NEWARK, N.Y. \u2014 Ian Mackay is traveling 351 miles in his wheelchair along the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo to highlight the importance of accessibility in nature.<\/p>\n
Mackay, who is paralyzed from the neck down, has not let his disability stop him from exploring the outdoors. News10NBC\u2019s Tom Kowalski spoke with him on his stop in Newark about his journey and why he is passionate about accessible infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Origins of the ride<\/p>\n
\u201cI was riding my bike and I went a little bit too fast and hit a tree and broke my neck. But sitting in that hospital bed, you\u2019re thinking about what the heck is the rest of my life going to look like? And, I wish I knew that, you know, what I\u2019d be doing now,\u201d Mackay said.<\/p>\n
The accident happened in 2008 and left Mackay in a deep depression for years. But in 2016, he began taking long trips in his wheelchair, starting with bike paths across Washington state. Since then, he has completed six other similar trips across the country, and organized the nonprofit Ian\u2019s Ride, to promote accessibility in the wilderness.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, what I was doing for fun was clearly showing others what was was possible and showing how important accessible infrastructure is,\u201d Mackay said.<\/p>\n
Inspiring others<\/p>\n
John Crockett, a disabled man from Newark, met Mackay at the Runaway Blue brewhouse, where Mackay was stopped for dinner. While the two had never met before, Crocket says it\u2019s moving to see someone like him doing what Mackay does. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know it\u2019s just inspiring to see. [It] means that I can do just as much,\u201d Crockett said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking an impact is wonderful. But just being able to live my best life and being able to do it with close friends and, being able to explore our nation and in a really fun way. And it just happens to be on wheels,\u201d Mackay said.<\/p>\n
When asked about the accessibility of the Erie Canal, Mackay said, \u201cIt\u2019s accessible for all. If I, a quadriplegic can do it, so can you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mackay planned to stop at Strange Bird Brewhouse in Rochester on Saturday before continuing to Buffalo, where he is expected to arrive Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWARK, N.Y. \u2014 Ian Mackay is traveling 351 miles in his wheelchair along the Erie Canal from Albany…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-294215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}