Your options …

March

Mount Rogers, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia

• 20 miles (basecamp backpack)
• 2 nights
• March 11-13

The Mount Rogers area of southwest Virginia is one of the most scenic and popular backpacking destinations in the Southeast. It includes the two highest points in Virginia and open terrain akin to what you might expect out West. If you’re a backpacker and it’s not on your bucket list, it should be. On this trip we hike in a mile or so east from Elk Garden off Whitetop Road and set up basecamp. Saturday, we don daypacks for a 12.5-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail into the heart of Mount Rogers (including summiting the 5,772-foot peak, returning on the Virginia Horse Trail. Sunday, we hike to 5,525-foot Whitetop for more great views.

Learn more and register here.

April

Ideally, you don’t want to see anyone on a backpack trip, save perhaps for the folks in your group (and even then … ). That’s what tends to keep us away from some of the more popular areas. Unless you happen to know where the back door is, such as this one to …

Shining Rock Wilderness via Big East Fork

• 19-mile loop
• 3 days, 2 nights
• April 22-24

There are days when the Black Balsam parking lot at the mouth of Shining Rock is more jammed than a Walmart lot on Black Friday. Everyone wants a piece of the Shining Rock/ Art Loeb/Tennent Mountain/Black Balsam action. But head in from the Big East Fork trailhead off U.S. 276 and you’ll think it was Christmas Day. Sure, there’s a challenging 4.5-mile climb to Shining Rock Gap, but the carrot — sunset from atop the white quartz outcrop — is so worth it. You’ll mix it up briefly with the BBM (Black Balsam Masses) on Day 2 as you cross the Art Loeb Trail, but lose them when you slip behind Graveyard Fields and head down Big East Fork.

Difficulty: Strenuous, though about three quarters of the climbing is on Day 1.

Learn more and sigh up here.

May

In our backpacking lives there comes a trip where stop repeatedly and marvel, “This hike’s got it all.” “This hike,” in our case is the …

Virginia Triple Crown

• 35-mile loop
• 4 days, 3 nights
• May 19-22

On this trip you start (after 4 miles) with McAfee Knob — and it gets better from there. Mainly, that’s because you drop the hordes who hike this iconic outcrop for a trademark selfie. On Day 2 you hit Tinker Cliffs, with many of the same attributes, minus the crowds. An awesome and seemingly endless ridge line hike marks Day 3, which is capped with a day-hike scramble up Dragon’s Tooth. The hike out includes passage through a blissful meadow.

Difficulty: Strenuous
Learn more and sign up here.

June

Welcome to the most scenic stretch of trail in North Carolina (and Tennessee).

Appalachian Trail: Carver’s Gap to US 19E

• 14-miles
• 3 days, 2 nights
• June 17-19

From the git-go at Carver’s Gap, the Appalachian Trail passes over Round and Jane balds (with a side trip to a third, Grassy Ridge, possible), offering sweeping views of the North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia mountains. There’s some intimate high-ridge hiking (the mountain ash should be coming into bloom), then more balds: Little Hump and Hump mountains. At this altitude, which flirts with 6,000 feet, we may even catch some rhododendrons still in bloom

This three-day, two-night trip starts from Carvers Gap on the Appalachian Trail and heads north for 14 miles. Particularly stunning are the three balds in the first couple of miles and the famous Hump and Little Hump mountains about 10 miles later.
Day 1: We will set off from Carver’s Gap around 2 p.m., hike 5.5 miles and establish camping the meadow at the Overmountain Victory Shelter.
Day 2: We hike 5.3 miles, past Yellow Gap, over Little Hump to Hump Mountain and on to Doll Flats for camp on night 2..
Day 3: Hike out, a little more than 3 miles, to US 19E.

Difficulty: Moderate

Learn more and sign up here.

* * *

Thru-hikes on shorter trails in 2022

Also on tap for 2022, we will lead four thru-hikes on the state’s shorter long trails. They are:

• N.C. Bartram Trail, Nantahala National Forest, 50 miles (approx), summer, date tbd.
• Art Loeb Trail, Pisgah National Forest, 31 miles, fall, date tbd.
• Foothills Trail, North Carolina/South Carolina line, 77 miles, date tbd.

We will have details on the last three hikes soon. In addition, we will offer a spring training program pertinent to these trips but also appropriate for anyone who plans to have an ambitious summer and fall of backpacking. Maybe you’re planning your own long hike, maybe you’re planning a trip out west. Our program will help get you where you need to be by the end of spring. Details coming shortly on this program, as well.

* * *

Intro to Backpacking

Not a backpacker, but want to be? In two training sessions and a weekend, you can become a bonafide backpacker in time for the prime fall hiking season. We start with a gear session via Zoom, then meet for a 5-hour in-field training session before our weekend graduation trip to South Mountains State Park.

Dates & locations

• Getting to know you, getting to know your gear, Zoom meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 2 . 5:30 – 7 p.m. 1.5 hours
• Training Day: Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Morrow Mountain  State Park, Albemarle
• Graduation trip: Friday afternoon thru Sunday, June 10-12, South Mountains State Park, Morganton.

Included in the program

• Instruction, including:
  • Zoom gear session
  • 5-hour in-field training session
  • Graduation weekend
•  Info packet, including:
  • Gear lists
  • Tips sheets for:
    • Packing
    • Water crossings
    • Winter camping
• GetBackpacking! Guide to 10 Great Places to Backpack in North Carolina once you’ve graduated
• eguide outlining the program and covering what you’ll learn
• 20 percent off coupon to Great Outdoor Provision Co.

Loaner gear. We have a limited number of backpacks and tents available on a first-requested, first-awarded basis, at no extra charge.

Cost: $295

Learn more and sign up here.

The post GetBackpacking! Spring 2022 appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Why backpack?

Here’s why, as documented in this three-and-a-half-minute video we shot during our June 24-27 GetBackpacking! trip exploring Virginia’s Triple Crown. Four days, three nights, 35 miles, three major climbs, three iconic views and great scenery throughout. Challenging? Yup. But oh so worth it.

We’ll let the video make our case. Then, when you’re done and you’re thinking, How come I’m not a backpacker? check the links below for descriptions of our upcoming classes in September and to sign up. Each class consists of an introductory gear session, a five-hour in-field training session and a two-night weekend graduation trip to South Mountains State Park. 

• GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking! (Charlotte and Triad)
• GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking! (Triangle)

Already a backpacker? Then join us on one of our upcoming trips:

• Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E, July 16-18
• Wilson Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest (basecamp trip), Aug. 6-8
• Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Creek/Citico Creek Wilderness (basecamp trip), Sept. 16-19

The post GetBackpacking! Let the adventure begin appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

For late fall we have three backpack trips suited to people who may have burned through their vacation, for the winter, we have three weekend trips to our most iconic locations. Here’s the lineup:

Weekend Quick Escapes

It’s the end of the year, you’ve burned through your vacation time, yet you’ve love to get in another backpack trip or two — maybe three. Our Weekend Quick Escapes are designed for just that: You can work until 5 on Friday afternoon, then drive to the trailhead for a short hike to basecamp and be set up by 8. Saturday is a long day hike, Sunday we do a shorter day hike, before heading home in the early afternoon. A lot of adventure in a little amount of time. 

• Rock Castle Gorge (Virginia), Nov. 13-15. From the primitive camp at the base of the gorge we’ll day-hike the 11-mile Rock Castle Loop on Saturday, then stop for a 5-mile hike at Fairy Stone State Park on the drive home. 10 hikers. THIS TRIP IS SOLD OUT.
• Doughton Park, Dec. 4-6. We’ll hike in a mile to basecamp off Longbottom Road Friday evening, then day-hike the 16-mile Cedar Ridge/Bluff Mountain/Grassy Gap Loop Saturday. Before heading out Sunday, we’ll hike up Cabin Creek to the Caudill Cabin. 10 hikers. Learn more and sign up here.
• Birkhead Mountain Wilderness, Uwharrie National Forest, Dec. 18-20. Friday evening we hike in 3 miles to Camp 5; Saturday, we do an 11-mile day-hike exploring the wilderness; Sunday, we hike out, then do a short hike up to Little Long Mountain for the best view in the Uwharries. Learn more and sign up here.

Winter Series

We’ll do three backpack trips this winter, one likely to have winter conditions, one trying to avoid winter conditions, a third … well, we’ll see.

• GetBackpacking! Neusiok Trail, January 8-10. Our annual trip on this 21-mile coastal trail through the Croatan National Forest. Friday thru Sunday in a forest that ranges from pine savannah to coastal woods to rolling terrain resembling the Piedmont to a finale along beach fronting the mile-wide Neuse River. Registration opens in December. If you’d like early notice about when registration opens, email joe@getgoingnc.com 
• GetBackpacking! Appalachian Trail, Feb. 19-21. It’s our fifth year for this trip, which begins atop Max Patch and ends in the town of Hot Springs. We’ve had snow on this trip, we’ve had 70-degree days. 3 days, 2 nights, 21 miles. Registration opens in December. If you’d like early notice about when registration opens, email joe@getgoingnc.com 
• GetBackpacking! Linville Gorge, March 12-14. We didn’t visit the gorge in 2020 because of its pandemic-provoked popularity. We’re hoping that a visit early in the year will help us find the solitude we seek in this designated wilderness. We’ll basecamp atop Shortoff Mountain Friday evening, then spend Saturday day hiking the gorge’s east wall. Registration opens in December. If you’d like early notice about when registration opens, email joe@getgoingnc.com

The post GetBackpacking! Winter 2020-21 appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Some workweeks last longer than others. We’re guessing this will be a long one, even though for us it’s only four days. Friday, we’re turning on the “out of office” reply and slipping out the door for a wild weekend in Wilson Creek.

Wilson Creek, Linville Gorge’s little brother. It may not have the gaping chasm of its better-known neighbor, but it does have numerous smaller ones that offer intimate, less crowded and more accessible (somewhat) access to the bracing waters that drain from Grandfather Mountain’s southeast flank. Cascades and their resulting pools, where relief from an onslaught of 90-degree summer heat is found in so many spots, not just in the main gorge. And many of these pools are rimmed by polished granite, ideal for sunbathing. Take a dip, sunbathe until dry. Repeat. Imaging spending an afternoon — or the entire weekend doing — just that. 

Did we mention the views? Those, too.

Are we telling you this to make you envious? Not in the least. We’re telling you this because we’ve had two cancelations on our trip and we’re offering you the chance to come along. We’ll base camp for two nights below Hunt-fish Falls (just a 1.3-mile hike in), do a 7-mile day hike Saturday, culminating early afternoon at one of the sweetest rock-rimmed mountain pools around, and do a shorter day hike Sunday to South Harper Falls. Time permitting, we may even do a 1.7-mile hike to one of the more spectacular cliff-top overlooks along the Blue Ridge.

Intrigued? You can learn more about the trip and sign up here. 

The video

Today’s video is from a 2019 GetBackpacking! trip to Wilson Creek.

The post We’re looking forward to the weekend at Wilson Creek (and you can, too) appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

We’d both been quiet for a while, too hot, sweatyand drained for chit chat. In two and a half days we’d hiked 25 miles, most in full pack, most in 90-degree heat. We were nearing the end — hopefully, of just the hike.

I looked over my shoulder and saw a rare downcast look on Alison’s face. “They aren’t gonna like this,” she said. 

Alison, our lead GetBackpacking! guide, along with Bob and Henry — two of our more ardent backpackers — and I were scouting trail at South Mountains State Park for our pandemic-delayed resumption of guided backpacking trips. I was familiar with South Mountains, having lead at least 15 GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking trips there since 2014. But I wasn’t familiar with the trail on the south side of this nearly 19,000-acre state park south of Morganton, and I was curious to see how it might work for an intermediate backpack trip.

Not so well, as it turned out. More on that in a moment.

The skinny on scouting

On a backpack trip, there are good surprises and there are bad surprises. The good: Cresting a hill to find a stunning view, or dropping down a steep creek-lined trail on a hot day and coming upon a deep, cold pool. The bad: Hiking a trail that dead-ends (and looks like it hasn’t gone anywhere in years), or finding a campsite after hiking 15 miles that is a good three miles from water. 

We scout to find the good surprises — and minimize the bad.

In general, we try to hike a trail within a reasonable period of time before we lead a trip. What’s “reasonable”? It varies. A trail in a State Park isn’t likely to be much different today than it was a few years ago (and if it is different that information will be conveyed on the park website). Forest Service trails are more subject to change over a short period, since maintenance, if done at all, is often by volunteers. And in a Wilderness Area? Well, it’s a wilderness: count on surprises no matter how recently you may have scouted.

Right now, during these days of social distancing, our scouting trips have emphasized a particular focus: the presence, or lack thereof, of hikers. Your goal with a backpacking trip is always to slip the surly bonds of civilization and avoid the masses. It’s even more important now. Which was part of the reason we were looking at South Mountains State Park.

Solitude at South Mountains

As you may have seen, since the pandemic several N.C. State Parks have established caps on the number of people allowed in at one time. When they reach capacity, a queue forms at the gate: when one car leaves the park, another is admitted. As I was leaving Saturday around noon, I counted 40 cars lining the road into the park, waiting to get in. But the thing is, 95 percent of the people who come to South Mountains come to see — and play in — High Shoals Falls. The 80-foot waterfall is about a mile’s walk from the main parking area. That leaves 39 miles of trail largely vacant (in two and a half days, we saw three mountain bikers, two hikers and two runners). 

A word about South Mountains for those who haven’t been: there is no “easy” here. The highest point (Buzzard’s Roost) tops out at just 3,000 feet. But considering the base elevation is 1,200 feet, that means there’s a good 1,800 feet of elevation play. It’s either up or down at South Mountains, with precious little recovery terrain. At one point, Alison remarked that it ranked with Linville Gorge in terms of difficulty.

My thought going in was to do a 20-mile circumnavigation of the park, hiking counterclockwise along the rim trails from the Jacob’s Branch parking area. It was challenging from the git-go, starting up the Little River Trail, which gained 523 vertical feet in the first 1.3 miles. From there, the trail continued to climb, but with the occasional dip along the way to the Sawtooth campsites. Not bad.

Day 2 started with a climb out of camp, followed by a dozen more climbs, three of them significant. Hiking the opposite direction, we agreed, was a much more sane option. Day 3 trended downhill, with three notable climbs. Hiking the opposite direction, which seemed like a good idea the day before, now looked like a terrible idea, with a killer climb of 715 vertical feet in the first 1.3 miles out the gate, followed shortly by a another significant climb, and two more potentially heartbreaking climbs. Did I mention the mile or so of pavement?

We finished our 25-mile scout knowing exactly what we didn’t want to do, especially on what for many would be their first trip of the season in full pack.

With a now nearly complete knowledge of the South Mountains trail system, we were able to devise a good welcome-back-to-backpacking trip that is challenging but not overly so.

Wet and wild Wilson Creek

I was also interested in an “early season” trip to the Wilson Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest. Like South Mountains, Wilson Creek doesn’t have high hills, but it does have steep ones. It’s also relatively close, as mountain terrain goes, to Charlotte (two hours), the Triad (two hours) and the Triangle (3 hours). Plus, it has water.

That water, in the form of falls, steep creeks and pools, attracts people. Even in a normal summer, the main gorge is packed with water seekers. Where we go, the Little Lost Cove Creek and Gragg Prong area, gets far fewer visitors. But was that holding true during the pandemic, when everyone, it seems, is seeking escape outdoors? 

Alas, my plans to find out after getting off the trail at South Mountains Saturday afternoon were quashed by a persistent thunderstorm that lasted a good two hours, long enough and intense enough to keep the masses away. I also wanted to check alternative entry points, since parking at the main trailheads is limited. I’ll need to make a return scouting trip to find out.

The good news is that we now have our first two backpack trips of the pandemic scheduled. Both trips should scratch the itch of backpackers eager to get out, but eager to do so in a safe and responsible way. 

If felt great to get out and scout these trips, to recapture the magic of living in the backcountry, if only for a few days. We think you’ll feel the same.

* * *

Join us at South Mountains and Wilson Creek

Here’s the scoop on both trips, both scheduled for August. Note that we are taking a limited number of backpackers on these trips; if there’s sufficient interest, we will schedule additional trips. We will also announce within the next two weeks our trips for fall into winter.

GetBackpacking! A Summer Escape to Wilson Creek

When: Friday Aug. 14 to Sunday, Aug.16

Where: Wilson Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest near Linville

On this base camp hike we hike in less than a mile and and a half Friday afternoon and set up basecamp. Saturday, we take a 7-mile day hike that finds us, at mile 6, at the pools and falls of Gragg Prong, where we’ll have lunch and loll away the afternoon. Sunday, we break camp and hike out, with a 3.4-mile day hike to Big Lost Cove Cliffs and, time permitting, a 4-mile hike to South Harper Falls.

Learn more and sign up here.

GetBackpacking! Weekend trip to South Mountains State Park

When: Friday, Aug. 21 through Sunday, Aug. 23

Where: South Mountains State Park, south of Morganton

We hike in 3.7 miles Friday afternoon to the Sawtooth primitive camp, then take a 2-mile roundtrip day hike to catch sunset from Chestnut Knob. Saturday it’s a 6.9-mile hike to the Fox Trail campsite. Sunday, we hike 6 miles out, stopping at the 3.7-mile mark to wallow in the cool waters of Jacob Branch.

Learn more and sign up here.

The post Scouting our first pandemic GetBackpacking! trips appeared first on GetGoing NC!.