GRIT was lucky enough to sit down with Rosita C., who recently rode her GRIT Freedom Chair—alongside Justin Skeesuck, Patrick Gray, and other participants of Accessible Camino—across the final 100 kilometers of El Camino. Rosita discovered Accessible Camino during an extremely difficult time in her life, which she met head-on by prioritizing the pursuit of meaningful memories with her family. Throughout the hike, Rosita grew closer to her daughter (her primary pusher!) and experienced an adventure full of spiritual and personal growth. Read on to learn more about her planning, her travel, her time on El Camino itself, and where she’ll be headed next!
GRIT: How did you first hear about El Camino?
Rosita: I stumbled across the movie “The Way” with Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen. It’s an amazing movie, and I happened to be going through a rough personal time—a divorce. I was also on my first round of cancer treatment and thought, “My God, that would be so cool to do.”
I got divorced, the cancer went away, life got in the way, and then I got re-diagnosed. I have metastatic breast cancer that metastasized to my pelvis. I lost all my mobility for about a year and had to venture into the whole world of immobility—wheelchairs, crutches, the whole thing.
Fast forward a few years. I regained some mobility. I could get around daily using a crutch and if I planned to go to festivals, I’d use a custom, foldable wheelchair that is easy for me to cart around.
Around that time, I got my terminal diagnosis. Once I heard that, I thought, “I’m not gonna sit around and wait for this crap to kill me.” It became all about making memories at that point. I love to travel. I wish I had gotten the travel bug years ago, and I ended up going to Germany and Italy in 2019. Then, last year, I went to Copenhagen and Ireland with my kids.
When we returned from Ireland, my kids and I asked each other, “What do you want to do next year?” We decided on Spain or Portugal. There are Facebook groups that are great for information, and anytime you go near Spain, the Camino always comes up. Four days into my research, I saw a guy in a wheelchair doing the Camino and messaged him immediately.
He didn’t respond, but I did find a group called Accessible Camino, led by Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray. I checked their website, and they were taking applications for their 2024 trip. So we applied and got a response from Justin’s group. My daughter and I had an interview with them in late October. We explained my situation, and right before Thanksgiving, we got an email saying, “You’re going to Spain.”
GRIT: Awesome! When did you start to research the supplies and equipment you might need for this trip?
Rosita: I started researching right away how to do this trip. GRIT was the first thing that came up, along with the Freewheel. I decided to go with the GRIT chair. I did a GoFundMe, and my very generous friends and family helped out. I received my chair about seven weeks before the trip and started maneuvering around in it to get more familiar.
GRIT: What did you do during those seven weeks to train?
Rosita: I called GRIT to find out if there was an ambassador near me. They told me about a place in the North Carolina mountains called Waypoint Adventure. Waypoint organizes hiking trips for handicapped people. I met with one of the program directors, who gave me a super detailed tutorial on how to use the chair.
We took it apart and put it back together. He spent two hours with me. We videotaped everything. Then I tried the GRIT chair on some trails.
GRIT: Waypoint Adventure is such a phenomenal organization. I’m so glad you got to connect with them. What else did you do to prepare for the big trip to Spain?
Rosita: I trained hard because I knew my arms would be my biggest resource. For an old lady, I did a lot of weight work. I didn’t do a lot of off-roading before the trip, but I did a lot of arm-strengthening exercises. I’m proud to say my arms were never an issue. I made it the whole way.
GRIT: I love that! Did you do any training with the people who would be pushing or assisting you on El Camino?
Rosita: My daughter was my main pusher. We went out several times before the trip and did hills so she could get an idea of what it would be like to push me. But we didn’t encounter any terrain like what we faced on the Camino. Mostly, we just did a couple of miles at a time with her doing all of the pushing.
GRIT: When you were finally on El Camino, did you find yourself wishing you had done something else to prepare?
Rosita: I hadn’t used straps or anything when riding the GRIT chair, which is the only thing I wish I had prepared for ahead of time. I watched old videos of “I’ll Push You” trips to see what people did. I got some strapping and carabiners and figured out how to attach them to the GRIT chair.
On the trail, people pulled me like I was in a dog sled. I would do it differently next time. I kept the GRIT Steering Pegs with me because they made things easier. Another girl, Karen, got her chair from GRIT and showed me how she did her straps. I’ll probably do it like she did in the future.
GRIT: Did you and Karen spend a lot of time together on the trip?
Rosita: We learned a lot from each other. We did 117 kilometers in six days. The first two days were 14 miles each. The least amount of miles we did in one day was nine and a half to ten.
GRIT: Can you share a bit about what those days looked like? When did your alarm go off each morning? What happened then?
Rosita: I’ll Push You” organized the trips so that there were nine of us who were handicapped in some way. I was probably the most able-bodied person in a chair. We had two or three people who couldn’t get out of their chairs.
We were out of bed at 6:30 every morning and at breakfast by 7:10AM. The bus would take all of the handicapped people and wheelchairs to the start point, and we were usually on the trail by about 9:00AM or 9:15AM every day. We would do our mileage for the day, and then the bus would pick us up and take us back to the hotel. On the long days, we went from 9:00 in the morning until 6:30 at night. That’s how it worked. It was amazing.
Rosita: They were long days with lots of stops. There were albergues every couple of miles that travelers would use for showers and sleep. By 10:30AM, we were having our first breakfast with coffee and Spanish tortillas. We always had a big lunch around 1:00 or 2:00PM, when we’d wait for everyone to catch up before continuing. We had guides with us who would say, “There are only two more kilometers,” but it would actually be three or more…all uphill. That was the routine for six days.
GRIT: Was there a particular day that was harder than the others?
Rosita: Day one was hard because I didn’t know what to expect. People kept asking how they could help, but I didn’t know because I had never done it before. Day two was the most arduous. We had maps of the terrain, and the first three days were mostly uphill. I pumped almost the entire morning. By the lunch stop, my arms were fine, but my pelvis was in discomfort. I had to take pain medication and muscle relaxers, but it got easier after the fourth day. The sixth day was the easiest because we entered Santiago de Compostela, where the Camino ends, and it was mostly pavement for the last two kilometers.
It got easier each day because we knew how to work the chair. The coordinators, Justin and Patrick, didn’t tell us much because they wanted us to experience it ourselves.
The weather was relatively good the whole time—no rain, but it got cold on Saturday and Sunday. Sitting in a chair, even when pumping, it was chilly going through shaded trails. It was stunning terrain, really.
GRIT: Can you share a bit about what it was like working with so many other people on the hike?
Rosita: After the first day, I was overwhelmed because nine of us were handicapped, and about 35 other people were assisting. We switched so people had different experiences each day. You’d meet up with one group today and get along with everyone, but you’d end up gravitating toward certain people. When we saw an incline, we’d decide if we could push it or if we needed the straps. If it was flat, we’d roll up the straps and put them in the backpack. But if it was severely downhill, you’d have to be restrained.
We had some pavement areas where I could just take off and cruise down the hill. There was another guy in a regular wheelchair pulling wheelies down hills! We had a few races on flat surfaces, and by the third day, everyone had experience with pushing or pulling–they just had to learn how I wanted to use my straps and what I was comfortable with. No one was comfortable with me taking off like that down the hill. It was fun, though. I walked about half a mile a day to get out of the chair because I could, but I tried not to do it too much out of respect for those who couldn’t get out of their chairs. By the third or fourth day, everyone had a rhythm.
On the third day, there were about four kilometers of flat gravel. I was with a gentleman, Charlie, from Australia, who’s a retired detective. He was doing burpees on the side of the trail to stay fit.
GRIT: Wow!
Rosita: Yeah, it was crazy. Charlie was pushing me that day, and we got onto a straightaway. He asked if I was up to run it, I said yes, and he ran while I pumped. We averaged about an eight-and-a-half-minute mile. It was one of my best memories because we got to the bar before everyone else and waited for them to catch up.
We were a couple of miles ahead and waited 45 minutes for the first person to catch up to us.
GRIT: Haha, you and Charlie were flying! Would the team typically break off into smaller groups like this, or did you do most of the hike as a big group?
Rosita: Sometimes you were around people, but other times it was just your group. We didn’t always know where everyone else was until lunch. We’d start together and end together, but sometimes we were a quarter mile to half a mile in front or behind someone.
GRIT: I heard through the grapevine that you got a flat tire on day two, right? What happened?
Rosita: Yes! I didn’t notice it immediately, but I could feel the wheel wasn’t as hard as it should be. I went to a bike shop along the route. The bike shop guy replaced the tubes–he said there were no holes, so it might have been the valve jostling out of place on the plane. After that, I had no more issues for the rest of the trip.
GRIT: Nice! Awesome that the bike shop had everything you needed. Did you also travel with a tool kit for any on-trail repairs?
Rosita: By the fourth day, people in all kinds of chairs were getting flat tires and needed pumps. I had brought a good hand pump, which others used. I brought more supplies than I needed, but seeing what happened to other people’s bikes, I was glad I had everything just in case.
GRIT: In conversations with others who have hiked El Camino, many mention a spiritual aspect of the trip. Was that part of your experience, or was it more about the physical challenge and time with your family?
Rosita: Initially, it was about healing and finding peace after a rough couple of years. Once I became handicapped, it became a combination of the physical challenge and the need for a change of environment. I’m a spiritual person, not religious, but it turned out to be an incredibly spiritual trip. The positive energy from everyone was overwhelming. We celebrated our accomplishments together–like crossing a stone bridge, which was a huge challenge. It was a joyous time, working together for the same goal.
GRIT: Incredible. How was it doing all of this with your daughter?
Rosita: It was amazing. She wasn’t with me every day since the whole point was to meet different people, but we bonded a lot. She connected with a kid who had cerebral palsy, and it was great to see her in a new light. She’s a traveler and a hiker, and this experience was really beneficial for her, too.
GRIT: When you’re not training for a 100-kilometer trip across Spain, do you and your daughter work out together often?
Rosita: Yes. She’s 27, an adult, and lives about 18 miles from me. She has a full-time job and a life of her own. She goes hiking on her own, but I see us doing more things together now that I have the capability. I was active before losing my mobility, but then everything went on hold. The first year after I was diagnosed was tough, especially with COVID. Then I decided to travel and came across this opportunity. Now, I hope to do this trip again next June, maybe on the Portuguese Way.
GRIT: How did you handle traveling with the wheelchair and other equipment?
Rosita: It was stressful. Justin said airlines would replace the chair if they destroyed it. Ultimately, I wrapped the chair parts in a bag, and took pictures, and it arrived with no issues. Now that I’ve done the travel once, I would probably do the same thing again. It was stressful, but it worked out.
GRIT: Fantastic.
Rosita: I’m planning to go hiking in North Carolina this Friday. I’ll just take one inner tube and my pump. For the Camino, I was well-equipped, but for this hike, I’ll keep it minimal.