Let’s face it, hiking is pretty swell no matter the season in North Carolina. But it’s hands-down the swellest in fall. Cooling temperatures, drier air, fall color — all combine to make this the best of seasons. Here’s our lineup for Fall 2021.
Category Archives: Hiking
August: summer’s home stretch
Already, it is August — mid-August, to be accurate — and the days of summer are waning. If you’re not a friend of hot weather, this comes as good news. But if you like the heat and feel you haven’t taken full advantage of the season, this realization could bum you out. Don’t let it.
Backpacking for the non-backpacker
You know why you haven’t taken up backpacking?
Because you think you have to hike with 40 pounds on your back with every footstep you take.
Well, you don’t. If every backpack trip we took involved lugging a full pack for days on end, we wouldn’t backpack, either.
Remember your trail etiquette
The following originally appears as Chapter 13 in our “Let’s GetHiking: A Guide for the Aspiring Hiker.” We rerun it today because, frankly, you just can’t get enough trail etiquette.
One Sunday, I was on a multi-use trail (a trail open for more than just hiking: mountain biking and horseback riding, for instance) at a nearby state park when I came upon a phalanx of hikers spanning the width of the trail and spilling onto its shoulders. The trail was quite generous, a converted fire road capable of handling loads of trail users without conflict—provided those trail users were considerate of other trail users. I doubt these hikers were being intentionally inconsiderate: they were simply unaware.
GetOut! And learn a thing this weekend
Wouldn’t it be nice to emerge from the weekend more knowledgable than when you went in? A bought or two on how to make that happen.
We start with our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods class. Ever been hiking in the woods, drift into a little reverie, then emerge, look around and think, Where the heck am I? More often than not your still on the trail, where you need to be, just a little further along. But in those few seconds of being mentally misplaced, there’s a real panic. Will I ever see civilization again?