The Outdoors is for Everyone!

Helping all to get active in the outdoors,

starting with a Mountain Trike Weekend with experience community

- Neil Russell Tells us more!

Experience Community, an organisation based in West Yorkshire which supports people with disabilities to get into the great outdoors, delivered the first Mountain Trike (off-road wheelchairs) residential weekend at Plas y Brenin this November. We welcomed along participants to join us for some skills development on using Mountain Trikes in the outdoors and helped them hone their skills and build their confidence so that we could go out as a group on some more challenging, and hugely rewarding routes, in the vicinity of the Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre in Snowdonia.

A very wet, Welsh welcome awaited us all as everyone arrived in the afternoon and evening of the Friday. Participants had the chance to settle in, have dinner and get to meet the staff, and each other, before getting into the more technical, and of course fun, aspects on the Saturday morning.

The terrain around the farmhouse at Capel Curig provided a perfect starting point for introducing our participants to the Mountain Trikes. These off-road wheelchairs allow the users to tackle much more challenging terrain and surfaces than a regular day wheelchair can handle. With the Mountain Trikes having e-assist, they allow people the opportunity to get to places they perhaps have never been able to access previously.

The morning started with some skills practices focusing on steering and control, ascending and descending steep slopes, and braking and weight shifting on camber. This allowed for progression onto the blue mountain biking trail where all these skills could be put into practice.

With skills having been developed, packed lunches devoured and participants and equipment that was raring to go, we explored further afield and took the Mountain Trikes for a steep and rewarding ramble up the hillside next to Capel Curig. From here, with the weather and the Autumn light all aligning in our favour, we were rewarded with beautiful views across the surrounding hills. Returning to a much-needed warm evening meal, it was early to bed for all in preparation for the longer ramble we had planned for Sunday.

Starting off from the centre we took to the path which follows alongside the river Llugwy. A route which provided enjoyably technical sections, various surface types and outstanding views of the local countryside. This gave everyone the opportunity to really build upon all that we had been working on the day before and gave an even greater experience of what can be achieved with the Mountain Trikes.

a hugely successful and enjoyable first adaptive rambling residential weekend at a location which offers so much beauty and potential to explore in the future.

After enjoying our lunches to a backdrop of Tryfan, we headed back to close out what was a hugely successful and enjoyable first (of I’m sure many) adaptive rambling residential weekends at a location which offers so much beauty and potential to explore in the future.

In partnership with Plas y Brenin, Experience Community will be delivering more residential weekends which will support people with disabilities to get outdoors and participate in activities which allow them to get to places they may have never been able to access before.

Plas y Brenin shares Experience Community’s belief that the outdoors is for everyone and with the right facilities, support and training, we can open up these opportunities to more people.

If you want to know more about what Experience Community does and how you can be a part of what we do, then follow us on: Instagram @experiencecommunitycic and Facebook @experiencecommunitycic or send an email to info@experiencecommunity.co.uk

Neil Russell

Experience Community – Yorkshire Water Partnership Officer