Economic Development in Watauga County, North Carolina

The Watauga County Parks & Recreation Department offers a year-round calendar of public recreational programs available to persons of all ages and ability levels. Facilities include both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, athletic courts and fields of all descriptions, the community's 2-mile Greenway Pedestrian/Biking Trail and several public parks.

If you're more than a casual bicycle rider, try "Blood, Sweat and Gears," a 100-miler that crests Snake Mountain and benefits the Watauga County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Writing for the Charlotte Observer, columnist Stan Brennan's mini-review of the book, "It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life" by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins, provides a snapshot of the Boone area.

"Lance Armstrong, champion Tour de France cyclist and cancer survivor, says if he "ever has any serious problems again, I know that I will go back to Boone and find an answer. I got my life back on those rides."

"Armstrong had beaten advanced testicular cancer but still decided to quit racing during a rainy, windy race in Paris-Nice." Something made him change his mind, and he began training at Boone.
"Armstrong recalls: "Boone was high in the Appalachians on the route of the old Tour Du Pont, and I had fond memories of it. I had won the Tour Du Pont twice there, and I had spent many afternoons cycling and suffering on its biggest peak, Beech Mountain, which was the crucial climbing stage of the race."

"The weather was cold, raining and foggy when Armstrong returned to Boone, but he still set out on a rigorous training schedule, doing nothing but eating, sleeping and riding.

"The rides were demanding and quiet, and I rode with a pure love of the bike, until Boone began to feel like the Holy Land to me, a place I had come on a pilgrimage."

"Earlier this year (2001), Armstrong won his third consecutive Tour de France, one of only eight riders since the Tour began in 1903 to have won the race at least three times."