Coast

Since moving to the state 22 years ago, we’ve been especially intrigued by the opportunities for adventure in Eastern North Carolina. Unfortunately, our curiosity has not been matched by action.

That’s about to change, though, as we launch a joint exploration project with Great Outdoor Provision Co.: GetExploring! Greenville. The program’s goal is to help both experienced and novice explorers get out and discover the adventure potential east of I-95. Saturday is our first GetExploring! Greenville foray: a two-hour paddle trip at Goose Creek State Park.

We’ll spend a couple of hours paddling the intimate waters of Goose Creek, just east of Washington, N.C. Goose Creek is a classic swamp/marsh paddle, complete with all manner of ecological eye candy. It’s a great introduction to exploring Eastern North Carolina.

Logistics: Saturday, Aug. 9, 10 a.m., Dinahs Landing boat access, Goose Creek State Park. Learn more about Saturday’s paddle and sign up at GetExploring! Greenville.

Saturday forecast: Morning highs in the 70s, raining moving in in the afternoon (once we’re off the water).

Piedmont

Continuing your search for activities that ignite your passion? Have you given badminton a try?

Badminton is one of those intoxicatingly alluring pursuits that sucks you in with its apparent simplicity, then, several hours later, spits you out exhausted. Several years ago we bought a badminton set, set it up in the yard. Eventually, about three months later, we stopped playing — but only because the net had been reduced to tatters, our rackets wrought with gapping holes and the last shuttlecock had landed on the neighbor’s roof.

Experience the addiction of badminton yourself Saturday at the Marion Diehl Recreation Center in Charlotte. From noon to 2 p.m. there will be open play for the 18- to 54-year-old set. Learn a new activity, meet new people to play with. And it’s free.

Logistics: Saturday, Aug. 9, noon-2 p.m., Marion Diehl Recreation Center, Charlotte, 2219 Tyvola Road. For more info, call 704.544.2417.

Saturday forecast: High of 79 with a goodly chance of rain (but the badminton is indoors).

Mountains

Craggy Gardens along the Blue Ridge Parkway — at Milepost 363 — is known for its rugged terrain and great views. But it’s also a unique ecological oasis perched high in the Southern Appalachians. Discover what all makes this area unique on a two-mile hike lead by a Blue Ridge Parkway park ranger on Saturday morning.

Logistics: Saturday, Aug. 9, 10 a.m., Graybeard Mountain Overlook, Milepost 363, Blue Ridge Parkway. Free. More info: 828.298.5330, ext. 304.

Saturday forecast: High of 71, 60 percent chance of rain.

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I’ve been spending a lot of time along the Blue Ridge Parkway of late, exploring the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. I’d be spending even more time if the Parkway facilities, specifically the campgrounds, were open. Which they soon will be.

The National Park Service has announced 2012 opening dates for their seasonal facilities along the Parkway. I’m finding them useful for trip planning, figured you might, too. Here are some key locations for the pedestrian explorer, when they open and some thoughts for how these locations might play into your plans. For locations, go here for a Parkway map.

Campgrounds

Doughton Park, MP 240. May 11-Oct. 28. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail runs through Doughton Park as well, piggybacking on the Bluff Mountain Trail.

For the most part, this trail explores high mountain meadows offering great views. A spur trail to Wildcat Rock offers a great view way down into Basin Cove and a tiny, one-room cabin where the Caudill clan once lived. Four trails provide access to Basin Cove: Cedar Ridge, Bluff Mountain Primitive Trail (the shortest and steepest), Grassy Gap (the most mellow) and Flat Top Ridge. Several days of great hiking.

Julian Price Park, MP 297. May 11-Oct. 28. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail runs through the park. Take it south for hikes through mountain meadows past Holloway Mountain Road, go north for rugged hiking along (and in) Bee Creek and the larger Boone Fork. Also a nice loop trail around Price Lake and boat rentals weekends starting April 7 and 8, then daily May 1-Sept. 30, 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

Linville Falls, MP 316. Opens April 2, closes Oct. 28. Great base camp for exploring nearby Linville Gorge. Short trails out of the Linville Falls Visitor

Center (open April 27-Nov. 4) explore towering hemlock forests and the impressive Linville Falls, various trails off the Kistler Memorial Highway drop into the rugged gorge where you can hike the 13-mile Linville Gorge Trail and take the footbridge across the river to Table Mountain, The Chimney and Shortoff Mountain. This is a Wilderness Area; advanced wayfinding skills required.

Crabtree Meadows, MP 340. May 11-Oct. 28. The Crabtree Falls Trail is a nice hike, especially for a family (not too long at 2.5 miles and a great waterfall as a carrot). Plus, the campground is a 15-minute drive from Mountain Mitchell State Park and the Black Mountains. The crest of the Blacks, part of which is in the park, is the highest hiking on the East Coast with elevations generally above 6,000 feet, topping out at 6,684-foot Mount Mitchell. Hiking here is alpine and rocky, a much different experience than you’ll find elsewhere in the South.

Mt. Pisgah, MP 408. At nearly 5,000 feet, this is the highest campground along the Parkway. (Biggest benefit: Cool nights for sleeping are almost assured.) Again, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail comes through Pisgah and continues west along the Parkway, where you’ll find some of the best hiking in the state at Graveyard Fields and the Shining Rock and Middle Prong wildernesses. Also some of the most exposed hiking in the state.

Campsites are $16 a night, reservations can be made at RECREATION.gov or by calling 877.444.6777.

Note to cyclists: Note the spacing of Doughton Park, Julian Price, Linville Falls and Crabtree Meadows: respectively, they are 57, 19, and 24 miles apart. Their proximity could make for a good self-supported bike trip, especially for the newby. That first day, from Doughton Park to Julian Price Park, is long, but doesn’t have the climbing you’ll find farther south. Plus, if you’re of a mind you can supplement days two and three with side trips off the Parkway.

Other key facilities

These facilities can offer shelter, sustenance and diversion along the way.

Visitor centers

Linn Cove, MP 304. April 27-May 26, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.; May 27-Nov. 4, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Linville Falls, MP 316. April 27-May 26, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.; May 27-Nov. 4, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Gateway to Linville Gorge, with good selection of maps and guide books.

Craggy Gardens, MP 364.5. Weekends starting April 7 and 8, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; daily April 23-Nov. 4.

Folk Art Center, MP 382, open year-round. Featuring work from artisans and craftfolk from throughout the region. Plan to spend some time.

Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center, MP 384. Open year-round.

Waterrock Knob, MP 451. April 27-Nov. 4, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Concessions

Northwest Trading Post Gift and Craft Shop, MP 258.8. May 1-Oct. 31, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Crabtree Falls, MP 339, May 1–Oct. 31, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Wifi!

Pisgah Inn, Restaurant, Gift Shop & Country Store, MP 408.6. Open through Nov. 4.

Note: The Bluffs Restaurant and Coffee Shop in Doughton Park is closed for 2012.

More info

For additional insight on exploring the areas and trails mentioned, check out “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina” and “Backpacking North Carolina.”

The post Blue Ridge Parkway: Opening for business appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Which isn’t to disparage the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Far from it. In these days of financial worry, an economy adrift and overall uncertainty, the MST is a rare constant, continuing to plow across the state. In the Triangle alone, the MST could be complete from Hillsborough to Clayton in two years. But it takes more than trail and the promise of trail-to-come to get me excited. It takes something along the lines of 300 miles of continuous, non-stop, no-reason-to-detour-for-a-bit-along-this-four-lane-divided-highway natural surface trail.

And that’s what we should see on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail come mid-July.

On the weekend of July 16 and 17 — billed as the Big Dig — volunteers will converge near milepost 290.3 on the Blue Ridge Parkway to punch through a five-mile stretch of trail. That link will create an unbroken pathway running 300 miles, from Soco Gap near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the visitor center at Stone Mountain State Park. Provided, of course, enough volunteers chip in to make it happen.

“This is a chance to be part of history and leave a legacy for future generations,” says John Lanman, leader of the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Watauga Task Force, which is organizing the event. Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is the nearly all-volunteer non-profit behind the trail’s development.

As I mentioned earlier this month commenting on National Trails Day, it’s hard to find a better workout than working on a trail. Using a rake to clear trail, a mattocks to break up the dirt and rock, a shovel to clear and level the broken up dirt and rock, another rake to clear the remaining debris … (anyone else feel like breaking into “Sixteen Tons”?).  Not to mention that feeling of accomplishment you’ll feel sometime Sunday afternoon when east meets west. Think Promontory Point, Utah, 1869.

This 300-mile stretch may be the most scenic portion of the MST, tracing the Blue Ridge Parkway through the likes of the Middle Prong Wilderness, Graveyard Fields, Pink Beds, Mt. Pisgah, down into the French Broad River valley at Asheville, the long climb up to Mount Mitchell through Craggy Gardens, then descending across the Blue Ridge escarpment through the Linville Gorge Wilderness, across the base of Grandfather Mountain, through Doughton Park and down into Stone Mountain State Park. If you were contemplating a long getaway with your backpack in North Carolina, this would be your route.

The ideal way to start training for such a rigorous trek? By grabbing a shovel and helping to get that last five miles done.

Here’s how you can help:

• Let either John Lanman (jelanman@charter.net) or Allen de Hart (adh4771@aol.com) know you’ll be there.
• Plan to be at the Thunderhill Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 290.3 by 8:30 on both July 16 and 17. (That’s 1.5 miles north of where U.S. 321 crosses the parkway.)
• If you don’t live in the immediate region and need overnight accommodations, camp sites are being reserved at the Price Lake campground (the camping fee is waived for participants). Allen de Hart can reserve a spot for you if you let him know by July 6.
• Wear sturdy shoes, gloves and work clothes.
• Bring lunch, snacks and plenty of water.

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