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Cape Cod's trails, beaches, and parks attract innumerable guests each season. And just as the efforts have grown among conservation and recreation groups to make these locations accessible to all, the number of individuals with disabilities included among these visitors has grown as well.
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's Universal Access Program has helped create accessible outdoor recreation opportunities for individuals with disabilities, their families, and their friends, at state parks throughout the Cape. The program involves enhancing the parks, providing adaptive equipment to help folks get around the parks, and offering free or low-cost nature walks, educational activities, and other interpretive programs. The Universal Access Program is in place at Nickerson State Park in Brewster as well as Shawme-Crowell State Forrest and Scusset Beach State Reservation in Sandwich. "Some folks need an extra hand or encouragement for what people without mobility impairments do [in the parks] every day," says Tom McCarthy, director of the program. "We create a well-rounded program of activities that anyone can take part in."
The Universal Access Program starts at Nickerson State Park. The park provides a PVC plastic beach wheelchair--complete with an umbrella, fishing rod holder, and large balloon tires--to visitors with disabilities at no charge in order to enjoy the park's wonderful beaches. Park staff can deliver the chair to one of the park's several kettle ponds or to Crosby Landing on Cape Cod Bay. The park also has several campsites accessible to folks of all abilities. To enhance the camping experience, the park offers yurts--domed tents with wooden platforms, beds, tables, and a power source to charge a power wheelchair or ventilator. Prospective campers should call ahead (508-896-3491) if they are considering renting a yurt. "We encourage people with disabilities to get out and enjoy the park," says Jon Petersen, superintendent for Nickerson State Park.
Petersen also suggests exploring the Cape Cod Rail Trail, a "fairly level" 22-mile bike route that winds through the park from Dennis to Wellfleet. "The pavement surface is in great condition now," he says, noting that the trail was renovated a mere two years ago. Call the Rail Trail Bike and Kayak Shop (www.railtrailbikeshop; 508-896-8200), located along the trail on Underpass Road in Brewster, to reserve a hand cycle supplied through the Universal Access Program free of charge.
Private conservation groups on the Cape have also taken steps to encourage increased access to the land they preserve. The Robert R. Read All-Persons Pathway, a wheelchair-accessible, hard-packed trail, winds along freshwater ponds and an expansive salt marsh in Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The trail starts at the sanctuary's nature center and leads to a wheelchair-accessible observation deck at Goose Pond, a great place to watch herons, kingfishers, and muskrats.
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Since the time of its founders, the Harwich Conservation Trust has tried to share the town's salt marshes and cool woodlands with visitors of all abilities. In a project that was completed in 2001, the trust worked with donated materials and volunteer labor to install a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk overlooking the 12-acre Herring River salt marsh at the A. Janet DeFulvio Wildlife Sanctuary. Visitors can stop at the bench and watch the osprey soaring overhead. In Lee Baldwin Memorial Woodlands, the trust also constructed a boardwalk that overlooks the Atlantic White Cedar Woodlands.
The Buttonbush Trail at the Cape Cod National Seashore headquarters in Eastham is an engaging, educational destination. Fragrant scents linger in the air as you pass Norway spruce and red cedar. The first portion of the quarter-mile path is wheelchair-accessible and has a guide rope, a railing along which those with impairments can grasp to "feel" their way through the trail. Knots and bumps in the rope indicate that stairs are about to appear on the trail; although the steps are accessible to those who use walkers or canes, they should not be attempted in wheelchairs without assistance from others.
Lastly, the June Wenberg Dennis Braille Trail at Johnny Kelley Park, located on Bob Crowell Road in Dennis, is a loop circled by shaded parkland, playing fields, and the Paul Hannabury Memory Garden. A guide rope lines the trail; in this case, the knots designate points of interest. At each knot, a four-inch disk inscribed with Braille and large-type text conveys information about the surroundings on the trail, like native bayberry shrubs. To find even more accessible outdoor activities, contact your town's recreation department.
Susan Spencer is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Whitinsville and Brewster, Mass.
