Biking while blind: 'I couldn’t believe it'

— -- Kim Paulk noticed she was losing her sight at age 18 after getting in a bike accident that required stitches on her skull. But she’s now found a way to safely get back on a bicycle with the help of a program called InTandem.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was so proud of myself and then I was like, I can do this!” she told ABC News.

Each week in the summer, Paulk hops on the back of a tandem bicycle steered by a volunteer in the captain’s seat. The program offers rides every Thursday evening in Central Park and participates in longer bike races on the weekends. Some of these tandem rides surpass 100 miles.

Because Paulk also has severe hearing loss, she communicates with the captain of the bicycle using a Bluetooth microphone and speaker system. Paulk said the program also provided her with a companionship.

“You can’t keep me off these bikes,” Paulk said.

After walking with a white cane for years, she now has a Golden retriever guidance dog named Gemma who eagerly awaits her return when Paulk goes on her rides.

“She leads me all over the world,” said Paulk, who travels frequently for her job. “There’s nowhere I go, where she doesn’t go with me.”

Another participant in the program, Susan Robinson, said the InTandem program also offers a strenuous form of exercise since the “stoker” in the back seat provides much of the power for the tandem bicycle. Even on tough uphill climbs, Robinson encourages her team forward. “We will not get off this bike! We will finish this hill!” she yelled.

Even pedaling hundreds of miles with the InTandem program, Robinson said she has never fallen.