North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation begin to plan 100-mile Wilderness Gateway State Trail
Trail planners at the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation are at work on a 100-mile hiking trail called the Wilderness Gateway State Trail that will connect Chimney Rock State Park with South Mountains State Park. There will also be a paddle trail across the Henry Fork and Jacob Fork rivers. The plan is for the trail to have multiple access points so people can come and go for the day or hike the entire trail continuously.
The state parks department will now hold a series of three meetings and invites the public to come view the competed Wilderness Gateway State Trail feasibility study and maps of the proposed trail corridor. The drop-in style meetings will be held Jan. 14 at the Rutherfordton County Administration Office, Jan. 15 at South Mountains State Park, and Jan. 16 at Catawba County Government Center.
View the full story here: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2020/01/13/nc-wilderness-gateway-plan-long-distance-hiking-trail/2848720001/
75 acres at “Tri-Corner” area preserved
The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee announced in a Facebook post that they have co-purchased 75 acres of mountain land in Johnson County, TN. In collaboration with The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy plans to transfer the land to public ownership, and it will eventually become a piece of the Cherokee National Forest.
The Nature Conservancy calls the property a “small but critical in-holding within the Cherokee National Forest.” The land is in the “Tri-Corner” area of the state, where Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina meet, and it overlooks the North Carolina Pond Mountain Game Lands.
Survey finds majority of U.S. adults are less active in the winter
If you’re finding it hard to motivate yourself to move this winter, you’re not alone. A survey conducted by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) found that more than half of adults (58%) say they are less active during the dark and cold winter months. People living in the Northeast, Midwest and South report being less active during the winter than those living in the West.
A full 20% of those that report being less active during the winter say that they are “much less active.” Winter isn’t a time of inactivity for everyone, though. Over a quarter of the people surveyed (27%) said they are more active during the wintertime.
Learn more here: https://www.nrpa.org/publications-research/park-pulse/do-not-let-your-activity-level-dip-with-the-temperatures/
