The sponsoring American Hiking Society lists 31 National Trails Day events in North Carolina. From that list, which you can find in its entirety here, we’ve pulled three activities — at the coast, in the Piedmont and in the mountains — that we think you’ll find particularly appealing.

Coast

The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge occupies 153,000 acres of some of the most ecologically impressive terrain in North Carolina. Situated on a spit of rich organic and mineral soils on a peninsula between the mainland and the Outer Banks, the refuge is known largely for its diverse cast of critters, black bears, red wolves, coyotes and alligators among them.

But it also supports a range of ecosystems, including Atlantic white cedar forest, bay forest, brackish and freshwater marshes, cyrpress-gum forest, freshwater lakes and ponds, high shrub pocosins … the list goes on. It’s one of those places where you wish you knew at least a few of the key players.

That can happen Saturday, on a Plant and Tree ID Hike in the refuge. Local plant expert Bob Glennon leads a hike not only identifying plants but explaining the role they play in the overall scheme of things. The hike is on the half-mile-long, handicap accessible Creef Cut Trail.

Logistics: Saturday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, off Milltail Road. For more information call 252.475.4180 or visit here.

Saturday forecast: High of 77, chance of rain.

Looking ahead: From National Trails Day this Saturday to National Get Outdoors Day next Saturday, the outdoors celebration continues. As part of NGOD, Dismal Swamp State Park is holding a Summer Paddle at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 13, all equipment included. More info by calling 252.771.6593.

Piedmont

Here in the U.S., we largely hike to forget. OK, perhaps “forget” is a little extreme, suggesting that we hike with a hiking staff in one hand, a bottle in the other. Rather, we hike to help cope with the stress of often chaotic lives. Put us on a trail, let our minds wander, we’re happy.

They likely hike for similar reasons in Germany and in the rest of Europe, but they also tend to hike with a sense of purpose, banding together into “volksmarch” clubs and hiking predetermined routes based on intriguing points of interest. And, they also like to get credit for their hikes, earning stamps, pins and patches on their merry, marching way.

Saturday, the Triangle Volksmarch will give locals a sense of the volksmarch ethic. Sponsored by N.C. State Parks, Public Lands Every Day and Great Outdoor Provision Co., this 5.6-mile hike will bridge the N.C. Museum of Art and Umstead State Park, with stops along the way at the Prairie Ridge EcoStation and N.C. State University’s Schenck Forest. Each location yields a learning experience — and a stamp! Afterwards, from 4-7 p.m., attend an after party at Great Outdoor Provision Co. in Raleigh’s Cameron Village.

Hike on your own anytime between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., or tag along with GetHiking! Triangle, which will start at 2 p.m.

Logistics: Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., N.C. Museum of Art/Umstead State Park (Harrison Avenue entrance), Raleigh. For information on the hike and for related activities throughout the day, go here. If you’d like to march with GetHiking! Triangle, go here for details and to sign up.

Saturday forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 85 with, of course, a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

Looking ahead: Also on the agenda for National Get Outdoors Day: A 3-mile Get Outdoors Hike at Hanging Rock State Park to House Rock for a “free “Home Tour” of every room – rarely seen by visitors.” Intrigued? Call 336.593.8480 for details.

Mountains

We hate it when a trail network closes, even temporarily. We love it, though, when it reopens, new and improved.

Saturday is the grand reopening of the eight-mile Emerald Outback trail network at Beech Mountain. Initially a hiking trail, the trail has been redesigned to accommodate hikers and mountain bikers. The system is a mix of single- and double-track trail, and takes in lots of great views from Beech Mountain’s 5,400-foot summit (it bills itself as “one of the highest trail parks east of the Rockies”). In spots, you’ll be reminded of biking/hiking in the West.

The grand opening includes guided hikes and bike rides, food, live entertainment, clinics and if you don’t have a bike, demos will be available for loan.

Logistics: Saturday, 10 a.m. until nighttime, Beech Mountain. Free, for more information, go here.

Saturday forecast: High of 73, partly cloudy in the morning, a growing chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Looking ahead: Afraid that you’ve missed the spring wildflower season? They’re still out in the higher elevations, such as Mount Jefferson State Natural Area, site of a Wildflower Hike Saturday, June 13, at 2 p.m. Call 336.246.9653 for details.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

The post This weekend: Celebrate a trail! appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Tuesday, I had one of the more exhausting times I’ve had in 20 years of covering outdoor adventure — and I was in an air-conditioned building. At a catered affair.
The affair was a media event sponsored by the North Carolina Division of Tourism, a gathering of tourism promotion types from around the state and the people they hoped would write about them. People such as myself.
Immediately upon walking in the door of the Contemporary Art Museum — CAM for short — in downtown Raleigh I was met by my old buddy, Suzanne Brown. Suzanne and I worked together for years in the Features Department of The News & Observer, Suz overseeing everything entertainment, me doing my outdoors thing. In 2008, we were both part of a massive newsroom exodus. I landed here, Suz  at Tourism, a job that suits her as she wasted little time getting my attention.
“Do you know about the Southeast Coast Saltwater Paddle Trail?” she asked.
I didn’t, but I didn’t feel too bad upon learning that the trail is a work in progress, a proposed — though some of it exists — paddle trail running from Virginia south through the Carolinas and Georgia, where it will meet with the existing 1,515-mile Florida Circumnavigational Saltwater Paddling Trail. A kind of Appalachian Trail for paddlers.
“Cool!” I said.
“What about Jetpacks?” she wanted to know.
“And what about telephones with TV screens and flying cars?” I said.
No, she said, you can now rent a JetPak on the Outer Banks.
Then, in a Graduatesque nod to the Next Big Thing, she leaned in and whispered “Zip Lines.”

“Have you been to ZipQuest in Fayetteville? It’s a two-and-a-half-hour canopy tour that takes you over the largest waterfall in the eastern U.S.”
A zipline over the highest waterfall in the East — in Fayetteville? I started edging away.
“You can also fly a Wright Brothers glider!” she yelled, chasing me down the hall.
The madness continued inside the main hall.
At the Halifax County booth, Lori Medlin, president and CEO of the county’s convention and visitors bureau asked if I’d been to the Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck. Hike 5 miles at this 18-acre preserve, take pictures of more than 170 bird species from around the world. “There’s even a treehouse. And it’s handicap-accessible!”
“You like trails?” she continued. “The 7-mile-long Roanoke Canal Trail in Roanoke Rapids is pretty popular.”
Lori shared a table with Claire Phillips, director of marketing and public relations for the Pinehurst/Southern Pines/Aberdeen Area. I expected to hear something about golf. “We have an extensive greenway system,”  she said.

I found myself at the Fayetteville table, expecting to hear more about the zipline to outer space. And I did, but I also learned that Fayetteville is also home to the biggest indoor climbing gym in the state, The Climbing Place, with 18,000 square feet of climbing surface, 40,000 holds and 60 top ropes.
I learned that Chowan County has more than 300 miles of mapped paddle trails, that Washington has a Sunrise Yoga Paddle service as well as a Wine and Cheese Paddle, and that Edenton rents canoes and kayaks out of its harbor.
I learned from Craig Distl that since the Hawksnest Resort near Boone abandoned skiing and snowboarding a few years back it’s gone tubing and zipline crazy. And I learned that while they still ski and ride at Ski Beech, the highest ski area in the East, they’ve also opened the Emerald Outback, an 8-mile mountain bike trail network.
I learned that the Biltmore in Asheville is getting its own marathon and that a mountaintop-to-mountaintop zipline is being planned at Navitat north of Asheville.

Farther west, I learned from Charles Conner with the Nantahala Outdoor Center that the NOC is about more than just really fast moving water. Survival, for instance.
“We’ve got a Survival School that shows you how to survive 72 hours in the wild,” he said, adding, “Seventy-two hours — that’s about how long most people stay lost.” The ones who end up getting found, that is.
By the time I’d worked my way to the westernmost part of the state, I was pooped. But not too pooped to visit the craft beer booth, where Win Bassett was more than happy to fill my sampler cup with the handiwork of North Carolina’s 65 craft breweries (or at least the 65 that belong to NC Brewing). Fullsteam Brewery’s Summer Basil was particularly tasty.
A handful of booths remained, but — holy cow! — I’d just been across North Carolina on everything from a zipline to a JetPak to the Wright Brothers glider.
I needed a nap.

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