On Friday, the first of 11 Year of the Trail NC Trail Days Weekend Festivals gets underway in Elizabethtown, southeast of Fayetteville. And if you’re thinking, There’s hiking down there?, then you really need to be there. Here’s why.

We kick off the weekend with a Friday night hike along the banks of a mysterious Carolina Bay. Saturday, we have guided hikes at two state parks, a state natural area, on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and at a state educational forest (in addition to a guided flatwater paddle trip and a mountain bike ride), followed by an evening of live music and great local food. Sunday, we provide all the information you need to explore on your own.

In addition, we’ll have local craft and outdoor vendors at our basecamp Saturday during the day in Elizabethtown and Saturday evening in nearby White Lake.

Late February is a great time to explore North Carolina’s Coastal Plain, with skies typically sunny and daytime highs near 60. Ideal conditions for exploring roughly 70 miles of local trail.

Options for beginning and experienced hikers alike. This is one of 11 NC Trail Days Weekend Festivals planned for 2023’s Year of the Trail by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and its Hometown Strong initiative.*

Here’s a full agenda for the weekend:

Friday

2 p.m. – Ribbon cutting for new bridge on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail linking Jones Lake State Park with Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest.

3 – 7 p.m. –  Check-in at the Trail Weekend Headquarters at the Cape Fear Farmers Market, 106 MLK Dr., Elizabethtown and then explore this quaint town filled with locally owned shop and great places to eat. Welcome, food, vendors, information on Saturday events, disc golf demonstration, information on DIY hikes.

5:30 p.m. – Kickoff in downtown Elizabethtown featuring Earl B. Hunter Jr., founder of Black Folks Camp, Too, who will speak on, “Increasing More Unity in the Outdoor Community and Beyond: Campfire Conversations with Black Folks Camp Too.”

6:30 p.m. – Night hike at Jones Lake State Park, Cedar Loop Trail

Saturday

9 a.m.–3 p.m. – Trail Weekend Festival Headquarters is open. Food, Vendors, information on Saturday events, information on DIY hikes, Elizabethtown Farmer’s Market, 106 MLK Dr., Elizabethtown.

10 a.m. – Hike at Jones Lake State Park on the 4-mile Bay Trail

11 a.m. – Guided mountain bike ride at Browns Creek Nature Park and Bike Trail

12:30 p.m. – Guided paddle on Jones Lake, Jones Lake State Park

2 p.m. – Guided hike on the statewide Mountains-to-Sea Trail

3 p.m. – Guided hike at Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area

4 p.m. – Guided hike at Singletary Lake State Park

4–8 p.m.  Trail Weekend Headquarters Moves to White Lake, where there will be live music and food, New location is Camp Clearwater, 2038 White Lake Drive, Elizabethtown

4 p.m. – Guided hike at White Lake, on the multi-use path

5:30–7 p.m. – Mountain-to-Sea Trail Fundraiser at Camp Clearwater. Join us for some Southern Comfort Cuisine and fellowship as we share our experiences in Mother Nature’s Playground. $5.

6-8 p.m.  Live music – Band TBA

Sunday

9-11 a.m. – Beginning birding with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commssion’s N.C. Bird Atlas, at Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area.

Self-guided hikes, with information provided.

Lodging

Find information on lodging discounts for Festival Weekend here.

More information

Go here to register for individual events, all of which are free.

*Joe Miller, who owns and writes this blog, is an ecotourism adviser for Hometown Strong and is helping to organize the NC Trail Days Weekend Festivals.

The post Trail Days Weekend No. 1: Exploring the Coastal Plain appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Until this year.

This year, as part of North Carolina’s observance of Year of the Trail, among the hundreds of Year of the Trail events are 11 weekend trail festivals. Most will follow this format:

• Friday evening: a night hike, maybe a downtown concert, an introductory remark or two. 
• Saturday: Guided hikes, paddle trips, mountain bike rides. We’ll start around 9 a.m., go until 5 p.m. or so. There will also be a downtown festival, with craft and outdoor vendors, food and live music. There might well be more live music Saturday evening.
• Sunday: Sunday started out as a EIY (Explore It Yourself) day, with guide material supplied for select adventures. and that will still be the case. But we’re finding we have more and more to offer, so some structured events are sneaking into the mix. Volunteer service events (trail maintenance, trail building, etc.), for one. And we may be adding birding to the mix.

A quick explanation of what I mean by “we.” The 11 events are hosted by the communities and by the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Hometown Strong initiative. Hometown Strong was created by Gov. Roy Cooper to help the state’s 80 rural counties boost their economies. I joined Hometown Strong last summer to help communities in those counties do just that by helping them showcase their, in my opinion, largely under-appreciated outdoor recreation assets. Hence the 11 Weekend Trail Days Festivals, which are shown below with their festival dates:

• Elizabethtown/White Lake, Feb. 17-19
• Morganton, March 3-5
• Eden, April 21-23
• Sanford, May 12-14
• Elizabeth City, June 2-4
• Old Fort, June 2-4
• Edenton, July 21-23
• West Jefferson, Aug. 4-6
• Shelby, Oct. 13-15
• Robbinsville, Oct. 27-28

First Festival: Elizabethtown/White Lake

What will these festivals look like? They continue to evolve, but the first one, in Elizabethtown/White Lake southeast of Fayetteville, looks like this:

Friday, Feb. 17

• 3-7 p.m. –  Check-in at the Trail Weekend Headquarters at the Cape Fear Farmers Market, where you’ll find food, vendors and information on the weekend’s events.
• 6:30 p.m. – Night hike at Jones Lake State Park, Cedar Loop Trail

Saturday, Feb. 18

• 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. – Food, vendors, information on events available at the aforementioned Cape Fear Farmer’s Market.
• 10 a.m. – Hike at Jones Lake State Park on the 4-mile Bay Trail
• 11 a.m. – Guided mountain bike ride at Browns Creek Nature Park and Bike Trail
• 12:30 p.m. – Guided paddle on Jones Lake State Park
• 1 p.m. – Reading by local author at Bladen County Public Library
• 2 p.m. – Guided hike on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
• 3 p.m. – Guided hike at Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area
• 4 p.m. – Guided hike at Singletary Lake State Park
• 4-8 p.m.  Trail Weekend Headquarters moves to White Lake. 
• 4 p.m. – Guided hike on White Lake multi-use path
• 5:30-7:30 p.m. — Southern comfort cuisine dinner/fundraiser for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
• 6-8 p.m.  Live music, White Lake

Sunday, Feb. 19

Sunday is a do-it-yourself day. We will provide maps and route descriptions.  A “hike board” will be at the Trail Weekend Headquarter for people to organize and hike together. Potential hikes include:

• Through the vines at Lu Mil vineyard
• Paved trail around Greene’s Lake and Cape Fear Winery & Distillery
• Tour and hike at Harmony Hall National Historic site open from 1-4pm
• 9 holes of disc golf at Tory Hole Park
• Jones Lake State Park
• Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest
• Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area

More info and registration

Events are free, but registration is suggested since most events are capped. You can also find more information on each event at the registration site, which resides here. Two more sites to be aware of:

• GetGoingNC.com YOTT page. You can find more information including upcoming Year of the Trail events and news, at our YOTT page, here.
• Greattrailsnc.com. And, you can find a comprehensive Year of the Trail calendar of events at greattrailsnc.com, the official event aggregator for Year of the Trail.

One last thing. These events are for everyone. We don’t care about your experience level, we don’t care if you’ve been in seclusion for the past three years (which some of you have). The goal of Year of the Trail is to develop a keen appreciation for the outdoors in every North Carolinian, all 10.7 million of us.

Join us.

The post A Year of Weekend Festivals Celebrating Trails appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Not when you love the outdoors and 2023 happens to be Year of the Trail in North Carolina.

As I’ve mentioned over the last couple of months, next year has been deemed Year of the Trail in North Carolina and there’s going to be a lot going on. For starters, the State Legislature in 2022 allocated $29.15 million in funding for the Complete the Trails Fund. That money will fund State Trail projects as well as projects deemed :shovel-ready” — that is, the land has been purchased and the trail designed; all that’s needed now is the money to build it. Expect a lot of “Excuse our Mess” signs out in the woods next year.

Activity-wise, the Great Trails State Coalition, a non-profit created to promote North Carolina trails in 2023 and beyond, hopes to see a trail-related event — hike, bike ride, paddle trip, horseback ride — conducted in all 100 North Carolina counties in 2023. And the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is working up a full slate of fun as well, including programs through their PATH — or Parks and Trails for Health — program. But it’s another Department of Natural and Cultural Resources program that has me suggesting you get out your 2023 calendar (or buy one in the first place).

Big adventures in smaller places

Hometown Strong is an initiative of Gov. Roy Cooper that works with the state’s 80 rural counties to boost their prosperity. In general, communities identify problems they need help with — from modernizing their websites to overhauling their water treatment systems — and Hometown Strong’s policy analysts work to help them solve those problems, in large part by helping them find available funding. 

Sometimes, though, it works in reverse. In the case of Year of the Trail, Hometown Strong identified 11 communities with unheralded — or underheralded — recreational resources, and is working with those communities to shine a light on said resources. This will take place in 2023 in the form of trail day weekends celebrating these resources with street fairs and guided hikes and trips. This is where you get out your 2023 calendar to jot down the following trail festival dates:

• February 17-19 — Elizabethtown
• March 24-26 — Morganton
• April 22-23 — Eden
• May 12-14 — Sanford
• June 2-4 — Old Fort
• June 2-4 — Elizabeth City
• September 15-17 — Swansboro
• October 15-17 — Robbinsville

Other communities with dates yet to be determined are West Jefferson, Edenton, and Shelby.

With the possible exceptions of Morganton and Old Fort, you may be looking at this list and wondering: I’ve never heard of some of these places. Who on Earth put this list together? 

I did.

Elizabethtown? Eden?

In July, I was brought aboard Hometown Strong as an ecotourism advisor. It’s a dream assignment because in my 30 years of writing about the outdoors in the Southeast, and my 10 years of guiding trips, I’ve been all about uncovering the state’s hidden gems. From the state parks less visited (Medoc Mountain), to the back entrances to popular spots (the Longbottom Access to Doughton Park), to the places you might not think to visit unless you think about the right time to visit (the Great Dismal Swamp, in the dead of winter).

Basically, the places best accessed through the towns Hometown Strong will celebrate in 2023.

But … Elizabethtown? you ask.

You bet, Elizabethtown! (For those of you scratching your head, Elizabethtown is in the Coastal plain, southeast of Fayetteville.)

For starters, the Mountains-to-Sea runs through Elizabethtown. The area is also home to Jones Lake and Singletary Lake state parks, as well as Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest. There’s also Bay Tree Lake State Natural Area, Bladen Lakes State Forest, the Suggs Mill Pond Game Lands. There’s at least 70 miles of hiking in the area, through pine savannah, bay forest and more. On a cool and sunny winter’s day, you can’t find a better place to hike.

And Eden? I don’t even know where that is?

It’s north of Greensboro, near the Virginia line. It’s also where we recently relocated to, in part because of the varied outdoor opportunities. (I can be on the Smith or Dan rivers in less than 10 minutes after getting a hankering to paddle.) And where hikes such as the one in Mayo River State Park take you to surprising finds such as Deshazo Falls, pictured above.

Through the end of this year, I’ll be taking you to the 11 communities we will celebrate in 2023. I’ll provide an overview of the activities and a hint of the event itself (a “hint” because some won’t be fully conceptualized until after the first of the year).

Truly, the Great Trails State

In fact, some of you may even scoff at the notion of North Carolina as the “Great Trails State.”

For starters, there’s the 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the 300 miles of the Appalachian Trail (some of which we share with Tennessee); The Great Smoky Mountains National Park with its 800 miles of trail (again, we share some with Tennessee), the Blue Ridge Parkway, known for  its scenic pavement but with 369 miles of trail (some of which is in Virginia), the Art Loeb Trail, the Neusiok Trail, the Bartram Trail, the Benton MacKaye Trail, the Foothills Trail … .

Perhaps even more impressive is everything that’s to come. There’s the 159 trail projects identified by the Great Trails State Coalition as waiting to come out of the ground. There’s the Fonta Flora State Trail, which is seemingly growing by the month and will one day link Morganton and Asheville. There’s the 40-mile Northern Peaks State Trail, the northern terminus for which will likely break ground in 2023 on Paddy Mountain near West Jefferson. There’s footbridge construction in the works that will result in a 12-mile continuous stretch of the MST near Elizabethtown, resulting in one of the longest completed stretches of the MST east of Smithfield. 

Trails are in demand in North Carolina and the money to build them is becoming available. That’s thanks in part to the State Legislature and its visionary Complete the Trails Fund. But also to the communities, especially the smaller ones, willing to allocate often sparse resources to create trails. Those communities are the ones we will celebrate in 2023.

So, again, mark your calendars.

 * * *

Resources

• Great Trails State Coalition. You can find additional information on Year of the Trail here; you’ll find even more when it posts its calendar listing all events planned for the year.
• Parks and Trails for Health. This program through the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is a new initiative intended to promote physical activity in the state’s parks, greenways and other outdoor spaces. Find information about those activities and, in 2023, Year of the Trail events here.

The post Year of the Trail: Start Marking Your 2023 Calendar appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

It’s one of the cheapest recreation deals going: for as little as $5 an hour you can captain your own ship on any number of waterways throughout North Carolina. These bargain basement deals are offered at various county, municipal and state parks throughout the state.

We ran a preliminary list of such places in June; today, we offer a significantly more comprehensive listing (though if you notice an omission, let us know and we’ll be sure to plug it in). We’ve broken your options down by geographic region and included only the basic info: venue, type of boats offered and how much a rental will run you. Note that we’ve either included a range of prices or the minimum; boat houses often have complicated rate structures that you can learn more about at the Web sites provided.

Note, too: A deposit is often required, some boat houses take only cash, rentals are usually seasonal and some only rent on weekends. A good idea to call ahead before heading over.

Coast

Emerald Isle

Hot Wax Surf Shop, 252.354.6466
Boats: kayaks
Rates: $35 for five hours, $55 full day.

North Topsail Beach

Adrenaline Rush, (910) 934-3422
Boats: canoes, kayaks
Rates: Call.

Onshore Surf Shop, 910-328-2232
Boats: kayaks, standup paddleboards (surfboards, bodyboards, bikes)
Rates: $40 for four hours, $75 full day.

Oak Island

Oak Island Recreation Center,  910-278-5518
Boats: kayaks, canoes.
Rates: $15-$21 for four hours.

Swansboro

Barrier Island Kayaks, 252.393.6457.
Boats: various kayaks, standup paddleboards
Rates: $30 for two hours to $70 a day

Second Wind Tours,  910.325.3600
Boats: various kayaks, standup paddleboats, bikes
Rates: $25 half day (kayaks), $20 half day (bikes)

Salty Dog Kayak Rentals & Tours, 910.338.1541 or 252.515.1181
Boats: various kayaks
Rates: $15 for one hour to $55 a day

Coastal plain

Elizabethtown

Jones Lake State Park, 910.588.4550
Boats: canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

Gatesville

Merchants Millpond State Park, 252.357.1191
Boats: canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

Seven Springs

Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, 919.778.6234
Boats: canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

South Mills

Dismal Swamp State Park, 252.771.6593
Boats: canoes, kayaks
Rates: $5 an hour

Piedmont

Albemarle

Morrow Mountain State Park, 704.982.4402
Boats: canoes, rowboats
Rates: $5 an hour

Person County
Mayo Park, 336.597.7806
Boats: canoe, kayak.
Rates: $10 for four hours

Charlotte area

Charlotte

U.S. National Whitewater Center, 704.391.3900
Boats: various kayaks, whitewater park
Rates: See Web site for rate structure

Kings Mountain

Crowders Mountain State Park, 704.853.5375
Boats: canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

Troutman

Lake Norman State Park, 704.528.6350
Boats: canoes
Rates: $5

Triad

Brown Summit

Lake Townsend Watershed Park , 336.373.3694

Boats: rowboats, kayaks, sailboats
Rates: $10

Danbury

Hanging Rock State Park, 336.593.8480
Boats: rowboats, canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

Greensboro

Lake Brandt Watershed Park, 336.373.3741
Boats: rowboats, kayaks, sailboats
Rates: $10

Summerfield

Lake Higgins Watershed Park , 336.373.3739
Boats: rowboats, kayaks, sailboats
Rates: $10

Winston-Salem

Salem Lake Park , 336.727.8000

Boats: canoes
Rates: $4 an hour
Note: Call before heading out; dam construction may affect boat rentals

Triangle

Cary

Fred G. Bond Metro Park, 919.469.4100
Boats: canoes, kayaks, sailboats, rowboats
Rates: $5 per hour.

Durham

Lake Michie (919.477.3906) and Little River Lake (919.477.7889)
Boats: canoes, “flat-bottom boats”
Rates: $6 for six hours (Durham residents, higher for non-residents).

Holly Springs

Bass Lake Park, 919.557.2496
Boats: canoes, rowboats
Rates: $5 an hour

Morrisville

Lake Crabtree County Park , 919.460.3390
Boats: canoes, kayaks, sailboats, rowboats
Rates: rowboats $5 an hour, canoes & kayaks $7 an hour, sailboats $10 an hour

Orange County

University Lake, 919.942.8007

Boats: canoes
Rates: call

Cane Creek Reservoir, 919.942.5790
Boats: canoes
Rates: call

Raleigh

Lake Johnson, 919.233-.2121
Boats: canoes, kayaks
Rates: $5 an hour

Lake Wheeler, 919.662.5704
Boats: canoes, kayaks
Rates: $5 an hour

Paddle Creek,919.866.1954

Boats: canoes, kayaks

Rates: $45-$55 per day

Saxapahaw

Haw River Canoe & Kayak Co., 336.260-6465

Boats: Canoes, kayaks

Rates: Starting at $30, including put-in on Haw River.

Umstead State Park, 919.571.4170

Boats: canoes
Rates: $5 an hour

Madison

Dan River Adventures

Boats: Canoes, kayaks

Rates: $25 for 3 hours

Stokes County

Dan River Company
Boats: Canoes, kayaks

Rates: $35 for 3 hours

Mountains

Blue Ridge Parkway

Julian Price Park, Milepost 297
Boats: canoes, kayaks
Rates: $12 per hour, plus tax

The post 35 places to rent a canoe/kayak in North Carolina appeared first on GetGoing NC!.