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A Mountain to Climb
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Click on All Pictures for full size prints
Van Epps has now completed both the 1997 and 1998 Assaults.
The Fabulous 4th of July Metric Century for 1997 and 1998
He has done "BRAG" - Bicycle Ride Across Georgia, a 6 day event.
Now add to these events several staged USCF events.
Cycling's Miracle Man training for Assault on Mount Mitchell
By GARY HENDERSON
Staff Writer
As published in the
Spartanburg Herald Journal
Sunday April 9, 1997
All photos except Finish Line Photos are
scanned direct from the paper.
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Union, South Carolina
Sunday April 9, 1997
Van Epps lost part of his right leg and severely injured his left leg in
a bicycle accident seven years ago.
He now walks with a cane and an artificial leg.
But on May 17, - with special permission from the Assault on Mt.
Mitchell staff - Epps will ride out from Spartanburg before dawn for one
of the toughest bicycle events in America, the 102-mile climb to the top
of Mount Mitchell.
Epps, a 33-year-old Union High School science teacher, will use the
strength of his arms to propel himself up the mountain in a specially
designed tricycle known as the Freedom Rider.
He will be the first person with these disabilities to attempt the
Assault on Mount Mitchell.
"I don't have enough strength to do much of anything with my legs," Epps
said, "so I have to find another way to do it."
"You can do anything you want to do," Epps said as he prepared for a
recent training ride. "Using a handicap or disability as an excuse not
to do something is whimpering out.
The annual trip from Spartanburg to Mount Mitchell is rated by Bicycle
Magazine as one of the 10 most difficult rides in America. Cyclists
climb more than 11,000 cumulative feet to the mountain summit at 6,684
feet elevation.
John Bryan, ride director for the Assault on Mount Mitchell, is helping
Epps and a group of other cyclists train for the ride. Bryan, 62,
founded the event 22 years ago.
After last year's ride, Bryan and members of the Spartanburg
Freewheelers Bicycle Club - who dedicated the 1991 Assault to Epps -
voted to purchase the $3,000 Freedom Rider for their friend.
Epps can ride a two-wheel bicycle, but has to have help getting on and
off. If he stops, he falls. The Freedom Rider makes it easier for him to
stop, and it uses the strength that he has built up in his arms.
"Personally, I can't describe what it is like seeing Van do this," Bryan
said. "It's a good feeling; I know that. I've told Van I'll be waiting
for him at the top, no matter how long it takes him to get there."
Bryan said people at the top of Caesar's Head in Greenville County
applauded recently when Epps made it to the summit on a training ride.
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This year's trek to reach the top of Mount
Mitchell will be the second time Epps has tried it. He made the journey
from Spartanburg to the summit in 1990 before he was disabled.
"The first time I did it, my bike computer showed six and a half hours
when I rolled into the parking lot up there," Epps said. "I don't expect
to do that, but I don't expect to take 14 hours or anything either."
While riding with another cyclist near Inman in July 1990, Epps was
struck by a car and dragged 656 feet. He has the distinction of being
one of the most severely injured patients to pass through the trauma
unit at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and live.
"When they called me from the hospital, they said I probably didn't have
45 minutes to get up there," said Epps' mother, Millie Epps of Union.
"The first thing the doctor said was, 'He lost his leg, and that's not
the bad part."
Epps suffered a closed head injury, a broken collar bone, 18 broken ribs, one fully collapsed lung and a partially collapsed lung, a broken back, a crushed hip, two breaks in his sternum, the loss of his right leg below the knee and an injury to his right leg that removed skin down to the bone.
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The injured cyclist spent two months in
Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and another month at Duke University
Hospital in Durham, NC.
Nathan Loftis was one of the paramedics who responded to the crash
scene.
"I thought he was going to die on me before we reached Regional," Loftis
said. "All the way to the hospital, I kept telling him, 'Hang in there,
man, concentrate on breathing. That night, we all prayed for him."
Denise Shelly was a member of the Spartanburg Regional Medical Center
trauma team that treated Epps in the emergency room.
"He was extremely critical when he got
here," Selly said. "The first thing I thought was, 'This boy will never
get out of surgery.' His leg was barely hanging on. When you work with a
patient like that, it touches a part of you that's hard to explain."
Epps' girlfriend, Brenda Wieland of Inman, will accompany him on the
tide. They will leave the starting line at Spartanburg's Memorial
Auditorium at 4:30 a.m., two hours ahead of the 1,500 cyclists expected
for the day long event.
Weiland, 36, rode to the summit in 1995 after a failed effort the year
before. She said she and Epps will spend the hours on the trail to Mount
Mitchell talking and encouraging one another.
"It is a great challenge, but I know Van will make it," Weiland said. "I
love to see him out riding again. He will slow me down, but riding is
slower when you do it without legs."
Epps lives in Spartanburg but trains for Mount Mitchell after school in
his hometown of Union. He has become a familiar figure as he cruises
around the streets and roads of Union County on his 21-speed cycle,
which weighs 43 pounds.
Epps rides 10 to 13 miles per day. Blisters and calluses - evidence of
the long hours he already has spent getting ready for the ride - dot the
palms of his hands.
Recently, as Epps got on his cycle for one of his daily training rides,
he talked about how his determination is being tested, and he
acknowledged that he is facing the biggest physical challenge of his
life.
"A lot of people get hurt like that and never ride again. This is
something I want to do before I die. I'd have to be in an awful lot of
pain before I'd quit," Epps said.
But stopping short of the summit is not something Van Epps is likely to
do. His support system and motivation start with his family and extend
deep into the Upstate cycling community. And Epps says that's what will
make the difference for him.
"It's easier to get out and do things when you have support," he said.
"Sometimes, what it takes is a little kick in the butt." Epps' mother
said her son is proof that miracles happen.
"Oh, I believe he will make it," said Mrs. Epps, who plans to drive
ahead and wait on Mount Mitchell's summit for her son's arrival. "I want
him to make it safely."
King of the Mountain
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Mt. Mitchell, NC
Sunday, May 18, 1997
Van Epps rolled across the
finish line and into the hearts of hundreds who cheered his 102-mile
trek to the summit of the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.
Epps, the first disabled person to attempt the Assault on Mount
Mitchell, crossed the finish line on the mountain summit Saturday at 6
p.m., 15 hours after he left downtown Spartanburg.
The 33-year-old made the historic journey using an arm-powered Freedom
Ryder - a tricycle designed for people with disabilities. As he rolled
across the finish line, the sounds of blaring car horns and cheering
spectators lifted up and rolled across the mountain top.
Epps and his girlfriend, Brenda Weiland of Inman - who was riding a
regular bicycle - left downtown Spartanburg at 3 a.m. Saturday with
friends leading and following them in cars to light the way.
About an hour before Epps and Weiland arrived at the finish line, word
was radioed to the mountain top that the pair had turned off the Blue
Ridge Parkway and was on their way up to the top. Other cyclists who had
completed the ride hours earlier rode down to meet Epps and escort him
to the finish.
"I would have been here earlier, but I had a little wreck," Epps said as
a crowd pressed around him. "But I never had any doubts that I wouldn't
make it, I came here to do this."
Epps had crashed his Freedom Ryder in a 45 mph descent near the entrance
to Mount Mitchell State Park. He was not seriously injured but was
treated by first-aid workers for road rash and cuts.
Epps continued on the trek with the help of George Meyer, a Spartanburg
man who had finished the ride in third place and saw the accident as he
drove home. Meyer stopped and replaced Epps' broken chain with the one
of his own.
Epps was severely injured seven years ago while on a bicycle ride with
friends near Inman, just a few months after he had completed the Assault
as an able-bodied rider.
Epps was struck by a car that ran a Stop sign. He was dragged more than
600 feet before the car stopped. His right leg was severed just below
his knee.
Epps' father, Hainesworth "Sonny" Epps, kept an anxious watch for his
son Saturday at the mountain summit from a lawn chair near the finish
line.
"I've been worried about this since 3 o'clock this morning," the 72
year-old said as he watched the crowd gather around his son. "I don't
care who you are, it takes guts to do something like this. And that's my
boy."
John Bryan, the 62-year-old who started the Assault on Mount Mitchell 22
years ago, spent the late winter and early spring months training Epps
on the road to Caesar's Head.
Bryan, who coached Epps through more that 1,000 miles of training,
waited quietly at the finish line as he approached.
"I knew he'd do it," Bryan said, unable to hold back the tears.
After Epps arrived at the summit, he sat on his Freedom Ryder in the
Mount Mitchell parking lot and savored the moment.
Epps had conquered the mountain.
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"I could not have done this without John's help," Epps said. "He never gave up on me. He had faith in me and made me believe in myself".
Reprints for personal use only, ok, otherwise, copyright by the Spartanburg Harold Journal.
First and Last Photos by Finish
Line Photography, Inc.
Rest are scanned in from the Spartanburg Harold Journal Newspaper (the
reason for poor quality).