“Atlanta is home to some incredible green spaces, but they just don’t get the credit they deserve,” says Kenya Jackson-Saulters as we stride along the Atlanta BeltLine. If it gets completed on schedule, in 2030, the greenway will link up 45 neighbourhoods along a 22-mile loop, mostly comprising disused railway tracks. Helping the city to shake off its reputation as a traffic-clogged capital — also one where 75 million passengers annually surge through one the busiest airports in the world — the Atlanta BeltLine is bringing green shoots to this urban jungle. Although the snaking trail is still a work in progress, it’s already found deep roots in the community. We’re venturing along the four miles of pathway that unfurls through the Eastside. Kids wobble past on bikes, and Kenya stops to chat with a volunteer team of local office workers, tending to the wildflower banks in their lunch break. “The Atlanta BeltLine is special as it connects so many different areas. And because we’re in an urban setting, it’s offering a whole new perspective on the concept of wild,” Kenya enthuses.
I’ve joined Kenya and her partner Michelle Jackson-Saulters, co-founders of Outdoor Journal Tour, a Black female-owned hiking collective that’s tapping into
