To Survive The Pandemic, Vermonters Took A Hike

Use of the West River Trail in Brattleboro more than doubled this fall. (Howard Weiss-Tisman/VPR)

The reports from earlier this year are in, and all across the state, the number of people using Vermont’s hiking trails was way up.

Whether it was the Long Trail, Vermont’s State Parks, or developed trails in our towns and cities, people flocked to the outdoors during the early months of the pandemic.

Before COVID-19 hit, Robert Peeples used to get most of his exercise at a gym in Brattleboro.

“I don’t know, I was just more interested in the social aspect of being at the gym,” Peeples said one recent afternoon. “Because it fulfilled two needs: one, to get exercise, and two, to have some social connection with people.”

Public gyms, of course, were some of the first businesses to shut down in the early days of the pandemic.

So at a time when Peeples says he was craving exercise and social connection, his routine was upended.

Peeples has lived Brattleboro for years, but he’d never heard of the West River Trail, a developed walkway along an old railroad bed right outside of downtown.

Read the rest of this story at VPR’s website.