In other words, another weekend where you might be hard-pressed to find a trail that isn’t swamped with hikers. And, as a result, another GetOut! column in which we try to point you in the direction of trails less likely to attract the masses.

Today, we have three recommendations. We offer a quick overview and a link for more information. In addition, at the end of the column we offer you our guides for each of the three hikes. 

First, the three hikes:

1. Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake: Day-Hike Section L (Rollingview Access to NC 98), Durham. 3.2 miles (one way; 6.4 out and back). The first three-quarters-of-a-mile is a gradual downhill, letting you loosen up your legs for the gently rolling terrain ahead. Lake views are best near the beginning; after that, the trail roles, gently, through Piedmont mixed hardwood forest. A good option if you’re looking to get some miles in, though with the route description in our guide you can cut your hike short to a more comfortable distance. Learn more here. 
2. Butner-Falls Lake Game Lands: Butner Depot, Bahama. 5 miles. How do you overlook 40,000 acres of public land along Falls Lake? For one, it’s mostly on the north side of the lake, and thus shielded from public view. It’s also designated game lands, intended primarily for hunting. But hikers are welcome, and if you know the hunting seasons you can avoid close encounters of the buckshot kind. Most of the hiking is on gravel roads closed to traffic but open to great views of wetlands and dry passage through swampy woods. Learn more here.
3. Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, Snow Camp. 2.5 miles. Part of the reason this 1,000-acre tract is lesser known is that it’s new, having opened this past spring. Another reason: it’s near Snow Camp. Which is where? you ask. Exactly. Yet here you can explore the highest “peaks” in the central Piedmont, rising more than 900 feet above sea level. An alpine escape south of Burlington. Learn more here.

State Park programs

Up for learning a thing or two this weekend? Six educational programs are planned at North Carolina State Parks, including Saturday’s Geology for Kids hike at Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough and Hoof It or Woof It, a dog-friendly hike at Hammocks Beach State Park in Swansboro. Learn more about these and the other four weekend programs here.

* * *

GetHiking! Guide to 3 Trails Less Traveled

Our guides to the three hikes described above provide all the information you need to take a hike on your own, including a map, route description and detailed overview including everything from length and difficulty of the trail, to how to find it in the first place. Order your downloadable copies this weekend, enter the code 7TMK3B3Y, and get 50 percent off the $1.99 purchase price. Discover the guide here.

The post GetOut! 3 hikes that offer quiet on a fab weekend appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Whether anyone had preceded me up these steep canyons was beside the point. I was a good 15 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park, which even 40 years ago was a hiker haven. I wasn’t even on a less popular National Forest trail. I was on my own, seeing things that, OK, maybe someone — but not many — had seen.

I get that same feeling today when I go off trail. The feeling that while I ain’t exactly hiking terra incognita, I am hiking where I likely won’t see another soul. Always a treat, but even more so since March, when everyone discovered hiking.

Winter Wild: escape the masses

When I started our Winter Wild hiking series in 2018, my goal was to take people backstage to some of their favorite hiking destinations. We went to the Three Sisters area of Hanging Rock, where three peaks at the eastern end of the Sauratown Mountain Range go largely unexplored, even on a sunny winter day when nearby Hanging Rock looks like an anthill. We went to the Birkhead Wilderness Area of the Uwharrie National Forest, where we found a long-abandoned gold mine and other signs of a distant human past. We went to busy Eno River State Park in Durham, but to an area that wasn’t; ditto Umstead State Park in Raleigh. We explored game lands on Sundays, a day of rest for North Carolina hunters.

For our first two years, going off trail in winter was an esthetic thing: the long views thanks to a naked understory and canopy, the brilliant sunlight from the source at its closest point to Earth, the quiet. And while all that’s just as important with this, our third Winter Wild season, of almost greater importance is the solitude factor. 

Since March, it seems everyone has discovered hiking. With little else to do, the masses took to the one thing that was deemed safe: outdoor activity. And for most, that meant hiking. Which is great: as our numbers soar, the demand for more public lands with hiking trail will soar likewise. But until then, until surging demand can be met, we need to be more creative in finding the solitude we crave on the trail. 

Where we’re headed

Our Winter Wild program is one way to make that happen. We largely avoid established hiking trails in favor of game trails, abandoned road beds and mild timber bashing.

Here’s a quick look at the six hikes in this year’s series, which begins Nov. 21.

• Eno Wilderness, Eno River State Park, Durham. Saturday, Nov. 21. Eno Wilderness. 7-8 miles. The 820-acre Eno Wilderness is on our schedule for the third year in a row. This year, we probe farther west, exploring some of the higher, steeper sections of the park.
• Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. Saturday Dec. 22. 8 miles, nearly all off-trail. Three off-trail peaks in the park, a plane crash site, the recently added Mill Creek grasslands. There’s some mild scrambling; save for a brief run out to Hanging Rock, we have the woods to ourselves.
• Butner Game Lands, Falls Lake State Recreation Area, Creedmoor. Sunday, Jan. 3. 6 miles. Wetlands and waterfowl habitat on north side of Falls Lake. The 40,670-acre Butner game lands primarily on the north side of Falls Lake offers mellow hiking on old roadbeds that pass impoundments housing overwintering waterfowl.

• 

  Caswell Game Lands, near Yanceyville (about an hour northwest of the Triangle). Sunday, Jan. 17. 6 miles. 18,000 acres of public land sits atop the Piedmont plateau in north central North Carolina, offering access to lands managed to protect wildlife. A bit more wild than Butner, but still relatively mellow.

• Birkhead Mountain Wilderness, Uwharrie National Forest, Asheboro. Saturday, February 6. 8 miles. A bonafide designated wilderness area (class of 1984) sits on the northern edge of the Uwharries. Our trek  plunges into the wilderness, including a visit to a long-abandoned gold mining operation and passage along ridge lines that, in winter, offer vistas of this ancient mountain range in the heart of the state.
• Umstead State Park, Raleigh, Saturday, March 6. 6-8 miles. A mature beech grove, the park’s Civilian Conservation Corps camp, a short-lived Boy Scout camp, a homestead or two, and best of all, escape from the crowds that make Umstead the most visited State Park in North Carolina. We’ll also catch some trout lilies, spring beauties and other emerging signs of spring.

True escape is hard to come by. But on at least six days this winter, you can bet you’ll find it with our Winter Wild series.

* * *

Join us!

Learn more about our Winter Wild series and sign up to join us by going here. Note: the series is limited to 10 participants.

The post Winter Wild: Solitude when you need it most appeared first on GetGoing NC!.