Our plan for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend was to take a group of backpackers to the mountains for three days on the AT between Max Patch and Hot Springs. The goal was to give three-season backpackers a taste of winter. But when the forecast suddenly shifted and called for temperatures near zero and more than just an inch or two of snow, it was time to rethink our plan. Since that wasn’t what this group had signed up for or was properly geared up to do, we postponed the trip.
GetOut! Your Nudge for Weekend Adventure
We’ve got a good, seasonal, winter-like weekend on tap — temperatures in the 40s, mostly sunny skies — which means lots of opportunity for good, seasonal, winter-like fun. Such as …
The Loooong Hike — Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Saturday, 10 a.m., Eno River State Park, Durham. 8-mile hike. Cold weather makes for great long hikes — so much incentive to keep moving. And such a scenic hike, passing the Eno Quarry, snuggling up to rocky sections of the Eno, gaining some elevation, passing two waterfalls, and maybe fording a stream or two where Florence wiped out a bridge. Free, but pre-registration required by calling 919.383.1686. Learn more here.
A Winter Wild time Hiking off-trail at Hanging Rock
I knew I’d found a kindred spirit in Jim Plant when, during my interrogation of his intimate knowledge of Hanging Rock State Park, he said, “But then, I prefer to go off-trail.” Jim and fellow Friends of the Sauratown Mountains members Regina Rollins and Sarah Werner were standing on a rock outcrop with GetHiking!’s Alison Watta and me, surveying a vast stretch of undeveloped land in the 7,000-acre state park north of the Triad.
GetOut! Your Nudge for weekend adventure
It’s another weird weekend forecast where Saturday looks good, Sunday not so much. With that in mind, a recommendation or three:
Basin Hike, Sunday, 11 a.m., Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Kure Beach. One of the coolest 1-mile trails around, taking you over the dunes, through maritime forest and over a salt marsh. Call 910.458.5798 to reserve a spot.
Layer up and Get OuT
On Saturday morning’s GetHiking! hike at Umstead State Park, half the number of hikers who signed up showed up. No mystery there: it was cold.
What is a mystery is why so many hikers let a little thing like freezing temperatures keep them off the trail. As we may have mentioned (just last week, in fact), we love a winter hike: among other things, there are fewer people, fewer bugs, and it’s blissfully quiet. Yet too many people miss out because they don’t know how to dress. Let’s solve that problem here and now.