One day, driving, you notice a glint of orange in the trees, a sourwood, you realize after a moment, reverting to its natural color.  Maybe a reaction to the stress of being along a busy roadway where the temperature is elevated. You’ve heard that can happen. Still … .

Then, one morning you step outside and — whoa! You’re on the verge of goosebumps. Not that it’s that cold, but the unexpected cool takes you by surprise. Indeed, there’s a slight chill in the air, and while the temperature is still expected to reach the mid 80s later in the day, there’s definitely a chill. Later, you check your app and learn it got down to  — 59! It hasn’t been that cool since spring!

It’s too early declare victory in the war against oppressive summer heat, but the tide is definitely turning. In our minds, Labor Day weekend marks the start of fall, while on the calendar fall doesn’t officially report for duty until Sept. 22. And while we’ll still have a hot day or two in October, the swing to cooler, drier days has begun.

Consider, according to weather.gov, the average daytime high at Raleigh Durham International Airport for today, Aug. 17, is 88.5 degrees; the overnight low, 68.7. Come Labor Day, Sept. 5 this year, the average historical daytime high will have dropped to 85.3, the overnight low to 65.4. Come the first official day of fall, the average daytime high is 80.5, the overnight low 59.8. By mid-October, our daytime highs typically are in the low 70s, the temperature drops below 50 at night. Plus, the humidity drops going into fall, the chance of rain diminishes. Could there be a better time to be outside?

We don’t think so.

Which is why we’re getting ready to celebrate fall big time.

A full lineup of our fall hikes and trips can be found here. But here’s a snapshot of what we’re up to:

Fall Weekend Escapes

Black Mountain Crest Trail, Oct. 15-17. The anchor hike of this three-hike weekend is a trek from the north end of the Black Mountain Crest Trail, at Bowlen Creek, to Celo Knob. It’s an awesome transition from a mature Southern Appalachian hardwood forest to a boreal forest of balsam and fir. Check it out here.

Appalachian Trail at Hot Springs, Nov. 12-14. Late Fall is a magical time: autumnal color lingers, the hordes who come to see it do not. We celebrate with two hikes on the AT in Hot Springs, one originating at Garenflo Gap and ending in town, the other from Tanyard Gap into town. Both hikes trend downhill. Check it out here.

Weekly hikes

Tuesday Night Hikes, Sept. 21 – Nov. 23. We love the night hike, and starting Sept. 21 we will revive our annual night hike series with 10 weekly hikes, each starting at 6:30 p.m. on a different Triangle area trail. Each hike is around 3 miles in length. Check it out here.

Friday Morning Hikes, Sept. 10 – Oct. 29. Can you be both a night owl (see Tuesday Night Hikes) and a morning person? Yup, especially on Friday, mainly because who wants to wait until Saturday to launch their weekend? Eight weekly Friday morning hikes beginning at 7:30 and ending around 9. Check ‘em out here.

Sunday Afternoon Hike Series, Sept. 5 – Nov. 21. Fall Sunday afternoons were made for hiking: the temperatures are cooling, the air is drier, the sky more brilliant and, oh, the fall color! If you love the idea of fall hiking but have trouble motivating yourself to get out every week, this is the answer. Check it out here.

Skills

GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods. In this three-hour class we spend 20 minutes going over how to use a compass and how to read a map, then head down the trail and off to discover how the compass, the map and reality all align. Three fall sessions are scheduled:

• Sunday, Aug. 22, Umstead State Park
• Saturday, Sept. 18, Eno River State Park
• Saturday, Oct. 9, Umstead State Park

See why we’re so excited about the fall? Hope you are now, too!

The post GetHiking! gets geared up for fall appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Some of us don’t mind hiking in the heat. Switch to cotton, freeze your water bottle overnight, use your trekking poles as spider web vanquishers … . Sure, you work up a nice glow. But you’re on the trail, and really, it’s not unbearable.

We recognize, though, that not everyone is inclined to keep on hikin’ between Memorial Day and Labor Day. We also recognize that along about the Fourth of July weekend, the aforementioned cool-weather hikers are starting to undergo withdrawal. They get out their phone and stare longingly at those photos from the beginning of the year, when you were bundled in fleece. Ah, the good cold days.

We can’t magically make it cold. But we can direct you to some hikes where it feels less like summer. In some cases, a lot less. As a rough rule of thumb, the temperature drops about 3.5 degrees for every 1,000 feet of elevation. So if it’s 90 in Raleigh (elevation 315 feet), it’s in the upper 60s atop Mount Mitchell (elevation 6,684 feet).

Lesson one: hike higher, hike cooler.

Lesson two: you needn’t go as high, provided you’re hiking near cool waters. Waterfalls, pools on mountain creeks, that sort of thing.

With those two guiding points in mind, we offer 5 high country spots where fair weather hikers can stretch their legs without working up a drenching sweat. You might even want to take along a fleece.

Learn more about those hikes, here. Or, consult the entries listed in either our “Backpacking North Carolina” or “100 Classsic Hikes in North Carolina.”

1. Shuckstack/Lost Cove/Lakeshore Loop

11.6 miles

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fontana Village

Part of what makes this hike feel cool is that you start at the Fontana dam and climb immediately, gaining 2,280 feet in 3.5 miles. Yes, as you might suspect, you work up a good glow. But once you top out at Sassafras Gap, that glow becomes your cooling agent as you descend Lost Cove Trail through dense woods, then return via the Lakeshore Trail along the cooling waters of Fontana Lake. Unrelated note: I’ve seen both black bear (not uncommon in the Smokies) and wild boar (less common) on this hike.

For details: Trip No. 21 “Backpacking North Carolina”.

2. Hunt-Fish Falls/Gragg Prong Loop

7.3 miles

Wilson Creek area, Pisgah National Forest, Mortimer

Wilson Creek proper gets more crowded than a water park on a summer weekend due to the proximity of parking (if you can find it) to the water. But venture deeper into the Wilderness Study Area and you’ll find better water and fewer people. You’ll just need to invest a little sweat equity. Here’s what you do: hike the Hunt-Fish Falls Trail down to the Lost Cove Trail and go right. You’ll cross the creek, then keep an eye out for the Timber Ridge Trail on your left. Take it uphill (you’re investing in that sweat equity at this point), then go right on the Lost Cove Trail (it loops back around). Take it to Gragg Prong, hike downstream for less than a mile and you’ll have your choice of choice mountain pools to swim in. Related note: If you see a snake in the water, it is likely a harmless northern banded water snake; it is not a cottonmouth, which doesn’t live within a couple hundred miles. 

For details: Trip No. 8, Backpacking North Carolina.”

3. Basin Creek Trail

12 miles

Doughton Park, Longbottom Road access, Roaring Gap

The mile-and-a-half approach from Longbottom Road to Grassy Gap along Grassy Gap Creek is flat, a good opportunity to warm up the legs. There, pick up the Basin Creek Trail, which climbs in bursts along its frisky namesake creek (a creek that flooded in 1918wiping out the entire Basin Cove Community). Multiple crossings help you keep your cool; several pools along the way allow for a more immersive cooling event. Your carrot: the trail terminates at the Caudill Cabin, which survived the 1918 flood and was home to a family of 13. Stunning note: The Caudill Cabin is one room.

For details: Trip No. 11, “Backpacking North Carolina.”

4. Black Mountain Crest Trail

2-12 miles

Mount Mitchell State Park, Burnsville

This is cool hiking, guaranteed. With much of this hike above 6,000 feet (reaching 6,684 feet), you’re looking at temperatures in the 60s on a 90-degree Piedmont day. From the main parking area, make the short-but-obligatory summit, via pavement, to Mount Mitchell, then head north across the main parking lot on the Crest Trail to Mount Craig. Craig is only a mile out, but it’s a challenging mile and there’s no shame in topping out and proclaiming, “I’m good, heading back.” Big Tom, though, is just a short distance beyond, and that would give you your third 6,000-foot peak for the day. Balsam Cone, Cattail Peak and Potato Hill lie beyond, before the drop into Deep Gap at just over 6 miles. Warning note: Remember, this is an out-and-back; making it to Deep Gap with zero energy for the return is does not constitute a successful hike.

For details: Hike No. 65, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina.”

5. Pink Beds

5 miles

Pisgah National Forest near Brevard 

Look at a topo map of the Blue Ridge Escarpment north of Brevard and you’ll wonder, “What happened there?” Amidst a sea of tight, brown topographic lines is a sea of nearly unblemished green, a flat ledge on the escarpment known as Pink Beds. It’s a rare Appalachian bog through which the South Fork of Mills River runs, occasionally stopping to collect itself in a series of small ponds. A 5-mile trail circumnavigates Pink Beds, the wetter spots navigated via boardwalk. There’s the occasional meadow, some dense woods, precious little climbing. At just below 4,000 feet there may be cooler mountain climbs, but none as flat. Geographic note: Pink Beds got its name after early settlers cleared the land for farming, exposing an abundance of pink wildflowers. 

For details: Hike No. 80, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina.”

GetHiking! Southeast Podcast

This week on the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we explore one of the iconic backpack trips in the Southeast, the 35-mile Virginia Triple Crown. Give a listen here.

The post Defeat the heat with these 5 N.C. mountain hikes appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Temperatures in the upper 60s, sunny skies, summer vacation season in full bloom. All the makings for a miserable day atop Mount Mitchell in the summertime-popular Mount Mitchell State Park. Miserable, that is, if you stuck around the snack bar, the gift shop, the newly yellow-brick-trailed path to the mountaintop observation deck and the parking lot, where an endless stream of silence-piercing motorcycles slowly, loudly lit.

Standing amid the point-and-shoot public elbowing for room on the new platform that now marks the highest spot east of South Dakota’s Black Hills, I looked north and saw the future. The future, as in however long it took to dash down to my car, lace up the Vasques, throw on the daypack and make a beeline north. For while many drive to the top of 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell, few ever lose touch with pavement. And there’s no way you could pave the wily 13-mile Black Mountain Crest Trail, which runs from Mount Mitchell north over the rocky, rolling, alpine spine of the Black Mountains.

From Mount Mitchell State Park, the trail starts at north end of the north parking area, passes briefly through a fir-shaded picnic area, then, immediately, becomes enveloped in solitude. Balsam firs scent the air, thick mats of ferns carpet both sides of the trail. A sharp drop-off is made accessible by a stone staircase, which deposits you in another stand of balsams carpeted with ferns and a rich assortment of other understory greenery.

The mile-long hike/climb to 6,684-foot Mount Craig is enough for most of the simply curious. There’s a great view to the south and west and some of that hard-to-come-by solitude. A few more may straggle on to 6,581-foot Big Tom. But once cresting the latter, named for famed mountain guide and bear hunter Thomas David “Big Tom” Wilson — perhaps best known for discovering, on July 7, 1857, the body of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who died in his quest to prove the peak that would eventually bear his name to be the highest in the East — the nylon rope bolted to an especially steep and treacherous section — will weed out all but the most dedicated. Expect to have the trail to yourself from here on out.

You need to be in reasonably good shape to last past Big Tom. A good sense of balance and decent upper body strength are as import as being aerobically fit. You also need to hike prepared. The weather here can change in an instant: It may be sunny and 65 when you set out, but a quickly advancing storm can bring rain and a drop in temperatures in an instant. Pack rain gear and an extra layer. Bring extra water; strenuous hiking at altitude dries a body out. Check sunset, check the time the park gates close, establish a turnaround time accordingly. Do not be mislead by the fact you “usually” cover 2-3 miles on a mountain hike; these are not usual conditions and there is a lot to stop and see.

For planning purposes, here are some key distances from the trailhead at the north end of the parking lot. Including Mount Mitchell, this trip will net you seven 6,000-foot peaks — and there are only 40 in the state, according to the Carolina Mountain Club.

Mount Craig: 1.0 miles
Big Tom: 1.4
Balsam Cone: 2.1
Cattail Peak: 2.7
Potato Hill: 3.0
Deep Gap: 3.9
Winter Star 4.9

The Black Mountain Crest Trail — also called Deep Gap Trail within Mount Mitchell State Park — is a trip from popular tamed tourist destination to isolated outpost atop the East Coast. A trip that begins minutes after leaving civilization.

Crest Trail: Mount Mitchell to Winter Star Mountain

View Black Mountain Crest Trail in a larger map

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