“It’s so nice chatting with so many friendly faces,” Ian Mackay said to a home-turf gathered at the Dungeness River Nature Center to listen to him and author Karen Polinsky. “So many of these faces I see out on the trail all the time and throughout the community. Thank you for being here.”
Mackay, lover of the outdoors and craft beer, and frequenter of the Discovery Trail, is something of a local celebrity, as detailed in past articles in the Gazette, the Peninsula Daily News and beyond: a trailblazer, a collaborator with Apple, a Guinness World Record holder and the founder of Ian’s Ride, a nonprofit whose mission is “to promote outdoor accessibility, further the availability of accessible technology, and encourage support services for those with mobility impairment,” according to iansride.com.
And now he is the central figure of the book “Ian’s Ride, a Long-Distance Journey to Joy,” written by Polinsky and published by Mountaineer Books.
Told chronologically, in clear, simple prose with 42 short chapters, the 200-page book details the years since a catastrophic 2008 bicycle accident in Santa Cruz, Calif., left Mackay a quadriplegic, changing his life forever. Mackay moved to the Olympic Peninsula, where he connected with the mobility-impaired community.
He grew independent, took solo rides on the Discovery Trail, helped others, participated in long distance communal rides and set the 2022 Guinness World Record for the longest continuous journey in a breath-controlled wheelchair — 184 miles.
Polinsky and Mackay talked about some of the book’s central themes in an earlier interview.
“Basically, asking for help, pushing your limits and setting goals that make a meaningful life… family and community and the power of love,” said Polinsky.
Mackay said the main themes are “the power of family really always being there and bringing me back. And the power of creating community, and the outdoors — that’s where I found my solace.”
Polinsky said she put in more than 100 hours of research on this book, which other people imagined would be “exclusively about Ian and his journey, because it is so compelling, and he is such an amazing, special person.
“However, I think Ian’s feeling from the start, which I took really seriously, was, this is not just about me, this is about my family. This is about my community. This is about the power of the outdoors. And therefore I kind of made it my mission to really talk to so many different people and fold them into the story.”
“So it became much more, you know, a fabric of a whole community working together. I found that very rewarding, because to see so many people — and everybody’s going to face a crisis in their own way — I think it just gives the readers so many different people that they can identify with and so many different ways that people can rise to the occasion.
In attendance at the River Center event June 12 were some of the people closest to Mackay, including his mother, Teena Woodward, who has not only been one of Mackay’s primary supporters throughout his life, but also one of the primary voices contributing to the book.
A strong writer herself, according to Polinsky, Woodward began to chronicle Mackay’s journey on caringbridge.org as it unfolded at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. The blog made it possible for Woodward to share updates with Mackay’s loved ones without having to communicate with each one directly as she concentrated her energy on being present for her son.
Also at the River Center was Woodward’s husband Russ, who Mackay said is his wheelchair mechanic. “I go a long way in this chair, and the only reason it stays up is him,” he said.
Russ also built Mackay a smart home in 2017.
“It’s really made my life livable, and I’m so grateful,” Mackay told the audience.
In attendance as well — and selling books afterward — was Mackay’s grandmother Beverly Dawson, who he said, “is the reason we have the book today.”
Polinsky said, “It was Beverly’s driving passion to have a book about Ian and his story, including the role of his mom and the journaling of his mom, which he felt was very important.”
Dawson had become aware of Polinsky’s writing skills because of her first book, “Dungeness, a novel.” A former Bainbridge High School English teacher, she is now retired in Portland and is the author of numerous plays, many of them staged.
Mackay and Polinsky said that Dawson first contacted Polinsky to discuss the idea and then proposed it to Mackay and Woodward.
Polinsky “can paint a picture with words really, really well.,” Mackay said. “She did a really good job creating a narrative … and she was respectful throughout the process.”
The book goes into some intimate detail so the reader can get a glimpse into Mackay’s world.
At the River Center, Mackay and Polinsky told a bit about the book-writing process and Mackay shared plans for the future, including his July wedding to Celina Smith, “the love of my life,” and the debut of the documentary about his world record that he said might be out later this year and may be featured at the Toronto Film Festival or the Sundance Film Festival.
Next up will be the seventh annual “Sea to Sound,”a 74-mile, three-day, multi-modal group ride spanning the entire length of the Olympic Discovery Trail, according to iansride.com/sea-to-sound, set for Aug.22-24. Registration is open and donations are always welcome.
Polinsky and Mackay said that although different from each other in many ways, they share a love of family and the outdoors.
‘A place for reflection’
Mackay explained what draws him to the outdoors.
“There’s something grounding about being outside … there’s a tranquility … a place for reflection, a place to let your mind wander,” he said. “It’s somewhere where I can kind of revamp my creative energies, somewhere where I can just restore myself by kind of not thinking and being in that space.
“But I think there’s also just this non-stop curiosity about being out there … you’re wondering, why the heck did we get this goldfinch a month early this year? Or, why are we seeing so many more invasive plants in this area versus…?
“It just creates this curiosity, this connection with something bigger than yourself… and getting away from these non-stop reward centers of your phone.”
Polinsky said, “Not only is it a great place to be by yourself — a contemplative place — but one thing I’ve learned through this project is what a wonderful place it can be to be with other people.”
She said that going on the Sea to Sound was a profound experience for her.
“That is such an amazing experience, and I think it exemplifies Ian’s mission, which is build a community, and then go on an adventure with your community. It’s so cool. This is where you’re going to really feel the love. It’s relaxing. It makes everyone feel like they have a place in the group, and it gives you the time and space to really have some great conversations.
“I think Ian’s fully assisted three-day ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail is such a unique and actually life-changing experience for many people who have that opportunity.”
