The first fall came on the first mile. Mike Armstrong picked himself up from the loose rock as his friends made sure he was OK. Armstrong is used to falls and pain - the 41-year-old teaches martial arts for a living - but this was different. Armstrong was hiking the Arizona Trail, which runs about 800 miles from the Mexican border to Utah. If successful, he would be the first blind man to walk the entire trail.
It was early morning, April 2, a clear, sunny day. His guides - Ben Cane, 28, and Yancey Herriage, 37 - took turns leading him down to the border and back, then up the sharp, bald slopes of the Huachuca Mountains as wind blew in the pines. The guides did their best, but Armstrong banged into the sharp point of a short agave plant and a tree branch. He fell twice and tottered a third.
I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies.
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