Especially if you head off the beaten path. 

Now, there are good reasons why that path is beaten. Not everyone is interested in a more raw form of adventure, fewer still are equipped. Whatever innate navigational skills our species may have had have since been relegated to the recesses of our brains in favor of more modern survival skills. Touch typing with our thumbs, for instance.

Relegated, maybe, but not deleted. 

Every year around this time, because the woods become more open and welcoming, we rev up our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods program. We start with a basic introduction to map and compass and how to use the two in tandem. Then we head down the trail, and off, to match the imagery of wavy topo lines with the reality of a rolling landscape. At some point, those dormant navigational skills are retrieved from deep storage and our students experience an “Aha!” moment. Nothing makes sense, then — well, maybe not everything makes sense, but you can hear the tumblers fall into line. 

Why is this skill important? 

Think about a trail you hike on a regular. Your hike may vary by season, it may vary by time of day and by the weather. But you’re still walking along the same stream, climbing the same long hill, passing the same dilapidated tobacco barn and seeing the same view of the lake. Nothing wrong with this familiarity. But haven’t you ever wondered what lies beyond?

At Eno River State Park in Durham, for instance, the Cox Mountain Trail is a popular hike. It involves crossing a swinging bridge, it follows a rocky stretch of the Eno, and it has some good elevation through a maturing hardwood forest. It all makes for a good hike. Yet when you reach the summit of Cox Mountain, you notice that, to the south, the mountain plateaus for a third of a mile or so before dropping off on three sides. From your park-issued trail map you notice what lies beyond — about 600 acres — is in the park. Since it’s parkland, you figure it’s probably pretty wild (in fact, the tract is known as the Eno Wilderness). The unknown beckons: What’s over there? 

At Umstead State Park in Raleigh you stand on the bridge spanning Crabtree Creek and look downstream. According to the park map there’s a sizable area that, again, isn’t served by trail but must harbor some hidden treasure, right? (Right: a stand of ancient beech trees, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp, a short-lived Boy Scout camp.)

At Hanging Rock State Park you hear tale of a Cessna that crashed on the mountain more than a half century ago. Where? you wonder. And, Would anything be left after more than 50 years?

Sometimes you need these basic navigation skills just to find the trail. At the coast, in the Croatan National Forest near Maysville you’ll find the Weetock Trail. Well, you’ll find the northern and southern trailheads, both off NC 58, but sometimes finding the 11 miles in between can be a challenge. When blazes abandon you, a map, a compass and a basic understanding of topography can be the difference between a fund day of navigating the woods or an unplanned overnight.

Most people who take our Finding Your Way in the Woods class do so because they simply don’t like the feeling of getting discombobulated in the outdoors. Almost all leave the class with this goal accomplished. But they also leave intrigued by what lies beyond the confines of the blazed trail, by the treasures, natural and cultural, waiting to be found. They may not be inclined to abandon the trail entirely, but they know that if something does beckon from beyond that they can venture a little ways off the trail and find their way back. Navigational skills come in especially handy in this part of the country, where our state parks and our national forests in particular are criss-crossed with long-abandoned wagon roads and cart paths. Crossing one such path in the woods it’s impossible not to wonder where it leads — and where it once led. 

Winter’s the ideal time to find out.

Happy Trails

Joe

GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods

Our basic intro to map and compass course goes over basic map and compass skills, then hits the trail to offer key tips on how to follow and stay on the trail, how to find it again if you stray, and how to explore off trail. We will offer it at least four times in December. Click on the following for more information and to sign up.

• Saturday, Dec. 1, 1 p.m. Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Go here.
• Sunday, Dec. 2, 1 p.m. Haw River State Park: Iron Ore Belt Access, Greensboro. Go here.
• Thursday, Dec. 27, 1 p.m. Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Go here.
• Friday, Dec. 28, 1 p.m. Haw River State Park: Iron Ore Belt Access, Greensboro. Go here.

GetOriented! Intermediate Skills: Finding Your Way on the Weetock Trail

The northern and southern trailheads of this coastal trail are easy to find; it’s the 11 miles in-between that can be a challenge. Armed with maps of the area and our compasses (provided if you don’t have one) on this day-long trek to solve the mystery of the coastal Croatan National Forest’s second longest trail.

Learn more and sign up here.

GetOriented! Winter Wild hike series

We’re especially excited about this new series of winter hikes that will take you off trail to give you a new appreciation of some of the places you most love to hike. Basic map and compass skills will make these hikes more enjoyable, but are not required. Our destinations:

• Umstead State Park, Raleigh, Saturday, Dec. 29, 10 a.m. Objectives: a mature beech grove, the park’s CCC camp, a short-lived Boy Scout camp. 6-8 miles.
• Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. Saturday Jan. 5, 10 a.m. Objectives: Backside of Hanging Rock, a 1963 plane crash. 7-9 miles
• Eno River State Park, Durham. Saturday, Jan. 26, 10 a.m. Objective: Eno Wilderness. 6-7 miles
• Uwharrie National Forest, Asheboro. Saturday, Feb. 16, 10 a.m. Objective: Birkhead Wilderness. 7-9 miles
• Raven Rock State Park, Lillington. Saturday, March 2, 10 a.m. Objective: The North Side of the River. 8 miles 

To learn more about this series and sign up, go here.

For more information and advice on exploring off trail, check out this blog from 2015.

The post Winter: a great time to stray off trail appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

In fact, long ago — 300 million to 500 million years — the Piedmont was the mountains. They bubbled out of the ground via volcanic activity, thrust as high as 20,000 feet by the crunching and colliding and folding of tectonic plates.

Alas, the effects of aging have a way of reducing one’s stature; like Great Grandpa Irving, their once towering presence has diminished. But they haven’t disappeared altogether.

Throughout the Piedmont, you’ll find relict mounds of Piedmont monadnocks, erosion-resistant rock that’s not going down without a fight. Some—Medoc Mountain in North Carolina, Smith Mountain and White Oak Mountain in Virginia—are recognized as outdoor playgrounds: Medoc Mountain and Smith Mountain as state parks, White Oak Mountain as a Wildlife Management area. Both offer hiking. Others — such as Thoroughfare Mountain, Mount Pony and Piney Mountain, all in Virginia — are in private hands. These are isolated remains, their neighbors long since worn to rolling hills.

But there remain several mountain ranges in the Piedmont where recreation is alive and well.

Uwharrie Mountains

Probably the best-known mountains outside The Mountains are the Uwharries, which occupy a good portion of Randolph, Montgomery, Stanly and Davidson counties southwest of Asheboro, in the center of the Piedmont. The range tops out at just under 1,200 feet (1,188-foot High Rock Mountain in southwestern Davidson County), but there’s considerable relief in these hills, which are surrounded by rolling farmland a little over 300 feet above sea level. In the 50,000-acre Uwharrie National Forest, there are more than 215 miles of trail, according to Don Childrey in his “Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide.” The backbone of hiking in the Uwharries is the roughly 40-mile (and growing) Uwharrie Trail, which runs from Troy on the south to near NC 49 on the north, and even includes a wilderness area. If you’re looking for long training hikes in preparation for hitting the Appalachians or heading out West, it’s hard to beat these trails, which are within an hour and a half of Charlotte, the Triad and the Triangle.

Sauratown Mountains

Also popular from a hiker’s standpoint are the Sauratown Mountains, a range north of the Triad that’s defined by Hanging Rock State Park to the east and Pilot Mountain State Park to the west (in between is Sauratown Mountain, which has no public lands). Pilot Mountain with 25 miles of trail and Hanging Rock with more than 20 miles of trail offer the highest hiking in the Piedmont, reaching nearly 2,500 feet in elevation. And both offer the kinds of mountain-top views you long for in a summit, and waterfalls to boot. And the nearly 25-mile-long Sauratown Trail links the two.

Crowders Mountain

We’re hard-pressed to find a name for the mountain range that runs from Crowders Mountain State Park outside Gastonia to Kings Mountain State Park in South Carolina, but what’s in a name, anyway? Crowders Mountain, at 1,635 feet, and its neighbor, The Pinnacle, at 1,705 feet, offer an alpine experience for Charlotte hikers (and Charlotte mountain climbers as well). Crowders Mountain has 20 miles of trail, including the 6.2-mile Ridgeline Trail, which hooks up with an additional 40 miles of trail across the state line in South Carolina’s Kings Mountain State Park and Kings Mountain National Military Park.

Cane Creek Mountains

This lesser-known range in portions of Alamance, Guilford, Randolph, and Chatham counties was lesser known because it was short on public access to recreation. That’s about to change. In 2014, the Piedmont Land Conservancy acquired a 101-acre tract in southern Alamance County. PLC subsequently turned the land over to Alamance County Parks & Rec., which is developing trails on the property, part of the Cane Creek range. We’ll be back with more information about the preserve and it’s anticipated opening.

We’ve got several trips planned to the Piedmont mountains over the next two months. Join us and explore these mountains in our midst.

Happy trails,

Joe

Explore with us!

Our GetHiking! program frequently explores the Piedmont’s mountains. Coming up:

• Friday Crowders Mountain Extreme Hike, GetHiking! Charlotte. Details here.
• March 24 GetHiking! Classic Hikes: Pilot Mountain. Details here.
• April 14 Piedmont Explorer: Hanging Rock State Park. Details here.

Resources

For more information on the mountains mentioned today:

• Uwharrie Mountains “Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide,” by Don Childrey (2014, Earthbound Sports. More info at donchildrey.com.
• Sauratown Mountains For hiking in Pilot Mountain State Park, go here, for Hanging Rock State Park, go here. For information on hiking the Sauratown Trail, which is part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, go to this trail guide from the Friends of the MST.
• Crowders Mountain Check the Crowders Mountain State Park website for info on hiking in the park, including the Ridgeline Trail, which heads southwest into South Carolina. For hiking on the South Carolina side, visit the Kings Mountain State Park website.
• Cane Creek Mountains For information on Alamance County’s Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area and when it will open, go here.

The post Head for the mountains in our midst appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: A Hike Into Winter (Again)

Saturday, I got nostalgic for a hike. So I took one. Or tried to.

Driving back from the RiverBound Race Series 15K (more about that tomorrow) at Charlotte’s National Whitewater Center, I decided to stop and check out the northern trailhead for the Birkhead Wilderness Trail in the Uwharrie National Forest. This trailhead had eluded me for more than 20 years; On previous attempts I’d driven slowly past the clearing where I’d been told the trailhead entered the woods. Now, it has a sign and a gravel lot and is hard to miss.

It’s gorgeous hike — at least that was my vague impression. Through eyes bathed in sweat I seemed to start out climbing a ridgeline through a mature hardwood forest. The Uwharries elevation gains never cease to amaze, and this was no exception: the trail continued to climb, though at one point a foggy shadow to my left indicated the trail had dropped below the ridgeline. Again, through a gauze of sweat and a collection of cobwebs I wasn’t entirely sure.

What I was sure of, though, was that I can’t wait for cool, hike-worthy weather to return. Weather where a chill sets in every time you stop for more than 30 seconds and where the air is so crisp, clear and dry you can hear an acorn drop a football field away.

That nostalgia leads us back to a hike from this past winter. On a February day, on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along Falls Lake, a light rain quickly evolved into a moderate snow. It was the kind of hike where a chill set in if you stopped for more than 30 seconds, where the forest was so quiet you could hear the snowflakes land. Where the splash in your eye was cold, wet and bracing, not hot, salty and stinging.

Take 90 seconds and escape with us to hiking weather.

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The post 90 Second Escape: A Hike Into Winter (Again) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Taking a hike.

In the Triangle, for instance, we’re looking at daytime highs in the mid- to upper 40s and sunny to partly sunny skies through New Year’s Day. Good timing since most of you likely have some time off over this same time period. Since the weather today is universally ugly and thus ideal for planning, we offer 10 hikes especially well-suited for this time of year. Look ‘em over, consult the listed sources for additional information. If nothing tickles your hiking fancy, head over to our sister site, NCHikes.com, for more options.

Enjoy!

Coast

1. Boiling Springs Nature Preserve, 1.5 miles, Wilmington. (For details, go here.) Just a mile and a half? you may protest. After a few minutes on the trail at this The Nature Conservancy 6,925-acre property 25 minutes from downtown Wilmington you’ll be glad it isn’t longer considering how much there is to stop and see. Says The Nature Conservancy, “In an average natural area, there are 8 to 10 species of plants growing in one square meter, but in the wetlands of Boiling Spring Lakes there are several times that number.” Various carnivorous plants unique to the region, the red-cockaded woodpecker and the rough-leaf loosestrife are among the more unique sights you’ll see here.

2. Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest, Havelock. 20.1 miles, with shorter options (Trip No. 42, “Backpacking North Carolina,” Hike No. 5, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”). The Neusiok, much of which runs through a swamp, has a limited hiking window, and if you don’t hit this classic by mid-March, you’ll be sorry (and also plagued by flying, stinging bugs). Wintertime temperatures in the 50s and overnight lows near freezing make this the perfect coastal escape, regardless of whether you like going long (the whole 20.1 miles) or simply chewing off a section or two. An especially rewarding hike on a cool, sunny winter’s day.

View Ten Hikes for the End Days (of 2012) in a larger map

Piedmont

3. Uwharrie National Forest, Birkhead Wilderness, Asheboro, 7.4 miles (Hike No. 36, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina,” Trip No. 35, “Backpacking North Carolina,” or go here.) There’s a starkness to the Birkhead Wilderness, a 5,160-acre notch on the northern tip of the Uwharrie National Forest southeast of Asheboro, that makes it ideal for winter hiking. Although not a particularly mature forest, there’s a dearth of understory that makes for good, long sightlines in this portion of the ancient Uwharrie mountain range that’s a bit mellower elevationwise than to the south. A good, long hike for people who may not think they’re up for a good, long hike.

4. Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, Orange County, 2.9 miles (Hike No. 20, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina or go here). Normally, you’d expect to spend a good hour in the car to find a spot as remote as the Johnston Mill Nature Preserve. But thanks to the 1999 efforts of the Triangle Land Conservancy, this 295-acre preserve remains intact amid the encroaching sprawl of Durham and Chapel Hill. Your escape from the city happens quickly: From the main trailhead off Mount Sinai Road, you descend through dogwood, red cedar, sweetgums and loblollies into a floodplain forest rich with the rare: four-toed salamanders, Thorey’s grayback dragonfly, green violet, bloodroot, stemmed yellow violet and columbine. Walk along New Hope Creek to the Beech Loop, a bluff trail that gets its name from the sizable Fagus grandifolia that dominate the hillside. Later, check out remains of the Johnston Mill and homestead dating to the early 18th century. An especially foot-friendly tread (trail surface) makes this a particularly good venue for less able hikers.

5. Ledge Spring and Jomeokee trails, Pilot Mountain State Park, Pilot Mountain, 2.8 miles, with longer options (Hike No. 47, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”). One of the joys of winter hiking in North Carolina is the opportunity for great views. Colder, generally drier air eliminates the haze the plagues summer skies; on a clear day you may not be able to see forever, but you can see a long, long way. From the top of Pilot Mountain, which towers 800 feet above the surrounding landscape, you can see west to the Blue Ridge mountains, north into Virginia and south to Winston-Salem and beyond. The mountaintop Ledge Spring and Jomeokee trails offer the best views. Throw in the Grindstone and/or Mountain trails to add some distance.

6. Latta Plantation, Charlotte, 4.2 miles (Hike No. 28, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”). So much hiking, so close to town. Sixteen miles of trail explore this 1,343-acre preserve on the north side of town; we recommend a loop that includes the Hill, Cove and Split Rock trails, a loop that features a rare Piedmont prairie, a type of grassland common in the region prior to the European invasion but rarely found today. This being winter, you’ll miss out on the wildflowers common to a Piedmont prairie (such as the smooth coneflower), but you will get a sense of the vast open spaces that today we typically associate with the West. Some good shoreline and cove hiking on this loop as well.

Mountains

7. Mount Sterling, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 18.1 miles (Trip No. 17, “Backpacking North Carolina”). Of course, part of the thrill of winter hiking is the chance to experience some winter. You’ll have a good shot of that on this loop in the Great Smokies, which starts below 3,000 feet and tops out in a balsam forest atop 5,823-foot Mount Sterling. Super Storm Sandy dumped more than a foot of snow in the Smokies’ higher reaches and her wind created drifts of four to five feet. If you’re looking for a good winter adventure in November, this would be the hike. The summit happens early on, after a little more than six miles of hiking (the last 2.2 miles of which gains 1,700 vertical feet). After that it’s a lovely, mostly downhill ramble down Mountain Sterling Ridge Trail and Pretty Hollow Creek, with a return through Little Cataloochee. Lots of natural beauty interspersed with signs of the park’s cultural past. A most worthy 18-mile day.

8. Doughton Park: Basin Cove Loop, Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, up to 20+ miles (Trip No. 11, “Backpacking North Carolina,” Hike No. 54, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”). Another backpack/day hike option, where you should, at least through mid-month, find some color on a trip that starts at the base of the Blue Ridge escarpment. Hike in the easy 1.5 miles to the campground (establish base camp, if you’re backpacking), then behold numerous options, including: 3.4 miles up Basin Creek to the old Caudill Cabin (16 people living in one room) or head up the 2.8-mile Bluff Ridge Primitive Trail to Bluff Mountain, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and additional exploring along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Especially nice, again, with the seasonal BRP crowds diminished.

9. Schoolhouse Ridge Loop, Wilson Creek, Mortimer. 5.6 miles (Trip No. 10, “Backpacking North Carolina,” Hike No. 68, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”). January can be a dicey time of year for backcountry exploring in the mountains. The higher you get, the greater the chance for snow and ice — more a problem for driving than hiking. Good reason to say low (between 1,500 and 2,400 feet), yet still reap the benefits of a mountainlike trip. Good reason to visit the Wilson Creek area. One thing about Wilson Creek is the number of creeks that penetrate this rugged section of the Blue Ridge escarpment below Grandfather Mountain, creeks that often present challenging crossings. Not so much the case on the Schoolhouse Ridge Loop. Though it does have multiple crossings of Thorps Creek early on, none are challenging. After that, it’s carefree mountain hiking.

10. Linville Gorge: East Rim, 14.1 miles, with shorter options (Trip No. 7, “Backpacking North Carolina”). Out-of-town visitors are always looking to do “name” adventures — something the folks back home probably have heard of and would likely be impressed by. Linville Gorge is one of those places in North Carolina, an area known for its rugged beauty, falls and 2,000-foot deep (in spots) canyon. A great way to explore this wilderness is from along its East Rim. More adventurous types can start at the south end of the gorge and within two steep miles be atop Shortoff Mountain (from there, the hiking levels considerably as you head north). Or, take Forest Service roads up to the Table Mountain access where you can quickly climb 3,680-foot Tablerock Mountains (great 360 views), check out The Chimneys (popular with climbers) or take the Spence Ridge Trail, down into the gorge (it’s the easiest trail down). Great photos that come with bragging rights.

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