Fully-accessible resort, first of its kind, opens in Ely

CATHY WURZER: A one-of-a-kind resort is now open in Ely. North of North Resort and Outfitters was built from the ground up to be accessible for everyone. And that means everyone.

The entire resort is accessible for people with disabilities. And it's not just the lodging and the saunas that are accessible. They're also offering outdoor recreation programs for folks of all different abilities. That's thanks, in part, to a big grant they are getting from the state of Minnesota.

Joining us right now is Sean Leary, who owns the resort with his wife, Jill. And Sean is with us in-studio. Thanks for being here.

SEAN LEARY: Oh, it's absolutely my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. I think that you're on to something here. What was the spark for the resort? What was the idea behind it?

SEAN LEARY: Well, it kind of started with my kids. My wife, Jill, she can't be with me here, but she's absolutely the passion behind this as well. We were both canoe guides up in Ontario, Manitoba. And we had young children, Annika and Britta.

And we were trying to find spots that we can get out and do the things we love. I was injured in a 2001 car accident. And since that time, I've used a manual wheelchair. And so we went on a big trip to Yellowstone, and had quite the adventure out there, and looked to come home, and tried to repeat it, and find ourselves a little lacking.

CATHY WURZER: I've had friends who also have disabilities, and it's really frustrating for them, as you know, to get around in so many different places where you find tourists. People don't think about this at all. So when you decided, well, hey, what if we got this resort, what was your first thought? What was the first plan as you were looking at what to include? Docks, water, kayaks, that kind of thing?

SEAN LEARY: We wanted to work from ground up. And so my time as a consultant, I'm an environmental consultant, working in development, I recognize this parcel is a very special place-- the topography, the point that extends out into the lake where you have vistas of miles in every direction-- most of it all, the Superior National Forest really was a magical spot.

And so I got lucky, and I got hooked up with a guy named Phil Hagfors-- Hagfors and Sons up in Ely, three generation excavators. And he helped me work what he says is the most difficult property he's ever developed in Ely.

And so I owe it to the locals who pitched in, and got behind my effort, and just all of us coming together. The property was completely sticks-- woods, rocks, giant boulders. So we came in by water, and we developed from the shoreline, and found the good land, and built with nature-- built something that is right for the spot, that fits and preserves the magicalness of this area, where you can go from forest, to marsh, to an island-like peninsula all in a chair.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. And, by the way, how do you make a dock ADA accessible? Just curious. I don't think I've ever seen one.

SEAN LEARY: Well, you work with folks who do it, for one thing. And it's all about the floating dock. And there's a connection piece, the gangway, that can move up and down with the water. So the lake will come up a couple of feet and down a couple feet in the air, and we'll have an ADA ramp that connects that.

And we built a boardwalk with a nice wide 8-foot width that's fantastic for fishing. It illustrates perfectly what I like to call the curb cut effect-- well, I didn't name it, but it's a sociological phenomenon, where after ADA we saw folks getting out there not only in their wheelchairs, which was why the curb cuts were put in, but, in fact, we saw that the bikes, and the strollers, and the carts, and everything else benefited from that.

And that's what we see, I think, up at North North. So seeing folks, kids, run across the boardwalk and enjoy this territory that is hard-- for folks with disabilities, may be very hard-- but, frankly, anybody who's twisted an ankle or rolled a knee over might have a hard time getting out that particular summer. This is a place for everybody, truly.

CATHY WURZER: When you were building this resort, what were you thinking about? What were some of the things you thought about in terms of accessibility that able-bodied people don't think about and might take for granted?

SEAN LEARY: Well, the grade of the site is important. So we made sure to build things very flat and within ADA grade tolerances. And so everything's ramped out a long ways and nice and flat. We've got turnarounds-- grab bars in the shower, turnarounds in the bathrooms, roll-under sinks.

You've got the countertop heights, the appliances, the light switches. You've got even things that are a visual alarm instead of just an audio alarm for fire and safety. So the saunas were something special. We teamed up with Superior Sauna.

They were fantastic at widening out doorways, eliminating thresholds. We built ramps to them. I don't think there's anything like it in the state of Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Do you think, because of your resort here, Sean, you're kind of creating a new community of folks with disabilities who can now go out and enjoy the outdoors?

SEAN LEARY: Yeah. We're seeing that come together right now. Part of that is because of our grant. And we really have to give a big thank you to IRRRB, Save the Boundary Waters, and the state of Minnesota for really coming through and creating all of the things that it takes for this to be successful. So the resort itself was not receive any funding-- the boardwalk, none of it. That was all a labor of love with me and my wife.

But for the adaptive kayak launch system that was newly installed recently and the adaptive boats that we have kayaks, that was grant funded, as is our programming. So right now, we're doing a fall wild rice harvest that's going for two weeks.

We've got Rory Wakemup from the Boys Fort band up there doing wild rice harvesting for the next two weeks with folks with disabilities. And we've got dog sledding in the winter. And we've got fishing. Just this last weekend, we had a participant out there, went on a fishing trip with Cast Outdoors. They caught 80 walleye-- 80 walleye in one afternoon.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, my goodness. So you have accessible kayaks and, as you say, boats. And you're going to have accessible dog sledding. That is amazing.

SEAN LEARY: Yeah. We're working on a sled that we can actually steer ourselves, so we're not just a bystander on the sled as well. So it's pretty impressive stuff they're doing over at Cast.

CATHY WURZER: Wow. We should say, can you paint a picture, for folks not familiar with the boundary waters, what might the area have looked like before the resort in terms of accessibility? I mean, I can't even think of--

SEAN LEARY: There were maybe some accessible options for where you might be able to stay, but not really a lot for being able to get across the whole grounds. And we're bringing together all those pieces. And the nonprofit Adaptive Wilderness Within Reach, our mission there is threefold.

We're to raise money to get people out there, to lower the financial cost. We're creating spaces that are accessible. And we're working on community preparedness so that people are ready in the community to have these participants.

CATHY WURZER: Say, what's it like to work on all this with your family?

SEAN LEARY: Oh, it brings you together. I've seen my kids grow so much. I've got a 10-year-old and a seven-year-old, and it's amazing what they can accomplish. So really proud.

CATHY WURZER: You just opened, I understand. So there's always maybe little blips, but has it been going pretty well?

SEAN LEARY: It's been going very well, yes. We're very enthusiastic about the way things are going. Of course, the fall colors are just coming in. And October's booking up pretty quickly. So we'd love to see that.

We're a new resort, and we're doing a founders club special right now. So if people go online, and they can see under our gift certificates, we've got 25% off. And we're motivated to get people up here to see this magical spot. It's, again, a place for everyone, not just for folks with disabilities.

So we want to make sure that everyone gets that. All the units are built accessible, so no one has to worry about taking someone else's accessible spot. And they can come up and enjoy this with us.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Sean, before you go, because of your background in the wilderness, have you had a chance to take a spin in one of the accessible kayaks or one of the boats? And what was that like for you?

SEAN LEARY: Yeah, I was just ricing this weekend from the kayak, and it was great. It was really magical to use. And I could load the boat in and out of the launch and do it all myself.

And it was very cool to see all of that investment kind of coming full round. And we've got a bunch of people out there this week who are going to be using all the equipment. And we're excited to share it with them.

CATHY WURZER: Good for you. Hey, thank you for coming in and talking to us about this. We appreciate it. And best of luck.

SEAN LEARY: Thank you so much for your time, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Sean Leary is the co-owner of North by North Resort and Outfitters. It's a brand new, fully accessible resort based in Ely.