be found in the town of Fountain Inn,
South Carolina, still farther south.
When I visit the trail the first weekend
in May, it is crowded with walkers, run-
ning-club members in matching T-shirts
and cyclists of every age, all pacing them-
selves along the path, which offers views
of riverbanks lush with hardwood forest
laced by leafy green vines. Some cyclists
ride in athletic gear, vigorously hunched
over their handlebars. At the other end
of the spectrum, many walk-
ers simply stroll in their
weekend attire: sandals,
T-shirts, jeans and sun-
glasses. As the trail
enters downtown,
it threads through
Falls Park, where
the nation’s only
natural urban
waterfall tumbles
over tawny brown
rocks at the park’s
center. Falling from
a powder blue sky, light
glints off its current.
“Most people don’t like to go
to the gym,” says David Owens, a librar-
ian at a local college. He’s out for a walk
on the Falls Park trail section with his
friend Morgan Borja, a courier at a nearby
law firm. “This is a much more fun way to
get exercise. It’s so much more beautiful.”
As Owens and Borja recount their
weekly usage of the trail, they shoot
glances toward a festival setting up on
the lawn behind them. Band members
are tuning their guitars, and conversa-
tion is everywhere as people mill among
the booths of food vendors. The swelling
crowd shouldn’t come as any surprise,
given that the most recent study of the
trail found that a half-million people used
it in 2012–2013, up 20 percent from
the year before. Greenvillians are already
speculating that the numbers will be even
higher in 2014–2015.
“On lunch break at my office, liter-
ally everyone is out on the trail to get the
blood flowing,” Borja says. “It’s nice that
there are restaurants and things to do
along the
trail too.
There are
plenty of rea-
sons to get out
and use it.”
As its name sug-
gests, the GHS Swamp
Rabbit Trail owes much of its
success to the sponsorship of Greenville
Health System, a local hospital network
that has focused increasingly on promot-
ing general wellness in the region in addi-
tion to treating acute illnesses and injuries.
In 2007, GHS recognized the trail as a
rare opportunity to boost this endeavor.
The network pledged $100,000 per year
for 10 years to develop and market the
GHS Swamp Rabbit, an effort to reduce
the Greenville County population’s physi-
cal inactivity and all the risks associated
with it—which are substantial. Analysis
by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) found inactivity linked
to more than 9 million cases of cardio-
vascular disease, resulting in approxi-
mately $24 billion in medical costs.
Other risks include diabetes and obesity.
These issues are particularly urgent in the
United States, since it is estimated that
48 percent of adults here don’t meet the
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services’ recommended levels of activity.
“Being healthy doesn’t have to be
expensive when you have parks and trails
right outside your door,” says Rebecca
Cooper, GHS community and customer
relations coordinator. “The greenway
opens up an avenue to fitness for families
that might not have had access in the past,
or to people who wouldn’t have felt safe
exercising outdoors before.”
Left to right:William Houston,
Cameron Townes and LaQuan Priest
cam terwilliger
ian curcio
rails
to
trails
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fall.15
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