Since entering the 9 to 5 world I’ve discovered that wanting to and being able to are two very different things.

Since 2013 I’ve run a weekly Sunday hiking program, divided into the seasons. Each season consisted of 12 weekly hikes. Not a big thing to me, even when I was doing both a Sunday morning and and Sunday afternoon hike. Turns out, though, that not everyone, even the most devout hiker, can commit one Sunday every week to hiking. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure that out.

But I have, and I think I have a solution: a program that gets you out twice a month, once on a Sunday, once on a Tuesday evening (or “night,” as will soon be the case). A guaranteed day hike once a month, a shorter midweek evening hike once a month as well. Less a commitment, more something to look forward to. Here’s how it works:

Sunday hikes

The first Sunday of the month we gather at a different trailhead to hike 5 miles or so. Those trails are:

• October 4  Horton Grove Nature Preserve, Bahama, 5 miles. A GetHiking! favorite, this Triangle Land Conservancy property north of Durham is good in any season, but especially in autumn, where a rich mix of hardwood canopy and understory gets an early start on fall color.

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  November 1 Cane Creek Mountain Natural Area: Peach Orchard Trailhead, Snow Camp, 5 miles. This is the third area of Cane Creek to open in six years. A mix of hardwood hiking, including a nice ridgeline run.

• December 6  Butner Game Lands: Flat River Access, Bahama, 5 miles. Part of the 40,000-acre Butner Game Lands located along the north shore of Falls Lake, we hike the Brickhouse Road parcel, which includes wide open stretches, ponds, and encounters with the Flat River and Falls Lake.  
• December  27 Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake, DH-R,S Redwood Road to Red Mill Road, Durham, 6 miles. A mix of forest and meadow, this hike includes a brush or two with Falls Lake, an old railroad trestle, a long-abandoned barn. Our favorite Winter Hike along Falls Lake.

Thanksgiving Friday

• November 27 Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake, DH-H, Shinleaf Recreation Area, Wake Forest, 6 miles. Duck in and out of several coves, disappear into upland hardwood forests, catch good views of Falls Lake on this out-and-back hike.

Evenings

• September 8 — Brumley Forest North, Hillsborough. 3 miles. Sunset: 8:35 p.m., twilight ends: 9:03. p.m.. A mix of meadows, ponds and mature forest make ideal features for enjoying sunset.

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  October 13 — Pennys Bend Nature Preserve, Durham. 3.2 miles. Sunset 6:44 p.m., twilight ends: 7:08 p.m. A lollipop loop that goes out along the Eno River, returns, in part, through a Piedmont prairie.

• November 10 —  Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake: Dayhike Section M, Durham County. 3 miles. Sunset: 5:13 p.m., Twilight ends: 5:39 p.m.. We hike west on the MST through one of the more mature forests the trail encounters along Falls Lake. There’s a small waterfall a mile in.
• December 8 — Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake, Dayhike Section T, 3 miles. Durham. Sunset: 5:13 p.m., Twilight ends: 5:38 p.m.. A hike we recently rediscovered after a long absence, we begin at Red Mill Road and hike west on the MST, mostly through bottomland forest until a climb takes us to our turnaround and a bluff overlooking the Eno River. 

It’s a good mix of trails, a good mix of times to hike, a good way to make sure you get your hiking fix this fall.

Learn more and sign up to join us here.

The post Get your Fall Hikes in with GetHiking! appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

October is almost upon us, which for hikers is good in oh-so-many ways. With one possible exception. 

While the cooler temperatures, sunny skies, and fall color all make for great hiking, there’s one drawback: shorter days. Consider: at the start of this month the sun didn’t set until 7:44 p.m. Come Saturday, the last day of the month, it will set at 7:01. By mid-October, the sun will call it a day at 6:41 p.m. Doesn’t leave much time for after-work time on the trail.

Or does it?

Notice I referred to October being ideal “With one possible exception.” Possible, because not everyone needs sunlight to hike. Including you.

When daylight begins disappearing earlier and earlier, we don’t let it keep us off the trail. We simply grab a torch like townsfolk of old and head into the night. Though in our case the torch is a headlamp, the objective, adventure.

Hiking at night offers some special rewards not found during the day. This type of hiking calls for different levels of concentration, as you focus on a world limited by an orb of light. As you scan for solid footing this problem-solving aspect of hiking improves both body and mind. You can tune in to the sounds of night life, which is not the same as the sounds of daytime critters (more owls than warblers, more raccoons than squirrels). And if you pause and look up, you can see the glories of the night sky (pausing is key; continue hiking while looking at the stars and it will ended badly). It’s a special place, the night world, and it is one well worth exploring.

We get that night hiking isn’t for everyone. If you’re hopelessly scared of the dark or have very poor night vision, for instance, you might want to pass. But for the rest of you open to the concept, we have some tips.

And if you like the idea of night hiking but not alone, you’re in luck (provided you live in the Triangle area). Our GetHiking! Fall 2023 Night Hike Series begins Oct. 11. More information on that weekly series and how to sign up is at the end.

Now, our tips:

• A headlamp. This is a must. Flashlights, work, sure, but you really want to keep your hands free. You can get a decent one for as little as $15; note that LEDs cast a more hike-friendly light. Be sure to pack both extra batteries and a spare light (a little pen light will do should you need to change out your headlamp batteries).
• Pick short hikes to start. Night hiking takes some getting used to. Your world is confined to the glow of your headlamp, and it takes some concentration to focus on such a limited portion of the trail. Surprisingly, it can be a sensory overload, as your other senses tune in to the world beyond the scope of your light. So don’t overstay on your first outing.
• Hike trails you’ve hiked in daylight. Even though it’s dark, familiarity is a huge plus. You’ll be amazed at how things you didn’t think you noticed during the day will pop out as key markers of where you are on the trail.
• Hike by your feet. It takes a bit more effort to scout out the blazes at night rather than in the day. The best way to tell whether you’ve wandered off the beaten path is if your boots are suddenly sinking into soft, untrodden leaf litter. Backtrack and seek out firm footing.
• Bundle up. Nighttime is cooler than day, of course. Counter the chill with one more layer than you think you’ll need; you can always shed a layer later.
• Don’t hike alone. I do a lot of soloing, but not at night.
• Again, take extra batteries. If your light goes out, you’re really in the dark.
• Again, take a backup light. Even a $5 keychain light can be a lifesaver if your main torch goes out. (Ever try to change batteries in the dark?)
• Take a map and compass.* You should already have these in your daypack, but make extra sure you have them at night.
• Take water and snacks. Just because it’s dark doesn’t mean you can’t get dehydrated. And hiking in the cool air while concentrating on the trail will burn some calories; you’ll be glad to have the extra fuel.
• Appreciate the night sky. Because that’s one big reason you’re hiking at night!
• Take a cell phone, just in case. Besides, most phones have a flashlight function that could save you in a pinch.

Note that most trails on public lands are closed from dusk until dawn. That includes some state parks and nearly all municipal and county trails. National forests typically don’t have hours, nor do lands managed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

This fall and winter, embrace the night. Take a hike.

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GetHiking! Fall 2023 Night Hike Series 

It’s not safe (and it can be a little scary) to hike by yourself at night. So join our GetHiking! Fall 2023 Night Hike Series, which begins Oct. 11 and runs through Nov. 14. We hike midweek, usually on Wednesday, starting at 6:30 p.m. and ending around 8 p.m. The hikes are leisurely paced, include stops to enjoy the night sky, and are all around 3 miles. Cost is $75, and includes 7 hikes in the Triangle area and our GetHiking! Guide to Hiking at Night. Plus, each week on the Monday preceding the hike you’ll get an eguide for that week’s hike that includes a map, trail description and more.

Learn more and sign up to join us here.

The post Fall on the trail is even better with a night hike appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

From an astronomical standpoint, fall doesn’t begin until around 9 p.m. on September 22. That would be the autumnal equinox, that magical day when we have as many hours of daylight as dark. 

In the psychic realm, however, fall begins with the passing of Labor Day, the traditional end of summer. Goodbye pool parties and cookouts, hello fleece and football. The trouble with the psychological version is that the heat tends to overstay its welcome, lounging about into mid-September, into late September, into October. Mentally, you’re ready for changing leaves and a chill heading out the front door. In reality, you’re still in flip-flops and shorts. 

And so it goes, until that one day, usually in early to mid-October, when you head out the door one morning and — whoa! I need a coat. We may hit another day or two in the low 80s, but it’s pretty much 70s, then 60s, with the occasional “high” of 50 thrown into the mix. For the avid explorers among us, the cold air heats up our hiking genes. We want to get out and go long, to get our heart pumping, to savor the cool and quiet of fall. And there are so many great places in our part of the world to do just that.

In the Piedmont, for instance, the avid among us will ramp it up after Labor Day, the lingering 90-degree day or two be danged. By mid-October, we’re in mid-season form. Alas, that’s about when the promise of cool, colorful fall weather starts to come true, luring the the masses as well. When they’re headed through the front gate, we need to be hitting the trailheads off the roads less traveled. For instance:

• Pilot Mountain State Park, Pinnacle. In 2019, when this post first appeared, the park’s website this time of year often warned of a 30-minute wait simply to park in the main, mountain-top lot. Today, on a fall weekend you can’t even drive to the top on a fall weekend, you have to take a shuttle from the base. But if you know about the park’s secondary entrances, there’s no trouble parking and hiking straight from your car. Say, from the Pinnacle Hotel Road access, which feeds the Mountain Trail at the base of the mountain, or the Boyd Nelson Road Access, where you hike beneath stately hardwoods on the Pilot Creek Trail (which connects with the Mountain Trail, as well as the Grindstone Trail, which will take you to the top).
• Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. More parking may not result in a 30-minute wait to park, but it does means more people. But you’ll find nary a soul at the Flinchum Road Access, where the 3.6-mile Indian Creek Trail quietly escorts you to the park’s Visitor Center (where you can sneak past the throngs heading up to Hanging Rock and instead take the 4.2-mile loop to the quieter viewscape on Moore’s Knob.
• Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Umstead is among the most visited state park in North Carolina. That’s especially true come the cool, colorful days of October. Cars park out the Harrison Avenue entrance back to the I-40 entrance ramp, and can be found helter-skelter on either side of the entrance off Glenwood Avenue. Psst! The Lake Crabtree neighborhood entrance is where the action ain’t. Hike in the bike & bridle trail to the less trod segments of the Company Mill and Sycamore trails in the middle of the park.
• Crowders Mountain State Park, Gastonia. Shuttle buses? Please. The Boulders Access has fewer visitors and you can pick up the Ridgeline Trail and hike into another state (South Caroilina). How’s that for escape?

They’re eager for fall hiking as well in Charlottesville, at the base of Shenandoah National Park.

“The cooler mountain temperatures make for great hiking days, plus there’s no bugs,” says GetHiking! Charlottesville Hike Organizer Pepper Ernst.. “Also, the changing leaves are beautiful and as they fall the trails take on a new look as views that didn’t exist in the summer open up: a ridgeline hike that was a green tunnel in the summer can evolve into 360-degree, long-range views in the fall.”

Two of our favorite mountain destinations in early fall: 

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  South Mountains State Park, less than an hour and a half from much of the Charlotte area, offers one of the closest mountain-like experiences to the Queen City. It also offers a good opportunity for solitude: most visitors to South Mountains, with more than 18,000 acres North Carolina’s largest State Park, don’t make it past High Shoals Falls, about a mile in; with more than 40 miles of trail, that leaves a lot of backcountry to your lonesome.

• Panthertown Valley near Cashiers may offer the most scenic variety of any spot in the state: mountaintop views, multiple waterfalls, mountain creeks and vast stands of pines, all in about 10,000 acres.

Remember, too, that you’re welcome to sign up for trips in GetHiking! Meetups outside your region. Our weekly enewsletter keeps you up on who’s hiking where. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so by simply emailing joe@getgoingnc.com.

Fall is almost here. Get ready to hike!

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GetHiking! Meetups

Here’s a rundown of our GetHiking! Meetups. Feel free to join one or all!

North Carolina

GetHiking! Charlotte

GetHiking! Triad

GetHiking! Triangle

GetBackpacking!

GetExploring! Greenville

Virginia

GetHiking! Charlottesville

GetHiking! Virginia Beach  

Plan a plan for fall hiking

If you missed last week’s post, “Fall hiking: a month-by-month approach,” check it out. We offer advice on how get the most from the fall hiking season. Check it out here.

The post Fall is nigh! Time to ramp up your hiking appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

I reserve Wednesday mornings for scouting; I’ll elaborate shortly, in a post from 2018. As a lead-in, I’ll highlight one of the reasons I scout trail, the reason I was out this morning on the Hanging Rock Trail at Hollow Rock Nature Park in Durham, then on trail in an adjoining section of Duke Forest.  

Sunday, we have a hike scheduled on about 5 miles of trail originating in Hollow Rock. Since I hadn’t hiked the trail in a couple years, I needed to check it out before leading a group — two, actually. Specifically, I was out to make sure …

1. … the route was open. Trails can close for a variety of reasons, especially in Duke Forest, a research forest consisting of more than 7,000 acres in three counties. Sensitive project underway? Trail closed. The forest also closes for wildlife thinning (usually weekdays in the fall) from time to time. Finding: the route was open.
2. … there was no downfall or other obstructions making passage difficult. A trail could have recent storm damage and still be open. However, it might take some gymnastic maneuvering to get through. Finding: no storm-related obstacles.
3. … the trail wasn’t flooded or mucky. The trail spends most of its time along New Hope Creek, in a floodplain. Though it hasn’t been rainy of late, it still needed checking out. Finding: a damp spot or two, but mostly dry.
4. … the one creek crossing was passable. There’s a feeder creek a mile and a half in that typically has water. In summer, there’s a crossing a hundred yards upstream that’s dry enough to cross. This time of year, it’s iffy. Finding: the crossing was iffy, but that proved irrelevant because the trail flunked test No. 5 —
5. … the trail was as I remembered it. Parts of it were, but somehow I’d blocked out the not long, but frequent rocky stretches that were surprisingly technical — and in one instance steep. In this particular hike series, folks are looking for a nice, 5-mile-or-so ramble in which they can chat and enjoy the scenery, not one that demands their constant attention. Finding: Find another hike.

Which I did, one more in keeping with the spirit of this group. 

That’s the story from this morning’s scouting trip. Now, on to a look at scouting in general, taken from a post originally appearing Dec. 6, 2018.

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Today is a scouting day. Of my many tasks as a hiking guide, scouting the trail in advance is among my favorite. If I’m leading on a trail I haven’t hiked in a year or longer, I go out beforehand and hike it. I like to make sure the trail is passable, that a hurricane hasn’t laid a stand of trees across the trail, that recent rain hasn’t turned a key crossing into a Class III rapid, that—in the case of a National Forest—the trail hasn’t been closed for logging or another form of resource development. As a guide, I don’t like surprises when trying to get hikers from Point A to Point B safely.

For hikes we do in state parks, nature conservancies, municipal parks, the element of surprise is low, even before a scouting trip. Most land managers post trail disruptions on their websites. Even the USDA Forest Service posts advisories on its more heavily traveled trails. Additional pre-hike insight comes from websites such as alltrails.com and hikingupward,com, where hikers sometimes leave comments on recent trail conditions. 

It’s a different story, though, when you’re hiking the trails less traveled, and the trails that don’t exist at all.

Scouting off trail

Trails that aren’t officially trail are what we’re focusing on in a series of Winter Wild hikes. They may start on established trails, but they won’t stay there for long. For the most part, we’ll stick to game trails and long-abandoned wagon tracks to explore the hidden human history and natural gems of the state parks and national forests. Scouting these trails is especially critical to a safe and successful hike. 

The scouting trip I’m on today is at the coast. I first became aware of the Weetock Trail in early 2006 while researching “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina” (2007, Mountaineers). Coastal trails being at a premium, I was eager to include what, at 11 miles in length, was the second longest trail at the coast. However, I was unable to find the trailhead, which was somewhere off N.C. 58 between Maysville and Cedar Point. If I couldn’t even find the trailhead, it wasn’t a good candidate for a trail guide aimed at a general hiking audience.

A few years later, armed with directions, I did find the trailhead (which now had a marker) and had little trouble finding and keeping the trail for the first six miles or so. I passed the gravel road to Haywood Landing after about three and a half miles, as promised. A little while later, I bumped up against the White Oak River, which my map suggested would happen. And I’m pretty sure I had passed the unmarked road leading to Long Point Landing, about six and a half miles in. 

There was trail, then there wasn’t

Then, I emerged from the edge of a pine forest into a long-abandoned farm field, now a sea of unfettered wild grass standing three feet high that gave no clue as to where the Weetock continued. On the far side of the field, where the forest resumed, were several promising openings where the trail might resume. Eventually, I discovered a trail: unmarked, I could only guess that it was the Weetock and not a game trail, not a hunter’s trail. Whether it was or not is hard to say. The forest/field/forest scenario repeated, and this time the existence of a trail was less certain. But I continued, assured by my compass that I was at least headed in the right direction. 

I hoped that I would stumble across an obvious trail. I never did. Sunlight was becoming an issue, and I was relieved, with dusk settling in, when the woods spit me out on a gravel forest access road. I checked its direction with my compass — northeast — and based on the fact this was only the third access road I had passed, I was pretty sure this road would take me straight back to NC 58 not far from the trailhead.

The next day, I went to find the southern trailhead, with the idea of hiking in the opposite direction and discovering familiar terrain to discover where I had strayed. Alas, I couldn’t find the southern trailhead, or anything resembling a trailhead. No roadside pullout, much less a “Welcome to the Weetock” trail sign.

So today, I try again. I’ve got two paper maps (including the alltrails.com map pictured above). I’ve got updated software on my Garmin GPS and I’ve got Google maps on my iPhone (which has more than once aided my escape from a backwoods wander gone awry). 

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GetHiking! Spring Sunday Series

In the next couple of days we’ll be ramping up our scouting for our Spring Sunday Hike Series, 10 Sunday hikes on different trails with the added benefit of watching spring unfold. Each hike is about 5 miles. Learn more about our Spring hike series and register to join us, here:

• GetHiking! Spring 2022 Sunday Afternoon Hike Series (couples/family), go here.
• GetHiking! Spring 2022 Sunday Afternoon Hike Series (single hiker), go here.
• GetHiking! Spring 2022 Sunday Morning Hike Series (couples/family), go here.
• GetHiking! Spring 2022 Sunday Morning Hike Series (single hiker), go here.

The post Failing a scouting test appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Who wants to wait until Saturday to kick off the weekend? Especially when you have the option for a Friday Morning Hike.

We launch our new GetHiking! Fall Friday Morning  Hike Series a week from today (Sept. 10), with a 4-mile hike on the Cox Mountain Trail at Eno River State Trail — the very same trail that we hiked this morning — in long sleeves and a vest, which one does when the temperature is just 48 degrees! That’s a good omen for our 8-week series, which gives you a jump on the weekend without playing hooky (the hikes start at 7:30 a.m., we’re done by 9).

We can’t guarantee that every hike will be 48 degrees. But we’re pretty darn sure you won’t find a better way to start your fall weekends. Learn more and sign up to join us here.

The post Get a jump on your weekend with a Friday Morning Hike appeared first on GetGoing NC!.