National Trails Day®…at Roan Mountain State Park!
It’s that time again—preparations for a very special Saturday in June are underway! And as always, ParksbyNature is so excited about American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day®, which falls on June 7th this year.
It’s a big one: National Trails Day® is the country’s largest celebration of trails. America’s 200,000 miles of trails give us great things: opportunities for recreation, exercise, exploration, learning, and reflection—all of which contribute to our health and well-being.
All of these amazing benefits would be lost to us all, though, without the hard work of thousands of yearly volunteers who spend time building and maintaining these trails. Honoring such important work is part of why AHS created this holiday to begin with.
So, to celebrate how important the U.S.’s trail system is, and how thankful we are to the people who helped to create it, National Trails Day® is a day where anyone (and we mean anyone!) can host an event! Events can include a number of activities, things like: hiking (of course!), biking, paddling, horseback riding, trail running, birdwatching, or volunteer work, like cleaning up trails. Registering your event with AHS will definitely help expose it nationally, and you can find examples of all sorts of events here.
Since that exhaustive list of events may have overwhelmed you, we thought we’d take some time to pump you up by focusing on one exciting event, happening at the lovely Roan Mountain State Park in Tennessee.
If you’re in the Roan Mountain area, head there for National Trails Day®! You can participate in the Diamond Dash Trail Run: an adventurous 5K+ run that starts at 9am (registration at 8:30!) and goes through noon. If running for joy in honor of your favorite trails (Forest Road Trail, New Bike Trail, Riverside Trail) isn’t enough incentive to check it out, know that prizes will be given out to the top finishers!
After the race, you should stick around to enjoy the rest of what Roan Mountain State Park has to offer! If you’re in need of a tour guide, be sure to check out one of our apps: the completely free Pocket Ranger®! Pocket Ranger® apps can tell you everything you want to know about a state’s state parks: we have GIS and GPS technology, cached maps, and loads of information about everything to do with every state park.
You can download the Tennessee app at http://www.PocketRanger.com, to aid you in exploring Roan Mountain State Park! There are even features that allow you to save exact trails, and share them with friends. What could be more perfect for this special holiday?
Happy Almost-National Trails Day®!
Article by ParksByNature Network