Walking for Recovery PRESERVING NATURE WHILE PURSUING HEALTH
By Hannah Sucsy Willis Photos Courtesy of Terry and Sue Huggins
“I WISH PEOPLE WOULD TAKE A LITTLE MORE PRIDE IN WHERE WE LIVE AND NOT LITTER.”
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’m sure most Boundary County residents would agree that we live in a beautiful place. Whether enjoying snow-covered Purcells from afar or hiking the peaks and ridgelines of the Selkirks, stunning scenery is all around us. But anyone who spends much time out in the forests has surely found evidence that many people do not respect the beauty of the roads and trails. Terry Huggins has lived in Boundary County all his life, and he loves where he lives. He and his wife have been cleaning the forest service roads for the past 17 years. They spend their summers camping and four-wheeling with their puppy, and they take their pinchers along to pick up trash. It’s not just a few pieces here and there but rather pickup loads full of trash that people throw out of their vehicles or leave behind in their camp spots.
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Terry is unable to work because of trauma from an antibiotic he took six years ago. Before he took the medication, he was active, healthy and very busy working three jobs. But just two pills of Ciprofloxacin was enough to permanently damage the nerves of both inner ears, resulting in the loss of over 75 percent of his hearing and balance. He visited several specialists only to be told the same thing: The damage is permanent and there is nothing that can be done to cure or improve it. This drastically changed his life in many ways. Even hearing and understanding on the telephone is a challenge now. But Terry is not one to sit around, not one to be kept down. “He just puts one foot in front the other and goes; he’s a fighter,” says his wife Sue. She says that he needed to find something to help fill his time since he couldn’t work anymore, but
