre consists of two, three hundred-food monoliths that provide acoustic perfection for any performance."

The sunset even put a romantic flavor on the classic sound performed by Colorado Symphony Orchestra. It was a great time for all of us.