Tammie Thompson lost the use of her legs but she wanted to ride the trails; local mountain bikers widened an Ashland trail to accommodate her custom bike; ‘It opens up a whole new world for me,’ she says
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
Tammie Thompson came around a bend and down a slope on the Ashland trail newly widened to accommodate her special bike.
“I bet she’s smiling as wide as her helmet,” said her wife, Karla Bryan, as she stood on a slope overlooking the Caterpillar trail.
Thompson lost the use of her legs in an accident. Her mountain bike has a hefty little motor, three wheels and hand controls. Its seat allows Thompson’s legs to be extended and strapped in. And with all that, the bike is wider than most mountain bike trails.
Thompson and Bryan had been driving to Bend, where there is better accessibility and more people with disabilities out riding. But the trips are time consuming and costly. Mountain biking with a disability is already expensive, given the plethora of specialized equipment required and limited support from insurance, Bryan said.
Wider bike, wider trail
Shortly after purchasing the $18,000 bike — with the assistance of grant funds — Thompson contacted the Rogue Valley Mountain Bike Association and asked if any trails in the valley were wide enough to accommodate it and, if not, could she somehow help in making one wider?
As an all-volunteer organization running on donations to support mountain bike trails from Grants Pass to Ashland, the association finds requests for help are not infrequent or always easy to answer, said RVMBA President Ryan Hawk. But saying yes to Thompson, he said, was “a no-brainer.” He was particularly impressed that she wanted to give help as much as ask for it.
“We did a work day, just sent out a message and called a ‘trail day’ like we usually do, and people came out with shovels, hacking away at stumps for hours. My son was out here digging,” Hawk said.
Nine volunteers were able to widen the trail in four hours, with a lunch at Sammich afterward, sponsored by the Ashland Springs Hotel in support of increasing disability access, Hawk said.
Saturday, Hawk met Thompson and her wife to test out the trail.
Life-changing event
As Thompson whirred by, Bryan explained how the success of this trail forms another layer in adapting since the accident.
Thompson fell off a roof on Christmas Day, 2021 a few months after she and Bryan moved to rural Jacksonville to enjoy its trails.
“We call it ‘the year Tammie ruined Christmas,’” Bryan said.
Thompson was in the hospital for weeks and in physical therapy for months afterward learning to live in her new body and use her wheelchair.
Before the accident, she was an avid jogger and had ridden dirt bikes for around two decades. Bryan, a retired sheriff’s deputy, remembers being left in the dust when the two rode their motorcycles together.
A caution sign
Over time, they’ve come to an agreement that — though the couple is not “churchy” — the accident was an act of divine intervention to protect a lifelong speed demon.
“We’ve openly talked about it. This was God saying, ‘You need to slow down. You’re still needed here on this Earth,’” Bryan said.
On the bike trail, Thompson got in a few extra laps through the trailhead area, comparing one gear to another. Bryan noted that her wife had not been slowed much.
On the road, she drives herself in a specially modified Honda Element SUV complete with a ramp, hand controls and an attachment on the underneath of her wheelchair to lock it into place when it becomes the driver’s seat. Bryan’s family installed ramps at their homes. When the couple goes out, Thompson gets on the dance floor in her chair.
Bryan related how she once had to apologize after admonishing someone a little too harshly because they grabbed the handles of Thompson’s chair on the dance floor. The chair becomes an extension of its owner’s body, she said.
Benefits of biking
Staying physically active is good for a disabled person’s mind and body, Thompson said. It’s easy to develop pressure sores, which can take months to be visible on the skin and as long as two years to heal, she said. In riding her bike, she uses her abdominal muscles to shift herself around, improving blood circulation in her legs and helping to prevent sores.
There’s also nothing better for mental health than going outside, she said.
Thompson kayaks and uses an additional slower motorized bike-like vehicle to enjoy the land around the couple’s home. Bryan said at one of their favorite haunts in Ruch that even the larger, tougher men have confessed — little 5-foot-1 Thompson inspires them.
On the trail, as Bryan unstrapped her wife’s legs and helped her get back into her wheelchair, Thompson’s blue eyes were lit up with joy and something not unlike mischief.
“It opens up a whole new world for me. No matter what you have going on in your life, you’re not thinking about that when you’re riding.… Now that there’s a trail, I can consistently get better. I feel like coming out tomorrow,” she said.
She said her elbows were covered in mud after capsizing off the side of the trail. But luck was on her side: Ashland Parks and Recreation Commissioner Justin Adams happened to come up on his own mountain bike and helped fish her out.
“That was a good one,” she said.
Looking for group rides
Hawk knelt down and listened as Thompson described her ride and the two strategized ways to continue improving the trail for her and riders like her. She asked for help connecting to local group rides.
“I would like it if we could kind of infiltrate able-bodied groups and be accepted as just another rider,” Thompson said.
She hopes to encourage other disabled people interested in learning how to obtain a specialized bike or grant funding to support their access to the outdoors. Those looking for support and resources can contact Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection.
RVMBA welcomes donations and additional support from volunteers or other organizations and businesses.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.
