Mobility program opens Camp Santanoni to visitors with disabilities. What’s next?
By David Escobar
Scott Remington dreamed of visiting Great Camp Santanoni.
The lakeside main lodge at the historic camp in Newcomb, reachable only by an unpaved carriage road, has been mostly off-limits to visitors like Remington. He is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair.
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In September, Remington, 58, of Brant Lake, got his wish. He became one of the first to test the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s mobility pilot program. He got aboard the DEC’s mobile wheelchair and traversed Santanoni’s five miles of dirt and gravel trails.
Remington was set up on an adaptive quadricycle fitted with four treaded wheels and a bucket seat for rough paths, allowing him to independently navigate and experience the great camp’s beauty for the first time.
However, his visit was also an assessment of the program. As a member of the DEC and Adirondack Park Association’s Disability Advisory Committee, Remington has been staunchly fighting for accessibility accommodations at Camp Santanoni and at recreation sites around the park.
“It’s a step forward,” Remington said. “People have not been able to have the right access here for a lot of years, and I hope that changes.”
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A movement gaining momentum
Remington’s test run of the mobility pilot program at Santanoni is emblematic of an increasing demand for more inclusive and accessible outdoor recreation opportunities for people across the Adirondacks.
That was underscored in September when outdoor enthusiasts from around the state gathered at Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center for the inaugural Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities.
Albany resident Katy Carroll, who is legally blind, was one of around two dozen people who participated in a sensory nature walk through the Barnum Brook Trail. She said the benefits of fresh-air recreation can feel out of reach for people with mobility or sensory impairments.
“We encourage people to go out in nature and have a walk and all of the good things that come along with being outside,” Carroll said. “People are going to experience that differently.”
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Adaptive sensory experiences
Carroll and others also took a “forest bathing” hike, led by Helene Gibbens, a nature therapy guide with Adirondack Riverwalking. Such bathing involves slow steps and engaging the five basic senses.
“Our objective on the walk is to help connect people with nature in a more intimate way,” Gibbens said. “Because when we do, it makes us mindful.”
For visually impaired visitors like Carroll, Gibbens’ verbal cues made a significant difference. Carroll explained that while she comprehends the overall set of colors, shapes and textures in a forest, she cannot always comprehend the exact composition of her surroundings. She said she appreciated the enrichment provided by Gibbens’ descriptions.
“It just feels like a more connected, complete experience,” Carroll said.
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Aside from forest bathing, festival participants touched, smelled and tasted bits of the forest in a nature sensory workshop led by volunteer Minda Briaddy. At one station, Briaddy struck two pieces of hollow tree branches together to create a percussive beat, a simple sensory activity that lit up the eyes of festival participants.
“These experiences are a way to make sure people—all people—feel included and seen and heard and cared about in the Adirondacks,” Briaddy said. “Because that’s who we are.”
Facing financial barriers
The obstacles people with mobility and sensory disabilities face in outdoor recreation are compounded even further by financial barriers according to Jimmer Hayes, an adaptive ski instructor at Gore Mountain Ski School.
“If you have a disability—or someone in your family has a disability—it’s financially tough,” Hayes said.
Hayes was one of over 30 vendors at Adirondack Experience’s third annual Xperience for All, also in September, but at Blue Mountain Lake. The event introduced paddling, fly fishing and other outdoor recreation opportunities to people of all abilities.
Hayes, however, was already gearing up for winter sports as he demonstrated the mechanics of a sit-ski device to visitors. In lieu of ski poles, Hayes used two outriggers to maintain his balance from a specialized seat attached to a standard downhill ski.
Adaptive ski equipment can cost thousands of dollars, so resorts like the state’s Gore Mountain have acquired it for skiers with disabilities. Hayes said loaner programs provide an important entry point for people interested.
“It’s important for kids and adults to get outside in the winter,” Hayes said. “This is an opportunity to try to make it equal for everybody.”
Adirondack Nature Festival organizer Nick Friedman said the disability community has historically faced another challenge: a widespread lack of understanding about disability issues, which he said leads to missed opportunities for inclusion and accessibility improvements.
Charting new paths
Friedman is also the founder of Accessible Adirondack Tourism, a nonprofit that provides informational resources for people with disabilities traveling to the region. He said the success of accessibility-focused events around the Adirondacks can be an impetus for further state investment into accessible outdoor recreation projects.
“There are a lot of people who care,” Friedman said. “If our leadership knows that, then our leadership can be motivated to make additional changes.”
Around the Adirondacks, other changes are happening.
Earlier this year, the DEC announced $5 million of accessibility improvements on state lands, and the department launched an interactive online map listing over 260 outdoor recreation locations with accessible features across the state.
The Adirondack Rail Trail, which will stretch 34 miles from Lake Placid to Tupper Lake when complete, is already one of the region’s most prominent accessible recreation opportunities. The trail’s smooth and graded surface, gradual elevation changes and rest areas are suitable for people with mobility challenges.
The trail is now open from Lake Placid to Lake Clear.
Friedman said such accessible outdoor assets are especially important for the future of recreation in the Adirondacks.
“We have an aging population,” Friedman said. “So the proportion of people with disabilities to those who may not identify as having one is only increasing.”
State data show that 27% of adults in New York identify as having one or more disabilities.
Accessibility in the “forever wild”
In some instances, plans to implement accessible outdoor recreation infrastructure have conflicted with the Adirondack Park’s governing principle of “forever wild.”
The Adirondack Land Trust has been working to develop a 2.25-mile accessible trail network at Glenview Preserve in Harrietstown since 2019. However, some neighbors of the 238-acre property, which is revered for its views of the McKenzie Mountain Range and the High Peaks, have raised concerns over pollution and overdevelopment.
The land trust said it believes the accessible trail plan at Glenview Preserve would fill a larger gap across the Tri-Lakes region. The nonprofit’s research shows that only 14 of the over 300 miles of free hiking trails within an hour’s drive of Saranac Lake are fully accessible to people who use wheelchairs.
This discrepancy is partially due to the age of Adirondack hiking trails—many were cut more than a century ago, well before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Friedman said the park’s mountainous landscape does not always lend itself to accessible recreation. Aside from the grade or smoothness of a hiking trail, there are hundreds of specific requirements for outdoor recreation sites to be deemed ADA-compliant.
“The movement is about creating as much accessibility as reasonably possible,” Friedman said.
Santanoni’s latest strategies
At Santanoni, adaptive motorized quadricycles are the DEC’s latest investment in accommodation. It may be doing more in the years ahead as it must take accessibility into account in proposed updates to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. The state previously tried several different strategies, including a horse-drawn carriage service for wheelchair users.
The wagon service was intended to comply with Santanoni’s unit management plan, which classifies the camp’s access road as “administrative” and prohibits the use of private motorized vehicles.
The devices acquired for the mobility pilot program offer a way for the DEC to circumvent these restrictions, but Friedman said they do not fully solve the problem. In the Santanoni pilot program’s first season, the DEC said at least seven people reserved mobility devices.
Remington said a state-operated shuttle service with wheelchair-accessible golf carts would be a better option, but such a service would ultimately violate the park’s unit management plan.
During his hour-long journey along Santanoni’s scenic trail, Remington reflected on the limitations of the mobility device, including the quadricycle’s hand-controlled steering mechanism.
“If we want to make it accessible for everybody, we should find a real solution,” Remington said. “Because you’re really discriminating against a certain group if you’re not letting them in here.”
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This article first appeared in a recent issue of Adirondack Explorer magazine.
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I would add that our two beautiful VICs in the Park should also be considered for these special programs. Trails and topography are pretty accessible for guided walks. And even the possibility of “reserving” certain trails when programs are in progress should be considered if this is deemed beneficial to the participants.