And if you aren’t?

If lethargy has you bound to the couch, think about this: Today sets the tone for the next 364 days. Which isn’t to say that if you’re sick you should drag your butt outside anyway. Rather, if you’re simply suffering from a touch of malaise, a year-starting hike — even a walk through the neighborhood — could be just the thing to snap you out of your funk. No need to make a big deal of it, to go 10 miles or set a 4-mile-per-hour pace. Just get out and enjoy. 

Need a little more inspiration? Then consider today’s hike a down payment on an adventure you’d like have this year, an adventure that would best be served by moving today, rather than not moving.

To that end, we share a trip GetBackpacking! did three years ago, Virginia’s Triple Crown, that we plan to do again this year. A 37-mile, 4-day trip that offers all the motivation we need to get in some trail time on this, the first day of the new year. 

The post Welcome your year of adventure with a hike appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

North Carolina has, on average, 28 clear days every winter; only seven states see more cloudless days, according to data compiled from two climate agencies. Virginia averages 25 clear days. In short, you could live in much worse places to avoid feeling SAD

SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a type of depression that can set in when the days are short and the sun sets early in the day. Once this mood-altering disorder takes hold, according to the Mayo Clinic, it can be hard to shake; it’s best to fight it off before it has a chance to make itself at home, leaving you hibernating in a stupor of despair.

One way to combat SAD, says the Mayo Clinic, is to go outside and move—the more regularly, the better. Even when it’s cold, a brisk walk in outdoor light can help. Another way to lift your mood is to be with other people; socializing with a dose of laughter helps you connect with others, an opportunity in short supply these days. Hiking regularly also can reduce levels of stress, which can contribute to SAD symptoms. According to psychiatry.org, 5 percent of Americans experience SAD, with the most severe bouts occurring in January and February.

Frankly, all of us could stand to reduce our stress levels. So, even if SAD doesn’t get you down, brisk movement and being with others is a great way to keep stress at bay by releasing endorphins and elevating mood.

So while the benefits of being out in the sun are beneficial year round, they are even more so in the short days of winter. But because of the cold, you sometimes need a little extra motivation to drag yourself outside and make it happen. And the best motivation? you ask. 

Hike with a group. 

It’s one time when peer pressure is a good thing. You wake up, you see it’s 28 degrees, you pull the covers back over your head and reach blindly for the snooze button. But then you remember the group waiting for you at the trailhead. You remember that Sue was supposed to hear about that promotion this week, that Jack was on the verge of adopting a shelter dog, that last week when Elliot failed to show he was the topic of discussion. You also remember that, once you’re 5 minutes down the trail and starting to warm up, you really love hiking this time of year. 

The obvious current caveat about hiking in a group: while being outdoors is still considered safe, you want to make doubly sure the group you’re hiking with is safe. With any group you join, be it a hiking-related Meetup or a group from work, find out what their policy is and see if it’s one you’re comfortable with.

It may take a hike or two to find the group that’s right for you. That’s fine. Because once you do find a group that works, you’ll find yourself spending a lot more time on the trail at a time of year when it will do you the most good.

* * *

Group options

Join a Meetup. Just about every community or region has a Meetup group that hikes. Just go to Meetup.com, and in the search bar type “hiking” into the keyword search box and the town where you live (you’ll have the option of calling up groups up to 100 miles away). Some groups are private and you may need to apply for admission.

Explore with Us! Our GetHiking! program has four winter hike series to keep you on the trail. Click the appropriate link for details:

• GetHiking! Winter 2022 Sunday Afternoon Hike Series. 10 weekly hikes beginning at 1 p.m., each on different trails throughout the Triangle. Jan. 9 – March 13. Learn more and sign up: Click the appropriate link: 10 a.m. Single; 10 a.m. Family; 1 p.m. Single; 1 p.m. Family.
• GetHiking! 2022 Tuesday Night Hike Series. 10 weekly Tuesday night hikes, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and finishing around 8 p.m. Each hike is about 3 miles. Learn more and register by going here for a single hiker, here for a couple/family.
• GetHiking! Winter 2022 Series for the Aspiring Hiker. Instruction and guide-led hikes 10 Sunday afternoons from Feb. 6 – April 10. Hikes start at 2 miles and increase to 5 miles. Learn more and sign up here.
• GetHiking! Winter Wild. An off-trail adventure every month, typically from 5-7 miles in length. Learn more and sign up here.

The post Better cold than SAD appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

For instance, when we think of goals we tend to think in terms of physical goals. New Years goals over the years have come to be associated with our health, specifically with weight loss. So while our stated goal may not be to lose 35 pounds by swimsuit season by hiking, that may well be our underlying motivator. “I’m going to hike twice a week,” or I’m going to hike 20 miles a week,” may not be overtly about weight loss, but that might well be the underlying factor. The problem? Having such a metric-driven goal may diminish the joy you get out of hiking. Rather than looking for 5-mile hike with lots of scenic stops for a given Saturday, you may opt instead for a longer hike where you’ll burn more calories. Eventually, it becomes like going to the gym. And we all know how successful that New Year’s goal generally is.

You hike because you want to. So make your hiking goal for 2022 in synch with your passion. Some examples.

Complete a hiking challenge

When you think of a hiking challenge, you likely think of things such as thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail or section hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. So what if you don’t have a half- year to hike the AT, or a year or more to section hike the MST? You have reasonable and admirable options:

• 

  South Beyond 6000 Challenge. There are 40 recognized peaks with elevations in excess of 6,000 feet in the Southeastern U.S.. Climb all 40 and you get not only bragging rights and a patch, you get to explore the 6 highest mountain ranges in the Southeast: Smokies, Plotts, Balsams, Craggies, Blacks and Roans. And if you think the challenge too widespread to complete in a year, consider: 39 of the 40 peaks are in North Carolina or on the N.C./Tennessee line (Mt. LeConte is entirely in Tennessee). Also consider that in one extremely vigorous day of climbing in the Black Mountains you could conceivably knock off nearly a quarter of them, from Mt. Hallback north to Celo Knob along the Black Mountain Crest. 

• 

  Pisgah 400. Maybe you’re more driven by the need to make sure you get to the mountains on a regular basis. The Pisgah 400 patch is awarded every hiker who completes every trail in the Pisgah Ranger District of the Pisgah National Forest (Shining Rock, the Davidson River and North Mills River areas, Bent Creek, Lake Powhatan). Probably the best hiking in the Pisgah N.F.

You can find additional challenges at the Carolina Mountain Club website (see below).

Complete a long trail section

Again, recognizing that you have a limited amount of time — perhaps not enough to hike the 2,175-mile AT or the 1,200-mile MST — what about a section of a long trail. A popular goal in the Triangle, for instance, is to hike the 60-mile stretch of the MST along Falls Lake, or maybe the 120-mile run from the Pleasant Green Access at Eno River State Park to Clayton. Or perhaps the 90.3 miles of the MST along the Blue Ridge Parkway from the Devil’s Garden Overlook south to Beacon Heights. 

As for the AT, maybe you want to hike the 95.7 miles in North Carolina. Or perhaps the 224.7 miles that straddles the North Carolina/Tennessee line. Or both.

Complete a shorter long trail

There are a number of shorter long trails that offer challenge cache in their own right. 

• 

  Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest, Havelock. This 21-mile trail could be done in a day. It could also be done in a weekend — preferably a weekend in winter, before it warms ands activates the local buzzing and slithering population.

• Uwharrie National Recreation Trail that now runs 20 miles north to south through its namesake forest. An advantage to this goal: it’s challenging hiking close to Charlotte, the Triad, the Triangle.
• Art Loeb Trail, Pisgah National Forest, Brevard. The perfect challenge for a week-long mountain vacation, this 31-miler includes the Shining Rock Wilderness and the Davidson River area. A mix of exposed mountain meadows, balsam forest and classic Southern Appalachian hardwoods.

Master a trail

Acquaintance of many trails but master of none? Wouldn’t it be great to be the go-to person for a given trail or trail network? “You want insight into hiking Hanging Rock? Oh, well, you’ve absolute got to talk to Jane Doaks!” 

How to make this happen? You don’t need to hike an area exclusively, but you should hike it in all four seasons, and you should hike every trail in it in all four seasons. Again, using Hanging Rock as an example, there are 15 hiking trails covering roughly 25 miles (a little less, since about 7.4 miles of the MST, which is an official park trail, piggybacks on other trails). You should also plan to hike each trail in both directions (which you’ll likely do anyway, since most are out-and-backs). That commitment would definitely make you the go-to person for Hanging Rock.

Hike a different trail every time

Maybe that’s a bit extreme and a little counterproductive since most of us have a trail or two we love for various reasons (convenience, a certain scenic hook, etc.) But what if you vowed to hike a new trail a month, or every other week. A goal that would get you out of your been-there-hiked-that rut.

Figure out a schedule for getting new trails into your life.

Tackle a challenging, but realistic one-time goal

The one doable challenge that always comes to mind for me as a hiker: climb Mount Mitchell, the highest point on the Easy Coast, at 6,684 feet. And no asterisks here: summiting Mitchell from the snack shop 50 yards from the summit does not count. 

This challenging involves starting at the Black Mountain Campground at the base of Mitchell and hiking the 5.5-mile Mount Mitchell Trail to the summit. If that doesn’t sound like much, we forgot to mention that the hike gains more than 3,700 vertical feet on its way to the top. You don’t just pass through an assortment of ecozones, from Southern Appalachian hardwood forest into a black balsam forest more commonly associated with Canada, you feel like you pass through epochs. 

There are other worthy climbs of note: for instance, in the Smokies, the 9.1-mile climb from Campsite 64 to the top of 6,643-foot Clingman’s Dome gains more than 4,000 vertical feet. But the cache of summiting the highest peak east of South Dakota’s Black Hills puts this one at the top of our list.

Plan a mountain outing in the West

There’s not better motivation to get your mountain legs under you than the prospect of summiting 14,000-foot peaks. Granted, dealing with the altitude issue is another issue. But if you’re planning a weeklong vacation, say, to Rocky Mountain National Park, and your goal is to hike every day, then you better be in the best shape of your life to make that happen. And your preparation starts here, with regular hikes locally and frequent visits to the Southern Appalachians. In fact, a trip out West could be just the thing to help you meet one of the other goals mentioned above. Two birds! Can’t beat that.

Your goal, your motivation

These are just some goal suggestions, some ideas you might not have thought of. The goal of today’s post? To encourage you to set a goal, but to set a goal that taps into your true passion for hiking. If that’s losing 35 pounds so you can squeeze into a Speedo by summer, great. If it’s mastering your local state park’s trail network — and you just happen to lose 35 pounds in the process — all the better.

Whatever your goal, just make sure it’s one that will keep your attention.

* * *

More info

For more information on the goals mentioned above, click the appropriate link below:

• South Beyond 6,000 Challenge
• Pisgah 400
• Carolina Mountain Club Challenges page
• Mountains-to-Sea Trail
• Uwharrie National Recreation Trail
• Neusiok Trail
• Art Loeb Trail
• Mount Mitchell Trail
• Appalachian Trail

Make a commitment 

And to better insure that you get a jump on meeting your 2022 goals, consider committing yourself to one (or both) of our weekly hikes that start in January:

• GetHiking! Sunday Hike Series. Hike every Sunday through winter with this series of hikes that average about 5 miles. Learn more about our 10 a.m. hike series here, the 1 p.m. series here.
• GetHiking! Tuesday Night Winter Series. Ten weekly hikes on Tuesday evenings to help you stay active midweek. Each hike is about 3 miles. Learn more here.

The post For 2022, set the goal that’s right for you appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

The image that makes us happy.

Often, that tweaked version of ourselves involves loosing some weight, of trimming the excess and having more energy. That version excites us — until we contemplate the perceived route it will take to get there: an hour a day in the gym doing things we don’t much care to do, frankly. Thanks that don’t make us happy. Then there’s the whole diet thing, which — again, to be frank — makes us not particularly excited about mealtime. Suddenly, that version of our new self, the happier version, gets sullied by our having to do lot of unhappy things. We go from optimistic and excited to, well, to thinking that 2020 isn’t going to be much different than 2019.

The problem? We convince ourselves that in order to achieve “happy,” we must first go through a period of not-so-happy. And that needn’t be the case.

Think about the happiest time in your life. Probably when you were a kid, right? When Saturday rolled around and you were turned loose, with the only directive that you “stay out of trouble.” Remember that feeling of independence, of being on your own and responsible only for yourself? Of being able to explore and discover new things, like the fact it’s easier to climb up a tree than down. Even then, the trip down — the scary trip down — gave us a sense of control, quite unlike the feeling we got at school, at home, on our rigorously coached sports teams. During what many consider the happiest times of their lives, we were happiest being outdoors. So why wouldn’t the same apply today?

Here are some of my happiest moments from the past month:

Playing hooky. On a Wednesday morning, in the middle of the work week, I draped my jacket over the back of my office chair, turned off my computer’s sleep function and snuck out the back door* on a cloudless, 45-degree morning for a 6-mile hike on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Feelings of guilt? Not a bit. Work was the last thing on my mind — until I got back to work. By then, I was in a better frame of mind to deal with things.

Lost in the woods. Not lost, exactly, since I was leading the hike and no one wants to hear that the leader doesn’t know where you are. “Lost” in the sense of being off the trail, deep in the woods where few people venture, seeing things few folks have laid eyes on. My path not dictated by blazes, but rather by curiosity, by wondering what’s over that next ridge, or where this old roadbed leads. We don’t have much opportunity for true adventure as adults, but this was certainly it.

Enveloped in darkness. You want a true sense of childlike exhilaration? Sneak out after dark. At night in the woods, your world shrinks to whatever your headlamp illuminates — typically, a world about 20-feet in circumference. As adults, we tend to be wary of the dark, but as a kid darkness beckons and excites. Head into out into the night and recapture that sense of awe, inspired by the unseen world beyond.

Letting go. On my usual morning walking route I happened to see an opening into the woods, which led to a faint trail that shortly crossed a railroad track I knew, and, just beyond, a spur line I didn’t. I walked railroad tracks as a kid (including a harrowing “Stand By Me” crossing of a live trestle over the mighty Susquehanna River), so I followed. Shortly, I was on the unfamiliar south bank of the Eno River, following first an old roadbed and then the path of least resistance through a floodplain forest. Before I knew it, an hour had passed. I was stymied in my attempt to hike upstream and complete my survey of this terra incognito. I vowed to one day return.

Eons from “civilization.” At the most chaotic time of the retail year, when masses where elbowing their way past one another in search of 30 percent off a big screen TV, nine friends and I were experiencing the anti-Black Friday by enjoying the serenity of a hike along Falls Lake. Water lapped at the shore of the coves we ducked in and out of, freshly fallen leaves crackled under foot, the clear sky made the remaining fall color all the more brilliant. The talk ranged from a debate over canned vs. fresh cranberries, to adventure plans for 2020. Cell phones switched to Airplane mode were used only to take pictures. There was no talk of work, of chores, of great deals on big screen TVs. 

Yeah, I could stand to lose a pound or two, maybe cut back on the Little Debbies. But when I “work out,” when I’m on the trail, I’m about as happy as can be. 

Something to consider as you mull a happier version of you in the year ahead.

• This is a dramatization (I work for myself) and is simply meant to portray the guilty pleasure of sneaking out of work for some me time.  

Join us!

Looking for a happier version of you in 2020 — and to be happy getting there? Our GetHiking! 2020 Winter Program for New Hikers is the perfect program for getting you on the trail. Every Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., we hike a local trail. We start out at a mellow pace hiking just a mile and a half, then, over eight weeks, gradually increase our distance until come March you’re capable of hiking more than 5 miles! We provide additional support along the way to help you develop as a hiker. Learn more and sign up here. 

Intrigued by the notion of hiking at night? Our GetHiking! Tuesday Night Hikes program heads out at least one Tuesday night a month during the winter and explores a new trail — in the dark! Headlamps and hot chocolate provided. Learn more and sign up here. 

Tired of hiking the same old trails? Or just trails in general? Our GetHiking! Winter Wild series takes you to the places you thought you knew, and exposes you to their wilder, less-visited side. About 90 percent of each hike is either on long-abandoned roadbeds or off-trail. Learn more and sign up here.

The post 2020: A happier you through hiking appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Today’s Friday Nudge offers takes from last weekend to encourage you to get out this weekend. If you’re interested in the places mentioned, click appropriately for more information: Little River Regional Park, Harris Lake County Park, Horton Grove Nature Preserve. For additional hiking opportunities, visit our GetHiking! page.

Enjoy an adventurous weekend!

The post Welcome the Weekend! (Your Friday Nudge) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.