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‘Living life’: Man treks Montour Trail in wheelchair to advocate for outdoor access

7 min read
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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Jared Enrique Quinteros, left, accompanies Ian Mackay, right, on the Montour Trail on Thursday. Mackay is completing a 475-mile trek from Washington, D.C., to Ohio, on the Great American Rail-Trail.

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The last vestiges of summer welcome Ian Mackay and his entourage to Montour Trail Mile 0. Mackay is nearing completion of his 475-mile, 12-day journey on Pennsylvania rail-trails.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Jared Enrique Quinteros, left, accompanies Ian Mackay for the first half-mile of Mackay’s 11-mile ride along the Montour Trail. Mackay is raising awareness for trail accessibility, and rode an 11-mile portion of the Montour Trail, staring from Mile Marker 0 in Coraopolis, with supporters and his team.

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Ian Mackay, center, rides the Montour Trail in Allegheny County with Jared Enrique Quinteros, who suffered a spinal cord injury 15 months ago and showed up to support Ian's Ride on Thursday. Behind Mackey are two of his team members, Josh Blaunstein and Jimmy Quinella.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Ian Mackay, of Port Angeles, Wash., always carries wooden planks on his trail excursions, in case he needs to craft a makeshift bridge to avoid large puddles or navigate roots and stairways. Mackay’s father, Scott Mackay, removed the planks from Mackay’s bag Thursday.

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Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Ian Mackay is completing a 475-mile trek from Washington, D.C., to Ohio on the Great American Rail-Trail.

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Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter

Ian Mackay, front, right, is completing a 475-mile ride on the Great American Rail-Trail. Accompanying and helping him for a leg on the Montour Trail were Jared Enrique Quinteros, front left. In back are Josh Blaunstein; Phillip Torrez of Montour Trail Council; Mackay’s mother, Teena Woodward; his father, Scott Mackay; Rebecca MacTaggart of United Spinal Association Pittsburgh Chapter; and Jimmy Quinella.

To say it’s been a busy summer for Ian Mackay would be an understatement.

On June 21, the Port Angeles, Wash., resident set the world record for the greatest distance covered in a 24-hour period by a motorized wheelchair when he rode 184.4 miles in one day.

In August, Mackay completed the Sea To Sound, a 74-mile, three-day, multi-modal group ride spanning the entire length of the Olympic Discovery Trail, an annual fundraiser for Mackay’s nonprofit organization, Ian’s Ride.

And on Thursday, Mackay covered about 40 miles, including a portion of the Montour Trail in Allegheny County, on the eighth leg of a 475-mile trek from Washington, D.C., to Ohio on the Great American Rail-Trail to raise awareness of the importance of access to the outdoors for people with mobility impairments and other disabilities.

“After my injury, being outdoors brought me joy that I couldn’t find elsewhere,” said Mackay. “I think it’s important for me to demonstrate what’s possible out there on various trails throughout our nation. And I think it’s beneficial for society to see someone with paralysis doing adventure sports. But for me, it’s also just an adventure. It’s so much fun, and I get so excited.”

Mackay was bicycling home from classes at the University of California Santa Cruz in 2008 when he hit a patch of sand on a steep downhill stretch, was thrown from his bike, and slammed headfirst into a tree.

The impact left Mackay, a biology student and self-described “plant nerd” who loved being outdoors and planned to be a community college field botany professor, paralyzed from the neck down.

After rehab, Mackay moved to the Pacific Northwest with his mother and stepfather, and the once-independent outdoorsman fell into a depression.

“I was trying to redefine myself. But you don’t have to reinvent your passion. I tried to do that in the beginning,” said Mackay. “For the first few years, I was miserable, watching “The Andy Griffith Show” and “I Love Lucy” and playing video games, but that wasn’t me.”

Nature, it seemed, was the best medicine. He was drawn to the Olympic Discovery Trail, a rail-to-trail that runs near his home.

Using an electric wheelchair that he maneuvers with sip-and-puff controls, the birder and nature lover ventured back outside.

“It was when I finally got out onto the trail, and seeing the first goldfinch of the season coming in or seeing a crocus bloom, those things made me realize, yeah, I can still appreciate the things I loved before I got injured,” he said.

Soon, he found himself putting up to 20 miles a day on his chair, and after two years he decided to find something more challenging.

In 2016, he completed a 335-mile wheelchair journey across the state of Washington. Along the way, other wheelchair users and cyclists joined Mackay.

Mackay followed up the Washington ride with a 500-mile excursion from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to Port Angeles in 2018.

He also founded Ian’s Ride, and in the following years, Mackay has become a leading advocate for outdoor access for all.

“He’s become a role model for a lot of people,” said Josh “Dr. B” Blaunstein, one of Mackay’s former college professors who struck up a friendship with Mackay and accompanies him on his rides.

Mackay used to hang out at Blaunstein’s house, playing ping-pong and accompanying Blaunstein and his daughters on hikes where “he’d point out all the cool biology stuff since he really loves plants.”

Another frequent riding companion, Jimmy Quinella, met Mackay at UCSC, where they were both field biology majors.

The crew helps Mackay with mechanical and medical issues that arise, pointing out the physical challenges he faces, including diminished lung capacity and an inability to regulate body temperature.

“I liked him from the day I met him. He was gregarious and very friendly, and I was blown away by how cool and genuine he was. There were rough times after his injury, but ’emboldened’ is a word that comes to mind about Ian now,” said Quinella. “I’ve seen Ian gain purpose and find goals and objectives, and discover that he could go out and do things still.”

On Thursday’s ride on the Montour, Mackay was accompanied by his “dream team”: Quinella and Blaunstein, and his mother, Teena Woodward, who drives support van, and his father, Scott Mackay.

“I’m extremely fortunate, and I know it. I have this wonderful support team, and I couldn’t do this without them,” he said.

Also riding alongside Mackay was Rebecca MacTaggart of Washington, volunteer advocacy coordinator for the Pittsburgh chapter of the United Spinal Association.

MacTaggart’s son, Jackson, was paralyzed in 2016 following an accident at the beach, and she advocates for accessible outdoor infrastructure.

“Pittsburgh has amazing trails and amazing opportunities, and it’s something we’ve decided to focus our efforts on. Most people in our chapter are from this area, and prior to their injuries they were active in outdoor recreation,” said MacTaggart. “The world was not built for wheelchair users, and it’s starting to become something people are becoming aware of and trying to fix.”

United Spinal Association has worked with the Montour Trail Council to improve parking, get accessible bathrooms, and improve trail crossing alert systems on roads and trail on the Montour.

The nonprofit Always B Smiling, offers an adaptive riding program at Montour Trail in Cecil Township.

United Spinal also is pushing for legislation to lift Medicare’s “in-the-home” rule, which restricts Medicare coverage of wheelchairs and wheelchair components that are designed to function outside of a person’s home, including outdoor environments.

Mackay advocates for signs at trailheads marking the type of trail surface, grade and slope, and length.

On the ride, Quinella and Blaunstein donned black-and-white checkered helmets and wore black-and-white Vans sneakers, a nod to Mackay’s love of Vans shoes.

Mackay, bundled in a rainproof jacket, wool mittens, and weather chaps, wore a cap over his ankle-length dreadlocks, which he’s grown for 19 years (they provide additional warmth, he said).

He has ridden at least one mile every day since Oct. 31, 2016.

On the Great American Rail-Trail, Mackay has been riding about eight hours a day, at speeds of more than 7 miles an hour.

He has encountered rugged terrain on portions of the C&O Trail, and ridden over portions of the Great American Passage, where he found “freeway-sized trail of the smoothest surface.”

Along the way, he has spotted turkeys, coyote, a black baby panther, and other wildlife. He’s ridden through downpours and traversed puddles. At one point, he encountered steps on the trail, and his team made a makeshift ramp using a well cover and bricks.

He is looking forward to completing the ride in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday.

After finishing the leg on Thursday, his team and members of United Spinal Association of Pittsburgh met at a restaurant in Robinson Township, where Mackay enjoyed craft beers and talked about the ride and the importance of pushing limits and going outside comfort zones.

“Too often, people think about the things they can’t do instead of the things that they can do,” said Mackay. “Make sure you’re not being stagnant, that you’re attempting growth, and you’re out there living life.”

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