Track chairs make hiking more accessible to all
Not everyone with Parkinson’s disease can hike even the so-called “easy” trails. A hilly, rocky, or uneven path might be too difficult to navigate for those with limited mobility.
As outdoor adventuring has exploded over the years, hikers with an unsteady gait – like Parkinson’s people, especially in later stages – may feel left behind.
But there’s a new option.
Enter the track chair.
This is a comfy electric chair that moves on rubber all-terrain tracks, and it can take unstable walkers to outdoor places they may have thought they’d never go again.
Most of the nation’s state parks and rec areas who have them are offering their use FREE OF CHARGE.
These chairs aren’t the electric wheelchairs that zip along sidewalks and inside shopping malls, catching the eye of 4-year-olds who wish for a turn on it.
Nor are they conventional electric outdoor wheelchairs with thick wheels and souped-up power units.
Instead, track chairs are propelled by tank-like treads to take on inclines of up to 30 degrees.
Solid and stable, they are built to handle sand, dirt, mud, gravel, and other challenging surfaces.
All are controlled by levers and buttons pushed by the user, or by a partner carrying a remote.
So where do you find these chair wonders?
I searched online and found a few places for your (free) renting pleasure:
- In Florida, Seminole State Forest offers the chair at several state parks.
- Minnesota has recently expanded its track chair program to 13 parks, including Myre-Big Island State Park and Split Rock State Park and Lighthouse.
- Wisconsin has two, at Peninsula State Park and one at Point Beach State Forest, but is looking to acquire more.
- Michigan has 13 chairs scattered among their state parks, including Warren Dunes. Also in Michigan, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was the first national park to offer the chairs.
- Georgia has 10, and Colorado, North Carolina, California and Vermont have started their own programs as well. A quick check online will tell you if your state has one.
The chairs do come with concerns. Some hikers fear the chairs will make oatmeal out of smooth dirt paths. Preservationists say their footprint could be wider than trails and might destroy delicate plants along the way.
(If it’s poison ivy being crushed, well, would that be so bad?)
And the chairs don’t come cheap, ranging in cost from $14,000 to $20,000 each. Some programs are privately funded, others through grants or tax dollars.
As an outdoor enthusiast, I hope this trend will continue to expand. Everyone needs an occasional dose of nature.
Let’s remember that the very people who decry the collective costs might be among those benefiting from these types of programs in a few years.
As Erika Rivers, a Minnesota advocate for the disabled, puts it: “We are all temporarily able-bodied.”
Photo credits: Romain Virtuel, Will Greer
We are so excited that we have these in Minnesota!
I would guess most people know at least one person who would benefit from these chairs.