Off the Beaten Path
Spring has sprung and everyone is out and about. Try to navigate down a city sidewalk and you’re met with busy outdoor cafés, skateboarders, dog-walkers, cyclists and joggers zipping by. A (st)roll down Main Street is where the action is, but if you want to take a detour from the beaten path, where do you go?
In cities like Toronto, recreational pathways along the waterfront and in parks are shared with multi-users. They’re relatively easy to access, but the routes can get congested. The All Trails website offers fast and easy routing information on all types of trails. Click on the “wheelchair friendly” tag and it will show you a map with a number of trails that are available. When you pick a site you’d like to explore it will provide a summary of the trail, and comments from users. If you want to escape the concrete jungle, Ontario Trails offers a list of partial and complete wheelchair accessible paths. It gives details of the trail including the type of surface of the path, length and level of difficulty.
Visiting a beach i
s getting easier, thanks to access mats. In Ontario, there are several beaches that are rolling out the special service: Marathon Beach in North Bay, Sandbanks, Wasaga Beach, Quetico, Bonnechere, and Long Point. Some of these beaches also offer “water wheels” and “mobi-chairs” that allow customers access right into the water. Read this Ontario Parks blog for more details.
Conservation Ontario offers a comprehensive list of wheelchair accessible conservation areas. Each site is rated in terms of its barrier-free accommodations. Some of the five-star gems include the Cascades Conservation Area, near Thunder Bay, Ontario that gets top rating for its wheelchair accessible pathways, and the Ganaraska Forest Centre offers all-terrain wheelchair rentals to visitors! For these and other nature trails, best to call ahead to plan your visit and ensure your accommodations can be met.
We hope you can go outside and enjoy the sun and fresh air, whether it’s in your backyard, at a sidewalk café, or along a nature trail. Before you know it, the snow will be falling again.
Wheelchair in Motion’s accessible transportation rentals are available daily, for weekends and more. With van rentals available in the GTA and many areas of Ontario including Ottawa, we are here to assist with your accessible transportation needs. Contact us if you have any questions about accessible transportation, van rentals. We hope to help with your accessible transportation needs during 2019.
