HAMBURG, Iowa (KMTV)
- Video shows ... Waubonsie State Park in the Loess Hills during winter. It's a sunny day and approximately 200 hikers of various ages and abilities showed up to hike on the first day of the year.
- First Day Hikes are a nationwide effort by state parks to get the public exercising and connecting with nature. Matt Moles, the park manager at Waubonsie, says it's a major way parks engage with communities.
- Read more about First Day Hikes: stateparks.org
- Learn about Friends of Waubonsie: Facebook.com/waubonsiefriends
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Roughly 200 people showed up for a First Day Hike at Wauonsie State Park in Fremont County, Iowa. I’m your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel and I went along for the three-mile hike in the Loess Hills .
Park Manager, Matt Moles: “This is a great event. We love doing this. It’s a great community that we’ve kind of built here...”
‘First Day Hikes’ is an initiative led by state parks across the United States. it’s a way to start the new year with exercise and connection to nature.
Matt Moles is the park manager at Waubonsie
“It’s a community event so people kind of cheer each other along and help each other through it.”
Katrina Markel (recording herself): “... so, I’m already a little winded and we’re probably less than a mile into the hike. But this is fun and it’s beautiful out here and I don't think I realized, even in winter, how pretty it can be.”
Moles: “We do events like this to kind of introduce to that concept too, that ‘Hey, this isn’t that bad’. Introduce it at a comfortable scale. There’s safety in numbers and some things are easier when you’re doing them together, I feel like.”
Tarah Berry is from nearby Riverton, Iowa and brought her family…
Berry: “I think it’s very important for people to realize what mother nature has given us and to love it and get out and explore it.”
Moles recognized a lot of the hikers as locals, but youngster Anya Tesch — who already seems like a pro — was visiting from Rochester, Minnesota.
Tesch: “It was my first time being here, but I really like it.”
There’s no hunting in Waubonsie, but hunters do frequent properties near the park. Moles says that visitors to natural areas should always be aware of park rules when hiking and recommends wearing high-visibility clothing.
He wants the public to support state parks. First Day Hikes, he says, are a good first step.
“The uniqueness of this landscape, Waubonsie’s big. It encompasses a little over 2,000 acres of natural area … there’s never a lack of interest here and it’s just a beautiful place. So, those of us that work here always feel really lucky.”
