DALTON, Ga. — Russell Jones logged 434 miles last fall and walked across all 159 counties in Georgia.
A design technician with North Georgia Electric Membership Corp., Mr. Jones didn’t take off work for the journey. His trip was a virtual one with Walk Georgia, a program sponsored by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.
Walk Georgia is an eight-week online program that takes place in the spring and fall, said Janie Reeves, family and consumer science agent for the Whitfield County Extension Office. Residents sign on at www.walkgeorgia.org to participate and log information about physical activity.
All types of activities — from hunting to gardening — count.
“If you were doing something rather than walking, you would put your time in and then the computer converts it to virtual miles,” Ms. Reeves said. “It enables participants to do a virtual walk across Georgia. For instance, you could say, ‘I walked to Savannah and back.'”