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Accessibility
“Boldly going where no chair has gone before” is the mantra for AdvenChair, the all-terrain wheelchair designed to allow everyone to visit wild places not necessarily on graded trails. Geoff Babb, the local inventor of the AdvenChair, and his team use Smith Rock State Park as a proving ground for that premise, each time pushing the envelope to make the chair more resilient to hiking trail challenges. This time the goal was the Burma Road summit, with a total elevation gain of 1156 feet.
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson had their work cut out for them filming at Smith Rock State Park during the hottest July on record. For 24 days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The filming for this part of the “Adventure Wheelchair” story on AdvenChair for the OPB show, Oregon Field Guide, had already been postponed once. Both the film crew and the AdvenChair team decided to go for it by getting an early start.
About a month ago, Smith Rock State Park’s rangers took to some wheelchairs to see just how accessible the park is to those in different configurations of chairs and levels of assistance needed. We spoke with Ranger Nolan Ferdinand about what comes next.
Geoff Babb’s first ride in his wheelchair to the park back in 2006 was not pretty. He promptly did a face plant as the front wheels got stuck in a crack in the sidewalk. But while a near-fatal brain stem stroke left him with only limited use of one hand, he soon found his inflexible wheelchair to be the biggest obstacle to having fun in his beloved outdoors again. He set out to do something about it.
