Before embarking on the #payitforwardtour, I made a plan to visit my friend Nerissa Dawn Cannon in Utah. She had some interesting climbing spots picked out. I also had never met her in person before. She has an undiagnosed disability that makes it so she needs to use a wheelchair some of the time. Her and her partner Kelsom are also experimenting with tiny home living. I wanted to check out the tiny home for myself to see how accessible and doable it is with a wheelchair.
Meeting the crew and Cash
I made the trip in 2 days from my aunt’s house in Sonora California. I had to alert Nerissa to my arrival as they live in a free range cattle area. This means that everyone lives behind a fenced in gated yard. The first one to come greet me was her service dog Cash. This is one amazing dog. Cash is a pit bull. He ran up to the van tail wagging and barking like all dogs do. I opened the door to the van and got the friendliest dog greeting ever. After i got the once over I was approved to go toward the house and meet up with Nerissa. We basically spent the rest of the day just hanging out until Kelsom got home from work and then did some more hanging out.
Deep Conversation
While hanging out Nerissa, who hasn’t been a wheelchair user for a super long time, wanted to ask me some questions. One of those questions was my thoughts on people gaining inspiration from the disabled community. I have been a wheelchair user since birth so I have a different view on this subject than most. She asked how I deal with people saying I am inspiring for things that are seemingly innocuous like for instance driving. I actually have had someone say that to me before by the way haha. As I was getting out of my van they said something to the effect of “Wow its great that you can drive and get out!” I always smile and say thanks. When Nerissa asked me this, I said “well I definitely think differently than most disabled people do about this and other subjects; People find inspiration in a lot of things and if they happen to be inspired by me that’s ok. They aren’t saying these things to be insulting. They are saying it because they genuinely feel something about what they are witnessing. If we get angry or offended every time then that will eventually turn people off to including disabled people in anything. Why would someone want to talk to anyone that is defensive and snappy? I think the more we show people what we can do, the more they will realize it’s not a big deal. It will then become commonplace instead of inspiring. The more we embrace other people who approach us, the more we can have conversations and explain things.” I love it when kids or adults ask me questions, It gives me a chance to change minds and perspectives. Yes sometimes they don’t word it quite right or make assumptions that could be considered offensive. Assuming they meant it that way doesn’t help in the long run. I don’t believe anyone has ever intended to offend me. They just haven’t been exposed to people like me enough.
So after that, we made a plan to go to a climbing area not super far from where they live called Graveside Matter.
Graveside Matter
When we got to the climbing area, we had to park in a little side pull out spot. Getting to the actual climbing area was another matter. Without Kelsom this next part would have been an all day event with no energy left to climb. The path to get to the base of the climb is quite narrow and then gets steep with some scrambling over slab rock. 
Nerissa happens to have a Grit Freedom chair which has handles that allow the user to pump the wheels to make them move. It also is made to go over rough terrain. I wasn’t quite sure about it since I had never used one but admittedly it came in quite handy. With some help from Kelsom I made it to the bottom of the slabs in the chair. Next came the beast mode of Kelsom. He put me on his back and essentially had to crawl on his hands and knees to get me up the slab to the base of the climb. He also humped all the gear and guided Nerissa who was able to walk up on crutches.
The Climbing
I am always in awe of the landscapes that climbing allows me to see. The rock at Graveside Matter was like nothing I had ever gazed upon. Nerissa explained that the rock had once been under the ocean. There was clear evidence of that everywhere. I could see places where fossils had left their mark. The rock had all kinds of interesting pockets to explore. I 
couldn’t wait to get up there and check it out. First Nerissa had to lead the climb and set up the rope for me. Once that was in place I got ready to climb and tied in. As I made my way up the rope I was amazed by the different textures and colors of the rock. The view of the surrounding area was also breathtaking. It didn’t take all that long to climb as I was only doing pull ups on the rope but it made for yet another memorable experience.
UH OH! I’m Stuck
To get back down, normally Kelsom would just lower me down on the rope. We hit a bit of snag at this point. He had tied a back up knot so the rope wouldn’t slide through the belay device for safety. Well, as I was climbing that knot got tighter and tighter against the device, to the point that he could not untie without unweighting it. I was not set up to unweight it so he had to do the next best thing, climb up beside me. As he got higher I went lower. Once I made it to the ground i was able to unweight the rope and set him free. Of course, not before putting the rope in a second device so he could safely come back down. Nerissa climbed a few times after I did. It was awesome to watch how skillfully she was able to use her body to climb. Even though she has some limitations in her legs she is still able to use them in other ways. Her knees were able to jam into wide spots. She also can stand for short periods of time allowing her to use her feet in a normal fashion. After a couple routes she too, was tired out.
Getting back to the truck
It was all downhill from here. This actually made it much easier to get out of the climbing area. I decided to just scoot on my butt all the way back to the parking spot. I had my Labonville climbing chaps on for protection. They worked perfectly for scooting down the rock slabs and along the dirt path. The one thing I didn’t think of was the hundreds of push ups I would have to do in order to get back to the truck. My shoulders were seriously burning by the time I made it. It just added to the experience though. I guarantee I am the first one to crawl all the way back.
Getting back to Sonora
I am going to put this in another post. I will just put this out there, even if Google Maps says the route is shorter, you should look at the route. You may find you are going through unexpected country and wishing you had stopped for gas. So for the rest of the story tune in next time!
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