‘Get your blood flowing’: Maryland state parks’ only adaptive mountain biking trail opens up the outdoors

Part of the thrill of mountain biking is not being sure what to expect. But when the trail isn’t built with you or your bike in mind, the uncertainty can be harrowing.

Wicomico County resident Mark Flounlacker, who describes himself as a “semi-walking quadriplegic,” uses a three-wheel adaptive cycle and tries to ride most weekends. He said that for him, attempting a trail for the first time — as Marylanders can Monday during First Day Hikes — can feel like tempting fate.

“I didn’t know where to go,” said Flounlacker, 54, of his start in adaptive mountain biking in 2015. “There’s all kinds of great mountain biking places around here, but you didn’t know what to do.”

Requiring wider trails and extra attention to potential hazards than the single-track mountain bikers who popular apps and guides cater to, Flounlacker began rating trails himself for adaptive mountain biking safety on his “Adaptive MTB Maryland” Facebook page.

Out of about 25 reviews of trails and systems in Maryland and Delaware, one of his most recent is also one of his most effusive: At Patapsco Valley State Park, a large and popular park renowned for its trails, is one expressly built for riders like him. Adaptive mountain biking “doesn’t get much better than this trail,” wrote Flounlacker, who off trail uses a wheelchair or walks with forearm crutches or a walker.

As part of an inclusionary focus by Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park, the nonprofit modified the Tall Poplar trail, a 1.5-mile natural surface loop in the park’s McKeldin area near Marriottsville, to adaptive mountain biking standards.

The first adaptive trail in a Maryland state park, the 2021 project energized a push for adaptive programs elsewhere in Patapsco and the state. Patapsco’s programming for First Day Hikes — an annual nationwide effort to encourage outdoor activity every Jan. 1 — includes a half-mile adaptive journey on the accessible, paved River Road trail near Sykesville.

Through their efforts, leaders of the Patapsco Valley supporters’ group learned that outdoors options for people with adaptive needs can be limited and they have committed to creating more.

“We knew that there’s a community out there that’s really being underserved and marginalized … and we want to make these experiences available to everyone,” said Bruce Clopein, the organization’s adaptive program manager.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one out of every seven adults in the U.S. has a mobility disability. Almost half of them don’t get any aerobic physical activity.

While proximity to accessible parking and bathrooms is part of the reason the Tall Poplar trail was picked to be converted, accessibility and adaptiveness are different — though often overlapping — concepts. The former focuses on removing barriers, and the latter on modifying the activity itself.

In mountain biking, three- or four-wheeled cycles pedaled by foot or hand offer an option to people whose intellectual, neurological or sensory abilities impede their use of traditional bikes. Designers of trails for adaptive cycles should consider a variety of factors, including size and function of adaptive cycles and the sightlines of riders, according to standards developed by the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association. The Patapsco Valley friends group used the standards for the Tall Poplar trail, a $42,000 project funded by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Specialized Bicycle Components and others.

Flounlacker, an avid outdoorsman and founder of Maryland’s first wheelchair lacrosse team, rode Tall Poplar last summer. In his review, he praises the flow and scenery of the trail, including berms, or banked turns, that “will get your blood flowing,” and a flat finish along water.

“It’s awesome, like, it’s everything you want,” Flounlacker said in an interview. “We don’t want a paved trail. We want it to be mountain biking.”

The benefits of the remade trail extend beyond adaptive mountain bikers, another version of what’s called the “curb cut effect,” in which stroller pushers, skateboarders and others also enjoy ramps that were built into sidewalk corners for wheelchair users.

“The trail takes on sort of a contour and trail tread and topography that’s much more accessible to people,” said Dave Ferraro, executive director of the Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park. “So if you’re out there hiking with a diverse group of people, you know, somebody that has a mobility issue, potentially some older folks, some kids, it’s a trail that everybody can accomplish.”

The group’s push into adaptive recreation is a little over three years old. Its first program, adaptive kayaking, started in 2020, a record year for state park attendance in Maryland with 21.5 million visitors. State park attendance has since fallen, but remains above pre-pandemic levels.

Clopein said hosting adaptive programs, like a fishing event for veterans and 13 other activities in 2023, can build demand for adaptive sports by introducing attendees to resources and communities they may not have known about.

“It’s particularly gratifying for folks who may be following an accident, or a child who’s never been in a kayak before or on an adaptive bike, to see those worlds open up for them,” said

While the Tall Poplar Trail remains the only adaptive mountain biking trail in a Maryland state park, momentum is building for more opportunities. The 1.5-mile adaptive section of the Tall Popular trail could be part of a 10-mile adaptive loop by 2026, if work goes as planned.

In Western Maryland, Rocky Gap State Park in Allegany County plans to begin constructing a 4.5-mile adaptive trail by next fall, said Cliff Puffenberger, the park’s ranger manager. He said the trail was slated to be for single-track mountain biking until the park’s application for a Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration Recreational Trails Program grant revealed its adaptive potential.

Some existing trails, while not intended to be adaptive, functionally are. One of Flounlacker’s favorite examples is a wide trail used for horseback riding in Howard County’s Rockburn Branch Park in Elkridge.

As appreciative as he is for such universal design, Flounlacker is grateful that needs of riders like him are starting to be considered more directly.

“I’m blown away that, you know, that there’s people out there trying to make recreation better for me,” he said. “It’s not just for me, you know, it’s for everybody. But I’m included in that everybody group, and it’s just really cool.”