Welcome to the Accessible AT

AMC Outdoors, October 2000

By Marny Ashburne

Two years ago, eyeing an abandoned horse-racing track near the Appalachian Trail (AT), Dick Blake, an AMC Connecticut Chapter trail volunteer, saw the potential to create the first wheelchair-accessible section of the AT. In July, AMC volunteers and staff dedicated a one-mile loop along the Housatonic River in northwest Connecticut. "The AT is mandated to be a wilderness footpath, yet federal legislation requires it to be available to all people. That would seem to be in conflict, but this section is able to do both," says Blake, whose wife uses a wheelchair.

A crew of volunteers and hired contractors built the trail using plans based on preliminary guidelines from the federal Access Board, which has been working on specifications for making trails more accessible. "At first many trail builders feared that trails would become flat and paved," says Deno Contos, the former AMC Regional Trails Coordinator. Those fears have since subsided, he says, and AT trail maintainers throughout the region are looking at sections that can be made "barrier free" — meaning accessible for those who use wheelchairs or have other mobility impairments.

A Vision Achieved
The accessible trail is a one-mile loop, about half on the AT and half on the old track. Crushed stone covers the trail to provide a hard surface for wheels. The path has wide spots so wheelchairs can pass each other and benches so visitors can relax and enjoy the view.

Accessibility doesn't come cheap — the more than $40,000 needed to build the trail came from a dozen individuals and organizations, including the AMC Connecticut Chapter and Trails Committee, the Boston Chapter, the Appalachian Trail Conference, and the J. Walton Bissell Foundation. Much of the money was for the crushed stone, Blake says. In addition, the Connecticut Chapter AT Committee volunteers built 19 benches along the trail.

—Marny Ashburne is Managing Editor of AMC Outdoors.