Travelers Will Use Horse And Cart

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/kcra/20010124/lo/298241_1.html

KCRA TheKCRAChannel.com
Thursday January 25 02:15 AM EST

An adventuresome trio is gathering everything it needs to make the trip of a lifetime.

Three men will travel coast to coast by horse and cart.

"We'll travel through 11 states, just over 3,000 miles. (It) could take as many as 10 months," travel participant Michael Muir said.

Muir bred the horses that will take him on his travels. You could say that he was bred for the traveling. Muir is the great grandson of John Muir, the naturalist whose passion resulted in the creation of places like Yosemite. Muir will travel the route his great, great grandmother took to get to California.

"People will be surprised that a man in a wheelchair can drive a horse 3,000 miles from coast to coast, but we're here to show that it can be done, and it will be done," Muir said.

Muir's travel mates are disabled.

Bernhard Kaehny is a paraplegic. Jose de La Legorreta is legally blind. And Muir has lost some use of his hands because of multiple sclerosis.

"They're my eyes, and I'm their hands," de La Legorreta said.

Kaehny's cart is self-sufficient while de La Legorreta and Muir stick together.

A support crew will follow the carts with a trailer that will double as a bunkhouse. They have spare carts and horses.

The goal is to make it through the desert while the weather is still cool. They'll never travel more than five hours a day.

"We've scheduled a lot of downtime along the way. And we've set an average of 10 miles a day, which is reasonable to achieve," Muir said.

During that time, the crew will raise money for U.S. Driving for the Disabled to show the country how far the disabled have come, and how much farther they can go, thanks to willpower and in this case, horsepower.

Muir plans to start the trip from Mission San Diego this Sunday, and he'll be updating his adventures online. To get to their Web site, click here. Or you can go to www.HorseJourney.com.