#cloudland canyon

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume Nine, Number Eight

Spiral Joy Band

The music plays on through the end of the most disastrous summer in living memory, with Maui on fire and Arizona broiled beneath a heat dome and Vermont swept away in a 100- maybe 500-year flood.  And here’s the kicker: next year will likely be worse.  Still by force of habit, we continue on with the daily grind, cooking and mowing lawns and going to shows and listening to records.  This month’s haul includes avant-black metal, turntablism, bass-forward jazz, jolting punk and music made in collaboration with our robot overlords.  Contributors this time include Jonathan Shaw, Bill Meyer, Jim Marks, Jennifer Kelly, Tim Clarke and Bryon Hayes.

夢遊病者 — Skopophoboexoskelett (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

In past thinking and writing about this tri-continental, avant-garde, jazz and black metal project (whose name translates to Sleepwalker), your faithful reviewer has made concerted efforts to set aside any references to John Zorn’s Naked City ensemble. This time around, for the project’s Skopophoboexoskelett, such efforts face real challenge holding Naked City tracks like “Saigon Pickup,” “Punk China Doll” or “Razorwire” at any sort of distance. The atmospherics on Sleepwalker’s new LP explode with unpredictable noise, then emanate a patina of Noir-ish style and sleaze, especially the excellent final track “The Bad Luck That Saved You from Worse Luck.” It’s murky like a thick cloud of cigarette smoke, sexy like a stiletto heel dotted with droplets of blood, compelling like those cinematic moments at which Humphrey Bogart (as Philip Marlowe or Glenn Griffin) would grin his mean and tight grin, presaging antic, joyful violence. In spite of that violence, Skopophoboexoskelett may be Sleepwalker’s most listenable record. That could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how much you enjoyed being subsumed in the volatile chaos of their earlier records.

Jonathan Shaw

Agnel / Lanz / Vatcher — Animals (Klanggalerie)

Animals by AGNEL LANZ VATCHER

While the ability of great improvisers to make music out immediate company, available space, and their own personal resources might amaze a listener, after a while, that might become a bit routine. Perhaps that is why French pianist Sophie Agnel and American-born, Netherlands-based drummer Michael Vatcher have sought out the company of turntablist Joke Lanz, AKA Sudden Infant. Lanz’s aesthetics have grown out of punk, noise and actionism. But, being a man of a certain age, he’s been doing what he does for a long time, too, so his onslaught of well-timed body noises, electronic squiggles and good old-fashioned scratching further confounds by evading being confounding. Construction, destruction, mutual disregard and scrupulous attunement all come into play across this album’s 13 short-for-improv episodes of absurd grace. Never mind breaking this stuff down, the players are already doing that even as they make it up.

Bill Meyer

Vicente Archer Trio — Short Stories (Cellar Music Group)

Short Stories by Vicente Archer

Reviewing a release by the Bruce Barth Trio last year, I mentioned wanting to hear more of double bassist Vicente Archer, and my wishes have been answered. Short Stories, with Gerald Clayton on piano and Bill Stewart on drums, demonstrates Archer’s strengths as a musician and composer. The tunes are generally mid-tempo, mid-length, and with a kind of timeless post-bop feel. Three were written by Archer (“Bye Nashville” deserves to become a standard), two by Stewart, and one each by Clayton, Jeremy Pelt, Nicholas Payton and Pat Metheny.

An advantage of bassist-led piano trios is that the piano is usually not allowed to dominate the sound, and Clayton plays his role just right here, taking the occasional solo, as on the bluesy “Round Comes Round,” but giving the others plenty of space. The set includes a brooding solo piece for bass, “Lighthouse,” a playful duo featuring just Archer and Stewart, “It Takes Two to Know One,” and Stewart sitting out while Clayton and Archer recreate “Message to a Friend” by Metheny and Charlie Haden. Short Stories makes clear why Archer has appeared on 50 or more recordings over the past 25 years and makes the case for him as a band leader.

Jim Marks

BEEF — BEEF (Feel It)

BEEF by BEEF

BEEF jolts hard on the four-four, their songs a continuous up-and-down battery of guitar slashes, bass thunks and relentless, manic drums. There is nothing fancy or florid or even fluid about these songs. They rain down like punches, though there’s undeniable glee in the violence. Maybe it’s because the drummer, Takoda Hortenberry, is the main singer and songwriter that the songs take on such a percussive air. He’s not in it by himself, though. His wife Ally pounds the keyboards with equal force, while guitarist Sam Richardson (who also runs Feel It Records) keeps the riffs super short and super explosive. Whatever the secret, this is punk rock that slaps hard and makes you like it.  “I know you want it! BEEF coming,” shouts Hortenberry in the closer, “I Want BEEF,” and the thing is, you do.

Jennifer Kelly

Jaap Blonk / Damon Smith / Ra Kalam Bob Moses — Rune Kitchen (Balance Point Acoustics)

Rune Kitchen by Jaap Blonk / Damon Smith / Ra Kalam Bob Moses

Titles can tell you things, and in this case, the words on the front clue you to the lack of words in the music. Texts have their place in Jaap Blonk’s concrete poetry, but this session is improvisation most pure. It went down in a town near St. Louis during a transitional moment; bassist Damon Smith was ending one short tour with Blonk, and about to begin another with (now Memphis-based) veteran drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses. Perhaps inspired by anticipation, Smith and Moses lock right in, playing briskly evolving sound configurations that bristle with forthright gesture and woody texture and even confronting the vocalist with swinging, time-keeping grooves near the end. Derek Bailey once opined that there are players, and then there are artists, and Blonk’s extension of century-deep Dada actions has often seemed to put him in the latter camp. But he also has a skilled improviser’s ability to detect prevailing winds and respond with strategic counter-huffs; in the company of two men playing their asses off, he follows suit. Unburdened by pages, he digs deep into the rudiments, growling like a fever dream of throat singing, muttering strings of phonemes, and uttering proclamations that sound so important, he had to invent a new language to convey them.

Bill Meyer

Cloudland Canyon — S-T (Medical)

Cloudland Canyon (MR-091) by Cloudland Canyon

Cloudland Canyon’s Kip Uhlhorn has long favored the non-organic end of the psychedelic experience, with long, wigged out experiments in synth tone like 2008’s “Krautwerk” from Lie in Light or the squiggly fogs of “pinklight/version” from 2011’s Fin Eaves.  For this self-titled album, number four in the Cloudland discography, he engages even more deeply with the machine by tapping AI as a collaborator. The result is blippy, buoyant, denatured dance anthems, like “Internet Dreams” and “Circuit City,” which sound like the mathematical average of 100 other synth popiscles. Still even robots hit the mark occasionally, and “Future Perfect (Bad Decision)” is a woozy, blurred rainbow of psych pop longing, not unlike the work of another recent Uhlhorn collaborator, Sonic Boom.

Jennifer Kelly

Annie Hart — Weight of a Wave (Uninhabitable Mansions)

The Weight of a Wave by Annie Hart

Annie Hart has made four solo albums since her days in Au Revoir Simone, an all-female Brooklyn synth pop trio beloved of David Lynch, but she hasn’t moved too far away. Weight of a Wave floats flickery synth tones over rackety drums, splitting the difference between bedroom pop and strobe lit dance. “Boy You Got Me Good” does the classic girl-group trick of lacing sweet cooing melodies with the bitter taste of arsenic. “Crowded Cloud” rides synthesizer overload like a Pat Benatar anthem, then cuts back to the antsy minimum of drum machine and whispered chants. Yet though the soft-focus, gentle bop sonics haven’t changed much from Hart’s Au Revoir Simone days, time does its work on the mood. “Nothing Makes Me Happy Anymore” layers shadowy doubled vocals over a wheedling Casio riff, as Hart enumerates the people she’s loved in various ways whose phone calls no longer suffice to cheer her up

Jennifer Kelly

Holy Wave — Five of Cups (Suicide Squeeze)

Five of Cups by HOLY WAVE

Austin, Texas quartet Holy Wave have been at it for over a decade now and Five of Cups is their sixth full-length. The band mines a similar seam to Work and Non-Work-eraBroadcast: droning organs, motorik drums heavy on the ride cymbal, spaced-out vocals, jangly guitars. Though there’s nothing inherently off-putting about this 42-minute record, the songs feel listless compared to previous efforts such as Freaks of Nurture. The performances are tight, the production is three-dimensional and the arrangements are woozy and trippy, but it sounds like the last couple of years have knocked the wind out of Holy Wave’s sails. There are some bright moments in the track list, such as the dubby grooves and female vocals of “The Darkest Timeline,” plus late highlight “Nothing in the Dark,” which is a dead ringer for early Tame Impala.

Tim Clarke

Koeosaeme — Beige (Orange Milk)

Beige by koeosaeme

With Beige, sound artist Ryu Yoshizawa throttles down his usual breakneck blipscapes in favor of expressive phrasing and varied tempos. The serial Orange Milk resident allows his compositions to breathe, to hang back and to interject when necessary. His palette remains obviously synthetic: the strings are a touch too sweet, the reeds slightly nasally. Yoshizawa coalesces these inhuman tones into lush dreamscapes, embedded with only the subtlest hint of crackling glitch. He leverages the dynamics of modern classical and musique concrète to achieve a sense of movement and surprise. Coughs, harrumphs and whispers interject at random, but Yoshizawa uses these human elements sparingly. Instead, he relies on the lushness of his (synthetic) instrumentation to set the mood. At times he lets things get a little corny, such as when a Kenny G-like sax periodically slithers into focus, but for the most part Yoshizawa’s futuristic fusion is beguiling. Unlike its neutrally hued namesake, Beige is far from boring.  

Bryon Hayes

Molly Ringworm — Despicable (Self-released)

This Molly Ringworm comes from Austin, TX, and seeks to do for hardcore what Jane Pain has done for black metal (careful with this link). Yikes. Despicable’ssongs land somewhere between energizing provocation and snotty gross-out, with the occasional nods to street punk and sludge. There’s another punky Molly Ringworm — an indie-twee outfit from Jersey whose music is more compatible with the 1980s cinema of John Hughes, with which actress Molly Ringwald will forever be associated. I prefer this band, with their snarling, trashy anti-aesthetic and their nasty sonic sensibility (which may put you in the mind of Ringwald’s work in Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer). So goes culture. I had a high school girlfriend in the mid-1980s who looked a lot like the actress, and she (the girlfriend) would spit with all the imperiousness and venom that only a 17 year old can summon, “Oh great, another movie with Molly Ring-worm.” Sorry, folks — doesn’t matter to me if you’re filthy, fractious Texas guttersnipes or ironical white kids from New Jersey. Susie E. from Berks County, PA, gets dibs on the name “Molly Ringworm,” now and forever.

Jonathan Shaw

Matt Robidoux — Music For Aluminum Corn (Crash Symbols)

music for aluminum corn by matt robidoux

Mills College may be shuttered, but its students carry on.  Matt Robidoux combines symbolic and social action with accessible invention on Music For Aluminum Corn. The title derives from an instrument that the Mills graduate devised in homage to an early Buchla synthesizer that was kept at Mills. Essentially, they wired up an aluminum casting of two corn cobs to make a touch and movement-activated electronic instrument, and then called upon their fellow graduates to help him take it for a drive. A string quartet, a reed ensemble and the other instruments in Robidoux’s studio round out the sound palette, which is applied to a series of themes which, depending on their arrangement, sound like 1970s TV show themes, syndrum exotica and texture-oriented investigations. Robidoux’s electronic instrument proves more versatile than its novelty packaging might success, and the assembled crew play with a commitment to the endeavor that signals this heartening piece of news; while Mills College isn’t around anymore, the artistic community it fostered caries on.

Bill Meyer 

Spiral Joy Band — Elvehjem (Feeding Tube)

Elvehjem by Spiral Joy Band

Without Saturn, you got no rings, right? It’s easy to see Spiral Joy Band as a similarly orbital entity, forever existing in relation to its parent band, Pelt. But, just as all those hunks of space rock would feel equally substantial if your rocket ship hit them whilst circling a planet or floating on their own through the galaxy, Spiral Joy Band has demonstrated on the recent archival recordings culled from its Wisconsin sojourn in the early 2010s, it has been its own thing, and that thing is pretty solid. Elvehjem is another album-length excerpt from Patrick Best, Mikel Dimmick and Troy Schafer’s trove of basement jams, and on this one, they assert an identity separate from Pelt. Sure, there’s plenty of long bell and gong tones, but there’s also some guitar and amp activity that’ll singe your whiskers with sheer crackle action.

Bill Meyer

Heleen Van Haegenborgh — Squaring The Circle (El Negocito)

Squaring the Circle by Heleen Van Haegenborgh

Sometimes, awareness of an artist’s inspiration will help you grasp their work. With Squaring The Circle, that’ll only get you so far. Squaring The Circle is Belgian composer Heleen Van Haegenborgh’s response to Johan De Widle’s Pi — Fugue pour les survivants, a graphic piece representing the number pi which is extended each year by its maker. While the mathematic foundation of this CD-length piece’s contents are hard to discern, their sounds just might give you a glimpse into the infinite. Performed by the composer and GAME, a percussion quartet, it combines the reverberant tones of drums, vibraphones, bells and other strikable metal objects with close-up, voltage-derived zaps. Even coming out of a home hi-fi, it creates a sense of ever-expanding space.

Bill Meyer

#dusted magazine #dust #夢遊病者 #jonathan shaw #Sophie Agnel #Michael Vatcher #bill meyer #vicente archer #jim marks #BEEF #jennifer kelly #jaap blonk #damon smith #ra kalam bob moses #cloudland canyon #annie hart #holy wave #tim clarke #koeosaeme #bryon hayes #molly ringworm #matt robidoux #spiral joy band #heleen van haegenborgh #Youtube

[mtnfisher]

Cardinal Flower - Cloudland Canyon State Park, Rising Fawn Georgia.

#outdoor photography #outdoors #forest photography #hiking #artists on tumblr #mothernature #original photography on tumblr #tumblr photo blog #tumblr photographer #forest #Cloudland Canyon #flowers #wildflowers

[cabg]

—birch trees | rising fawn | cloudland canyon—

8.9.2020

#nature lovers #nature #cabgphoto #nature photography #original photography #original photographers #photography for beginners #landscape photography #explore #adventure #georgia #state park #Cloudland canyon #beautiful #birchwood #birch trees #forest #photographers on tumblr #landscape #travel

[beardedmrbean]

Cory Lee has visited 40 countries on seven continents, and yet the Georgia native has never explored Cloudland Canyon State Park, about 20 minutes from his home. His wheelchair was tough enough for the trip to Antarctica but not for the rugged terrain in his backyard.

Lee’s circumstances changed Friday, when Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources and the Aimee Copeland Foundation unveiled a fleet of all-terrain power wheelchairs for rent at 11 state parks and outdoorsy destinations, including Cloudland Canyon. The Action Trackchair models are equipped with tank-like tracks capable of traversing rocks, roots, streams and sand; clearing fallen trees; plowing through tall grass and tackling uphill climbs.

“I’ll finally be able to go on these trails for the first time in my life,” said the 32-year-old travel blogger, who shares his adventures on Curb Free with Cory Lee. “The trails are off-limits in my regular wheelchair.”

Georgia is one of the latest states to provide the Land Rover of wheelchairs to outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues.

In 2017, Colorado Parks and Wildlife launched its Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program, which provides free adaptive equipment, though guests must pay the $10 entrance fee. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has placed off-road track chairs in nearly a dozen parks, including Muskegon State Park. In 2018, Lee reserved a chair at the park that boasts three miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake. “It allowed me to have so much independence on the sand,” he said.

Mobility FTW

#5k #10k #15k #25k #50k

[documentinghumanity]

First Hints of Fall at Cloudland Canyon State Park

#fall vibes #fall leaves #autumn #ga state parks #cloudland canyon state park

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

As last Saturday's #starparty from #BarnardAstronomicalSociety of Chattanooga didn't work out because of the weather, here's hoping for better weather for the next public observing event coming up August 5 at Cloudland Canyon State Park .

Details and contact information here: https://barnardastronomy.org/event/cloudland-canyon-star-party/

#Barnard Astronomical Society #Local Astronomy Events #Chattanooga Astronomy #Keep Looking Up #Astronomy Is Cool #Astronomy Public Viewing #Public Astronomy Event #Cloudland Canyon State Park #www.barnardastronomy.org

[wonderlesch]

Amazing Travel Adventures - Georgia

Amazing Travel Adventures – Georgia

Hello, and welcome to Amazing Travel Adventures – Georgia. This Destination Guide shares all things Georgia. Here you can explore Rock City Gardens, Cloudland Canyon State Park and so much more. Start planning your next vacation or getaway Georgia style! Come travel with me! Rock City Gardens – Georgia Rock City Gardens is located on Lookout Mountain in Lookout, Georgia. The attraction opened…

View On WordPress

#A Few of my Favorite Things #Amazing Travel #Amazing Travel Adventures #Atlanta Botanical Garden #Cloudland Canyon State Park #Driftwood Beach #Georgia Life #New Blog Post #Rock City Gardens #Things to do in Georgia #Travel #Travel Adventures #Travel Destination Guide

[mumblelard]

a woman named drown or manifestations of my familiar

finnie came over after work yesterday and we sat at my kitchen table eating pizza with extra kalamata, drinking pink lemonade, and talking about big hat bans, the effects of assorted alkaloids on dreams and large gatherings, the taypocalypse, effective thermal management practices in industrial shrink-wrap operations, unreliable narrators, brewery buffalos, cloudland canyons, and other unsecured passengers. it was a good day

#cousins both fallen and not fallen yet #the broken aesthetic logic of various table lamps #stranger than fiction #bog witches #aged apple whiskey #fridays #finn #folklore #kitchen tables #bookshelves #boba #crapalachia #padgett powell #the wing is broken off of this one and glued back on #blood pythons #birthdays #you eat soft pieces of pear sweet fermented almost past out of a bowl #and that would fix everything

[natures-moments]

Cloudland Canyon, Georgia, USA

[kuebikome]

do you still go hiking? what are good places for me to hike in georgia? I don't plan to spend overnight on a trail just go out for most of the day

Yessss I love hiking!! I took a break since my hiking buddy dog Lily had what looked like muscle atrophy in her lumbar spine but I took her into my clinic for X-rays and no spondylosis or muscle atrophy! ❤️ she just has a prominent lumbar spine lol

My fav fav fav place to hike is Blood Mountain!!! The Byron-Reece trail is my go to there since it takes you over the mountain and past a pretty stream/river! I wouldn’t go when it’s raining tho since the apex of the hike is on just rock that gets incredibly slippery when it rains lol. I’ve done this just almost busted my ass haha!

Providence Canyon is south but it’s a short hike but awesome through a bunch of huge red dirt canyons that formed in the last ~500 years from farmer runoff! Very good for a day trip but be wary going in the summer as there are bees lol

Amicalola falls are also amazing!! You can see the cascading waterfalls if you’re willing to take a bunch of stairs! And after that is the start of the Appalachian approach trail!! A very pretty trail with lots of foliage and plenty of bugs under the rocks here!

I haven’t been to cloud land since it’s short and idk if you can take dogs or not, but I hear that’s pretty too!!! FDR state park is also a great hiking spot! There’s an old wolf den there. But really I would say any Appalachian trail in Georgia is perfect for hiking!!! Tallulah Gorge seems similar to cloudland too and is dog friendly!

I also looove Mount Vernon!!! Very pretty and similar to Blood Mountain! I want to camp there next lol

#hiking #camping

[dealgemeneverwarring]

De Algemene Verwarring #101 - 13 November 2023

Episode one hundred and one of De Algemene Verwarring was broadcast on Monday, November 13, 2023, and you can listen to it by clicking on the link below that will take you directly to the Mixcloud page:

Pictured below are De Portables, the Belgian band from Bruges that played its very last show last Friday. They existed for about 27 years and have always been a part of my musical life. Unfortunately that last show was on the same day as the first day of the Sonic City festival here in Kortrijk, so I missed it, but I've seen them numerous times in the past and I've always thought that they would be around for ever. There are only a few bands like that, the ones that have been around all your life and that you assume will be there forever. Sonic Youth was one of those bands, The Ex is still one of those bands, The Cure is one of those bands, and De Portables was one of those bands. I'm quite sure that there will be more musical output from the different band members (I mean, for instance, listen to Wio's excellent Disintegration cover album), but still, this is the end of a musical era. And there are not a lot of Belgian bands with the same legacy as De Portables. I already played on of their excellent cover songs in the previous episode, and this time I'm playing the opening and title track of their album "Rosegarden". Thank you for the music!

This whole episode has a post festival vibe, there's only one very loud track, there's a lot of slow long tracks, a few drones, and a bit of krautrock. Bands in this episode include The Shifters, Sex Church, Stereolab, Lungfish, PJ Harvey, Hydroplane, Ordeal, K-Group, and a new Blod track to open the show. And beneath the photo you can find the playlist for the show. Enjoy!

Playlist:

Blod: Splittringen (LP “Ondskans Frö”, self-released, 2023)

Sex Church: Hidden Hand (12” “Somnambulist” on Psychic Handshake Recordings & Instant Pleasure Records, 2013)

The Shifters: The American Attitude To Law (LP “The Shifters” on Future Folklore Records, reissue from 2018, originally released on cassette in 2015 on Comfort 35 in 35 copies)

Stereolab: Harmonium (2LP “Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2)” on Duophonic Ultra High Frequency Disks, reissue 2018, originally released in 1995)

Cloudland Canyon: Krautwerk (LP “Lie In Light” on Kranky, 2008)

Lewsberg: A Different View (LP “Out And About”, self-released, 2023)

Hydroplane: Failed Adventure (2LP “Selected Songs 1997-2003” on World Of Echo, 2023, originally released on a 7” on Elefant Records, 1997)

PJ Harvey: A Child’s Question, August (LP “I Inside The Old Year Dying” on Partisan Records, 2023)

Lungfish: Ann The Word (CD “Artificial Horizon” on Dischord, 1998)

Twinsistermoon: Black Nebulae (LP “Then Fell The Ashes…” on Blackest Rainbow, 2010)

Loopsel: I En Skog (LP “Öga För Öga : Eye For An Eye” on DFA Records & Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox, 2023)

Ordeal: Falks Grav (LP “Vätterns Pärla” on Aguirre Records, 2023)

K-Group: Remaining Light (LP “New Series 1” on Knotwilg Records, 2023)

De Portables: Rosegarden (CD “Rosegarden” on Kraak, 2001)

#radioshow #de algemene verwarring #post punk #drones #experimental music #indie

[mtnfisher]

Waterfall along Sitton's Gulch trail - Cloudland Canyon State Park, Rising Fawn, Georgia.

#outdoor photography #outdoors #forest photography #hiking #waterfall #original photography on tumblr #artists on tumblr #tumblr photo blog #tumblr photographer #mothernature #forest #cloudland canyon state park #dade county georgia #georgia state parks #north georgia

[stumbleimg]

Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia, USA [4032x2268] (OC)

#inline reddit: EarthPorn #Photography #Art #EarthPorn #Reddit #Imgur

[erraticfairymagic]

my uncle said he went to Cloudland Canyon today. i expressed sadness that i wasn't invited. he said "i'm sorry. i would have invited you if i knew you wanted to go. tell you what: tomorrow we're going to Pigeon..... something.... if you wanna come. i forget the name. there's like water and shit. it's supposed to be beautiful." i said "i'd love to!!'

later, talking to his wife, she says "we're thinking of going to Pigeon..... something.... tomorrow."

confirmed. it's called Pigeon Something. got it.

[fantabulisticity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/11/08/parks-trails-all-terrain-wheelchairs/

The original post with this article wouldn't send when Taupe tried to show it to me, so I'm posting it here. THE FUTURE IS HERE! WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS, SLOWLY BUT SURELY!

All-terrain wheelchairs arrive at U.S. parks: ‘This is life-changing’

Georgia and South Dakota are the latest states to provide off-road wheelchairs on public trails

Cory Lee has visited 40 countries on seven continents, and yet the Georgia native has never explored Cloudland Canyon State Park, about 20 minutes from his home. His wheelchair was tough enough for the trip to Antarctica but not for the rugged terrain in his backyard.

Lee’s circumstances changed Friday, when Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources and the Aimee Copeland Foundation unveiled a fleet of all-terrain power wheelchairs for rent at 11 state parks and outdoorsy destinations, including Cloudland Canyon. The Action Trackchair models are equipped with tank-like tracks capable of traversing rocks, roots, streams and sand; clearing fallen trees; plowing through tall grass; and tackling uphill climbs.

“I’ll finally be able to go on these trails for the first time in my life,” said the 32-year-old travel blogger, who shares his adventures on Curb Free With Cory Lee. “The trails are off-limits in my regular wheelchair.”

Georgia is one of the latest states to provide the Land Rover of wheelchairs to outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues.

In 2017, Colorado Parks and Wildlife launched its Staunton State Park Track-Chair Program, which provides free adaptive equipment, though guests must pay the $10 entrance fee. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources has placed off-road track chairs in nearly a dozen parks, including Muskegon State Park. In 2018, Lee reserved a chair at the park that boasts three miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake. “It allowed me to have so much independence on the sand,” he said.

In 2019, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan became the first national park to offer a track chair, said superintendent Scott Tucker. This year, Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the nonprofit that oversees the program, added a third.

“We want to create an unforgettable outdoor experience for everyone, not just for people who can walk.”

— Jamie McBride, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

South Dakota is also expanding its squadron: On Tuesday, the South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation unveils its second all-terrain chair. South Dakota resident Michael M. Samp is leading a fundraising campaign to purchase up to 30 chairs. Last year, Samp’s father packed up his fishing pole and piloted a track chair to Center Lake in Custer State Park. He reeled in trout, just as he had before he was diagnosed with spinal cerebral ataxia.

“The plan is to have the chairs spread throughout the state and available for various outdoor activities including, but not limited to, park and trail enjoyment, hunting and fishing,” said Kristina Coby, the foundation’s director.

This month, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will wrap up its months-long pilot program that tested out the chairs in five parks. On Nov. 16, the agency will evaluate the success of the amenity. Early indications are positive.

“We want to create an unforgettable outdoor experience for everyone, not just for people who can walk,” said Jamie McBride, a state parks and recreation area program consultant with the Parks and Trails division of the Minnesota DNR. “People have told us this is life-changing.”

The Georgia initiative was spearheaded by Aimee Copeland Mercier, who suffered a zip-lining accident in 2012 and lost both hands, her right foot and her left leg to a flesh-eating bacterial infection. Copeland Mercier, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, tested several types of all-terrain chairs before committing to the Action Trackchair, which several other state programs also use.

The Minnesota-based company was founded by Tim and Donna Swenson, whose son, Jeff, was paralyzed in a car accident. The original design resembled a Frankenstein of sporting goods parts, with snow bike tracks and a busted boat seat. Today’s model could be an opening act at a monster truck rally.

“I was floored by what it could do,” said Copeland Mercier, whose foundation raised $200,000 to purchase the chairs at $12,500 each. “Oh my gosh! I can go over a whole tree trunk, up a steep incline and through snow, swamps and wetlands. If I took my regular wheelchair, I’d get stuck in five minutes.”

Each program has its own reservations system and requirements. For Georgia’s service, visitors must provide proof of their disability and a photo ID, plus complete an online training course available through All Terrain Georgia. Once certified, the organization will forward the rental request to the park. Copeland Mercier urges visitors to plan ahead: The certification course takes about an hour, the foundation needs 72-hour advance notice and the park requires a 48-hour head’s up.

“These are 500-pound chairs,” she said. “There are some risks involved.”

The Minnesota DNR, which owns and maintains its five chairs, advises visitors to call the park to reserve a chair.

“We have a few screening questions,” McBride said, “but we leave the eligibility up to the user.”

Since launching the program in June, McBride said, the chairs are booked three to four days a week, with heavier interest on weekends. “We haven’t turned too many people away at this point,” he said.

Track chairs can conquer a range of obstacles, but they do not work in all environments.

“You need the width. If two trees are too close together, the wheelchair can’t pass between them,” Copeland Mercier said. “And some inclines are too steep. The chair also can’t go down staircases.”

To steer visitors in the right direction, parks have created maps highlighting the trails designated for the track chairs, such as Staunton State Park’s trio of routes that range from roughly three to four miles. Visitors center staff members are also ready with recommendations. (To transfer from chair to chair, visitors will need a companion to assist.)

McBride said one goal is to erect markers that would provide detailed information about the hike, such the extent of accessibility. “We want to let people know if they can get all the way to the waterfall or halfway,” he said, using a hypothetical example.

Copeland Mercier also has a wish list. She hopes to expand the network of chairs to other parts of Georgia, such as the coastal, southern and central regions. Once the foundation acquires several vans (another aspiration), the staff could move the 30 to 40 chairs (ditto) around the state to fill fluctuating demand. She is also eyeing other states.

“North Carolina is next,” said Copeland Mercier, who divides her time between Atlanta and Asheville, N.C. But the grand plan is even bigger. “The goal is to alter the U.S.A.,” she said.

#personal #taupe sent me this

[wordpimp]

Cloudland canyon