This weekend will feel like mid to late October throughout much of the state.
Consider: As of noon today, the temperature atop Mount Mitchell was 53 degrees, with winds out of the southeast at 14 miles per hour, gusting to 18. Overnight, the temperature dropped to 45, with a wind chill of 40 degrees. Saturday, the temperature is expected to top out at 61.
That’s fleece weather.
Granted, this is on top of the East Coast (though these readings are from a station at 6,200 feet, nearly 500 below the Mount Mitchell summit). But these types of temperatures can be expected throughout the high country this weekend.
Even in the Piedmont, cool temperatures will prevail. Forecast highs for Saturday are in the low 70s with overnight lows dipping into the mid 60s.
This translates to one thing: a fall-like window for hiking.
Be advised, you won’t be the only one to have this thought. The trails are likely to be jammed. Here’s a little advice on how to avoid the expected crowds. Go long. Probably the most popular trail at popular Umstead State Park in Raleigh is the Company Mill Trail — at least the first mile. That initial mile takes you over three small ridges down to Crabtree Creek. For many, especially those with small kids, Crabtree is a good opportunity to frolic for a few minutes, may have a snack, then head back. The traffic is probably halved by the time you cross Crabtree. And Jon Holliday, founder of the Raleigh Trail Hikers Meetup, says the numbers really dwindle once you hit the 3-mile mark and meet the Sycamore Trail in the center of the park. Avoid the popular spots. Well, duh. So how do you know what’s popular? A few ways to narrow the list. Is it a place you hear frequently mentioned? If so, don’t go. Does it have a spacious, paved parking lot (or worse yet, a visitor center)? Nix it. Avoid the popular spots, II. Last year, nearly 1.2 million people visited Umstead State Park in Raleigh. Proximity is part of the reason: about as many people live in Umstead’s MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). It’s also a great park. But there are a lot of other great State Parks in North Carolina that don’t get near the love they deserve. A prime example: Medoc Mountain State Park, which barely got 100,000 visitors last year. Medoc Mountain is located near … well, that’s the problem, it’s not near or on the way to anywhere of note. But it’s just an hour and a half from the Triangle and well worth the drive. You can find a list of other underloved state parks here. Avoid the popular spots, III. Another way to find a State Park that may be under visited: Get a state road map that has state parks on it and seek out the more remote ones. Medoc Mountain, again, is one example. Other good one: South Mountains State Park which is just far enough off I-40 and from Morganton to require a little extra effort to get to. South Mountains has 18,000 acres and had only 194,000 visitors last year. Look for secondary entrances. Most parks have a main, advertised entrance, but they also have lesser-known secondary entrances. Get a map of your favorite place to hike and see where the boundaries brush up against roads. If there’s a trail near that point, you may well have a secondary entrance with roadside parking. Check out preserves, conservancies and land trusts. They often have smaller, but less popular, trail networks. And because the land is being preserved, you can bet there’s some thing extra special about it. (Find a land trust near you by checking out the Conservation Trust for North Carolina website.)read more
The weather people said a cold front was coming. They said the air would be drier. They said the daytime highs would drop into the mid-70s and that it cool off to 60 overnight. After weeks of soggy, sweaty days in the low 90s, it was easy to be skeptical. But when front finally hit it was easy to drop whatever and reunite with the outdoors.read more
Great views abound from the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in the Pisgah area.
The first significant cool front in a while descends over much of the state, leaving weekend highs in the 60s and 70s over much of the state. Here are three ways to take advantage of our weather windfall.
Coast
We’re avid proponents of starting the weekend early, especially when the destination is a place called Keg Island. Thus, we endorse Friday’s Sunset Kayaking Adventure at River Road Park in Wilmington. The trip begins at the park, on the Cape Fear River between Wilmington and Carolina Beach, and paddles on the river out to Keg Island for a picnic. Then it’s back to the put in as the sun sets.read more
Two weeks ago, I told you about the Ultimate Hike. I may have written a reminder as well. In either event, here’s another, this one to remind you that the 2013 Ultimate Hike season begins Saturday at 9 a.m. at Umstead State Park.
Ultimate Hike is the chief fundraiser for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. CureSearch is a nonprofit that traces its roots to 1987. Though its name has changed over the years, its mission has not. The nonprofit funds research efforts to fight children’s cancer. If there’s a more noble effort to support, I’m pressed to think of it.
And if there’s a better way to support the cause — hiking to raise money for children’s cancer research — I’m hard-pressed to think of it, either. Tomorrow marks the start of a 12-week training program that will culminate with us hiking 28.3 miles on the Foothills Trail straddling North and South Carolina. The key component of the training program is a series of every-other-weekend hikes that will grow increasingly longer. Tomorrow at Umstead, will start with a short hike (of 2, 4.5 or 6 miles, hiker’s choice). We’ll be back on Aug. 24 with an 8-mile hike along the Eno River. Subsequent hikes will be at Raven Rock State Park, on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail through the Triangle, at Hanging Rock State Park and in the Uwharrie National Forest. We’ll also do a series of shorter mid-week hikes designed to get hikers used to hiking in the dark. (Why? Because to hike 28.3 miles in one day you have to hit the trail pretty early — 4:30 a.m., to be exact)
Want to find out more? Then come out tomorrow and test-drive the Ultimate Hike. We’ll gather at 9 a.m. at Picnic Shelter #2 at Umstead State Park’s Harrison Avenue entrance (off I-40). We’ll have bagels and coffee, we’ll talk hiking. Then, around 10, we’ll hit the trail.
And if you’re thinking, “I’m not really much of a hiker, this probably isn’t for me,” then cease that line of thinking. This hike and the 12-week training program is exactly for you: that’s what the training is all about. Again, come out and we’ll talk.
And remember: we won’t just be talking, we’ll be hiking.read more
We start at the coast (sea level) with a guided paddle trip at Hammocks Beach State Park and wind up in the high country — the highest country, in fact — with a program atop the highest point on the East Coast, 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell.
Coast
One of our favorite paddles is the marshland around Hammocks Beach State Park near Swansboro. It’s a vast, yet somewhat protected sea of sea and cordgrass, a marshy maze that frequently ends with turns down dead-end channels. Which is part of what makes paddling here fun.read more
