@mhartington I’ve got a solution for you! It may not be the best way to do this, but it does work without the ugly hack I made before. I got it by digging through @max 's Swipeable Cards demo.
I’ve added a directive called “noDragRight”. The “about” route has the no-drag-right attribute. W/hen on the “about” route, you can’t drag the menu open.