Mountain Triking – Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews goes down to the woods in Weston, giving everyone a big surprise.

Imagine quietly strolling through woods on a balmy Sunday afternoon contemplating roast beef and Yorkshire pudding when out of the bushes fly three rambunctious trike riding ladies.  It would certainly make you blink a bit wouldn’t it?!

Yes, that was me and a couple of friends last weekend. Well, when you’re offered the chance to trial a new invention on your own doorstep, you have to drag your friends along too.

Awesome invention
When Ed Elias, inventor of the awesome Mountain Wheelchair Trike met with us last weekend, he immediately sussed that the three of us could begin our woodland adventure right in at the deep end.  Exchanging four wheels for three, Dawn, Jo and I took our lean, mean trekking machines and headed deep into Weston Woods.

Propulsion is easy; Mountain Trike is really easy to use, with two drive levers by your sides and hydraulic disc brakes at your fingertips. You can also gain extra leverage for steep and difficult ground since even whilst the brakes are firmly engaged the levers can be set to take you forward on release.

Designed for traversing over land that would be uncomfortable, difficult to negotiate or even impossible in traditional wheelchairs, the unique direct drive steering system means that the rider can even steer with one arm if required. This has to be the most exciting new wheelchair available with nowhere being out of bounds.

The experience
Bombing past local strollers, we were certainly turning heads. People were actually approaching us to ask for a go.  Sadly for them, not one of us was willing to miss even a second of the experience.  Climbing hills, negotiating rocky paths, clambering over dense tree roots and even logs; what glorious moments we enjoyed, going where we liked. Total autonomy!

I should admit here, that after 20 minutes or so I began to suffer a bad case of girl-wimpery.  Having been away from extreme sports for a while, the cut and thrust of the trike had turned my arms and hands into hot melting jelly, my forehead seemingly dripping molten lava into my eyes. How could I admit this, when my friends appeared so together?  With a casual swig of water I dug deep and sped off again.

Quite soon after I began to suspect that Dawn, my dear friend of many years, was becoming overheated too.  It was the speedy removal of her jumper as she skipped into the woods that gave her away. The two of us have played and holidayed together since childhood, but as Dawn always says: “just thinking about ‘your’ kind of playing has me seeking for the comfort of my own arm chair.”  You can imagine then how thrilled I was when Dawn agreed to join me for the day. Now as she drank her water bottle dry, she wasn’t looking as ‘thrilled’ as she had earlier, even though she was an absolute natural at Mountain Triking.

Mild to wild
Jo on the other hand was looking, well, quite cool actually.  Maybe she was just trying to look nifty in front of the rest of us. Normally a fairly careful rider, Jo had morphed from mild to wild in seconds.  She sped off immediately as swiftly as three wheels could turn and never once looked back for assistance.  She was gone and so too were her young family, as they excitedly ran to keep up with her.

Half way through the afternoon we went our separate ways for a while.  Jo went off to race around with her children and Dawn and I tested our Mountain Trikes to see what they were really made of. We headed down the steepest hill of the day with the over confident Triker in me wheeling off without a care.  Dawn, more sensibly, took a slower descent and arrived at the bottom of the hill demure and unscathed.  I was still happily hurtling down the hill with the deep rumble of stony ground drumming in my ears nearly drowning out Ed’s cries of “break gently, break gently”! My husband took the brunt of the collision that followed as he attempted to stop me from tipping into a bush of stinging nettles.  I felt absolutely dreadful when the red welts appeared on his face, showing just how much of a stinging he’d taken for me.

At the end of the trail we rode reluctantly back to our cars.  Dawn was excited to have negotiated every obstacle in her path and described how free she’d felt. Her greatest thrill had come from trekking through the woods independently. For the first time she and her husband had been able to negotiate such rugged terrain together, side by side.
Jo had also had a blast riding through the wilds.  She said she hadn’t felt so exhilarated since before her accident years ago.  Her little boy had been one and a half then and has no memory of times spent trekking with his Mum all that time ago.  I guarantee, he will always remember and relish the glorious rough and tumble experience of playing chase with his Mum through the woods this afternoon.

More: www.mountaintrike.co.uk
This experience was made possible by Enhance, a charity working hard to turn big wishes into reality.  If you are looking for a particular sport or activity visit: www.enhancetheuk.org