Just as we started wondering when trails might start reopening, they closed even more more earlier this week.
On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service announced it was closing roads and trails in the 500,000-acre Pisgah National Forest. “It is not a closure of the whole forest,” Forest Service spokeswoman Cathy Dowd told the Asheville Citizen Times. “There’s about 200 miles of road and 700 miles of trails that remain open on the Pisgah National Forest.”
We had to skip our morning walk this morning, the first since we started taking you along with us on our new Morning Walk with Joe Facebook live feature. The reason: the weather.
We’ve long advocated hiking in the rain — a light rain. Not a driving rain that spend the previous day and night rampaging across the country spawning heavy rain, thunderstorms and tornados, causing death and destruction. That’s what we woke up to this morning. Rather than take a stroll, we opted to hunker down in the bathtub instead.
We are in the cusp of a gorgeous weekend, at least here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. A cold front is moving through, dropping temperatures 20 degrees from the past several days. At least through Saturday, that means temperatures only in the low 60s under sunny skies.
The weekend is almost upon us. Not something that normally needs pointing out on a Friday, but then these aren’t normal times. But one thing does remain oddly normal: the natural world. And this weekend’s forecast lives up to the adage for the just-ended month of March: In like a lion, out like a lamb. On the weekend horizon, sunny skies, temperatures around 70, and spring thrumming along as usual.
A quick recap today of where you can’t hike, where you can hike but maybe shouldn’t, and where you should hike.
Initially, visitor centers, restrooms, camping and cabins were closed. Now, many trails are being closed as well.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The entire park, with two small exceptions, closed March 24, and will remain closed at least through April 6.
