Going [Cuckoo] for Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Hello and welcome to Birding Accessibly!

Learn more about Cuckoos by visiting the National Audobon website.

Hello and welcome back to Birding Accessibly! First-time reader to the blog? Check out our first blog post Birding Accessibly in a Nut[hatch] to learn what we’re all about!

As I sat down to write this post, I had just got done sifting through Birdability’s Instagram as this week is #BirdabilityWeek2021! What is Birdability Week all about? It’s about celebrating birders with disabilities and other health concerns while sharing resources and ideas that help the birding community to become more accessible and inclusive. All while welcoming everybody and every body!

I wasn’t able to attend the #AccessibilityForMe webinar that happened the day I wrote this, but you can view that webinar and the other recorded webinars on the Birdability Week website (see the link in the above paragraph).

They have the Tuesday session available for viewing now out on their YouTube page:

I was lucky enough to be able to watch the Tuesday webinar live and the community that was present was inspiring! It was an amazing experience to be able to hear others talk about their challenges and how they overcome them as well as knowing that I wasn’t alone in some of the difficulties I face while exploring the natural world. For those interested, one of the panelists – Michael Hurben – is a legally blind birder who lives here in Minnesota. He has a blog, Birding Despite Disability, which gives you a firsthand look into what it’s like to be a birder, and just a lover of the outdoors, with accessibility challenges.

On the topic of Minnesota, let’s get to reviewing one of its many beautiful parks!

LEBANON HILLS – EAGAN, MN – REGIONAL PARK

A beautiful hill with scattered fall leaves greets you at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, we’ll be going through not just state parks, but city and regional as well. This time we’re diving into a gorgeous regional park and the largest in the Dakota County park system: Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

This regional park contains almost 2,000 acres, with miles of trails and beauty to soak in. I’m sad to say I had my first go in this park during the Fall (despite the gorgeous colors), it seems like an amazing location to go birding – if most of them hadn’t all flown south for the winter already!

I have chosen to go over three of the many access considerations Birdability recommends throughout my reviews: Parking, Trail Surfaces, and Slope.

PARKING

Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a huge park, so I chose to review the Visitor Center Trailhead location, specifically the McDonough Lake trail. There are several Van Accessible parking spaces at this location. Why mention Van Accessibility? Normal-sized accessible parking does not have large enough spaces in between to allow for lift equipment for wheelchair accessibility. This can make or break a person who uses a wheelchair’s ability to be able to explore and enjoy these outside spaces. Birdability’s Access Considerations page goes over van-accessible parking in a bit more detail.

The parking spots also have cut curbs up to the level, concrete paved sidewalk, which makes it easier for a person using a wheelchair, or someone (like myself) who has issues with steps to get up onto the sidewalk.

TRAIL SURFACES

The trail surfaces at the McDonough Lake trail range from paved concrete to paved asphalt, with occasional wood-planked bridges and docks.

The area around the Visitor Center was also the same, with some cracks in the pavement and the occasional unleveled concrete, but I have to admit I was impressed with how flush and perfect their paved concrete was on the trail. Perhaps they just had it recently redone? Either way, it was great and I really appreciated not having to be worried about the concrete portion of the trail and for the most part, by the Visitor Center as well.

Paved concrete meeting the asphalt trail surface.

After you enter the loop at the McDonough Lake trail it goes from paved concrete to asphalt after about 100 feet (see photo to the right). The asphalt for the most part was level and without too many cracks or holes – although there were a couple that could pose problems to those using a white cane, manual wheelchair, or those who are accident-prone (such as myself). The trail surfaces are also fairly wide in all areas. The tightest areas are present on the floating dock.

There are also several areas on this trail that go across bridges covered in wood planks and a floating dock covered in the same material. The floating dock was well made but because it is a floating dock I would not suggest moving on it if you don’t deal well with structures that move up and down. I found myself the victim of a bout of vertigo after traversing it. Luckily they had benches (see below) at the end so I could stop and take a break. The view from the end of the dock was quite beautiful (especially with all the fall foliage), so if don’t mind traversing floating surfaces definitely give it a look.

The floating, wooden dock with benches.

SLOPE

Just like Normandale Lake Park, I have to give Lebanon Hills a small ding for the many slopes present on its trails. One such example of an intense slope would be on the aforementioned dock above. The slope to get down onto the dock was, I found, quite steep. I did not bring my cane or trekking poles with me when I went to this park so my partner had to help me down and up the dock.

The dock did have a transition plate/ramp (that steel-looking plate between the trail surface and dock start). Having that plate there will help those who use wheelchairs easily get on and off the dock.

Beyond the dock slope, there were several other slopes throughout the trail and near the Visitor Center that left me a little winded. Imagine being someone on crutches, or someone using a manual wheelchair and having to traverse up and down a steep slope, doesn’t sound too fun, does it? These are the realities that a lot of our fellow humans have to face when they are out there exploring natural spaces that present these challenges.

I will also note that this was the trail that the front desk at the Visitor Center told me was ADA Compliant. I am interested to know what makes a trail earn that prestige as I felt there were some challenges present that would make me question that declaration.

RATING & CONCLUSION

Overall, I give Lebanon Hills a 4 out of 5 Chickadees for accessibility:

(Again based on those three access considerations, there are many more to look at.)

 

 

 

 

I hope that this overview has helped to inform you or remind you of the challenges that are faced by a large portion of the population, not just in the indoors but also in the great outdoors. If you are interested in learning more about the movement, please check out Birdability’s website or give their Twitter or other social media a follow! If you are interested in submitting your own reviews of parks to be published, visit their Birdability map hosted on Audubon.

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about some of the movements that inspired #BirdabilityWeek, please check out #BlackBirdersWeek, Latino Conservation Week, and Let’s Go Birding Together.

With that, I’d like to call back to a portion of Birdability’s vision. Remember that:

“Birding truly is for everybody and every body!”

A FOY (First of the Year) Dark-eyed Junco, sitting amongst the leaves in a tree at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

Chickadee photo attribution: <a href=”https://depositphotos.com/category/art-objects.html”>Tit-depositphotos.com</a>
Birdability Week 2021 image is property of Birdability.org.
All other photos are mine, please ask before using.