How Disability Advocates Are Pushing to Make Hiking More Accessible

Travel|‘I Wanted That Self-Reliance Back’: Disabled Hikers Forge a New Path

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/travel/disabled-hikers-outdoor-access.html

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‘I Wanted That Self-Reliance Back’: Disabled Hikers Forge a New Path

Outdoor enthusiasts with disabilities are pushing to encounter nature on their own terms, with self-written guides, better equipment and even guide dogs trained for the backcountry.

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Syren Nagakyrie and Vickie Boyer hike in the Lettuce Lake Conservation Park in Tampa, Fla. Mx. Nagakyrie has begun to write trail guides for national, local and state parks.Credit…Todd Anderson for The New York Times

By Amanda Morris

Published Feb. 3, 2022Updated Feb. 6, 2022

Beneath the wooden boardwalk where Syren Nagakyrie, 40, was on a hike through Lettuce Lake Conservation Park in Tampa, Fla., dark shadows of fish moved in the vegetation-clogged waters, while red-eyed herons strode between the cypress roots that stuck out from the water like knobby, twisted knees.

Mx. Nagakyrie, who is nonbinary, pointed out a turtle sunning itself on a log. But to see the wildlife, Mx. Nagakyrie’s mother, Vickie [...]