THE TERMINUS: DREAM TO GET OUTSIDE

How a Montana nonprofit is breaking barriers to accessibility in the outdoors

By Julia Smit

Sun on skin, dirt under fingernails, deep breaths of fresh air after a steep climb: It’s a shared experience for people who love to spend time on the trail. And with over 30 million acres of public lands in Montana – including the wild areas that make up the Continental Divide landscape in the state–there’s a lot of space to share.

The outdoors are for everybody. But not everyone has equal access.

According to the CDC , one in four adults in the United States has some type of disability. Yet access to the outdoors for people with disabilities often comes with major barriers: everything from lack of accessible parking at a trailhead to the high cost of equipment.

DREAM Adaptive Recreation is located in Whitefish, Montana, and helps people with disabilities find their way around, over and through some of those challenges.

DREAM runs winter ski programs alongside summer mountain biking and water-based recreation in Northwest Montana’s Flathead Valley. “[Our programs] help people have direct access through us breaking down barriers, from adaptive equipment, adaptive instruction, providing a safe space to try something in the outdoors,” said DREAM Executive Director, Julie Tickle.

This includes reducing the financial cost for participants to use adaptive recreation equipment like sit skis, adaptive paddle boards, electric-assist recumbent bikes, and other gear. The organization served nearly 350 program participants in 2023, according to Tickle.

“All of our programs are centered around each individual. Where do they want to go? Some folks literally want to get back for a hike in nature, and we use one of our adaptive mountain bikes as a tool to hike,” said Tickle. “That could be on a mellow, flat trail or a logging road.”

“But others want to ride the Spencer [Mountain] freeride trails,” she added. The progression depends on the person. “Do they want to go backcountry camping and find a mobility device that they could go for miles and miles, get a backcountry permit in Glacier, and get to a campsite?”

Tickle pointed to Bowhead, a company based in Calgary, as one example of exciting adaptive recreation equipment on the market that can help people with disabilities access some of those backcountry spaces.

With an articulating front end and a full suspension, Bowhead’s fully electric bikes are designed to navigate rugged terrain. Bikes from Bowhead run upwards of $15,000, according to their website.

DREAM has three of the bikes, one of each model available. Their fleet includes a range of adaptive equipment for people to try out, without the upfront cost of buying their own. And when someone is ready to get their own gear, DREAM can help. The organization itself doesn’t offer funding, but Tickle said, “We’re pretty knowledgeable about helping people figure out what piece of equipment they should try to get and then connecting them with other funding organizations.”

Finding Backcountry Accessibility

While DREAM’s programming often involves equipment that could be called adaptive mountain bikes, how to describe them depends on where they’re used. “A lot of the adaptive hand cycles or foot pedal recumbent mountain bikes have e-assist, and that is creating equality,” she said.

But as Tickle explained, on non-motorized trails these bikes meet the definition of a wheelchair, permitted under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA). “When we’re in spaces that might not be biking-friendly, we call them mobility devices because they truly are. People could not access hiking trails without these mobility devices,” she said. That definition also applies to areas like the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex along the CDT, where mechanized use is typically not allowed.

“When you’re walking around the city streets you might put on one pair of shoes, but if you go on dirt you might put on your hiking shoes. And for people with disabilities these different mobility devices are like putting on their hiking shoes,” said Tickle.

Deepening Access

DREAM has had a hand in expanding access to the outdoors since its start in 1985, and that work continues. “We really revived our access project, and that is going back to our roots,” said Tickle. Those roots include one of DREAM’s early projects, working with the National Park Service on the accessible Trail of the Cedars in Glacier National Park.

Currently, DREAM is involved in several access projects, including a collaboration with Flathead Rivers Alliance to make put-ins and take-outs along the three forks of Montana’s Flathead River more accessible to all users.

According to Tickle, accessibility starts at the trailhead. A lack of accessible parking and restrooms that cannot accommodate a wheelchair are immediate barriers to someone using adaptive equipment to get out on the trail or on the water. Additional physical barriers designed to keep vehicles out, like rocks, berms and gates without room to maneuver around, can make access with mobility devices impossible. “If the trailhead isn’t accessible, then the fun stops right there,” she said.

While paved trails meet ADA building standards in developed areas, there are layers to accessibility as trails move away from the frontcountry. According to Tickle, rocks, roots, and other natural trail features don’t necessarily need to be eliminated for someone using adaptive recreation equipment to use a trail. Sometimes it’s about designing a more gradual switchback, removing pinch points where double track decreases to single track, or providing information about maximum grade and cross slope on trail maps.

“It’s a sliding scale of the deeper you go into the natural environment, there are definitely some things that can improve someone using a mobility device’s experience. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be completely sterilized,” said Tickle.

“A lot of people with disabilities have the same goals, hopes, dreams, aspirations, love of adrenaline or adventure…and leaving a lot of that in place is really important, just as it is for those without disabilities,” she said. “Everyone deserves to have the challenge by choice, assessing their own risk and what they want to do.”

The

mission

of DREAM Adaptive

Recreation is to enhance the quality of life of individuals with disabilities by providing year-round outdoor adaptive recreational opportunities.