A local non-profit wants you to enjoy a Spring Marathon, hiking 100 miles of the Upper Cumberland’s trails in 90 days.
The Cumberland County Friends of The Trails President John Conrad said the non-profit has hosted hiking marathons over the past several years. Conrad said they decided to spice it up this year.
“Over 200 people have registered so far,” Conrad said. “So I think it has proven to be quite popular. In fact one person I know of has already completed the 100 miles. They did it 10 miles a day for 10 days, so as I consider it, there is a lot of crazy people in Cumberland County.”
Conrad said the non-profit works to construct, maintain, and promote the use of walking and hiking trails within the county and that the proceeds from the challenge will go towards building new trails. Conrad said the non-profit has its sights set on building additional trails at Meadow Park.
“We already built three and a half miles of trails out at Meadow Park, which is a city-owned park,” Conrad said. “We are looking to build in the short term another mile and a half trail out there. The longer vision is to put a trail all around the lake out there, which will be about seven miles.”
Conrad said the non-profit builds trails using volunteers. Conrad said building trails is extensive work and on average costs around $10,000 to build one mile of trail.
“Volunteers mark out the roots and do the initial cutting back of vegetation using chainsaws to cut down trees and things like that,” Conrad said. “But then we actually have to hire a trail contractor with an excavator to actually cut the trail itself and remove the topsoil and the roots and the weeds and rearrange quite a lot of rocks as we build a trail.”
Conrad said the non-profit has built 50 miles of trails within Cumberland County. Conrad said over the past several years, hiking has become more popular in the county as it has given people access to the county’s natural beauty. Registration for the challenge is available until March 1.
