Game lands? Aren’t those for hunting and fishing?
They are. But they’re also for all kinds of exploring, including hiking. And that’s from someone who would like to see more folks hiking the state’s game lands: Brian McRae, Division Chief for Land and Water Access for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
In the early 1980s I lived in Loveland, Colo. On weekends, I would drive up U.S. 34 along the Big Thompson River toward Estes Park, into the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forest. I would typically stop well short of Estes, sometimes not even making it to the tiny crossroads of Drake. I’d find a roadside pullout, get out and start hiking: there didn’t need to be a trail, as long as the terrain was passible. It wouldn’t be long, scrambling up the steep canyon walls, before I’d start fantasizing that I might be the first person to have ever made it to the ridge above. Hey, I was in my 20s. What did I know?
