Yesterday afternoon I got to experience new trail. Not new to me, new period.
Earlier this year, volunteers from the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail connected the 60 miles of MST along Falls Lake with 10 miles of trail along the Eno River through its namesake state park. The long-awaited link between Penny’s Bend to Durham’s West Point on the Eno city park penetrates an especially junglelike stretch of the Eno that required little money but a lot of sweat equity by a workforce headed by FMST volunteer Fred Dietrich.
“Did you see the bridge?” asked FMST member John Willis. “We had to haul the 400-pound support beams 100 feet, which was about 99 feet too far.”
The effort is an example of how the vast majority of our recreational trails come to be: through the dedication of volunteers like Fred, John and legions of others.
On Saturday, June 7, you can become one of those legions. June 7 is National Trails Day, a two-decade-old event sponsored by the American Hiking Society in which we celebrate our trails by hiking them, by maintaining them, by building more of them.
So far, according to the American Hiking Society, 25 NTD events are planned in North Carolina; you’ll find a list of them below. We doubt this list is complete, which is why we run it this week. If you have or know of an NTD event not included here, send us the details — or at least point us in a direction where we can find the specifics.
We’ll rerun a more complete list a week from today, on Thursday, June 5. In the meantime, leave Saturday, June 7 open. You have a date with a trail.

Mountains

Boone: Hike, Boone United Methodist Church, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Details.

Boone: The Summit: A Dynamic Hiking and Backpacking Conference for Women, Trail Dames, 3 p.m.-midnight. Details.

Chimney Rock: Guided hikes, Chimney Rock State Park, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Details.

Deep Gap: KAMPN Kleenup & Kookout, Camp Cogger, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Details.

Franklin: Wilderness hike, southern Nantahala Wilderness Area, Nantahala Hiking Club 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Details.

Gerton: Workday on Bearwallow Mountain, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, noon-3 p.m. Details.

West Jefferson: Wildflower hike, Mount Jefferson State Natural Area, 2-3:45 p.m. Details.

Spruce Pine: Overmountain Victory Trail/Hefner Gap “Freedom Hike”, Overmountain Victory Trail Association, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Details.

Todd: Workday, Elk Knob State Park, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Details.

Piedmont

Triangle

Cary: Workday, Hemlock Bluffs Natural Area, Town of Cary, 9:30 a.m.-noon. Details.

Chapel Hill: Morgan Creek Trail Phase 2 Grand Opening, Chapel Hill Parks & Recreation, 10 a.m.-noon. Details.

Durham: Hike to Fish: Beginning Fishing with a Park Ranger, Eno River State Park, 10-11:30 a.m. Details.

Durham: Workday, Eno River State Park, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Details.

Raleigh: Prairie Ridge Ecostation to William B. Umstead State Park Volksmarch Habitat Hike:, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, noon to 1 p.m. Details.

Triangle area: Falls Lake / Mountains-to-Sea Trail workday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Details.

Wake Forest: Volunteer Appreciation Day, Wake Forest Greenways Advisory Board, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Details.

Triad

Burlington: Shallow Ford Natural Area Track Trail Grand Opening, Alamance County Recreation and Parks Department, 4-5:15 p.m. Details.

Greensboro: National Trails Day Festival, Country Park, City of Greensboro, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Details.

Haw River: Guided hike, Haw River State Park, 10-11:30 a.m. Details.

Charlotte

Gastonia: Workday, Crowders Mountain State Park, 8-11:30 a.m. Details.

Lake Norman: Workday, Lake Norman State Park, 9 a.m.-noon, Details.

Matthews: Hit the Ground Running Trail Race, Colonel Beatty Park, Go Run Events, llc, 7:30 a.m. Details.

Newton: Trail construction/volunteer workday, Carolina Thread Trail, 9 a.m.-noon. Details.

Elsewhere in the Piedmont

Connelly Springs: Hike, Bike & Ride, South Mountains State Park, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Details.

Holister: Workday, Medoc Mountain State Park, 2-5 p.m. Details.