Saturday is National Trails Day, a day set aside for paying homage to the nation’s more than 200,000 miles of trail. In most cases, that involves grabbing a rake, a pickax, a shovel and sprucing up the trails that on the other 364 days of the year we love to death. It’s a day underscoring that without volunteer labor, our trail systems simply wouldn’t exist. Last year, for instance, 190,350 volunteer hours were logged at nearly 2,000 registered National Trails Day events. That represents roughly $3.9 million in labor that our cash-strapped federal, state and local land managers simply couldn’t afford to pay for.
Obstacles are no obstacle for these 5Ks
I wrote the following story for both the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer; it ran in both papers May 31, 2011. It runs here in an expanded form with links.
They go by names such as the Gladiator, Warrior, Rugged Maniac, Spartan and Tough Mudder. They feature obstacles ranging from mud pits covered by barbed wire to a gauntlet of dangling, live electric wires. To pitch themselves they use adjectives like “grueling” and “insane,” boast that the Navy SEALS and British special forces had a hand in their design, and feature promotional videos of paramedics carting bloodied contestants off the field of battle.
A 5k to remember
Today, I have a story in both the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer about the new breed of obstacle 5Ks — 5K races that throw up everything from a gauntlet of tires to a mud pit to a wall of flames to curtains of live electrical wires between you and the finish. They’ve become enormously popular in the past three years, drawing upwards of 25,000 participants. You can check out the story in either paper today, or return to this space tomorrow for an expanded version with links.
Show a trail you care this National Trails Day
If there were justice in this world, every bank executive and mortgage handler in the land would be forced to turn out on Saturday and participate in National Trails Day. Rationale? Federal, state and municipal land managers are facing drastic cuts as a result of recent recklessness in the financial sector, and they’re more in need than ever for help to maintain existing trails and blaze new ones. Alas, since it’s doubtful we’ll see a brigade of shovel- and mattock-wielding pinstripes flooding our forests Saturday, it’s up to the rest of us.
An afternoon on Charlotte’s longest greenway
The map told me to expect a long ride. And even though it was most recent version, it couldn’t keep up with the system’s expansion. Instead of seven miles to explore, I was getting a bonus mile and a half. At 8.5 miles, I was now getting to explore the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation greenway system’s longest stretch of interconnected trail.