Access Recreation Here is a wonderful project in Washington and Oregon.
“Access Recreation [AR] is a Portland, Oregon ad hoc committee that has been developing uniform guidelines for minimum information that should be provided about hiking trails and outdoor recreational facilities, that would benefit hikers with disabilities. These guidelines can be applied to websites, printed materials and at trail sites. …..When put into place, these guidelines will provide the public with easy access to better information on the accessibility of recreational and hiking trails in the states of Oregon and Washington and nationwide.” Georgena Moran, founder and project coordinator, says it is a “two-year project [ends June 2016] and as for now only two trails have been trail mapped the with video accompaniment.” Article by Georgena, “Trails for Everyone”.
Category: Trails
ADA guidelines
Lots of links for how to make an area/trail ADA compliant on the American Trails website: AmericanTrails.org
Rating Trail Difficulty
Rating trail difficulty is complicated. Gradient, width, surface, passing turnouts, trail edges, and obstacles such as roots and rocks all play a role in how “easy” a trail is perceived to be. I don’t pretend to be an expert on this and plan to have just two descriptors for trails I have visited in person. WCh is for trails that are either officially designated for wheelchair use or appear to be appropriate. Easy is for trails that might be too narrow and/or rough for a wheelchair, but could be negotiated by someone with limited strength or balance, but not dependent on a wheelchair. This is pretty fuzzy, I know, so whenever possible I am putting in contact links so you can find out more.
I am not responsible for any injury you may incur using trails recommended on this website.
The National Forest Service uses a rating system adjusted to the mode of travel. For example, an Easy hiking trail might have a gradient up to 20% and a surface with “spot gravel” (I have no idea what that means), whereas an Easy wheelchair trail has a gradient no more than 3% and a paved surface.
For anyone interested in making a trail accessible, here is a link to the Forest Service’s Accessibility Guidebook for Outdoor Recreation and Trails.
A popular trend in describing trail difficulty is adoption of ski slope ratings: green circle for Easy, blue square for Moderate. The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) uses this system and adds a white circle for Easiest.
IMBA gradients for Easiest are an average of 5% with a maximum up to 10% with a trail width of 72” or more and no natural obstacles. Sounds like all of these would be wheelchair accessible.
IMBA Easy trails have unavoidable obstacles of 2” or less, a width of 36” or more, with gradients averaging less than 5%, with a possible maximum of 15%. The steeper of these trails might be too much for a handicapped hiker as well as those using wheelchairs. Some wheelchairs are better than others handling obstacles such as the step up from a dirt trail onto a bridge or boardwalk.