Category Archives: Weekend Trail Days Festival

A Weekend Trail Festival for the Great Dismal and Elizabeth City

You likely can tick off all the great adventures you’ve had at the coast, in the Piedmont, in the mountains. But what about in the far northeast corner of the state, where perhaps the state’s most unique adventure challenge awaits — the Great Dismal Swamp. read more

Mom Needs a Drink, Year of the Trail is Happy to Oblige

What’s more important to nurturing Mother Earth than anything?

Water.

So in a way, it’s appropriate that we shall spend Earth Day this year getting drenched. A week of sun, a day of rain: What better prescription for the planet we love?

That being the case, instead of kvetching about our plans for tomorrow — which is Earth Day, btw — on the verge of being rained out, we instead make the most of what, in Mother Nature’s view, is a good thing, we make the proper adjustments. In our case, that means tweaking the Year of the Trail Weekend Trail Days Festival we’ve been planning with the city of Eden, the county of Rockingham, and the Dan River Basin Association over the past eight months. (“We” incidentally, being the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Hometown Strong initiative, of which I am employed.) read more

A Year of Weekend Festivals Celebrating Trails

Weekend trail festivals — a weekend devoted to all things trails — are great fun. Trouble is, what trail festivals there are in the area — AT Trail Days in Damascus, Va.; NC Trail Days in Elkin — are few and far between.

Until this year.

This year, as part of North Carolina’s observance of Year of the Trail, among the hundreds of Year of the Trail events are 11 weekend trail festivals. Most will follow this format: read more