Pike County town begins work on new trail system

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (WYMT) - Officials in Pikeville have recently begun working on a new hiking trail as well as needed maintenance on the town’s existing trails.

Pikeville City Tourism Executive Director Paul Bowles said it is important to keep the town’s existing trails ready for use at all times, and it is exciting to begin work on the newest addition with some help from the Pikeville Fire Department.

“The fire department has been a great partner,” said Bowles. “Those guys, they’re very active, they love being outside, so when they heard that, you know, we were going to go up there to the trails, they volunteered, they jumped on board and said they wanted to be up there too and could help us with whatever we needed, so it’s been a great partnership.”

Officials said the new trail, which has not yet been named, is said to be one of the best Pikeville will have to offer.

“The trail that we’re working on now is going to be a six-mile loop,” said Bowles. “It’s going to challenge you if you’re a beginner to an expert, it’ll have elevation change, but it’ll have easy parts of it too.”

Officials also said there could be even more trails planned for the near future.

“We’ll eventually work on a bike trail and other walking trails that are out there, maybe even the Pikeville Pond, maybe we institute some trails in there,” said Bowles. “We’re even talking about downtown, how can we make downtown a trail that people can walk, know how far they’re walking, and get healthy in the process of doing it.”

Bowles said this is all an effort to get locals out of the house and get fit, while also bringing in more folks from out-of-town to take part in and enjoy the area’s beauty and trail systems.

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