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WEST JORDAN — The family of Jeff Page, a man who died in a biking accident on Halloween, is hoping everyone remembers him as someone who loved helping others, improving wheelchair users' access to sports and feeling the wind on his face.
Page was a C6-7 quadriplegic who adored the outdoors and everything it had to offer. Through hard work and determination, he figured out a way to keep biking, skiing and enjoying nature even after an accident left him with little mobility.
One of his favorite things to do was bike the Jordan River Parkway Trail in his hand-cycle. Page could be found on that trail cycling multiple days a week for hours at a time.
On Oct. 31, Page and his wife, Annette, were getting ready to travel to St. George for a biking trip. As no surprise to anyone on a day with nice weather, Page decided to go for a ride on the trail while his wife ran some errands.
What none of his family expected though, was for him to not return.
"it was just like any other day," Page's daughter Cherie Clouse said. "Dad was going on a bike ride, something he did regularly and loved to do."
Page's wife got worried when he wasn't returning any of her phone calls, so she had her son-in-law Blake Clouse go look for him. He noticed part of the fence was broken at the bottom of a hill near the trailhead, and Clouse found Page in the mud still strapped into his specialized hand-cycle with his famous lime green jacket.
The family's lives all changed that day when they heard the news they never wanted to hear.
Adding to their heartbreak, they still do not have a definitive answer as to what caused him to lose control and crash through a fence, landing partway into a canal near 8600 S. Millrace Bend.
"He was a skilled enough rider that he should have been able to steer his bike in a different direction or tip himself over to stop. It just doesn't make any sense. His bike went through the fence and the blunt force trauma of that impact — to his already fragile head and neck — is what caused him to pass away," Page's daughter Brandi Benson said.
Feeling the wind on his face
"He was always about the beauty of nature and God's creations and stuff like that," Page's son Ryan said.
Page loved mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding and all things outdoors. The Page kids said all of their vacations growing up were biking trips.
In August 2015, Page and his wife went on a biking trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Page had a great day riding mountain bike trails with his friends and they decided to go on one more ride.
On the final ride at a big drop-off, Page got into an accident and broke his neck, cutting off the blood flow to his spinal cord. Page no longer had control of his body from the middle of his arms and chest down.
Page tried to come to terms with the fact that he wouldn't be able to participate in outdoor sports again. But slowly, with the "engineer brain and creativity" he had, Page started devising ways to make biking a possibility again, Benson said.
Page got a recumbent bike off of KSL Classifieds where he used special gloves with posts on them to clip into the bike's pedals. He then would use his arms to pedal the bike forward.
Biking was difficult at first because Page didn't have the same muscle and power as before his accident, but riding that bike made him feel normal again.
"He liked to get out and go for a ride because it would make him feel normal, because he could feel the wind on his face. It gave him a sense of freedom and normalcy," Ryan Page said.
Jeff Page also used a paraplegic sit-ski instead of a quadriplegic ski because he wanted to go faster and enjoyed "the feeling of being free," Ryan Page said.
A pioneer for adaptive sports
The Page family said after he learned to bike again, Jeff Page did everything he could to help others in his situation.
"His mind never stopped thinking of what he could do to improve and to teach other people — in his situation or not — that they can get out and do this," Ryan Page said.
Because Jeff Page didn't have use of his fingers, he developed a custom necklace device with buttons he could hit with his chin for a parking brake and to shift gears. He devised ways to put electric assist motors onto hand-cycles so he could go up hills by himself and how to switch batteries on his own so he could travel longer distances. He even designed a specialized bike rack to hold his and his wife's bikes.
"He hated depending on other people. He wanted to be as independent as possible," Benson said. Cherie Clouse added it didn't matter how willing people were to help him, he didn't want to be a burden.
Having to depend on everyone else to be his hands was difficult for him, but Jeff Page kept pushing through the challenges. The Page family said their dad relied a lot on their mom who was always there to take care of him, day in and day out.
His kids joked that their dad would always ask for help on something that he said would be quick, but oftentimes it ended up being 2 a.m. by the time the task was finished. His son-in-law Zach Benson said Page would often wear them out with all of his projects, but Page never gave up on perfecting designs and contraptions.
Ryan Page said his dad knew in his mind how he wanted to do things, but it was hard for him to verbalize to other people how to do it. "Most of the time things didn't work out at as planned, but we would adapt and move on from it."
Jeff Page grew relationships with other people and organizations who were trying to make sports more accessible for people with disabilities. He worked closely with Wasatch Adaptive Sports, the National Ability Center in Park City and the TRAILS program at the University of Utah.
"These programs were just amazing and he wanted to do everything he could to give back to them," Ryan Page said.
Jeff Page wrote an article for Wasatch Adaptive Sports about his journey back to biking and he had a YouTube channel that he used to inspire others to persevere through physical limitations.
Benson said her dad became the guinea pig of his friend's Electrify Bike Co., trying new motors and designs to see what worked best. Jeff Page never stopped wanting to make improvements to give hope to others who were in the same situation.
"He was pioneering. He was totally making new stuff nobody was doing or had done. Because nobody in his situation had had this drive before," Ryan Page said.
He joked that sometimes he and his siblings would be tired at the thought of changing the motor again, but their dad always made sure they knew it was because he wanted to constantly evolve and improve the products for people like him.
Benson said her dad was always so mad at how expensive cars for people with disabilities were. Jeff Page and his dad owned an auto body collision and paint shop for most of his life, where he would restore old cars. After his accident, he started using his company to convert vans into affordable, accessible vehicles.
Benson said there was a van her dad loved driving, but another person had reached out to his company about needing a vehicle by a certain time. So he sold his favorite van without another one ready for himself, because he knew they needed it more than he did.
"We were like 'Dad, you're selling your van?' And he was like 'well, they need it!" Benson said.
A legacy of faith, family and biking
Once Jeff Page got his bike retrofitted enough that he could bike by himself, he was always on the trail. The family would track him on Strava to make sure they knew where he was and he always had his phone available to call if he needed help.
"As a family, we got used to these moments where he'd tip over, he'd call and say, 'help.' We got to a point where we could go help him; we knew how to without hurting him," Blake Clouse said.
Oftentimes, Jeff Page would elicit the help of strangers on the trail. Page's children said breakdowns would happen, or their dad would tip over sometimes and he would just hang out on the trail until someone came by to help him up. He didn't care who it was on the trail, he would just make friends with whoever came by.
"People watched out for our dad," Cherie Clouse added.
"There were so many earthly angels that helped him," Benson said. Page's children said that anyone who used the trails frequently probably saw him out there biking.
The Page family said their dad lived for faith, family and biking, and he considered most people his family.
"He wasn't angry or bitter, ever. He had some very significant spiritual experiences that helped him be at peace," Ryan Page said.
Jeff Page loved sharing his testimony of Jesus Christ while he was in the hospital recovering from his accident. Ryan Page said his dad loved talking to people and learning about them to make connections.
"It wasn't all unicorns and rainbows. We went through trials and struggles and it was hard. We fought depression and anxiety and all the things that come with this, but we just kept going. We've always been a close family," Ryan Page said.
Cherie Clouse said her dad hated crowds, but loved forming individual connections with people. He would just soak in everything he could while meeting people and make friends with everyone he spoke to.
"We just want people to know how amazing our dad really was and the lives that he touched and the perseverance and dedication he had to be able to live his life to the fullest," Cherie Clouse said.
Page's children hope his story can give inspiration and hope to others who are going through the same thing.
"That's why he did a lot of stuff with the biking was to try and help other people get out and experience the outdoors," Ryan Page said.
Benson said she hopes they can turn this negative experience into something positive. She said someone out there might have recently been paralyzed and be feeling down, but she hopes they can see through her dad that they can keep doing the things they love.
"He would want this to touch others," Ryan Page's wife Julee said.
Wasatch Adaptive Sports is hosting a memorial ride in Jeff Page's honor on Saturday at 1 p.m. The memorial ride will start at Millrace Park in Taylorsville at 1150 W. 5400 South. Participants are encouraged to bring their bikes and wear lime green for Page.
