In 2002, the town of Canton’s Board of Alderman approved a conservation easement for the Rough Creek watershed draining parts of the Newfound Mountains, which the town owns. Now, they have endorsed a trail to be built for hiking and mountain biking through the watershed.
Plans call for a 7+ mile path that travels from the pristine stream at lower elevations to over 4,400 feet in elevation at the top. If approved, the trail will be a sustainable, low-impact design and built by one of the region’s and nation’s top trail building companies, Trail Dynamics. The new trail – like all trails – will encourage healthy exercise and activity by area residents, take pressure off of other area trails that receive heavy use, allow for educational opportunities, and draw more people to the small town, enriching its formerly tourism-lacking economy. And this represents a fine opportunity to build a trail correctly from the start, that will not compromise water and habitat quality, as a regional model for opening new and sustainable recreational trails on public lands. With the folks at Trail Dynamics doing the work, we can be sure that those goals will not be compromised.
More details can be found in this article in the Haywood County News.
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