Park and Grab

[shelwheels]

I'm in a wheelchair and I hear "park and grab" ones are the most accessible but I don't see anywhere to find out which one are "park and grab" Can anyone help me??

[+worstcaster]

Usually park and grabs are micros found in parking lots. Often found by lifting the skirt of a light post. A terrain rating of 1 is supposed to be wheelchair accessable so try searching for caches with a low terrain level. As a premium member you can do a pocket query (a special search whose parameters you set), run it for terrain one and attribute "Park and Grab".

[floridabiker1]

Well, you're not a premium member, so forget the pocket queries. Just look for caches with 1 terrain and a park and grab attribute.

[+6NoisyHikers]

Check out Handicaching.com - it might be helpful in finding appropriately accessible listings.

[+luvvinbird]

I'm in a wheelchair and I hear "park and grab" ones are the most accessible but I don't see anywhere to find out which one are "park and grab" Can anyone help me??

If you spot a cache with a 1/1 rating that looks accessible to you but you're still unsure, contact the owner for more information. Recently published caches with a one star difficulty rating are required to be wheel chair accessible as far as I know.

[+Chief301]

I'm in a wheelchair and I hear "park and grab" ones are the most accessible but I don't see anywhere to find out which one are "park and grab" Can anyone help me??

If you spot a cache with a 1/1 rating that looks accessible to you but you're still unsure, contact the owner for more information. Recently published caches with a one star difficulty rating are required to be wheel chair accessible as far as I know.

 

Terrain ratings indicate whether the cache is wheelchair accessible or not. Difficulty ratings indicate how hard the cache is to find. A cache can be wheelchair accessible (1 terrain) and still have a high Difficulty rating.

[+Semper Questio]

Having been down that road, I can sympathize. When I was laid up I went through the same thing. Being a premium member I thought the PQs would do the trick. They helped, but not much. The problem is the the Terrain 1 rating does not mean it is wheelchair accessible. I've seen T1's that are really T3's or higher and vice versa. A T1, last I saw, is not required to be wheelchair accessible although many reviewers try to enforce that.

 

There are also have vastly different interpretations by cache hiders of what wheelchair accessible means. Some think it only means you can reach the cache from the wheelchair while others think it means a person in a wheelchair can get to the cache, retrieve it, and return it all by themselves. The variations are endless. I've seen caches that said they were WC accessible, but you get there and you have to go quite a distance on a sandy trail. OK. SOME WC-bound folks could possibly do that, but certainly not many I've known.

 

There is also a wheelchair accessible attribute that you can look for, but that can be problematic as well. The attributes are not widely or consistently used and older caches generally do not have them at all. I've also seen caches where an attribute (even the WC one) are used to indicate something else to be able to pick them up on a PQ. I've seen power trails use the WC attribute (like others use the SCUBA atribute) when the caches are in no way WC accessible. So selecting by the attributes just does not work.

 

Oh. Another problem is that many hiders rate the terrain for the cache as a T1 wihtout regard to how to GET TO the cache. I've seen caches with the WC attribute, listed as T1, and the listing says it is WC accessible. All true. Even the path to the cache is paved. The problem? To get to the cache you have to go down this VERY steep slope that has a hairpin turn in the middle and at the bottom is rocky creek wiht no guard rail. Nothing at all on the cache page about that!

 

So, yes, there are indicators of POSSIBLY WC freindly caches, but do not expect them to be so. Handicaching is a helpful tool, but is not 100% accurrate and is not comprehensive. You can use the terrain ratings, attributes, and Handicaching to narrow the search, but if you want to be sure before you go out, you just have to do a lot of homework. Check out the descriptions, maps, and logs and see if you can pull out the ones the will work for you. Otherwise, head out but be prepared to turn away when they don't pan out.

 

Good luck!

[+vw_k]

It may be worth checking the accessibility of some Earthcaches and Virtual caches too. Earthcaches and Virtuals have no physical container that needs retrieving but require you to visit a spot and gather some information. I have done a few of these caches that were at wheelchair accessible viewpoints or information boards.