Powerchair Billing

Okefenokee trail to be wheelchair-accessible

FOLKSTON - A viewing platform at the end of Cane Pole Trail is one of the most popular destinations at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge - if you don't mind stumbling over roots and uneven terrain.

The trail runs parallel to the Suwannee Canal for about 1,100 feet before it makes a sharp right turn that leads visitors to a platform overlooking the prairies - an open area of swamp with tall grass, lily pads, bright flowers and floating batteries of peat.

In about a month, however, what was once a difficult hike will be like a stroll in a park.

A team of Trails Unlimited engineers and technicians is renovating the trail to make it wheelchair-accessible.

Work includes using 76 tons of gravel, clay and other materials to build a five-layer surface that looks like a natural dirt trail, but wears like concrete.

"Before we started, it was a grass path with roots," said Jerry Barrow, project engineer for Trails Unlimited. "The basic opening was there, but you couldn't roll a wheelchair on it."

Once the work is completed May 1, wheelchairs will easily roll on the artificial surface all the way to the viewing platform, Barrow said.

$650,000 in aid

It's the first time the U.S. Forest Service has assigned Trails Unlimited to a project at a national wildlife refuge anywhere in the nation, said Maury Bedford, assistant refuge manager.

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