Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Is Wellfleet Handicapped-friendly?

I pulled a tendon or something in my leg, which is why there have not been many new beach photos on Chezsven Blog of late. Above, the rest area on the climb up from Cahoon Hollow Beach, empty before the tourists arrived for the summer. Our upgraded beach access gets three stars. Why only three? It's still not handicapped-accessible. I became aware of this problem when my mom needed to get around Wellfleet with a walker ...

This week I've been experiencing what it must be like to be handicapped. I hobble around, eager for Sven’s return from Sweden. Climbing stairs has become an ordeal. I apply regular heat packs to my knee and spend hours in front of the computer. No fun! Then a ray of sunshine brightened my day. Someone called, looking for a room in two weeks, a busy time here, and, to boot, a room that is handicapped-accessible.

Innkeepers are considered instant specialists on all things Wellfleet, at least that must be the way we are perceived, because, in season, I answer half a dozen calls a day. Innkeepers do know a lot, but not everything. People, over the phone, often ask questions that would be better directed to staff at the Chamber of Commerce. But I did speak to this caller for five minutes.  Then she said, "Are you the lady who writes?" Had I been a child, drawing a picture of me at this desk, an enormous sun would have suddenly appeared in a corner of the page.  When I replied to the affirmative, she said, "I knew you would help me …"

I intend to do a post about handicapped-accessible Wellfleet in the future, once this knee is feeling better. Readers, do you know which beaches are handicapped-accessible?

Comments (8)

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Hope you feel better soon. I went through this last winter when I broke my ankle and suddenly realized how difficult it can be to maneuver around in this world. As for Wellfleet beaches, I guess Mayo is fairly accessible as is the bay beach near the yacht club ( the name escapes me). None of the ocean beaches down here can really be considered accessible. The most handicapped accessible beach around here is probably Corn Hill in Truro which has a ramp that a wheelchair can travel over to get to the beach from the parking lot.
1 reply · active 764 weeks ago
Thanks, Amy. Great info!
Long Pond has a ramp that extends into the water. The Gull Pond boat ramp also makes the water accessible, I'd guess. Great Pond, with its long stairs down from the parking lot, is quite inaccessible, at least from that side.

Duck Harbor has no serious dune to climb down, but it's a long stretch of soft sand from the parking lot, so I don't expect a wheelchair or walker frame would work.

It's hard for me to imagine a solution to making the ocean beaches wheelchair accessible that wouldn't do unacceptable damage to the fragile dunes. Has anyone seen a possible solution in other parts of the world?
1 reply · active 763 weeks ago
Thanks, Grant! More information. Superb. I hope someone will answer your question.
Provincetown's Herring Cove beach in the National Seashore has the right-side parking lot which gets people close to the ocean easily. First Encounter beach in Eastham has (or had) a boardwalk to get wheelchairs closer to the water. Wiley Park on Eastham's Great Pond also has a wheelchair ramp to the water. This year's major erosion has made Coast Guard beach less accessible than in past years. Some Cape beaches have wide-wheeled surf chairs which can be reserved and used in sand and water.
I hope your tendon is healing. I pulled a tendon near my knee running home at halftime of the Superbowl to walk my dog. I slipped on the ice and twisted funny. Anyway I nursed it for over a week before going to the doctor. He said it would heal faster if it wasn't swollen. I took 2 Advil every 4 hours for 5 days and it stopped the swelling and healed completely!
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Thanks, Nancy, for the advice. Will try some Advil.
Sandy,
glad the caller's words gave you a smile.
as you're following up on handicapped access issues, I'd put in a word for considering many sorts of handicaps in addition to wheelchair access.
My recent post Cape Breton music from a new generation- The Cottars

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