A record 509 walkers took part in today’s Colin Hudson Great Train Hike with a historic number of more than 350 people finishing the grueling course of 26 miles from Independence Square to Belleplaine.
Although it was not a race but a hike to perpetuate the memory of inventor and ecologist Colin Hudson, serious walkers left at five o’clock this morning with Shawn Grandison wrapping up the hike in five hours 43 minutes just before his partner Stephen Bignall. The first woman to reach Belleplaine was June Boyce who finished after just over six hours.
Hudson not only invented the cane harvester but he was reknowned for hiking twice a day every Sunday while he was alive. He also established the Great Train Hike which followed the path of the long gone train moving from Independence Square, Carrington Village, The Belle, Buckley, Carrington, Sunbury, Three Houses, Fortesque, Consett Bay, Bathsheba, Bath, East Coast to Belleplaine.
One of the chief motivators of the current Hike, William Gollop was ecstatic about the numbers of new and repeat hikers. He expressed thanks to Butterfield whose sponsorship of the Hike during the past 15 years has seen tremendous growth taking place. Visitors such as David and Ann Ashberry out of Canada were only a few of those persons who arrange their holidays to coincide with the Great Train Hike.
Marketing Officer of Butterfield Nicola Greaves was pleased with the response and interest.
