Empowerment. It’s what we’ve been about since we led our first GetHiking! hike back in 2013. Empowering people through hikes and classes to feel more comfortable and more confident in the wild (or what seems like “the wild” when you first get started).
Category Archives: Hiking
This year, plan your own First Day Hike on the MST
First Day Hikes have been a tradition in N.C. State Parks for nearly a decade.
Unfortunately, there’s been nothing traditional about 2020, and there will be no First Day Hikes as we usher in 2021.
“Parks are not hosting any guided First Day Hikes on January 1,” states a notice on ncparks.gov. “We encourage park visitors to conduct their own First Day Hikes with members of their household. Please note that parks may be busy on New Year’s Day, so please be prepared for parking delays and make backup plans.”
Gate 35: Gateway to Solitude
Gate 35 appeared almost as a dream.
I was driving north from Chapel Hill to Hillsborough on Old NC 86 late one afternoon in early December, a time of fading light known as the gloaming. The sun hadn’t officially set, but with a mostly cloudy sky it might as well have. Little light remained, but just enough that, passing by at 55 miles per hour, I thought I glimpsed what appeared to be dirt road guarded by a familiar gate, a chalk-white chain-link iron bar suspended between two forest green posts. I made a mental note of the location, and a Post-It Note to return and check it out.
GetOut! Eno Outback, Rockin’ Occoneechee, Birds
Our favorite place in Eno River State Park is likely a place you haven’t been, let alone heard of. Rocky Creek has a short run in the park, running for not much more than two or three miles through an area devoid of trails called the Eno Wilderness. Most maps show it as a broken blue line — an intermittent waterway. When it’s running, though, Rocky Creek a sight as it works its way through a beech forest that’s tight in spots, widening just enough in others to accommodate a narrow bottomland forest. As its name implies, it carves its way rough and tumble through rocky terrain.
Warm up to winter hiking with a few simple tips
We believe in being out in the cold. We want you non-believers to believe as well.
Last week, we shared what it is we love so much about the winter woods. Today, we share some cold-weather-coping — nay, cold-weather-embracing — tips from our GetBackpacking! Winter Camp tips sheet. (These tips related more to the hiking end of the experience; the 8-page tips sheet covers cold-weather camping tips as well.)