For instance, when we think of goals we tend to think in terms of physical goals. New Year’s goals have come to be associated with physical 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 a 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, but derive less enjoyment. 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 2024 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. And 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 limited 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? 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 mountaintop snack shop 50 yards from the summit does not count. 

This challenge 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 Mitchell, the highest peak east of South Dakota’s Black Hills, puts this one atop 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 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.

Note: If you do decide on a goal such as Rocky Mountain National Park, check with the appropriate land manager now to see if they require a permit. A growing number of National Park Service properties do now, and many go early in the year.

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 not just 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.

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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 2024 goals, consider committing yourself to our hike that start in GetHiking! Winter/Spring 2024 Hike Series. We do one guided hike the first Sunday of every month, January through June, and prescribe recommended hikes for the off weeks. Learn more about the series here.

The post Mulling a 2024 goal? Make it the right one appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Learn about the salt marsh on a paddle at the coast, watch the sun set on the weekend from the Art Loeb Trail, or discover a “new” gorge where the Piedmont and coastal plain meet.

Coast

The Bald Head Island Conservancy does an exemplary job of promoting the environment through public education. This weekend, for instance, there’s Birding BHI, Touch Tank Time and Reptile Roundup on Saturday, and Island Nature Tour and Kayaking the Creeks on Sunday. We’re especially intrigued by Kayaking the Creeks. Lead by a member of the Conservancy, you’ll head out in tandem kayaks to explore and learn “about the beauty and importance of the salt marsh.”

PFDs, paddles and kayaks provided, you supply the water, sunscreen, bug spray, hat and clothes and shoes you don’t mind getting muddy and perhaps slightly wet.

Logistics: Kayaking the Creeks, Sunday, May 7, 5 p.m., Bald Head Island. $55, $40 for CHI members. More info here.

Sunday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 59.

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Looking ahead: Can’t make this weekend’s BHI events? They run throughout the year; find more info here.

Piedmont

Not much we like more than a new place to explore. Such a place opened to the public in February, the Ledge Creek Forest Conservation Area less than an hour north of the Triangle. Ledge Creek is the result of efforts by the Tar River Land Conservancy to protect land — and thus, the watershed — of the Tar River Basin. The 300-acre preserve is especially intriguing because of its location where the Triassic Basin and the Carolina Slate Belt meet. The hike begins in nondescript farmland, but quickly drops into a heavily-forested gorge, dropping away 200 feet to protected Ledge Creek.

We’re offering this hike through our GetHiking! program and through our affiliation with Hike NC!, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina initiative to get more people on the trail. Learn about this unusual meeting of geology and discover a great place to explore on even the hottest summer day.

Logistics: Hike Ledge Creek Forest Conservation Area, Saturday, May 6, 10 a.m., Ledge Creek Forest CA, Stem. Learn more and register here.

Saturday forecast: High of 67 with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

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Looking ahead: Hike NC! Eno River State Park, Cole Mill Access: Pea Creek and Dunnagan Trails, Friday, May 12, Durham. More info and sign up here.

Mountains

A sunset hike from the roof (or is it the ceiling?) of North Carolina: hard to beat that! Unless you have a forecast that calls for cloudless skies and temperatures in the 50s.

That’s how things are lining up for Sunday’s Sunset Hike on the Art Loeb Trail at Black Balsam. One of our Hike NC! Hikes, hike leader Joy James, from Appalachian State University, will lead hikers on a one-mile hike on the Art Loeb Trail, kissing the 6,000-foot-elevation mark. The landscape here is rare in North Carolina: a mountaintop setting with balds, open meadows and unparalleled views, including to the west, to the setting sun.

Logistics: Sunset Hike on the Art Loeb Trail at Black Balsam, Sunday, May 7, 7:15 – 8:45 p.m., Black Balsam access off the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more information and to register, go here.

Sunday forecast: Clear skies, highs in the 50s.

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Looking ahead: Get Outside Mountain Relay, 208-mile mountain run, June 2, Glade Valley. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below. 

Coast

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The pending changing of the seasonal guard is evident this weekend. At the coast we have a sweaty 5K that ends with a bracing dip in the brisk Atlantic Ocean; in the Piedmont, the Eno River Association’s weekly Winter Hike Series is drawing to a close; and in the mountains there’s the opportunity to hike in snow — in 50-degree temperatures.

Coast

Imagine a 5K where a major shock awaits at the finish. And we’re not talking about glancing at the clock and seeing you’ve shaved a minute off your PR. We’re talking about suddenly finding yourself up to your waist in 45-degree water.

That’s the deal with Saturday’s Polar Plunge 5K at Carolina Beach. Run a 5K through town, finish in the Atlantic Ocean. The good news? The air temperature is supposed to approach 60 Saturday afternoon and the race starts at 2 p.m. The even better news: your frigid finish benefits Special Olympics of North Carolina, New Hanover County. (FYI, you can dispense with the run and go straight for the 45-degree water if you can’t wait.)

Logistics: Saturday, Feb. 22, 2 p.m., Carolina Beach Boardwalk. $50 race day (you also have the option of just doing the race and stopping short of the Atlantic, or $30, but who wants to do that?). More info here.

Saturday forecast: Partly sunny, high of 58.

Piedmont

Time is running out to take advantage of the Eno River Association’s Winter Hike Series. Once a week on Sunday afternoons, from January into March, the ERA conducts a hike of a different section of the Eno River Valley. A knowledgeable naturalist leads each hike, shedding light on the wonders of the Eno.

The wonders being explored this Sunday are those on the Cox Mountain Trail in the Fews Ford Access of Eno River State Park.  The Cox Mountain Trail is just under four miles (tack on another mile to get there and back from the parking lot). The hike offers exceptional natural beauty along the Eno and remnants of the pre-park’s human past.

Logistics: Sunday, 2 p.m., Fews Ford Access of Eno River State Park. More info here.

Sunday forecast: High of 68, partly sunny.

Mountains

This weekend promises the best of both worlds for hiking in North Carolina’s high country: there’s still a fair amount of snow in the high country, yet the forecast is for mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s.

All of which bodes well for the Carolina Mountain Club’s hike Saturday in the Pisgah National Forest north of Brevard. The CMC plans a 9-mile trek up Kagle Mountain that includes a portion of the Art Loeb Trail. High country hiking, some of which is on trail you may not be familiar with (but the hike leaders are). Lunch stop at the shelter at Butter Gap.

Logistics: Saturday, Feb. 22, 8:30 a.m.(carpool meeting time from Asheville). More info and to register: Vance Mann, 828.273.7592, hvancem@icloud.com; more info on the route, here.

Sunday forecast: Highs in the low 50s, partly sunny.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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Wilderness areas shouldn’t be the private domain of only the most intrepid swashbuckling types who have no compunction about pushing through where the trail disappears, about fording waist-deep streams, about scrambling through rhododendron hells ever-so-deserving of the name. They shouldn’t be their private playground and they needn’t be. Provided you know how to get in the back door.

At the beginning of the week I made a two-day escape to the Middle Prong Wilderness Area at the western edge of the Pisgah National Forest. If you haven’t heard of Middle Prong that’s likely because it lives in the shadow of its adjacent, better-known wildnerness, Shining Rock. Shining Rock, at 18,483 acres is more than twice the size of Middle Prong (7,460 acres). It’s got stellar mountaintop meadows, hosts the Art Loeb Trail, is home to the famous Cold Mountain and, of course, has Shining Rock itself.

And Middle Prong? It’s got a key ingredient missing at Shining Rock: solitude. And, it that back door.

I discovered Middle Prong’s secret entrance through process of elimination. Six years ago, I was part of a small expedition that tried to go up the gut of Middle Prong in mid-winter. We were rebuffed at our first crossing of Middle Prong, which was running high and cold. In summer, a refreshing crossing. In winter, a frigid hazard that could make us miserable for the rest of the trip, at best. We retreated next door to Shining Rock.

Same thing Sunday, but on a different approach. My plan was to take the 6-mile Fork Mountain Trail — technically in the Shining Rock Wilderness but on its less popular west flank — to near Ivestor Gap, hike west out of the wilderness through the Sam Knob/Flat Laurel Creek area, enter Middle Prong on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, hike three miles to the Green Mountain Trail, then take it five miles down the ridgeline back to the trailhead. Just one problem: The Fork Mountain trailhead was on the opposite side of the West Fork of the Pigeon River, and the Pigeon was up — way up.

I sat, studied the map, saw the back door into Middle Prong: the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

More than six miles of the MST — a trail-in-progress that will one day run 1,000 miles, from Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee border east to Jockey’s Ridge on the Atlantic — runs through the south end of Middle Prong. And while Middle Prong is a wilderness, the MST is one of the state’s Cadillac trail systems. It’s well maintained, easy to follow. Granted, through a wilderness it must forgo blazes and signs (for the most part), but that’s small concession for this impeccably groomed path. Plus, the MST traces the top of the Blue Ridge; what water there is this high up (between 5,500 and 6,000 feet) would be easy to hop across. And according to the topo, there was surprisingly little elevation gain.

The MST, I discovered, also allowed access to the upper reaches of the Middle Prong trails that are impassable below with winter and high water: Haywood Gap Trail, squeezing through a steep canyon choked with rhododendron; Buckeye Gap Trail, a mellow hike along an old roadbed before it drops nearly straight down the mountain; and Green Mountain Trail, which hangs out for a mile or so in ridgeline forest dominated by balsams.

Stunning hiking. And you don’t have to be intrepid to try it. Check out the slideshow.

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Middle Prong Wilderness
Access: From NC 215 south of Canton (take exit 33 off I-40 and closely follow the signs)  catch the lower trails near the Sunburst campground (closed in winter), catch the MST about 8 miles up the road.
Map: Don’t even think about going without “Shining Rock & Middle Prong Wilderness: Pisgah National Forest,” USDA Forest Service, 50-foot contours, 1:24,000. Available at Great Outdoor Provision Co., REI and other outfitters.
More info: Check out the Middle Prong page on Wilderness.net.

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