Access for the differently abled

imported
#1

I am inviting comment on the beginning of what may be a lifelong project.I am a differently abled hiker. Due to a farming accident when I was 14 I have been w/o the use of my legs for several years.

I believe that most if not all of the AT should be brought up to the standards set forth by the Americans With Disabilities Act and should be able to be accessed by all.

This would entail some re routing, perhaps a new wheel chair friendly surface and assistance by the park service in traversing more difficult stretches. There should be handrails and ramps and ADA compliant restrooms/privies the length of the trail.

I want to be a part of the AT community and experience what you experience. I want to someday have a trail name and journal on this site documenting my through hike. I am sure there are others who feel as I do. The only way this will ever happen is if we have the support of the non-disabled. What do you think? Would you ever invite me to wheel into camp ? No snoring, I promise. J

Thank you in advance for your comments and help with this issue.

Wheelman

#2

It’ll never happen. Especially in N.H. and Maine. It would cost billions. There is a section in Conn. along the Housatonic river that is wheelchair accessible.

Wolf

#3

Give me a day or two and i’ll give you a link/info, from Peep, to a professor here at Wright State University that wants to thru hike. He’s in a chair and is gathering support for an attempt.

Bushwhack

#4

I second what Wolf said and add that people who like rough, rocky, rooty mountain trails have rights too.

Don’t let the rough trail stop you from getting out. Here is a link to a story about Geoff Krill, another “wheelman” I know in Lincoln New Hampshire, who, with others made a hike to Galehead Hut in the White Mountains.

Celt

#5

wheelman, I feel ya…i have a friend who had a car fall on him when he was 19 and has been a quadraplegic since. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. we discussed many ways to set the hook and that one day he could fish again, and really do it himself.
with the invention of the little robot they have in Japan, that can walk up and down stairs, your dream may be closer than you imagine, without the distruction of the wildness that remains along stretches of the AT.
i also know of many who have overcome the things that held them back by developing other skills.

If that blind guy can do it with his dog for eyes, you could do it, with arms and gumption…

I’ll be the first to say you can hike with me, and maybe you will suceed in developing a chair friendly trail which you would enjoy but with the same breath I am not sure i would enjoy a 2000+ road walk…i will consider this on my hike this year.

also, within my limited understanding of the trail, it would faulter, because Katahdin would be removed from the adventure because of strict wilderness grant…no improvements, ie no more trail as we know it today.

This is actually a frightening thought to me. The minority has so much power in America. Many times a power for good and good things. In some ways it can be an evil, destroying the very heart of what you seek.

i am thinking.

Burn

#6

Wheelman, I greatly respect and admire you for wanting to climb that mountain. In fact, mountain biking being what it is and technology being what it is, as others have said your dream may in fact be closer than you think.

However hikers sweat and work to climb those mountains. There are many overweight and out of shape folks who sit on their ATV’s and want access to the AT, and the mountains the AT travels on. Keeping them off of the AT is a choir, something the Forest Service and the ATC spends a lot of time and effort doing.

So I say to you, no motorized vehicles/wheelchairs of any kind regardless of your type of handicap (to me ATV folks, who are overweight and out of shape are handicapped in the mind, whereas yours is physical).

Now if you want to sweat and to work to climb those mountains with your self propelled altered mountain bike or whatever you need to do it, then I welcome you. However if you want an easy ride to the top with a battery or motor propelling you, then you are not welcome on top of those mountains.

Hope to see you out there. :cheers

Maintain

#7

I agree with Burn 100%. There are trails that are wheelchair accessible. To pave over the AT would destroy what people go there to find. You say that you want to experience what AT hikers experience, but that’s not what you would be doing. You would be taking away the ability for anyone to have that experience and replacing it with something else. What happened to you was a terrible tragedy, and I am sorry for it. What you want to do to the AT, though, would be another tragedy.

Ardsgaine

#8

I am at a loss for words over this post, it ranks right up there with the one I read where the two guys were planning on doing the AT and surviving by fishing along the way, and could anyone tell them what was the best bait to bring?

swift

#9

Just who would you see to provide these “improvements”?I dont believe the AT falls under any one jurisdiction,and i believe some land is privately owned so …There are plenty of paved trails that are not mega-trails.Try the rails to trails network that follow old train routes,should be decent grade and some paved bike trails.I dont believe the outdoors should be attempted to be controlled or tamed.whether its paved trails,road cuts for emergency vehicles or trees/underbrused removed to prevent forest fires it all takes away from the fundamental “NATURE” of the trail.Sorry to be harsh but you would have more success with trying to form a new “path”(it wont be a trail if its paved)that tranverses the nation.You could probably even solicit donations to start this project.good luck

newb

#10

Get real, Wheelman! Me thinks someone is pulling our leg!

Red

#11

Can’t you see this is not a serious post? A JOKE? Not by me, but obviously by someone who is pointing fun at the absurd attitudes and laws in this politically corrected society. It’s called satire, folks:

“I believe that most if not all of the AT should be brought up to the standards set forth by the Americans With Disabilities Act and should be able to be accessed by all.”

“This would entail some re routing, perhaps a new WHEEL CHAIR FRIENDLY SURFACE and assistance by the park service in traversing more difficult stretches. There should be handrails and ramps and ADA compliant restrooms/privies the length of the trail.” [Emphasis added.]

Just goes to prove my theory, that most PC-whipped people today have absolutely no sense of humor, whatsoever.

steve hiker

#12

Steve Hiker, I wish it was.

Red, Poor choice of words.

to th rest, I still ask for input as I will hike the trail someday, by wheel or what ever it takes to make it happen. I can change the trail, I can seek changes in technology, I can change myself or a combination of the three.

Wheelman

#13

Congrats, you’re a good satarist. But your cover has been blown. Maybe I shoulda kept my mouth shut and let the suckers keep wiggling on the hook.
:smiley:

steve hiker

#14

“But your cover has been blown”

??

wheelman

#15

Wheelman…you mope.

I’m sorry about your disability, but because you can’t do the trail unless it becomes a flat and paved over mess (which ruins the very idea of hiking, or rolling, in nature) does not mean that the trail must be ruined for all other “normally abled” people through your ADA vision. Hope that is the PC thing to say…

But for the mean time wheelman don’t they have summer camps for people in wheelchairs???:bawling

ab

#16

Regardless of whether Wheelman is writing a legitimate post or not, this is an interesting question. Say the AT was made wheel chair accessible. What would happen to other trails, say the routes up Denali? Would the ADA be interpreted so far as to demand a trail up ledges where mountaineering is required?
I have yet to step foot on the PCT. From what I have heard, it is fairly level. Would it be possible for someone in a wheelchair to thru-hike the PCT?

Bankrobber

#17

Wheelman, I am offended you think I am non-disbled!!! I am, in fact, non-differently-abled! I was about to take up your banner, but now you can forget it. *******.

Superior Hiker

#18

Hey, I’m allergic to salt, but don’t think that it’s fair that I cannot partake in scuba diving like all other normal-abled bodies. Maybe I can make a change, and take all the salt out of the ocean.

What do you think, wheelman??

nobody

#19

Mother Nature created the mountains, I dont think the ADA was around when she did that, I believe that falls under the grandfather act.

anon

#20

Yea, and how about an elevator to mount everest, so we can all experience, the hard work that it takes to get up there.

On a positive and not so sarcastic note:
Do trail magic and really become a part of the community. Take advantage of what you’ve got, you can shuttle, and really make a difference. Do it enough and you can probably get a trailname, and post journals on what you do as part of the AT like who you saw and stuff like that.

anon