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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Vermont trails become wheelchair accessible

I've covered the topic of accessible trails before and am delighted to report there are more accessible trails now -in Vermont. And the National Park Service will be listing accessible trails, programs and other sites on their web page starting in September to make them easier to find.

In Vemont the accessible trails are:

"-Camel's Hump View Trail, Camel's Hump State Park, Duxbury. Take Exit 10 from Interstate 89; turn south on Vermont Route 100 toward downtown Waterbury, and left where Route 100 joins U.S. Route 2. Go about .1 miles toward Waterbury village, take a right on Winooski Street. Cross a bridge over the Winooski River and turn right. Go 4 miles, with the Winooski River on your right much of the way. Go left on Camel's Hump Road. About 3.4 miles (watch for the small Camel's Hump sign where the road hooks left). At 3.4 miles, take left over single-lane bridge. Follow road to parking area at the trailhead. Both ends of the .8-mile looping trail end at this parking area. Admission is free.

-Baldwin Trail, Mount Independence Historic Site, Orwell. It's located near the end of Mount Independence Road, six miles west of the intersection of Vermont Routes 73 and 22A in Orwell. Carefully follow the signs. Admission to this Revolutionary War historic site is $5 for adults and free for kids under 15.

-Thundering Falls Trail, Killington. This wheelchair-accessible section of the Maine-to-Georgia Appalachian Trail is expected to be open in the fall, when the Green Mountain Club completes construction of a boardwalk through the Ottauquechee River flood plain. The public is asked to wait for construction to be complete before visiting.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: http://www.nps.gov. A Web site will be launched in September listing accessible trails, programs and other accessible sites throughout the national parks system. In the mean time, most national parks have some accessible facilities; check with individual parks for details.

...The National Park Service program will be launched in September, according to Gerry Gaumer, spokesman for the agency. The objective, he said, "is to put all the information on one website, where people can access not only trails but also other programs that are accessible," such as museum exhibits, camp sites and visitors centers. Gaumer said most national parks have some accessible facilities, but the information has never been compiled in one place before. (The Web link for the program will be made public in September.)"

Via USA Today

Click above for the rest of the article.

2 comments:

Elizabeth McClung said...

This is cool and amazing, as I was saying to Linda "God just doesn't build very accessible" - but I guess that's what the park service is for!

Ruth said...

How wonderful that the park service is going to post the locations of the accessible places too - that's a vast change from having to google around for information.