Waypoint on Wheels 2024
Have you ever wanted to test out gear to see if it fits your needs? Have you ever wondered what the best off-road wheelchair or adaptive bike setup works for you?
Waypoint Partnership with Charles River Recreation
We’re grateful for our partnership with Charles River Recreation! CRR houses the outdoor recreation companies Paddle Boston and Weston Ski Track. For many years we’ve been using Paddle Boston sites all over the Greater Boston area. Only in more recent years, as we’ve acquired more adaptive snow equipment, have we partnered with Weston Ski Track to provide accessible snow sports to the community. People with disabilities and their families who want to recreate together are often met with challenges when showing up for a private or group recreation activity. Waypoint and companies like Charles River Recreation can provide access, adaptive equipment, differentiated instruction, individual or group programming for all ages and all abilities.
Participants with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Developmental Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities, Limb Differences, Paraplegia, Spinal Cord Injuries, Brain Injuries and more can all participate in the fun and freedom of kayaking, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sit-skiing, and hiking thanks to partnerships that use their strengths in unison.
Weston Ski Track
Paddle Boston
Waypoint on Wheels 2023
Have you ever wanted to test out gear to see if it fits your needs? Have you ever wondered what the best off-road wheelchair or adaptive bike setup works for you?
Join us on Saturday, October 14th at Waypoint Headquarters for our “Waypoint on Wheels” Expo in collaboration with Grit and sponsored by Rodman For Kids. You’ll experience a customized session just for you and try out different adaptive gear. From electric, to self-propel, to full assist, we have an off-road wheelchair, hand-cycle, or tandem bike/trike to fit your desire for adventure!
Look through the mobility devices below. When you register for a session, you will complete the Medical Form, then after checking out, you will be asked to complete a Follow Up Form, called “Gear Day Preferences.” In that Follow Up Form, please indicate what devices you are most interested in trying, and we will make sure there are not too many others in your session that also want to try that. To add your answers to the form, press “Edit” in the top right corner, and then “Submit” when you are finished.
*Please read directions above to make sure there are not too many others in your session who also want to try what you want.
Off-Road Wheelchairs
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GRIT Freedom Chair and Freedom Chair Junior
The Freedom Chair by GoGrit is a simple design, 3-wheeled wheelchair with hand-crank propulsion and braking. The handlebars behind the riders head make it easy to push from behind. We also have a Freedom Chair junior for youth riders!
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Trail Rider
The Trail Rider is one of our two most supportive off-road wheelchairs. It is a full-assist device – meaning the rider maintains their posture while a person pulls from the front and pushes from the back. This chair has arm rests, foot rests, and only one wheel to create a smooth ride and the ability to go up and over anything. This chair has climbed Kilimanjaro!
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Hippocampe
The Hippocampe wheelchair was originally built as a beach wheelchair with big wheels for the sand and the ability to float. However, we love it for it’s reclined comfortable seat with headrest and that it’s lightweight for someone to push. It’s not easy to self-propel, but it is possible. Mainly used as a push/pull chair.
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Hoyt Racing Chair
Built by the Hoyt Racing Chair company and inspired by the Rick and Dick Hoyt team, this chair is built for comfort, stability, and ease of pushing. It has mountain bike all-terrain tires as well as road tires. The front wheel can also come off and the whole chair can be hooked up to the back of a bicycle.
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Terratrek
The Terratrek is a rugged, all-terrain manual wheelchair built to withstand the trail. This chair comes in two different footrest options to accommodate the most comfortable or natural position of a rider’s feet/legs and it comes in two different seat-width options. It accepts a seat cushion and has sturdy tires. This chair is ideal for the user that is able and willing to self-propel.
Mountain Trike
The Mountain Trike Chair is all-terrain, rugged, self-propulsion, and self-steering. It has the option of direct steering with only one arm. It has excellent control for smooth turns and is easy to ride across slopes. The hydraulic disc brake system gives you great control and braking in all weather. The seat tilt is more conducive to racing-chair style and is not adjustable.
Trionic Veloped Off Road Walker
The Trionic Veloped Walker is the only truly off-road walker on the market. With its patented climbing wheel, the Veloped can negotiate even tougher terrain as the three-wheel design is more off-road capable than any 4 wheel walker.
Cycling: Tandem Bikes, Trikes, and Hand-Cycles
Hase Recumbent Hand Cycle
This hand-cycle recumbent trike is also new to Waypoint. Made by Hase. The two Hase devices connect to each other for a tandem experience.
Hase Recumbent Trike
This foot pedal recumbent trike is for a single rider. It’s new to Waypoint! Try it out! Made by Hase. The two Hase devices connect to each other for a tandem experience.
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Tandem Bicycles
We have a wide array of tandem bikes of different heights and lengths. Our Tandem Cycling program is popular. We’re always looking for more Captains to steer and command the front of the bike! These bikes are for people with full balance and trunk strength.
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Recumbent Tandem Bikes
We have two different styles of recumbent tandem bike with different levels of support.
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Tandem Trike
Our tandem trike offers the extra stability of a third wheel and the ability to have two pedalers – either on separate chains or connected to the same chain
Leaders-In-Training is BACK!
On November 10th, 2022, families, friends, volunteers, and donors gathered at M&T Bank headquarters in downtown Boston for the special graduation ceremony of 8 young adults from the Waypoint Adventure Leaders-In-Training program. Program Coordinator, Carly Steinauer, led the evening with speeches, memories, and personal awards for each LIT. The joy and pride in the room was palpable – tears were shed and parents requested copies of the speeches afterwards. It was an incredible night!
We are so proud of each and every graduate: Brenna, Joshua, Paul, Brendan, Rachel, Ruby, Will, and Otto. You’re LIT Alumni now and forever!
A huge shout out to the LIT Captains who volunteered on most/all of the programs to help see this group through to the end of the series. Thank you Paul, Malika, Haley, Jill, Will, Tate, and Sofia!
Check out this video of the LIT 2022 Series and pictures of Graduation below.
Winter 2020
Here at Waypoint, we continue to enjoy outdoor adventures! In fact, winter hiking, biking and snowshoeing trips can be exhilarating and fun with proper clothing, the right equipment, a mask, and a bit of social distance. Let’s be real, even a stroll around the block on a gray day can refresh the mind and raise our spirits. We are excited to venture into the outdoors with you if you are up for the adventure! Our new online registration process is up and running – click on ‘The Adventures’ tab on our website to sign up or give us a call and we’ll find the best program fit for you and your goals!
We understand that the pandemic can sometimes make travel, or even getting out of the house feel challenging. The good news is that opportunities to virtually enjoy nature, as well as resources and inspiring stories are available at the tap of your device or computer. Studies have shown that even virtual nature can improve our health and happiness. Here are some websites and links to virtual adventures that might get you dreaming of post-pandemic outings.
Try a virtual nature hike or “visit” a national park at one of these links:
- Join a National Park Service ranger for a guided tour of select parks
- ProArtInc’s Virtual Hikes via the 4K Virtual Outdoor Hikes Playlist on YouTube – Immerse yourself in a trail for several hours, listening to the sounds of nature as the camera moves along a hiking trail at walking speed
If movies are your thing:
REI has a nice blog post here on books, movies and podcasts designed to bring the outdoors into your home:
The following link has a wealth of information about planning and preparing for outdoor adventures and developing wilderness skills:
As winter arrives and daylight grows a little shorter, the brambles and thorns of life might tug at you and try to hold you down or keep you indoors. Nature has a way of affording us a literal view of the forest through the trees. Science has proven that nature (even virtual nature) can contribute to happiness and boost our moods and state of mind. Come join us on a Waypoint Adventure; and if that isn’t possible at the moment, try experiencing nature virtually!
Please contact us via email or phone to let us know about other virtual nature experiences that you like or to request that Waypoint run a virtual experience
Private Lessons Summer 2020
It’s been a wild summer! Covid-times are hard times for sure, but the silver lining for us at Waypoint has been these private lessons! Check out pictures and some cool things we’ve noticed!
- Participants are progressing in skills! We’ve been able to focus more on teaching directly to a participant’s skill set and learning style. On one kayaking lesson, we spent over 40 minutes with a participant near the shore breaking down the steps of kayaking very carefully and methodically – adding color cues to her paddle, arrows on white boards, writing out steps, and wading into the water next to her boat to practice the feeling of paddling. We just wouldn’t be able to devote that level of instruction in a group setting!
- We’re developing closer relationships with our participants and their families. There’s a lot to chat about on a 90-minute lesson! We’ve seen fresh sides to personalities in a new one-to-one atmosphere and have learned so much about each person who has come out!
- More people than ever are signing up that have never been on a Waypoint program! We’re getting calls and emails from all over the Boston area from people who’s school or program is closed and they are looking for something outdoors to do. People who have been on our mailing list for years and just never got around to signing up are doing so. And we think, partly, it’s desperate times, but for some people, they just thrive in a private-lesson setting as opposed to a group one.
- We’ve been forced into trying new sites when parks were closed and they’ve turned out to be awesome for us! Some of our new favorites are paddling on the Concord River from Lowell Street in Concord, MA, the Ice House Landing parking lot in Maynard, MA which has access to the Assabet River and a great rail trail for biking, and we’ve used more than usual our favorite Cambridge kayaking spot, Magazine Beach!
LIT 2019
It’s the third year of the Waypoint Adventure Leaders-In-Training program. Young adults with disabilities are engaging again in 2019 with real-life challenges within a supportive environment and learning goal-setting and attainment skills. This is an ENERGETIC crew and we’ve loved watching them grow already. These young leaders are going to be contributing members of their communities!
The High Ropes Course started it all off in May. Each LIT had to decide how high they wanted to swing on the Giant Swing and rose to the challenge. All while their teammates pulled them up! Everyone started meaningful friendships off on the right foot through a shared experience together.
In June, we hit the trails of Ward Reservation in Andover practicing navigation and learning water-purification skills to prepare for the September backpacking trip. We started Life Stories too, where a few people in the group share their Life Story over lunch and we take turns over the course of the series. At the end of each Life Story, we have a call and response. Group: “We hear you”; Story Teller: “I am heard”; Story Teller: “Do you accept me?”; Group: “You Belong Here!”
In July at Harold Parker State Forest, we actually had to move our adventure up a few hours and cut it short due to the 100 degree heat advisory! What a hot July! But this crew toughed it out, learned all about kayaking in small groups and then had to share what they had learned with the big group and/or their paddle partner. This brought out real-life scenarios of needing each other. And on top of that, everyone was given the challenge of attempting the wet exit! With the hot day, several people took that challenge and flipped their boat over and then did a on-the-water re-entry!
In August, the LITs REALLY had to put their leadership to the test when young kids from the community came to learn kayaking from them! We did a quick refresher in the morning and then after lunch, everyone had a job to do or a skill to teach. Once everyone was ready on land, we all went for a paddle on the Charles River in Waltham with the kids in the tandem kayaks.
In September, we had our big backpacking trip in the White Mountains. This is no ordinary camping trip! Everyone comes to a Pre-Trip Meeting to go over the packing list and what to expect and then Saturday morning, bright and early, everyone arrives and gets a BIG backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and has to take group gear and tent pieces and fit it all in their bag. We drove up to Lincoln Woods in Lincoln, NH near Loon Mountain and hiked back to the Franconia Brook tentsites to set up camp, getting caught in a brief rain shower right at the end. We cooked dinner on camp stoves, purified water from the river, told the remaining Life Stories and slept in tents. It was the first of this type of experience for many in the group! We ended with a “solo” journaling time by the river the next morning and then hiked out and drove home. What a bonding experience for everyone!
And to end it all in October, we heard from 3 adults in the community with disabilities through a panel discussion talking about what life has been like for them as they’ve worked through the in’s and out’s of transitioning into adulthood. These 3 people, Kamisha Heriveaux, Melissa Bradley, and Zach Trickett have a lot of experience when it comes to navigating employment, living situations, social situations and friendships and had good advice to share with our LITs. Parents and siblings came too and afterwards, everyone got a chance to take on one last challenge and go rock climbing at Central Rock Gym in Watertown! One of the LITs, Harry, has some extensive rock climbing experience so he got to lead the group in learning some basics about equipment and how to use it correctly to keep you safe.
IAC Backpacking 2019
Our annual Inclusive Adventure Club (IAC) backpacking trip was one of the best IAC programs to date. Our vision for this club is that all people regardless of ability have the opportunity to share in the costs and rewards of the experience. We recognize that the thrill of backpacking can be even more rewarding when done alongside a diverse community! So…
On September 21st, 15 adults and their packs filled with food, sleeping bags, tents, and the like, journeyed up to the White Mountains for a beautiful weekend of fall backpacking. The specific destination: Franconia Brook Campsite. S’more-making; star-gazing; bowl-licking; weird wraps (peanut butter, cheese, pepperoni, hummus, and Doritos); and games around the fire were just some of the many highlights that made for a magical trip.
Several people by the end of the weekend said that this trip made their year. It is rare when a large, new group of people can come together and work so effortlessly. Genuine adventure allows that to happen!
If you are interested in backpacking or in other inclusive adventure club adventures, please check out our IAC 2019 Flyer and sign up!
The photos speak for themselves:
Winter Summit 2019
Waypoint Adventure conquered Mt. Willlard for our 8th annual Winter Summit Weekend!
Filled with anticipation and excitement, the group of 9 set out for the Highland Center in legendary Crawford Notch, NH. For some, it was another chance to summit Mt. Willard. For others, it was their first experience being up in the White Mountains in winter and hiking there with new friends.
The theme for this year was this: It Matters. Throughout the weekend, group members were given the challenge of reflecting on the decisions that they made and interactions that they had with each other to determine why they matter.
On the final night together, everyone shared their favorite moments from the trip. Some things that were said were: “This was the most challenging hike I have ever done, but I feel so proud of myself for doing it!”, “I needed this. This empowered me to get out into the world.”, and “This was excellent! (coming from a participant who uses limited speech)”.
After each person shared their favorite moment, they were given a cutout piece of the map from the trail they had just hiked. With a sharpie, each person wrote their favorite part on the back of this piece and had to figure out how their pieces came together to form the whole map. Without all the pieces, the map would have been incomplete. By the end, everyone realized that all the small things can make a huge difference in our lives. They Matter.
While the summit of Mt. Willard was truly a magical and special place, the weekend was made complete through the difficult journey up and down the mountain, eating way too much food, and hanging out with quality people in the lodge (not to mention the endless games of corn hole and ping-pong to boot!). Mt. Willard was just the icing on the cake.
But don’t take our word for it! Below are some pictures from the weekend.
Lodge Life:
Hike:
We are so grateful to have such a welcoming and loving community of people come out with us every year. 2019 was a very special year and we hope to continue the tradition in 2020. Thank you to AMC YOP for extra gear and the reservation at the Highland Center, Peter Fuller Vans (shout out to Jim Cubeta!) for the van and everyone else who made this all possible.
Leaders In Training 2018-2019
We just wrapped up this year’s group of Leaders In Training! This year-long once per month series of adventures is all about teaching and practicing leadership, but the friendships that form in this group happen fast and stick deep. Check out the big impact this series had last year! We designed another awesome and exciting year of adventures and we’re thrilled with the 8 LITs that totally bought in to the process of learning to be leaders through the essential practice of self-determination. Check out our monthly adventures!
We kicked things off with some teambuilding and the Giant Swing on the Ropes Course at Hale Reservation in Westwood in May 2018. This day was all about forming relationships within the group and building trust. A few rain showers didn’t stop us from having an awesome day guiding partners through minefields and getting out of our comfort zones by swinging like Tarzan through the trees!
In June, we practiced navigation and learned some important backpacking skills that will come into play in September like purifying water and hanging tarps. It was a HOT day in the 90’s at Ward Reservation in Andover, MA, but we got some great views of Boston and 2 LIT’s were the first of the bunch to give their Life Story to the group! Thanks for having us Trustees of the Reservation!
In July, LITs got an intro to kayaking at Harold Parker State Forest. Each LIT was taught different skills like fitting a life jacket, paddle strokes, and how to navigate on the water and then had to work together to put it all together. Daemon got a chance to teach how to put on life jackets, Anthony taught on-the-water formation, and each paddle partner got to teach each other effective strokes. Two more LITs gave their life story too!
In August, we put those new kayaking skills and self-confidence to use with some younger kids. Our LITs got to practice their leadership by teaching kayaking to some younger students. It was an awesome experience for each person to practice leadership in their own way. We split up roles, people signed up for jobs (like leading us through our opening schedule, making sure everyone had sunscreen and water, paddling a tandem kayak, and more).
In September, we did the big, brave program: The Backpacking Trip! This is an overnight in the White Mountains with no cell service, carrying everything in on a rocky trail, and spending the night around a campfire next to Sawyer Pond. It was a beautiful, chilly, fall weekend filled with moments of perseverance, bear-bagging, camp cooking, and camaraderie. What an awesome trip! Shoutout to our volunteers, Kyle and Paige, who have been with these LITs since the beginning and gave up their whole weekend to join us and help us! THANK YOU!
Our October “Outdoor” Rock Climbing day got pushed indoors because of freezing rain, but we spent time identifying some personal goals going forward. What did we want to work on related to leadership for the remainder of LIT? A few more LITs shared their Life Story and it was an awesome reunion after a difficult and exciting backpacking trip.
At the end of November, we held our Panel Discussion & Family Rock Climbing event at Central Rock Gym again. Two adults with disabilities were willing to share strategies and experiences they’ve had in their transition to independent living, housing, roommates, jobs, and autonomy. It was an awesome environment for LITs and parents to ask questions and figure out next steps after LIT. And of course, we capped the night off with some climbing where parents and siblings were offered the chance to try it too! What an uplifting night!
In January, after a month-long break for the holidays, we met up again at the Blue Hills. It was a COLD day so we didn’t stay out too long. We did a short hike, had hot chocolate, did skits on how to travel safely in the outdoors, and then stopped by the Blue Hills Trailside Museum on the way back to see some cool wildlife. Unfortunately, most of the animals, as you might expect, were sleeping.
And last but not least, to close out this year together, we spent an overnight in Durham, NH at The Browne Center of UNH. The Browne Center spans hundreds of acres and has several yurts on the property – one of which is large enough for a group like ours, complete with gas heat and two accessible toilets! We did a Ropes Course with Browne Center staff, had surprise pizza delivered on Saturday night (transported the 1/2 mile back to the yurt via sled) and then closed things out with a solo and ceremony on Sunday morning. Each LIT had a chance to examine where they were at in terms of the personal goals they had set along the way and also had the chance to reflect on how someone else in the group had done. We each took turns to say nice things about each other which resulted in some touching moments, tears, and ceremonial bracelets to symbolize and remember our time together. We’re looking forward to an awesome Graduation to celebrate this awesome group and the times we’ve had together at the offices of Wilmington Trust and M&T Bank, one of our generous LIT sponsors.
March 14th was our Graduation! A celebration to honor each individual for the contribution they made to this team and the challenges they overcame along the way. Parents, siblings, and friends crowded the room in the Boston high-rise of Wilmington Trust’s office – a proud sponsor of the LIT program and LITs gave speeches, received awards, watched a slideshow, and inducted the new LITs with a welcome gift and handshake. Anthony told the group, “it’s the hardest, but best thing you’ll ever do.”
