The following post originally appeared on June 5, 2019. We revisit it today because it’s always important to know where you are in the woods. And if you’ve lost track of where you are, it’s likewise important to be able to figure out where you are — and then how to get where you want to be. And if you’re the type who does better with hands-on instruction, check out our GetHiking! Finding Your Way in the Woods class, below.
Category Archives: Hiking
10 Summer Hikes with Cooling Water
What kind of Top 10 list would you have if it didn’t evolve over time? You’d either have a Top 10 list that wasn’t honest, or you’d have evidence that you need to get out more and experience new trails.
Fortunately, neither is the case with this year’s running of our Top 10 Cool Hikes with Water, because it includes some new entries from the last time we ran it. To keep the list at 10 — arbitrary, perhaps, but it keeps things manageable — we’ve had to drop a couple hikes from last year’s list, which you can read here. But that doesn’t diminish those hikes; after all, these lists are subjective anyway, so be content with 10.
Saturday is National Trails Day; Here’s where to Celebrate
Saturday is National Trails Day, that time every year (the first Saturday in June), when we celebrate trails, by hiking them, biking them, paddling them, creating and maintaining them.
This year, the American Hiking Society, the official clearinghouse for National Trails Day events, lists 508 NTD events. Thirteen events are scheduled in North Carolina, 14 in Virginia. Keep in mind this is not a complete listing: Virginia State Parks alone is holding more than 100 events Saturday, North Carolina State Parks has 10. North Carolina’s Great Trails State Coalition events page lists a dozen.
Summer pests: How to avoid ’em (or deal with ’em)
The following is a post we run at the beginning of the warm-weather hiking season.
We’ve made the transfer from cool and budding to warm and lush. The weather is great for hiking, despite the associated annoyances we face along the way, specifically ticks and mosquitoes, and poison ivy.
This Saturday, go Deep and learn about N.C’s State Trails
Note: In addition to leading hikes and backpack trips, and maintaining this blog, I work for the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Hometown Strong initiative, which works to help communities in North Carolina’s 78 rural counties. Because North Carolina’s 14 State Trails spend most of their time in rural areas, I get to spend some of my time helping people learn more about them.