AIRPORT’S ECONOMIC IMPACT REACHES NEW HEIGHTS. PAGE 15
DOT road program: paving the way to disaster? PAGE 7
SPARTANBURGJOURNAL JOURNAL
Spartanburg, S.C. • Friday, October 5, 2012 • Vol.8, No.40
THE ART AND SCIENCE OF HOME BREWING PAGE 21
Checking your swing with your smartphone PAGE 20
FEET on the FOOTHILLS
The view from Table Rock Mountain along the Foothills Trail.
By CHARLES SOWELL | staff
The Foothills Trail, ranked in 2010 as one of the top 10 distance trails in the country, is considered by many to be the crown jewel of the Upstate’s growing hiking trail system. Thousands use part, or all, of the Foothills every year. Greenville plans to capitalize on the unique character of the trail to promote tourism with attractions like the Reedy Center in downtown Greenville and the Blue Wall Center to be located at Old Camp Spearhead just off Highway 11. This snaking, 77-mile-long footpath,
Thousands of hikers every year are discovering the crown jewel in the Upstate’s trail system
which meanders along that part of the Blue Ridge Escarpment known as the Blue Wall, was started in 1975 to link Table Rock and Oconee state parks. Today it is possible to walk from Jones Gap to Mt. Katahdin in Maine using the Foothills Trail as a major link to the legendary Appalachian Trail, said
CHARLES SOWELL / STAFF
John Park, chairman of the Board of the Foothills Trail Conference. Eventually, when the Palmetto Trail system is finished, it will be possible to hike from the South Carolina coast to Canada using a growing web of trails that reflect hiking’s exploding popularity. It is one of the great paradoxes of hiking that both the Foothills and Appalachian trails are maintained and run by conferences of volunteers who do the heavy lifting in keeping the trails open. There is no corporate sponsorship: TRAIL continued on PAGE 8
Films with a Spanish flavor PAGE 21