Greetings, outdoorspeople!
Weekend forecast: Saturday; high 61, few showers south; Sunday; 65, sunshine
Recommended adventure: Learn more about Chattanooga's Moccasin Bend, the nation's first and only National Archeological District. A community effort is now underway to make the site more visitor friendly - and you can help.
Most interesting thing we recently learned: The plight of the monarch butterfly continues. This winter, the number that showed up at their Mexico resting grounds decreased by about 26%.
How we find purpose
It's been a long winter - a long 12 months, in fact.
And in an effort to stay busy (and stay home), I've collected an assortment of new hobbies.
I bought a mountain bike, which I've ridden once. I ordered a hula hoop - and learned one trick. I set a goal to hike 10 miles in a day without ever leaving my property - the challenge being not so much the distance but that my property is little more than one acre.
To cover 10 miles, I would have to walk laps around our short perimeter trail - 57 laps, to be exact, which I did last month.
Indeed, these times are a test of both mental and physical endurance.
In our new issue of Get Out magazine, we bring you stories of local people and projects finding their own way.
We feature a Chattanooga couple who turned a fixer-upper, off-road vehicle into a six-day wilderness adventure.
Meanwhile, conservationists are working to protect one million acres of forest across the Southeast.
You'll find that story below, where we take a deep dive into the initiative, examining what makes these lands so special and - more importantly - why even non-outdoorsy people should care.
It's an ambitious project, one that may span decades. But the trick with any goal is putting one foot in front of the other.
Just keep moving - even when it feels like you're going round in circles.
Brighter days are ahead.
- Sunny Montgomery, smontgomery@timesfreepress.com