An accessible dream: kayaking the Apostle Islands

Janet Badura and dog

February 20, 2023

Janet Badura is a traveler, an adventurer, a birdwatcher. She is also someone with a progressive disorder who requires a power wheelchair.

For years, Janet had a dream: to kayak the Apostle Islands sea caves. “As a person with a progressive disability, and a power wheelchair user,” she says, “joining a kayak trip, was not without some hesitation or concern.” But through Wilderness Inquiry, a partner in our Access for All initiative whose mission is to offer outdoor adventures to all, regardless of ability and background, she finally got the chance.

Steep wooden stairway down to Meyers Beach

Then she saw the 45 steps leading down to the kayak launching area at Meyers Beach.

National parks, like the Apostle Islands, belong to all of us. Yet for the one in five Americans like Janet who live with mobility challenges, obstacles like those stairs can spell the difference between the adventure of a lifetime and a lifetime of being left behind.

Listen to Janet tell the story, in her own words, of overcoming that obstacle, of the importance of trips like this to all of us, and then join our Access for All initiative to keep this dream alive for Janet, and many others like her.

As a wheelchair user, I believe I am a more proud, knowledgeable, happier, and braver person through this integration of living and learning through our national parks. Access to the Apostle Islands is an experience all should be able to see, breathe in, and feel.

Janet Badura

Adventurer

As Janet Badura says, “We all deserve to be included. We all deserve to feel the power and see the majesty and be inspired by our ethereal National Parks.”

That is the goal of Access for All.

Learn more or donate now.

Infinity symbol in green and orange Access for All

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