Blue Ridge Parkway Challenge

The Blue Ridge Parkway Challenge is a fun-packed 12-week walking exercise program.  Participants chart daily walking mileage (please walk locally - participants are not, repeat, are not required to go the the parkway to walk) towards the goal of accumulating enough mileage to have walked the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, just about 213 miles.  Participants will check in at the Wellness Resource Center once per walk to record and chart their mileage.  This is designed to be a partnered event; participants will work in pairs toward the goal of 213 miles. If you are currently a avid walker, you can participate without a partner.

Blue Ridge parkway facts:

The Blue Ridge Parkway – known as America’s favorite drive – meanders 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia to the Great Smokey Mountains national Park in North Carolina.  The parkway follows the Appalachian Mountain chain and provides some of the most spectacular scenery in the world, ranging from 650 to 6000 feet in elevation.

A hundred species of trees, a variety of flowering shrubs and wildflowers as well as 54 different mammals and 59 species of birds live along the parkway, more than the entire European continent!

Skyline Drive connects the northernmost section of the parkway, winding along the crest of the mountains from Waynesboro northward 105 miles to Front Royal.  Developed sites along the parkway make it easy to stop, park, stretch, visit restrooms and exhibits, hike and get a bite to eat.  Lodging and campgrounds are available with opportunities to fish and view wildlife.

As a participant, more interesting information about the Blue Ridge Parkway will come your way as you delve into your journey.

You may be thinking that this challenge is insurmountable, but in any distance race or challenge the key is perseverance and once step at a time.  We start recording our mileage in Front Royal, VA and will end at the Blue Ridge Music Center, a total of 213 miles.