Copperas Cove woman preps for 21-mile Grand Canyon hike

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

Those who travel the area of town near Ogletree Gap may have seen a woman hiking solo up to the top of the steep incline known as Ogletree Pass, over the past several months.

The woman is Cindy Crebo, 62, and she leaves next week for a trip that will take her on a 21-mile endurance hike, from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other.

Crebo has been training hard since August prior to the upcoming expedition with the nonprofit organization called Revelation Wellness. The annual hike held by Revelation Wellness is called “Rim to Him.”

The hike will take approximately 10-14 hours total and the hikers will start out from the North rim of the canyon at 4 a.m. on October 7.

Crebo began her pre-training in February for the hike. Since beginning the intensive hike training, Crebo has completed four intensive training sessions up and down Ogletree Pass since June, in addition to hiking hilly areas in Copperas Cove and other places. For example, in July she met up with several fellow hikers and friends to hike the Ice Lake Trail in the San Juan National Forest near Silverton, Colorado.

Each trip up and down Ogletree is ½-mile, and each session has ranged from seven to 14 miles.

For Crebo’s final hill training session on the morning of Sept. 21, she trekked up and down Ogletree Pass a total of 22 times, which calculates to 14 miles with a total elevation gain of 4,000 feet.

She knows she will face not just elevation, but temperature extremes when she hikes one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Temperatures at the North side of the Grand Canyon’s rim will be in brisk and in the 40s when she and fellow hikers from around the country start out.

The hike will take them down thousands of feet in elevation to the bottom of the canyon, where temperatures will be much higher.

“Temperatures down in ‘the box’ can be as high as 100 degrees,” Crebo said.

After that, the hike continues upward to the top of the rim, with an elevation climb overall of more than 6,200 feet to complete the journey.

For Crebo, the process to work on health and wellness has been enlightening.

“I believe you worship God with all of who you are, with your body, your mind, your strength and your heart. Love Him with everything, and for me, that includes my body. For years, I have meditated on Scripture when I’m doing yoga, when I’m walking, when I’m exercising.”

She said she stumbled upon Revelation wellness several years ago.

“It was like – oh, there’s somebody out there who believes the same thing I do. I started doing some of their challenges. The first one I did was a core challenge.

"Even with the workouts, there’s a scripture associated with it and as you’re moving your body, you’re absorbing God’s Word into your spirit, and becoming more and more whole."

One of the things with Revelations Wellness does is make many of their online wellness programs and resources free and available to all.

Crebo said they also give back to other organizations. In 2021, the Phoenix, Arizona-based Revelation Wellness distributed more than $88,000 to charities and gave out $60,000 in wellness program scholarships. They donate to organizations such as Feeding America, the Seed Company, and Paradise Valley Food Bank.

At 62, Crebo said she has been more aware her overall wellness in all aspects.

Like many people starting to focus on physical exercise, it wasn’t easy at first, when she began focusing on her physical health.

“One of the first things I ever did was a Denise Austin six-minute waste trimmer, and I thought I was going to die,” she joked.

She said wellness isn’t striving to be in a different body, so much as it is getting healthy, even if someone lives in a bigger body.

"It’s about getting healthy and being whole, not a push to lose weight. There’s not the push to be a certain size or to accomplish a certain thing. Fitness wise, it’s to get healthy and be whole, to love God and help people. And it’s so much of what my Christian walk has been about for me personally.”

To help Cindy with her fundraiser or find out more about Revelation Wellness, visit https://donorbox.org/rim-to-him/fundraiser/cindy-crebo.