Category Archives: Hiking

Don’t let summer’s heat keep you off the trail

This weekend, seasonal temperatures finally arrive, and it appears they will will stick around at least through midweek.  As the days heat up, you might be tempted to cool it on your hiking habit. But, actually, you can hike all summer long — the secret lies in the when and where. Here are a few tips from a piece we run the beginning of most summers to keep you on the trail . read more

National Trails Day: (Like you need a reason to get out)

Saturday is National Trails Day. Which, anymore, has become more the anchor for National Trails Day Weekend. 

For the uninitiated, National Trails Day is the first Saturday of June, and has been for at least three decades. Sponsored by the American Hiking Society, it’s a chance for us to officially celebrate the trails — hiking, biking, paddling, horsing around, whatever — that we unofficially celebrate every day. In the beginning, NTD was seen primarily as a day to blaze new trail and tidy up existing trail. There’s still a lot of that, but more and more it’s become a celebration of hiking, biking, paddling — of simply enjoying the trail. read more

Embrace, don’t fear, the summer stream crossing

Editor’s Note: As summer rolls around and we find ourselves headed to the mountains for more challenging hikes, we often face the challenge of a stream crossing. Crossing’s cause anxiety for some hikers, but that needn’t be the case if you know how to approach them. Today’s post is a seasonal piece we repeat every few years on the art of the stream crossing. read more

A Weekend Trail Festival for the Great Dismal and Elizabeth City

You likely can tick off all the great adventures you’ve had at the coast, in the Piedmont, in the mountains. But what about in the far northeast corner of the state, where perhaps the state’s most unique adventure challenge awaits — the Great Dismal Swamp. read more