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People with disabilities are hitting the trail like never before. That's because adaptive mountain bikes are getting a lot better and because trail builders are recognizing they can make trails a lot more inclusive with just a little tweaking, KUER's Macy Lipkin reports from Utah.
MACY LIPKIN, BYLINE: Kristi Prall is, in a lot of ways, your typical Utah resident. She's always loved being outside, camping, hiking, teaching kids about nature. After she got a spinal cord injury while rock climbing, she wanted to get back on the trails.
KRISTI PRALL: We found, like, some outdoor, like, more rugged wheelchairs and we thought, OK, maybe that's what we're going to have to do.
LIPKIN: But a wheelchair wasn't enough to scratch the itch. Then she found out about adaptive mountain bikes from the National Ability Center in Park City.
PRALL: And I got to try out a few of their bikes and then I realized, like, OK, this is the piece of equipment that I want to get.
LIPKIN: These bikes can cost upwards of $15,000. Prall got a partial grant and bought her own.
PRALL: My bike gives me the freedom to go to those wild places to do all of those things I used to do and all of those things that I love.
LIPKIN: Adaptive bikes are technically not bicycles. They have three or four wheels. Most are hand cycles. They're often recumbent with an electric motor to help. Prall relishes a challenge, but she needs to know how rideable a trail is before she goes alone.
PRALL: I can't just, like, get up and walk over an obstacle or over a tree or something like that or turn around.
LIPKIN: Prall says she's noticed a growing number of trails she can ride in recent years, like this one at Snowbasin that opened last fall.
PRALL: We're going to be hitting Canyon Rim Trail. Trailhead's over there.
LIPKIN: Three local adaptive sports organizations brought bikes for people to borrow.
PRALL: Yahoo.
LIPKIN: Adaptive mountain biking is growing in Utah. A new network designed for hand cycles opened in Moab last year. The Northern Utah Trailfest recently added an adaptive race and fun ride to the event. The state is helping, too. It gave the nonprofit Mountain Trails Foundation a grant to figure out what different trails need to become adaptive-friendly. Marshall Evans is working on that. He was a plumber before he was paralyzed in a side-by-side rollover.
MARSHALL EVANS: Technology has absolutely equalized the disability, as far as in my life, for biking.
LIPKIN: Adaptive bikes have gotten narrower, and Evans says the electric motors help people ride longer and keep up with friends. He says it's not hard to build trails he can ride.
EVANS: For a little bit of effort, I can go ride the trail at speed at the pace with all my buddies, rather than slam on my brakes and causing real traffic jam.
LIPKIN: Trails have to be wide enough, they can't tilt sideways too much and obstacles and jumps have to fit two wheels, but he doesn't want them to be boring. At a nearby park, the group that made this route at Snowbasin is working on another.
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LIPKIN: The late morning sun is strong and it smells like dirt and freshly cut trees. Eden Valley Trails considers how different bikes will handle the routes they build. Justin Lindine says everyone can enjoy the same paths.
JUSTIN LINDINE: Whether it's a flowy trail or a technical trail, it doesn't super matter as long as you have your mind on both goals.
LIPKIN: Wider trails also make it easier for search and rescue crews to get somebody out. Cyclists have space to pass each other, and Lindine says they hold up better over time.
LINDINE: It gives you the room to allow drainage properly and also to have machinery come in, whether it's weed eaters or a brush hog or something, and maintain the trail in the future.
LIPKIN: He says trails that work for more people are better for everyone.
For NPR News, I'm Macy Lipkin in Weber County, Utah.
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