Paralyzed Adventurer Rolls Into Little Falls on Erie Canalway Trail Journey

Ian Mackay, who steers his power wheelchair with his mouth, is traveling from Albany to Buffalo to show what accessible trails make possible

LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. – Rock Valley Brewing Company is normally closed on Mondays. On Sept. 21, the doors opened anyway.

The reason was Ian Mackay, a Washington state man who is paralyzed from the neck down and who rolled into Little Falls that afternoon on his power wheelchair.

Mackay is in the middle of a roughly 360-mile trip along the Erie Canalway Trail from Albany to Buffalo, a ride organized by his nonprofit, Ian’s Ride, to draw attention to the importance of accessible outdoor infrastructure for people with disabilities.

Mackay said Little Falls was chosen for a simple reason: it landed at about the right distance for a day’s ride, and he had heard good things about Rock Valley Brewing. Only later did he realize the brewery would be closed that day.

“I call him, and I’m like, oh, I realize you’re closed, I’m sorry, we’re gonna miss you,” Mackay said of the brewery’s owner, Mike George. “He’s like, oh, no, come on down, we’re gonna open up for you. And that was just so generous and so kind.”

That kind of welcome has defined the trip so far, Mackay said.

“We’ve just felt so welcomed so far on this ride,” he said. “We’ve done so many other ones, and this one’s been special.”

A life changed in an instant

Mackay’s path to long-distance wheelchair rides began with a bicycle crash about 18 years ago. At 26, he was a biology student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working in a plant biology lab and hoping to one day teach at the community college level and lead students on outdoor field trips.

His daily ride home took him down a fast, scenic bike path overlooking Monterey Bay. He admits he tried to go a little faster each day. On the day of the crash, he estimates he was traveling about 38 miles per hour. Though he was wearing a helmet, he hit sand on the path and went headfirst into a tree.

“I remember looking up through the tree boughs,” he said. “I couldn’t feel anything.”

He asked a woman walking by to call 911. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital and spent the next three months in rehabilitation at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, learning to live as a quadriplegic. He relied on a ventilator for the first year after his injury.

“When you’re 26 and you have all these plans, these aspirations, these goals, your friends, your relationships, your hobbies, and here you are, you’re sitting in this hospital bed,” he said. “You’re thinking, how am I ever going to be able to do any of that?”

Unable to return to life with college roommates, Mackay moved with his family to Port Angeles, Washington, a small town without a major hospital. Medical professionals advised against the move for someone in his condition, he said, but the family had no other option.

The following year brought deep depression, despite friends who flew in regularly to lift his spirits.

Turning points

The first turning point came with a promise. While Mackay was still in the hospital, his close friend Jimmy asked him to attend his wedding a year later. Mackay kept his word and made the long drive to be there.

Around the same time, he was weaned off the ventilator, which allowed him to speak more freely and engage more with the world.

A few years later, he met Todd Stabelfeldt, a fellow high-level quadriplegic known in the disability community as “the Quadfather.” Stabelfeldt arrived at Mackay’s home well dressed, holding a good job and living independently.

“I was blown away,” Mackay said. “You can clearly live a dignified life as a high quadriplegic.”

Stabelfeldt was active in the technology world, and the two connected just as Apple released iOS 7 with a feature called Switch Control, which allowed users to operate an iPhone completely hands-free. The pair made a video showing others in the disability community what the feature made possible.

Apple took notice and invited them to visit. Mackay said he has consulted with the company for about a decade since.

With a phone he could control on his own, Mackay began exploring beyond his home, starting on the Olympic Discovery Trail near his house. He could travel about 30 miles in either direction before his battery ran low.

“It was like I was back to riding my bike and living the life that I had before,” he said.

From a fun trip to a nonprofit

Mackay then reached out to a former chemistry professor he calls Dr. B with an idea for a wheelchair tour. In 2016, they rode from Victoria, British Columbia, down to Portland, Oregon, crossing Washington state along the way. The plan, he said, was purely for fun: time with friends and a brewery stop every night.

The trip grew quickly. Other wheelchair users asked to join. Mackay blogged each evening, news outlets picked up the story, and policymakers began showing up. The governor’s adviser on outdoor recreation rode with the group for a full day.

After the trip, Mackay was invited to Olympia to discuss “complete streets” and infrastructure for people of all abilities with the governor, himself a cyclist. Mackay was named Washingtonian of the Day, an honor he said felt special until he learned that a previous recipient the year before had been a dog.

A pair of Seattle lawyers who had followed the ride encouraged him to start a nonprofit so he could keep doing it. That became Ian’s Ride, which has organized long-distance rides ever since.

The Erie Canalway ride

The New York ride runs Sept. 20 through 28. Before starting on the canal, Mackay, who had never been to New York, rode about 30 miles out of Manhattan to Elmsford.

Most days on the Erie Canalway Trail cover 30 to 35 miles, though he said the group covered about 50 on one recent day.

Along the way, the group meets with media and policymakers, invites other people with disabilities to ride along, and blogs about trail surfaces, amenities and the communities they pass through.

The ride has drawn support from several organizations. In a press release from Ian’s Ride, Kim Ridley, New York state’s chief disability officer, said the journey highlights “the critical importance of accessible public trails.”

New York State Canal Corp. Director Ben Walsh said the corporation is “thrilled to support him on his journey” and encouraged people to ride alongside Mackay. Rails to Trails Conservancy and United Spinal Association are also supporting the effort.

What comes next

After reaching Buffalo, Mackay will travel to Toronto to tour the factory of Motion Concepts, which designs the seating system for his wheelchair. He has served as an ambassador for the company for years and will test a new chair it plans to release.

He hopes the trip encourages manufacturers to design wheelchairs around how people actually live, “not just insurance companies.”

Mackay also holds a Guinness World Record and has written a book. A feature-length documentary about his world-record ride, “Good Moment,” will premiere Oct. 11 at the SoHo International Film Festival in New York City.

Mackay won’t be able to attend; he is scheduled to give a keynote address for the Washington State Trails Coalition two days earlier.

He said he hopes his rides encourage other people with disabilities to find adventures of their own.

“Eighteen years ago, when I was in that hospital bed, thinking about all I’d lost,” he said, “I wish I even knew then what was possible and where it would be almost 20 years later.”

More information about the ride is available at iansride.com/ride-the-erie, and information about the film is at goodmomentfilm.com.