Foothills Trail Archives - GetGoing NC!

The Ultimate in a hike

JoeMiller — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 14:22:56 +0000

Looking for a challenge in 2015?

How about hiking 28.3 miles? In one day.

Ultimate Hike is the chief fundraiser for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. CureSearch is a nonprofit that traces its roots to 1987. Though its name has changed over the years, its mission has not. The nonprofit funds research efforts to fight children’s cancer. If there’s a more noble effort to support, I’m pressed to think of it.
The Ultimate Hike

And if there’s a better way to support the cause — hiking to raise money for children’s cancer research — I’m hard-pressed to think of it, either.

The 2015 Ultimate Hike season is about to get underway. This year’s hike, on the last 28.3 miles of the 77-mile Foothills Trail straddling North and South Carolina, is May 16. You don’t, however, just show up on May 16 and expect to hike 28.3 miles (at least most of us don’t). As part of the program, there’s a 12-week training program. The key component of the training program is a series of every-other-weekend hikes that will grow increasingly longer. Start with a getting-to-know-you short hike of 2 or 3 miles and build from there. Most hikes are local, but there’s also an elevation training hike at Hanging Rock State Park and and endurance hike of 20 miles in the Uwharrie National Forest. There’ll also be one or two mid-week hikes designed to get hikers used to hiking in the dark. (Why? Because to hike 28.3 miles in one day you have to hit the trail pretty early — 4:30 a.m., to be exact)
Want to find out more? Then make plans to attend one or UH’s informational sessions next week, in Cary and Durham:

Wednesday, Feb. 4, REI in Cary, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 5, REI in Durham, 7 p.m.

And if you’re thinking, “I’m not really much of a hiker, this probably isn’t for me,” then cease that line of thinking. This hike and the 12-week training program is exactly for you: that’s what the training is all about. If you’re curious about what hiking 28.3 miles in a day is like, here are some scenes from the first Ultimate Hike on the Foothills Trail, in 2011.

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90 Second Escape: A wet ‘n’ wild Ultimate Hike

JoeMiller — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:28:27 +0000

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 the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: A wet ‘n’ wild Ultimate Hike

Saturday was the first Ultimate Hike Alumni Hike — a stepped-up version of CureSearch for Children’s Cancer’s epic fundraising hike to help battle childhood cancer. The hike is for hikers who have done the regular Ultimate Hike and are looking for an even greater challenge. Though Saturday’s hike was three miles shorter — 25.1 miles vs. 28.1 miles — it was on a much more rugged stretch of the Foothills Trail straddling North and South Carolina. For instance, the last 0.7 miles gained 1,100 vertical feet! Adding to Saturday’s challenge: it rained almost all day — and this was a day that started with a 2:15 a.m. wake-up call and ended, for the last hikers to finish, at 8:20 p.m.

Here’s a taste of one long day on the trail for a great cause.

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Make this fall epic: Take the Ultimate Hike

JoeMiller — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:12:57 +0000

Two weeks from Saturday I will stand in front of about 50 people at Umstead State Park and tell them that their lives are about to change in ways they can’t imagine.

Those 50 folks will be about to take their first steps on an epic adventure called the Ultimate Hike. You could be one of them.

Ultimate Hike is the chief fundraiser for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. CureSearch is a nonprofit that traces its roots back to 1987. Though its name has changed over the years, its mission has not. The nonprofit funds research efforts to fight children’s cancer. If there’s a more noble effort to support, I’m pressed to think of it. The primary way these newbie hikers lives will change is through the stories they’ll hear of children and families touched by childhood cancer, the No. 1 cause of death by disease among kids. The very children and families they’ll be raising money to help. More about that shortly.

The lives of these 50 hikers will change in another big way. That’s especially true for the roughly 50 percent who come into the program having little if any experience on the trail. For many of the others, it’s likely been 10 or 20 or 30 years since they last hiked. Yet here they are, bodacious in the assumption that in just 12 weeks they’ll be able to hike 28.3 miles in the mountains. But before they can hike that 28.3 miles on the Foothills Trail of North and South Carolina, they’ll have to start with the 4.5 miles planned for that morning. For some, that 4.5 miles will be more challenging than the 28.3.

Which is just fine, because I have a plan to get them into shape.

Since Ultimate Hike came to the Triangle three years ago I have been the local hiking coach. My job is make sure each one of these 50 hikers is ready come Hike Day, which this year is Nov. 9. I’ve devised a hiking and fitness plan for the hikers, with the highlight being our every-other-week group hike. Our first hike will be a truncated 4.5-mile version of Umstead’s Company Mill Trail. We’ll start with a brief meeting, maybe with bagels and coffee, before hitting the trail. It will likely be hot and no doubt humid. (The first year the temperature reached a comically — and record — hot 104.) I will tell everyone that while the hikes will get longer, the weather will cool. Eventually.

Every other weekend we’ll meet to do another group hike. Our next hike will be eight miles along the Eno River. It probably won’t be any cooler, and people will complain, good-heartedly for the most part. “It’ll get better,” I’ll assure them. “Trust me.”

Over the next couple months we’ll do increasingly longer hikes, at Raven Rock State Park, on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along Falls Lake, on the Uwharrie National Recreation Trail (our longest training hike, at 22 miles), at Hanging Rock State Park (our “elevation” hike, at which unkind words will be said about the coach). We’ll do a handful of midweek hikes, both predawn and post dusk. (Hold that question.)

Along the way, we’ll not only develop impressive hiking legs but some great friendships as well. If that sounds vaguely like the pitch from summer camp when you were a kid, it should. Training hike day is, for most of us, a chance to let go of the day-to-day grind and escape into a fantasy world of indulging a day in the woods with friends. It’s the kind of environment that fosters the kinds of conversations you don’t get to have much as a busy adult.

The journey is a blast. The destination — the the Ultimate Hike — will make your checking-out highlight reel.

On Friday, Nov. 8, our now-buff hiking group will meet at a central location in the Triangle and take a couple of passenger vans to Lavonia, Ga. At one hiker’s instance we’ll stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch, then arrive at the local Holiday Inn Express in Lavonia around 5 p.m. We’ll check into our rooms and mingle with other Ultimate Hikers from Greenville and Columbia, S.C. We’ll gather for a big pasta kick-off dinner, at which we will be reminded what it is we’re hiking for. Afterward, after hearing the stories of families and little kids battling cancer, our challenge the following day will seem trivial.

The following day will begin around 2:30 a.m. In the morning. We’ll stumble through breakfast, then pile into vans for the hour-long drive to the trailhead. We’ll arrive where the Foothills Trail transitions from North Carolina to South Carolina, pull into a gravel parking lot, pile out, take a group picture, then start going out in waves — slowest hikers to fastest — beginning at 4:30 a.m. For a good two hours we’ll hike by the light of our headlamps (hence, those midweek training hikes in the dark).

We’ll be pampered and fed at three rest stops by volunteers and the stellar Oconee County EMS crew. (Expect the latter to tell you there are more bears in Oconee County, S.C., than anywhere else in the country.)

Some will finish the hike as early as 2 p.m. I will be with the last hiker, finishing up around 7 p.m., just before it becomes necessary to get the headlamps back out. We’ll have a big celebratory dinner back in Lavonia. Most of us will fall asleep before 9 and sleep really, really well. A few will toast one another into the wee hours and have a rough ride home the next day in the van.

If history is any indication, all will easily make their fundraising goal of $2,500.

Two quick hiker stories.

The Sunday morning after the 2011 hike, hiker Candi Barnes told me with authority, “I’m never putting these hiking boots on again!” She and her husband, Chris, had both done the hike on behalf of their daughter, a cancer survivor. Last summer, at our first recruitment meeting, the first person I saw was Candi. Must have scored a new pair of hiking boots.

Christy Griffith wasn’t quite as vocal after the 2011 hike, but she didn’t need to be: her hobbled body spoke volumes. At the midpoint of a remote 10-mile stretch of trail along the Chattooga River, it looked like Christy might have to abandon. I began scouting escape routes out of the canyon, when Christy decided she had the last eight miles in her. I’m guessing the thought of her daughter, Eve, also a cancer survivor, had something to do with her rally.

Christy, too, returned the following year. She offers this advice for anyone skeptical of their prospects.

“I’d like to say for anyone who is afraid they can’t do it that I had never hiked before UH. Or exercised since high school.”

Looking for a great challenge on several levels? Keep reading … .

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Be an Ultimate Hiker

Curious about the Ultimate Hike? At least enough to learn more about it? Then come out to one of five information meetings I’ll be doing in the Triangle over the next two weeks, between :

Tuesday, July 30, 6:30 p.m. — North Raleigh: REI, 4291 The Circle at North Hills (Six Forks Road at the Beltline/I-440).

Wednesday, July 31, 7 p.m. — Durham: Bull City Running, 202 W. NC 54 (just off Fayeteville Street north of I-40)

Monday, August 5, 6:30 p.m. — Cary: REI, 1751 Walnut St. (off US 64 at Walnut).

Tuesday, August 6, 7 p.m. — Chapel Hill: Great Outdoor Provision Co.,
1800 E Franklin St. (Eastgate Shopping Center).

Wednesday, August 7, 7 p.m. — Raleigh: Great Outdoor Provision Co., Cameron Village.

Preregistration is encouraged, which you can accomplish by going here.

Questions? Drop me a line at joe@getgoingnc.com or leave a comment below.

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This weekend: A good one to keep moving

JoeMiller — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:17:29 +0000

A cool weekend is on tap across North Carolina: weekend highs will be lucky to top 50 and there’s a chance of snow in the west. If you’re going outside — and you know you will — it’s a better idea than usual to keep moving.

Coast

Five miles is a nice distance to run, we’ve always felt. A 5K — 3.1 miles — feels too short, too fast. And a marathon just seems ridiculously long (our judgement on this may be clouded as we’re signed up for the Umstead Trail Marathon Saturday and the thought of a 5-mile race is darn attractive right now). If you also like the sounds of a 5-mile run, then head to Greenville Saturday for the 2013 Patriot Run benefitting Fort Bragg’s Survivor Outreach Services, which helps families who have lost a serviceman/woman in combat. Awards by age category.

Logistics: Saturday, March 2, 8:30 a.m. $20 if you register by the end of today, $25 from tomorrow through race day. More information and to register here, or call 252.328.6085.

Weekend forecast: High of 50, partly cloudy.

Observation tower atop Moore's Knob at Hanging Rock State Park.

Piedmont

Have you ever hiked at your local state park and wondered about its origins, specifically the origins of its older, stone buildings? Get a sense of how many of our state parks came to be by hearing the story of one park, Hanging Rock, on Saturday’s CCC History Hike. Roam around and here the history of Hanging Rock State Park, which, like many of North Carolina’s state parks, dates to the 1930s.

Logistics: Saturday, March 2, 2 p.m. Free. More info here.

Weekend forecast: High of 45, 50 percent chance of rain.

The falls, Upper and Lower Whitewater

Mountains

Depending upon how you define “waterfall,” the falls known as Upper and Lower Whitewater on the North Carolina/South Carolina line south of Cashiers may be the highest in the eastern United States. Regardless of your persnicketiness regarding geographic precision, the Thompson River’s drop, in sections, of 400 feet is spectacular. And it’s the destination of Sunday’s hike by the Carolina Mountain Club. Total distance, on the Foothills Trail, is 11.6 miles and the hike is rated “strenuous.”

Logistics: Meet to carpool to trailhead at 8:30 a.m. Contact hike leader Don Gardner at 828.493.1127 or gardog3@bellsouth.net to reserve a spot and find out where to meet.

Weekend forecast: High of 41, 60 percent chance of precipitation, possibly snow.

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Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

U.S. National Wildlife Refuges
Rundown, by month, of regular activities at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuges in North Carolina.

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The ultimate in hiking

JoeMiller — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 10:04:32 +0000

The frustration of six miles on the trail, most of it in the dark, was beginning to show.
“Why does this trail have to be so hard?” Kathy yelled. “Why does it have to be such a struggle?” The rage I could handle. Then came the tears. Time to kick into “trail ambassador” mode.
“Hey, tell me again about that 12-hour training hike, the one that almost killed every one,” I said. This may be frustrating, but from what I’d heard of the aforementioned training hike, the one in these same mountains that ended three hours later than expected, in the dark, with one hiker having to be evacuated by an elderly couple that couldn’t hear and chewed tobacco, I knew it wasn’t that bad. And it wasn’t. The diversion gave Kathy, who had quickly proven herself adept at telling stories, one after the other, something worse to focus on. Just like that, the frustration of this hard trail evaporated as she retold the story of a really hard day on the trail.
What a great way to spend a day in the woods.
Saturday was my second Ultimate Hike. I signed on last year to help coach the Triangle contingent of hikers. I was so taken by the experience, by the hikers and their commitment to the UH cause, that I couldn’t wait to re-up for this year.
The Ultimate Hike was dreamed up over two years ago by CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. Initially, CureSearch relied on grants and philanthropic donations to do its work, which includes connecting parents of kids with cancer into a vast network of children’s cancer specialists worldwide. Three years ago it started doing fundraising walks. Two years ago it hit on the idea of the Ultimate Hike: train for 12 weeks, do a monster hike, in the case of the Triangle hikers and other UHers throughout the Southeast, the westernmost 28.3 miles of the 77-mile Foothills Trail straddling the North Carolina/South Carolina line. In exchange for training and the fully supported Ultimate Hike, hikers pledge to raise $2,500 each.
Our group began training with a steamy 6-mile hike in August at Umstead. Every two weeks thereafter we did successively longer and more challenging hikes, along the Eno River, at Falls Lake, back at Umstead, at Hanging Rock and in the Uwharrie Mountains. We hit the trail well-prepared at exactly 4:30 Saturday morning under … well, under what kind of skies I do not know because for the first two-plus hours it was dark. (A good thing, actually, because the most severe climbing occurs at the beginning, and it’s harder to tell just how much you’ve climbed and how much more you have to go when your world is confined to the glow of a headlamp.)
Ultimate Hikers fall into three main categories: the uberfit looking for an extreme challenge, people with a direct connection to childhood cancer, and not-so-uberfit folks looking to truly test themselves. As their coach, as the person responsible for making it possible for everyone to hike 28.3 miles in one day, I wind up spending the bulk of my time with the folks at the back of the pack. Next to the hike’s ultimate goal, it’s why I coach.
About an hour into Saturday’s hike I came upon Nicole, who was struggling not because of a lack of preparation, but because her headlamp was woefully underpowered. I gave her mine, got out my spare and followed her. “This isn’t my cup of tea,” she observed at one point, referring both to night hiking and the fact that the occasional rock and tree root on the trail were buried in freshly fallen leaves.
An hour and a half later, with first light breaking through, we came upon Emily and Kathy. I’d hiked an 18-mile stretch of the Uwharrie National Recreation Trail with Emily two weeks earlier. Early on, I learned one especially interesting thing — that the soft-spoken Emily was a retired Carolina Rollergirl — and one thing that said a lot about her character: right before training started she took a nasty fall down the stairs at home, gathered up her little boy and drove to the ER. Luckily, she hadn’t broken anything but she was pretty bruised up. Suddenly I understood her hesitancy to descend steep, rocky stretches.
“I’m really slow,” she apologized more than once. Only on the dangerous stuff.
We picked up Kathy at the same time, and after her minor meltdown she stayed focused — or distracted — by telling me about her life as a mom, as an online English instructor for a college in Indiana, as a one-time PW (preacher’s wife).
Going into the hardest stretch of the trail, an 11-mile run along the Chattooga River, my fellow coach Brian and I picked up Heather. Heather was wearing Merrill Barefoot shoes. “Did you change into those at the last rest stop?” I asked. I was stunned that someone not 20 years old and who calls everyone “Dude” would attempt such a long and technically challenging trail in minimalist shoes.
“No, I’ve been wearing them all day. I’m hoping to get Merrill to sponsor me.”
She didn’t mean personally, as in scoring a bunch of cool outdoors swag. She meant a donation for the kids with cancer.
Tired and ready for the end, we were all pretty quiet for the last six miles. I thought about Christie, who nearly had to be evacuated from the Chattooga canyon last year because of severe knee pain. She somehow managed to finish, was on crutches for several days afterward — and was the first person from the Triangle to sign up for this year’s hike. I thought about Candi, who upon finishing the hike last year vowed never to even look at a pair of hiking boots again. I think she was the second person to sign up for this year. I thought of Kay, Monica and Rachel, who were the rocks of our back-of-the-pack 2011 group. Uncertain about whether they could raise $2,500 two years in a row, they instead volunteered their services for this year’s hike. They chauffeured us from Raleigh to the trailhead and back and they attended to our every need at the rest stops. It was killing them not to be on the trail, but they never let on.
The last hiker crossed the finish line right at 7 p.m., about 20 minutes after official sunset. By the time we got back to basecamp (a Holiday Inn Express, actually) for the victory celebration, all the good beer was gone.
Still, Coors Light never tasted so good.

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Intrigued? Find out about next year’s Ultimate Hike by going here.

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