Longing for new loop trails in the forest? Or some with more breathing room and not bumper-to-bumper with bikes, dogs and people? With public support, they’ll soon be on the way.
The U.S. Forest Service issued its final proposal for 42 new miles of trails in the Pisgah National Forest’s Grandfather Ranger District and is seeking public comment through March 26.
The “Trails for All” project aims to build sustainably constructed trails “to improve community connectivity, reduce barriers to access, and support environmental and social sustainability,” said Lisa Jennings, recreation and trails program manager for the Grandfather District, which encompasses parts of McDowell, Burke, Caldwell, Avery and Watauga counties.
Pisgah National Forest calls for 42 new miles of horse, hike, bike trails in McDowell County Karen Chávez, Asheville Citizen Times
Longing for new loop trails in the forest? Or some with more breathing room and not bumper-to-bumper with bikes, dogs and people? With public support, they’ll soon be on the way.
The U.S. Forest Service issued its final proposal for 42 new miles of trails in the Pisgah National Forest’s Grandfather Ranger District and is seeking public comment through March 26.
The “Trails for All” project aims to build sustainably constructed trails “to improve community connectivity, reduce barriers to access, and support environmental and social sustainability,” said Lisa Jennings, recreation and trails program manager for the Grandfather District, which encompasses parts of McDowell, Burke, Caldwell, Avery and Watauga counties.
Black Mountain is 9 miles from the nearest entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the Buncombe County town had something last year that the world-famous park couldn’t offer – a public bathroom.
That feature – as well as its restaurants, shops and gas stations – drew in crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic when the national park’s facilities were shuttered but millions of people still came from around the world.
According to preliminary data compiled by the National Park Service, the 469-mile parkway, which snakes across the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains in Cherokee, was the most-visited of all 423 national parks in 2020.
Asheville Citizen Times
Appalachian Trail thru-hikers – the intrepid outdoor adventurers who attempt a one-shot, end-to-end hike of the 2,190-mile trail from Georgia to Maine each year – should postpone their journeys until next year.
So says the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages and maintains the mighty trail, which runs through 14 states, including nearly 96 miles in North Carolina, because the deadly COVID-19 pandemic continues to make long-distance hikes unsafe.
Morgan Sommerville, ATC regional director, said most of the 4,000 or so hikers who begin a thru-hike each year travel northbound, and many begin the six-month journey starting in February and March at Springer Mountain, Georgia.
They say hindsight is 2020 and that is definitely true as we’re all eager to put this disaster of a year in the dumpster and light it on fire.
While many of us remember way back in January feeling like 2020 would be our year we just couldn’t predict it would be our year of high unemployment, isolation, fear, sickness and uncertainties.
All we can hope for now is that 2021 will bring an end to this pandemic and that we’ve all learned some hard lessons we can take along with us in this uncertain future.
But before we move on, The Smoky Mountain News once again takes a look back to reflect on the last year of news it’s been a doozy. Some of the headlines that have graced our pages could pass for a satire headline from The Onion, but sadly, they’re all too real. However devastating and infuriating the news has been this year, it’s still important to find a little bit of humor in the absurd.