Fitness & Ecology Trails
Encouraging Wellness And AwarenessStepping Into Vibrant Health
Up And Running!
The Vita Parcours is an innovative 1-mile fitness and ecology trail on the 33-acre Lopez School campus offering beauty, exercise, and health for the whole community. Aptly named the Lopez Island Fitness and Ecology Trail or L.I.F.E. Trail, this new community resource expands on the success of the original Zurich, Switzerland model known as Vita Parcours (Life Trail) by adding the wonders of a rare natural setting paired with stewardship of this exquisite ecological habitat.
On the Lopez Island Fitness and Ecology (L.I.F.E.) Trail, you are encouraged to create a program in harmony with your personal fitness goals. A resource for all ages and levels of ability, the Vita Parcours offers 9 exercise stations with a fitness approach that is individual and self-designed, either competitive or non-competitive.
A Trail for All Walks of LIFE
The L.I.F.E. Trail is the first official English language Vita Parcours in the U.S. open to the public 365 days a year from sunrise to sunset. The trail was built in collaboration with school and community residents under the guidance of the Vita Parcours Foundation in Marly, Switzerland.
The Vita Parcours L.I.F.E. Trail provides users with an integral and unique resource for understanding and developing personal fitness in a natural environment.
Fitness buffs seeking an athletic workout find the 9 stations exhilarating, while walkers and joggers set their own pace, stopping to enjoy the sweeping farmland and mountain views from a hand-hewn bench. Varying levels of difficulty help develop strength, stamina and range-of-motion agility. Hefty chin-up bars, balance beams, step and slalom setups, workout benches and gymnastic rings adapt to all levels. Students are able to engage in vigorous physical activity to promote and develop their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, through personal achievement on an individual or group basis.
The L.I.F.E. Trail was designed in collaboration with ecologists Russel Barsh and Madrona Murphy to support scientific research, participatory study and stewardship. Located on the south campus of school, the fitness course of 9 stations is enhanced by its route through three distinct ecosystems that includes a rare deciduous willow wetland and habitat for the endangered Island Marble Butterfly. Last seen in 1908 and presumed extinct, a few small populations were found 90 years later in the San Juans. This beautiful white and green butterfly with a marbled hind wind is only found in the San Juan Islands.
As part of their environmental studies curriculum, Lopez High School students, under the guidance of ecologists Barsh and Murphy, staked out a habitat restoration area in the meadow featuring weedy mustards that thrive in disturbed soils around farming or colonies of native vole. The stewardship program, supported in part by state funding, is located on the lush southern field of the Vita Parcours where students and community can enjoy the reintroduction of this delicate species. To learn more, visit Kwiaht: Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea www.kwiaht.org
For All Walks Of Life
People enjoy the Vita Parcours as much for its rare island habitat as for a vigorous workout. Three natural ecosystems create a beautiful backdrop for exercise, play or solitude. The first quarter mile winds through a lush deciduous woodland. Opening onto a sunny sports field, the course rounds an athletic track shared with Lopez School, winds back through a forest thicket then skirts a wide-open hay field for the final stretch.