Blind Musician, Adventurer, and Martial Arts Instructor
Just yesterday Sensei Mike and I went on a quick little 5 mile training hike in the McDowell mountains to stretch out our legs and break in our newly donated Merrells at the same time (we love these boots!). As we were hiking we also came to the realization that we are approaching 2011 very […]
Team Armstrong received our new boots from Merrell last night. So far they are super comfy, Time to break them in!
On December 10th, Team Armstrong went on another team training hike. This time we hiked on Arizona Trail passage #19: The Superstition Wilderness; which is located near Roosevelt Lake.
After leaving Sensei’s house at 5:30 am we arrived at the Roosevelt Lake Marina visitors center at approximately 7:45; after some quick prep work and sharing stories with the lady at the desk about Alligators and Big Foot being spotted on the trail, we started hiking at approximately 8:30 am.
We hiked through 8 miles of some of the most beautiful scenery Arizona has to offer. We started in an cactus filled desert landscape overlooking Roosevelt Lake and hiked across several springs with beautiful oak trees, through dried rocky washes, and fought through what felt like a forest of thicket with 4 inch needles. All while carrying 35 – 40 lbs in our backpacks on terrain the Arizona Trail Organization listed as Difficult.
As the Arizona Trail hike draws closer Team Armstrong has been stepping up our efforts to prepare for the 800 mile trek across Arizona. We created a Training Hike schedule for the rest of the year (Schedule) and just last weekend we hiked the Arizona trail in Flagstaff. It was a great hike but also […]
Sensei Mike Armstrong along with 5 other blind hikers were interviewed on the Today Show this morning. You can watch the full interview below.
I participated in another amazing hike on October 9th and 10th of 2010. This time it was a Rim to Rim to Rim hike across the Grand Canyon. This hike-a-thon was to benefit the Foundation for Blind Children. This forty-eight mile trek was a truly incredible experience, challenging my mind, body and will to succeed.
After our Kilimanjaro climb in 2009 everyone was asking, “What’s next?” There were several ideas suggested like; swimming to Alcatraz, climbing another of the seven summits, hiking the Arizona Trail, climbing Mount Whitney and several of us mentioned the Grand Canyon. After much deliberation it was decided that the next FBC hike-a-thon would be a rim to rim trek from the North Rim to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This made the most sense because we have one of the world’s seven natural wonders right here in our home state. The date was set for 10/10/10.
Now are you wondering about that extra rim to rim I mentioned earlier? Well my team is in training for an eight hundred mile hike in April of 2011. The hike will run from the Mexico border to the Utah border on The Arizona Trail. We felt that hiking that extra twenty-four miles would give us a good idea of what to expect from our upcoming forty day trek across Arizona. We were not disappointed.
On June 25, 26 and 27 I was a competitor in the 2010 Adventure Team Challenge. The first time I had ever heard of this race was just three weeks prior to the event. This is when I was asked to be on a team. Although I had never been Mountain Biking or White Water Rafting, I decided to take the challenge and go for it. I must say that it was one of the most gratifying events I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of.
On Friday June 25th, Sensei Mike Armstrong will be traveling to Colorado to join the Adventure TEAM Challenge. Sensei Mike will not be the only handicap person there, as this is a race geared to challenge those with handicaps. The race will consist of trail running, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, mountain biking, and many more challenges.
Team Armstrong started the day at about 7AM and found Mt. Humpreys to have quite a bit of snow on it, making it difficult to find the trail. We reached the summit (12,500 ft) after approximately 7 hours of hiking, and after taking a few shortcuts finished the hike at about 7pm; making it a 12 hour day. We are sore and tired but it was a great hike, the snow made it much more technical than usual.
When we went to Africa we spent the first day visiting the Mwereni Integrated School for the Blind. As the Foundation for Blind Children was going to donate 52 braille writers to the school. To celebrate our arrival the school put on quite an extraordinary show of song, dance and even African drums.
Seeing as how Mike is a drummer he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give the school a show as well.