MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
People with disabilities who want to ride mountain bike trails don't have many options. That's because they typically need wider trails to accommodate larger bikes. Tucked away in Vermont's Green Mountains, though, is an entire network of these adaptive trails built and maintained largely by volunteers. As part of our series Here to Help, Emily Chen-Newton joined some of those volunteers in Richmond, Vermont, for one of their weekly trail nights.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIKE WHEELS SPINNING)
EMILY CHEN-NEWTON, BYLINE: It's a summer night that feels more like fall, and Louis Arevalo races down a trail on his handcycle bike. With two wheels in front and one in the back, he navigates a couple of banked turns and a jump.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIKE BRAKING)
LOUIS AREVALO: Ah.
CHEN-NEWTON: Arevalo became a wheelchair user after a spinal cord injury. On the trails, though, he uses an adaptive bike that won't fit on a typical narrow bike path.
AREVALO: If the trail was only 30 inches wide, it would be like doing a tightrope walk the whole time. You want to have a little bit of buffer on each side.
CHEN-NEWTON: From the beginning, this trail system was designed for bikers like Arevalo. In fact, he and other adaptive riders worked alongside the trail builders to get each turn and jump just right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIKE MOVING ON GRAVEL)
CHEN-NEWTON: Volunteers started building these trails four years ago, led by Berne Broudy with Richmond Mountain Trails. She says riders give their feedback in real time.
BERNE BROUDY: We would get a bunch of volunteers. We would dig a corner or dig a section of trail.
CHEN-NEWTON: Then an adaptive biker would ride that stretch of trail and make suggestions. Maybe the corner's too tight. So...
BROUDY: We'd have somebody follow that adaptive rider with a can of spray paint and spray-paint, like, what the shape the corner needed to be. They would re-dig that corner. And then we'd keep going.
CHEN-NEWTON: One of the shovel-wielding volunteers is 15-year-old Mirah Lutsky. Today, she's working on a landing with her brother.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOVELING)
CHEN-NEWTON: She likes getting that instant feedback from Arevalo and others, and she recalls the excitement of building elements that she wanted to ride herself.
MIRAH LUTSKY: We would come up and, like, see certain stuff and be like, oh, that jump is going to be sick.
CHEN-NEWTON: This network was developed so those with and without disabilities can enjoy time on the trails together not having to worry if their bikes will fit. That way, adaptive bikers like Arevalo can just focus on riding their best.
AREVALO: Can I get through that piece of trail a little bit smoother, quieter? And I think, as humans, as physical beings, we like to feel like we're doing something with grace.
CHEN-NEWTON: Before his accident, he was a skier, a rock climber and a biker.
AREVALO: My prior identity was so much tied to my physicality that it's nice to get that back.
(LAUGHTER)
CHEN-NEWTON: As everyone gathers at the end of the night for some pizza in the parking lot, Arevalo says the unique difficulty level of this network honors what he calls the dignity of risk. These volunteer trail builders, he says, get it.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIKE WHEEL SPINNING)
AREVALO: They recognize that we just happen to have a disability, but we still want to challenge ourselves, get scared a little bit, get excited, get giddy, you know, do all those things.
CHEN-NEWTON: Volunteer Mirah Lutsky puts it this way.
MIRAH: I feel like everyone deserves to have fun. And if we can help provide that, then we should.
CHEN-NEWTON: That's why Lutsky and others keep showing up to make sure this trail network is ready to ride for everyone.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Chen-Newton in Richmond, Vermont.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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