Bob Coomber, California Outdoors Hall of Fame Inductee, has his long-awaited Web site up. Bob, as you’ll recall, has a seriously nasty kind of diabetes that makes it impossible to use his legs, so he hikes with his hands, arms and wheels. He posted the following in a comment here the other day:

For whatever reason, probably because rangers and many seasoned hikers have told me I can’t, I choose the most challenging trails I can find. As long as the wheels keep moving, I’ll continue pushing them.

Brings to mind my first visit to Mt San Jacinto in 1999 or 2000, as the rangers tried almost physically to stop me from doing Mt San Jac because it was “wilderness” and I wasn’t allowed to bring wheels into wilderness! It was my first battle, and the score stands as 4wheelbob 1, State of CA Parks Dept. 0. I still have a letter of apology and a grant of permission to pass (as if I needed one!) from Gray Davis and the director of the California State Park Service.

Challenging oneself to the extent possible is the only way to live. Everything else is simply breakfast at Denny’s, day after day after day…!

The other day at the east summit of Mount Tamalpais (it’s embarrassing to call this a summit in the presence of actual mountain climbers who might read this blog, but I digress) I found myself wondering if Bob could get his chair through the narrow rocky trail to the top. Seemed unlikely to me, but Bob’s the only one who has much of grasp on what he can’t do.