Source: Flickr user prodigy130
One Sunday every month, always after church, the Breathitt County Hiking Club meets outside the public library in Jackson, Kentucky to caravan to a trailhead. On an afternoon in early June, Stephen Bowling, the library’s executive director, eagerly waited inside the glass doors for the group to arrive for their trip to Copperas Creek Trail in Red River Gorge, about 40 minutes away.
As people trickled in, Bowling happily fielded questions about the hike. “How long is it again?” asked Phyllis Light, a 74-year-old wearing clean white Skechers. Her friend Doris Newton, an outspoken middle-aged woman who works at the local hardware store, hopped out of the car with her dog. “What’s the difficulty level?” Newton asked as her husband took a drag of his cigarette and laughed about how he wore swim shoes instead of hiking boots.
Bowling, a 45-year-old father with a toothy grin, has been hosting these monthly field trips since the beginning of the year. An avid backpacker, he has hiked hundreds of miles on the Appalachian Trail and elsewhere in the Southeast, an experience he’s determined to share with others. Bowling’s new hiking club, sponsored by the Breathitt County Public Library, is his latest effort to get people in this rural town out into nature…
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