TrailRider Program Enters New Phase

by Gerry Graham

Photo: Breaking in Our New TrailRider, Mt. Douglas, January 10, 2009

2008 was a banner year for the TrailRider Hiking with the Disabled Program, the

most notable accomplishment undoubtedly being the acquisition of our very own

TrailRider unit. For those of you who don’t know, the TrailRider is a one-wheeled,

non-motorised device that facilitates access to wilderness and other rough terrain

for people with disabilities. Porters front and back push and pull the TrailRider

and its occupant over otherwise inaccessible trails. Victoria’s TrailRider program

operates with the support of Recreation Integration Victoria ( RIV ) and the

Vancouver Island Section of the Alpine Club of Canada. All of our porters and all of

our clients are , for instance, registered as volunteers with RIV, while most of our

porters and at least one of our ‘clients’ are ACC members.

The year began in March with a nice little circuit of Elk Lake with Nairne in the

TrailRider, followed by a snowy, fun-filled outing with Jeff out at Thetis Lake in

April. We capped the year with a ‘thank you’ outing for Pippa Blake, of Rise Above

Barriers fame, at East Sooke Park in late November. Pippa’s epic TrailRider trek in

Nepal included two of our staunchest porters- Shawn Daniels and Karun

Thanjavur. Upon her return from Everest Base Camp, Pippa generously donated

her TrailRider to RIV, and it was that TrailRider unit which we used throughout

2008, before acquiring our own.

Between April and November we also successfully completed a number of other

day trips, involving a number of new venues, many new porters, and a couple of

new ‘clients’ as well. Aside from two more trips to East Sooke Park and one more

to Thetis Lake, we made it up Mt. Work twice, and Mt. Wells and Finlayson ( the

back way! ) once each. We also had our first outing up, down and along the trails

out at Royal Roads University. Also of note, on our August Thetis Lake outing

Shaw TV sent James Green, one of their videographers along to film our trip. The

resulting three minute promotional clip, which aired on Shaw TV, has been a big

marketing plus for the program; it is posted on YouTube. In addition, one of our

porters, Martin Hoffman, who administers the Section’s web site, very kindly

created a TrailRider sub page which can be easily updated.

Another big development this year was the addition of several new TrailRider Trip

Leaders, including Mike Hubbard , Karun Thanjavur, Shawn Daniels, Karen van

Dieren, Russ Moir and Roger Painter. In addition, we added significantly to our

complement of porters, going from just eight at the beginning of the year to three

times that by the end. Lissa Zala was kind enough to allow us to mount a

TrailRider display at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and with Lenka Visnovska

and Deborah Buckley diligently manning the booth, we managed to sign up eight

more porters that night alone! Having more leaders and more porters allows us to

schedule more events, and to offer our services to more people. Thus, by the time

the Fall came around, we basically had a TrailRider outing on the Alpine Club

schedule every second week. And, so far, in our first three years of existence, we

have taken a total of six different ‘clients’, with varying degrees of disabilities, out

for rides in the TrailRider. In that time we have put on over twenty outings.

In the Fall of 2008 we received word that two second hand TrailRider units which

were coming back from another trek to Everest Base Camp would be up for sale

from the British Columbia Mobility Opportunities Society ( BCMOS ). It was

decided that this was a great opportunity for the Vancouver Island Section of the

Alpine Club of Canada to acquire its own unit, giving us more autonomy and

flexibility in the running of the program. Thus, in the space of two short months

we were able to raise the four thousand dollars required to purchase one of the

two BCMOS TrailRiders, which we took possession of in mid-December when

Shawn Daniels transported it back from Vancouver in the back of her SUV. Our

Section Executive generously donated one thousand dollars towards the

purchase price, a further $2000 came from a Saanich Legacy Foundation grant,

over $750 came from Roger Painter’s running club out at Royal Roads, and the

remainder was donated by various individuals, including TrailRider porters ,

clients, their families and friends. Now that we have two of these TrailRiders in

Victoria ( ours plus RIV’s ), we expect to be able to put two teams together for

various outings in 2009. We’ve done this on a few occasions in the past with

older TrailRider models, and it seems to have worked well; at least a couple of our

clients seem to like sharing the experience with another disabled person.

We have already taken our new acquisition out on a trial run at Mt. Douglas,

where it was found to perform according to specification. However, we have

decided to make a series of alterations to the unit in time for the 2009 season

which starts in mid-March. These changes are being done free of charge ( except

for parts ) by CanAssist, a program up at the University of Victoria that designs

and builds assisted devices for the disabled; one of our porters, Ryan Truant, a

CanAssist engineer, is in charge of the TrailRider upgrade project. Together, these

modifications will make the TrailRider safer, more comfortable for the occupant,

and easier for porters to operate on local trails. Our plans for ’09 also include a

multi-day camping and hiking trip in Strathcona Park, plus a number of midweek,

mid-summer outings in local parks, to accommodate those who tend to be

unavailable on weekends.

But all the statistics about the number of trips we’ve completed, where we’ve

been and who we’ve taken out, don’t really capture the fun we invariably have on

these brief outings. Everyone involved in the program, i.e. clients and porters

alike, seem to get a great kick out of the trips. Aside from the challenge of pushing

and pulling the TrailRider and its occupant up and down steep slopes or up to

three or four hours at a time, sometimes in rather inclement weather, there’s the

camaraderie that develops between all the participants. The clients seem to get a

lot of joy out of the experience, and are always eager to know when the next

outing is; there is actually quite a waiting list for participation, and even a bit of an

attempt at queue-jumping, if you can believe it. And as for our dedicated team of

porters, they seem to really enjoy themselves as well, asking when the next

outing will be, and lamenting the fact that we take a break over the winter

months .

In short, the TrailRider program is evolving and expanding from year to year. One

of the reasons for the program’s success, I believe, is that there is something in it

for everyone. Our disabled clients enjoy it because they can get to places that are

otherwise out of bounds to them in a wheelchair. The porters like it because they

all share a desire to serve and like to work up a bit of a sweat. And everybody,

clients and porters alike, seems to feed off the energy that is generated as we

travel along together on local trails and slopes, talking, joking, having a pit stop or

picnic, or just quietly enjoying the moment. Invariably, on our outings a kind of

synergy seems to develop, whereby those who give their time and muscle end up

being rewarded in spades, happy to have made someone else’s day, and those in

the TrailRider itself enjoy being part of a team.