A motorized wheelchair designed to clamber over rocks, roots and mud is opening up hiking trails in our biggest state park to many more people, including some who weren’t in the target audience. 

“We expected it would be people with mobility challenges. But we’ve also heard from people on oxygen who are not able to traverse the trails normally. They want to go with their family but can’t,” said Christina Pacuk, manager of  Bear Brook State Park. “Some elderly people say ‘I haven’t been able to get out like I used to and I want to be able to have that experience again.’”

Then along came the chair.

“It just opens up a world of opportunity to so many different people,” Pacuk said.

One of those people is Kyle Boule of Goffstown, who has cerebral palsy that makes walking very difficult. He was the first person to use the motorized Trackchair at Bear Brook, spending an hour and a half on the trails with his parents, Lisa and Stephen, earlier this month.

“It was a lot of work for him, but it’s a good work for him. It was like a maze – how can I get around this route, how can I get across this hill? He would have to think about it,” said Lisa Boule. 

The Trackchair is like a motorized wheelchair – the controls are the same as Kyle’s chair, which made it easy for him to operate – except with treads like on a tank. Bear Brook is the first state park to get one, obtained from America’s State Park Foundation with support from the Bronco Wild Fund.

The Trackchair will be on display, available for people to see and try out, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 24, during the annual Built Wild Days celebration. The park’s day fee will be waived for those attending.

The Boules learned about the Trackchair from social media posts by Bear Brook State Park and decided to give it a try. 

“My husband, he likes to go out in the woods, to walk through the trails but that can be difficult for us,” said Lisa Boule. They have used adult jogging strollers to get around with Kyle but those don’t handle rough trails and Kyle, 30, doesn’t like to be pushed around much anymore, wanting to make his own way.

Boule said the family stayed out longer than they planned and the Trackchair’s battery was running low at the end, but otherwise it was a great success.

“He was so focused. He would smile, he’d laugh. I asked him, are you OK? Do you want me to take over? And he said no, he wanted to do it himself,” she said. “He loves going through the mud and the dirt, climbing rocks.”

“Whoever likes to get out into the trails should try it,” she said. “But bring bug spray!”