 Sounds excellent. I know someone I'd love to take on that.
Are there any cliffs nearby?
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 Sounds interesting, can see that steep bit causing problems for a few users though. Imagine loosing contoll on theway down! I dont know mcuh about wheelchairs but if you lost grip or your arm gave in could you stop? Sounds gnarley
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| Edited: 18/06/07 20:43 |
 That's such a cool wheelchair, Jamie! It looks great fun too to have a slightly more challenging experience than propelling yourself or being pushed along tarmac.
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 A friend of mine used to help out at the Calvert Trust, which has a centre not far from Latrigg. Apparently, staff sometimes take people in wheelchairs to St John's Church on the gap between High Rigg and Low Rigg. Across the road from the church is a sloping crag, and they set up a roping system to do wheelchair abseils down it!
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Jamie - I think a lot of stiles and gates are intended to allow passage on foot, yet restrict things like motorbikes. However, I've noticed a new kind of gate appearing up and down the country, and as it's obviously being mass-produced and installed on a number of paths, it's clear that a solution already exists. The gate is like a metal kissing gate, so it allows pedestrians though, but not cyclists, horses or motorbikes. However, there's a sliding bolt that can be unlocked using a 'radar' key (which many people with disabilities possess), and it allows the kissing gate to be swung out of the way to allow wheelchairs through. Whether it would allow the Tramper through depends of course on its width, but worth looking into.
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 Yes Kate its a fantastic thing! Its absolutely changed his life, he is an outdoors person and since becoming disabled a few decades ago has been limited to laybys and looking from a far but with this thing he goes all over Exmoor. He came up last year to the Lakes and Wales with me and I was gob smacked at the torque this thing has and how far it goes on its battery.
Paddy the abseiling thing sounds good, I'll keep that in mind in case the old git ever annoys me too much!! ;)
The stile with the fob sounds great, do you have any examples of where these can be found, I could do with a picture of one for my dad to show to the Exmoor committee.
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Well done Jason - that's the one!
I've spotted these all the way from the banks of the Thames to Durham, and as SNH have an info sheet about them, then I guess they're already part of the Scottish scene.
Because of the padlock, some people assume that the gates are locked, so they don't even try and open them. I've seen some of these gates with a small notice explaining how they're used, and reassuring people that they're not actually locked, but operate exactly the same way as an ordinary kissing gate does.
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And I have seen some vandalised with either the padlock "bolt cropped" and in one case the bolt burnt off with an oxy/propane burner!
<sigh >
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 The area around Beamish where I live is littered with them - it stops the little darlings on their little motorbikes gaining access to the cycle path etc.
Well, it's supposed to, but as Tony points out - they'll always find a way. :-(
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"the little darlings" ???
When I was there recently, it was their dads who were hurtling around on those little motorbikes!
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 surely hillwalking is a pastime for people that can walk. using artifial aids is cheating. what next landrover access?
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The law says that anyone can take a 'natural accompaniment' along a footpath. In the case of someone with a disability, this includes a wheelchair, or a motorised wheelchair, provided that the path is capable of being used by one. If the path is quite obviously capable of being used by a wheelchair, it seems grossly unfair to disallow its use for any reason, least of all something as simple as a locked gate. Same goes for kids in pushchairs.
We're all using "artificial aids" on the hills - footwear, waterproofs, etc. Should be all go out in our birthday suits, cut our feet to shreds and freeze to death? Even the "Naked Munros" people know when it's time to get dressed!
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 Paddy - don't feed the troll ;o) In this thread he is advocating lifts up mountains in the post on 13/06/07 at 13:46:30 PM
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| Edited: 21/06/07 18:06 |
Fair enough Ninja!
Some years ago a friend stopped me in the street. She knows a lot of people with disabilities, and someone had approached her for help. A girl whose friends had all walked the Cumbria Way wanted to cover the trail herself, except that she uses a wheelchair. Now, I know what the route is like from start to finish, and there's no way you'd get a wheelchair along most of it, even with a gang of helpers. I came up with a road/track route that ran more or less parallel, obviously omitting Stake Pass, that ran from Ulverston to Carlisle.
It was years later that I actually met the girl herself, and she was delighted that she was able to cover a modified version of the Cumbria Way. I had no idea of her circumstances when I drew up the route, but she was unable to propel the wheelchair herself, relying entirely on helpers. Nor could she speak, so out 'chat' was via one of those speech synthesisers, which she operated using only one thumb. Her joy at being able to cover the route was quite obvious. To this day, when I come across a path or track that would be perfectly suitable for wheelchairs, it really annoys me when the only barrier to its free use is a locked gate.
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When my disabled boy was younger I converted one if those rucksack type baby carriers with a spinal board and head restraint and managed to "backpack" him untill he was around 5 years old.
At 18, he is MUCH to big to carry now, and his wheelchair is a little too heavy to push on all but the most accessible of paths!
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Thats a great story Paddy, like you say it is annoying some of these routes are ruined by unaccessible stiles and gates, obviously people have to be realistic about what they can and can't get through but for example last time I went with my dad we were at Cwm Eigiau in the Carneddau and there is a track there that goes into the dam and then turns into a path into the valley. The guys who own the two houses off the track always lock a big gate across and it really fustrates me, especially as its so quiet anyway and its open access land now. Of course the good thing about a padlocked wide gate is that it can be simply lifted off its hinges at the supported side ;-)
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Tony - if you ever get to Co Durham (where I've recently been exploring), check out some of the old railway tracks that have been converted into footpath / cycleways. One or two start high in the Pennines and head down towards the coast. Most of them are OK for accompanied wheelchair users, but admittedly there are still some bits with short, steep, uphill gradients.
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