Author: Kirsten Rosvall
Part 1 in a 3-part series, highlighting different varieties of adaptive equipment
Outdoor Adventurer
I have always thought of myself as an adventurous person. I began rock climbing when I was a senior in High School. The time commitments of my twenties (college, graduate school and work) kept me from outdoor adventures, but when I was 30 I started ice climbing. I climbed for the next 18 years with my climbing partner, Kornelia. We ice climbed all over Colorado, including Ouray, Vail, Leadville, Boulder Canyon, Mt. Lincoln, and Clear Creek Canyon. I also explored New Hampshire and went on a group climbing trip in Joshua Tree, California. In addition, during my thirties I got into cross-country skiing, scuba diving, and hiked several Colorado 14ers.
Life Can Change on a Dime
Some things don’t go as planned. I am now a quadriplegic with a C-5/C-7, incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) received during a surgical procedure to fuse my C-5/C-7 vertebrae in 2018. I had been working for Jefferson County (at Open Space and the Fairgrounds), but that employment ended with my spinal cord injury. I have used a wheelchair for over five and a half years now.
I went from a physically active, fiercely independent person with a job, a small property management business, a car, a home, a dog, and an adventurous lifestyle, to a person with a permanent disability needing daily care giving services to get out of bed and into a power wheelchair for mobility. I thought I had lost everything of value in my life.
Therapeutic Recreation – Returning to the Trails Using a Track Chair
In future installments of this series, I will share more about the injury and the long rehabilitation process. Eventually, I was given opportunities to return to adventuring and I want to share my experiences here with three kinds of adaptive recreational equipment, starting with a track chair.
In June of 2019, when my SCI was seven months old, I had my first opportunity to ride a track chair in Staunton State Park near Conifer, Colorado. I was discharged from Craig Hospital and living on my own for five months when I attended an outing sponsored by Craig Hospital’s Therapeutic Recreation (TREC) program. TREC staff reserved track chairs with Staunton State Park staff and provided round-trip transportation from Craig Hospital to the park. Nursing and TREC staff assisted participants with their transfers between wheelchairs and track chairs.
It was exhilarating to ride and operate a track chair! I could enjoy the sights and smells of the forest, and freedom from the limitations of a wheelchair, while learning to operate a new piece of equipment. It was also a very scary baptism by fire, so to speak, as I had to learn how my body responded to the movement of the chair on smooth and rough inclines and downhills on the trails.
My SCI changed how my body felt and functioned. The stabilizing muscles in my core and legs were weak or did not function at all. I had to use my arms to stabilize my upper body and shoulders, which swayed side-to-side and back-to-front. I had padding on my hips and straps on my lap and legs (as you can see in the photo). My hands were on the track chair controls supported by my arms.
As I made my way off the concrete drive and onto the trail, I discovered that the “ride” in the track chair “hugged” the trail and felt very safe. I could feel every rock, large or small, on the trail and the slope of the terrain I was crawling over. At times I felt like I was being tossed around like a rag doll, but I was outside in nature and not cooped up in a hospital or my apartment.
Piloting the track chair reminded me how important comfort can be. I have not ridden in a track chair since the excursion to Staunton State Park in 2019, but now I know that when I ride one again, I will use my “Simply Seat Cushion” by Purple.
