Parkway group

seeks trail funding
By Scott Nicholson

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is playing rough, and hikers and nature lovers stand to benefit.

The foundation is launching a campaign to improve a popular outdoors area on Grandfather Mountain.

Rough Ridge has been hailed as a historic, geologic and scenic landmark, and the fund-raising effort is designed to allow more people to appreciate the public treasure.

“It’s one of the most important aspects of the Blue Ridge Parkway and gives visitors access to a different view through a different windshield,” said Houck Medford, foundation director.

Rough Ridge is part of the national park system, and the hike across the crest offers some of the parkway’s most spectacular views. Medford said the three highest peaks of Grandfather Mountain tower above while, thousands of feet below, the western Piedmont reaches to the horizon. Cars on the viaduct are visible from the craggy slopes.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is establishing the Rough Ridge Trail Fund for construction materials to replace and enhance the protective boardwalk and to ensure ongoing protection for the trail.

The campaign goal is $25,000. The special fund established by the foundation will support the work of the National Park Service to keep the area pristine and awe inspiring, Medford said. New access and view points are planned as well.

Medford said private support was important in augmenting public funding of the park. “Whenever money for trail maintenance shows up as ‘soft money,’ it often is shifted to other projects,” Medford said.

“Unfortunately, trails are way down the list on priorities. They do their best to take care of the road first.”

A donor recognition board is in place to display the names of those who make gifts to the fund and special recognition is displayed for gifts in honor or memory. The foundation will also recognize donors on their Web site and in the annual report.

Bill and Judy Watson, local seasonal residents and naturalists, will lead a hike on Saturday morning, June 13, from Rough Ridge to Beacon Heights to celebrate one of the Blue Ridge Parkway ‘s most famous trail segments.

Hike registration is limited to 14. The hike wil begin in the Rough Ridge parking area at 10 a.m.
More information on the hike and fund-raising project is at www.brpfoundation.org/rough_ridge.php.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is also helping oversee an obesity-prevention grant. The grant of $200,000 over two years is for the development of a pilot program that is expected to eventually extend the entire length of the 469 mile Blue Ridge Parkway national park.

The goal is to engage children and their families in activities that increase physical activity, improve nutritional choices, and increase awareness of the Blue Ridge Parkway as a recreational resource.