“I can’t believe we haven’t seen anyone,” Krista said midway into our 15-mile hike.
“I wonder what Umstead’s like right now?” Amy wondered. “Probably bumper-to-bumper people.”
Probably, considering: 1) It was the second weekend in October and the first true weekend of fall color in the Piedmont, 2) It was a Saturday afternoon, 3) There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, 4) The temperature was struggling to get out of the 60s.
In short, it was a perfect fall day. The kind of day where it occurs to everyone to go for a hike, and it occurs to everyone to go to the same places. To Umstead State Park in Raleigh, to Hanging Rock and Pilot Mountain state parks in the Triad, to Crowders Mountain near Charlotte.
Need proof?
The Crowders Mountain Web site offers this warning front and center on its home page: “Expect parking delays on nice fall weekends.”
Which isn’t to say you should hide at home and experience fall through silde shows such as the one above. If you know where to go — like Amy and Krista did — you can experience the magnificence of fall in magnificent solitude.
Tag Archives: fall
Welcome fall, take a hike!
Wednesday evening, three of my Ultimate Hikers and I met for a hike under the headlamps. It was a little after 7 p.m. as we gathered at the trailhead. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones gathering.
“I think it’s staying to the west of us,” Robert optimistically offered.
90 Second Escape: That first cool hike of fall
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease this trying transition, we’re running a new feature every Monday called 90 Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s in the sun.
Let the fall hiking season begin!
Traditionally in hiking circles (my hiking circle, at least), Labor Day marks the end of summer and the start of the fall hiking season. It may technically still be summer (fall doesn’t officially arrive until 5:05 a.m. on September 23) and the temperatures may not typically drop noticeably (though they will this week) but in our minds, it’s fall. School is in, football has started — lace up the Vasques and let’s go.
Fall along the Eno
Dogs are distracted by squirrels, cats by mice, men in midlife crisis by red sports cars they can barely fit into. Me? A cloudless sky and 70-degree temperatures.
For most of this past week, I managed to avoid the temptation to leap from my desk and run out into the woods chasing after fall. After the changing colors, the curious quiet, the long shadows knifing across the forest floor. But by Thursday afternoon my discipline was shot. I looked out the window, saw another leaf fall and grabbed my day pack and was off. Off to my favorite place to greet fall in the Triangle: the Eno River.