SARANAC LAKE — Keith Freeman rang his bike bell and took off on the Adirondack Rail Trail, riding a trishaw with a wheelchair on the front.
A trishaw is an e-assisted three-wheeled bike with a bench or wheelchair platform rickshaw on the front. They are used to bike with elderly people or those with mobility challenges, encouraging socialization and time in nature.
On Thursday, Cycling Without Age Adirondack Coast founder Rebecca Boire-West brought the nonprofit’s trishaws to the Saranac Lake Depot to train volunteer pilots in loading and riding the pedaled vehicles. She is preparing to offer rides to the elderly and people with mobility challenges in Saranac Lake in the coming months.
CWAAC has been offering these rides in Plattsburgh for the past year. Boire-West said Tri-Lakers who traveled up for the rides asked her if they’d ever do the rail trail, so now they are.
On Thursday, Sunmount employees, elder care volunteers and people looking to share the outdoors with individuals who aren’t always able to experience it, learned how to wheel a chair up the ramp, secure it in and pedal the electronic trishaw.
Kayla Ware, an employee at the Sunmount state Office of People with Developmental Disabilities facility in Tupper Lake said the residents she works with are excited to get rides on the recently completed portion of the trail. Ware met Boire-West while Boire-West was doing massage therapy at Sunmount.
“She was talking about (the trishaws),” Ware said, “and I was like ‘Those are the coolest things I’ve ever seen.’”
Keith Freeman volunteers with the Special Olympics and Kiwanis Club’s Aktion Club. He said learning to pilot these vehicles is a natural extension of his volunteer work.
The front-facing platform on the front allows the rider to feel the wind on their face, hear the birds and see the flowers blooming along the trail.
Boire-West said they have scheduled several rides this weekend and are scheduling more for Aug. 21 through 24.
People can register to book a ride or volunteer to pilot at cyclingwithoutageadkcoast.com. To register to volunteer, go to tinyurl.com/5xvmvcrd. To book a ride, go to tinyurl.com/3m7y7wwx.
Boire-West has connections in nursing homes and developmental disability residences through her work as a massage therapist. She’s hoping to get more bookings from people in the community who she can’t reach through her job.
Cycling Without Age is an international organization which started in Denmark. Boire-West launched the local chapter last year and is seeking to grow it.
The idea for starting a local chapter of CWA came when Boire-West saw a Facebook post from a college student taking nursing home residents out for excursions. She gets choked up still thinking about it. The post caught her heart and was something she planned to do when she retired.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, everyone experienced isolation.
“For many, it was isolation for the first time,” Boire-West said. “This is the isolation that people feel every day.”
This realization moved up her date for starting an organization focused on giving people who don’t have as many opportunities to socialize and enjoy nature.
They got a committee together, received grants and launched last spring with one bike. It was a successful summer with 200 rides. The organization has three trishaws now with one more coming next year.
Boire-West said each ride has a visible impact for the rider.
She’s hoping the program might spark interest in a local organization here to introduce a more full-time ride program.