As Year of the Trail draws to a close, it should be a time of reflection. It should be, but it’s not, for there is work left to be done.
Work in the form of hikes.
One of the many objectives of Year of the Trail, as this year has been designated by the N.C. General Assembly, was to have a trail-related event in all 100 North Carolina counties. Going into this month, 91 counties had hosted Year of the Trail events. For those of us not gifted in mental math, that leaves 9 counties to go. All of which are in more remote, rural areas of the state. Since I was hired by the state last year primarily to promote Year of the Trail in rural counties under Gov. Cooper’s Hometown Strong initiative, I’ve taken it as my goal to make sure a Year of the Trail events gets done in those 9 remaining counties.