Technically, it may still be summer (fall starts a week from Friday, on Sept. 22), but the weather suggests the season is well underway. Sunny skies, dry air, temperatures in the 70s and low 80s: weather that beckons with a seductive come-hither finger to come outside and have some fun.

Coast

One of the outdoor pleasures we don’t indulge in often enough: paddling a coastal creek. There’s an odd intimacy in paddling coastal creeks as they meander through marshlands: wide-open, yet hemmed in by cord grass at the same time. There’s something especially enticing in such an adventure come fall, as the days for a warm-weather paddle begin to diminish.

Thus, our suggestion that you head to Bald Head Island Saturday for their Kayaking the Creeks program. A Conservancy staffer leads you through the marsh, explaining the intricate ecosystem that supports so much life. PFDs, paddles and double kayaks provided.

Logistics: Kayaking the Creeks, Saturday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m., Village Creek Access, Bald Head Island. $40 for BHI members, $55 otherwise. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 83.

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Looking ahead: Can’t make Kayaking the Creeks on Saturday? It’s offered at various times through October.

Piedmont

Lake James: nestled at the base of Linville Gorge and feeding off the Linville River, is it in the mountains, or does its relatively mellow terrain at the base of the foothills put it in the Piedmont.

For the purposes of Saturday’s 14^th Annual RiverFest on the Catawba River, we’re leaning Piedmont this time around. But you should go and judge for yourself, especially on a day that will feature music, food, educational exhibits, a live raptor release at 10:30 a.m., nature hikes, and the opportunity to take a  canoe or kayak for a spin, free. Lots of conservation groups, too, who can explain the importance of the river and what they’re doing to protect it.

Logistics: 14^th Annual RiverFest, Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Paddy’s Creek Area of Lake James State Park, Nebo. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 82.

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Looking ahead: Hawk Watch, Sunday, Sept. 24, Pilot Mountain State Park. Come check out the fall migration of hawks from Little Pinnacle. More info here.

Mountains

If you were contemplating a trip to the mountains, but weren’t sure what lasting impact Irma may have had, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports: “The U.S. Forest Service has reopened most recreation areas and roads on the National Forests in North Carolina including Davidson River Campground, Lake Powhatan and the Cradle of Forestry.” (Learn more about what remains closed here.)

An area that is open for recreational business is Panthertown Valley, where 30 miles of trail take you past waterfalls, over rocky summits, through a lush valley. A gorgeous area, but one where it’s easy to get lost, which is why we suggest that you tag along with our GetHiking! Charlotte group, which will hike 7 miles there Saturday (possibly 8, if there’s interest in a side trip to Schoolhouse Falls. This hike offers good exposure to the essence of Panthertown.

Logistics: Panthertown Valley hike, Saturday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m., meeting at Mica’s Restaurant & Pub in Sapphire. 7/8 miles. More info and sign up here.

Sunday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 74.

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Looking ahead: Fall Colors, Sunday, Oct. 1, Grandfather Mountain State Park. More info here.

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

The post This weekend: Get a jump on fall  appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

That breath of fresh air you inhaled coming out of the house Monday morning — a breath devoid of hot, of wet, of recreational despair — convinced our GetHiking! crews that there’s no need to wait for fall in order to take a fall-like hike. Let’s do it now, our hike leaders declared. Or at least this weekend.
So we will.
This weekend, GetHiking! Charlotte, GetHiking! Triad and GetHiking! Triangle will all exceed the 10-mile mark, a distance typically not contemplated by most until it’s time to toss a fleece into the daypack. Fleece be danged, let’s hike!
Here’s what our three hiking groups have planned for the weekend:

• GetHiking! Charlotte, Crowders Mountain State Park. Hike leader Lisa is going the instant replay route with a four-hour hike Saturday at Crowders Mountain State Park, and another four-hour hike Sunday at Crowders. The plan is to depart at 8 a.m. both mornings from the park’s Boulders Access and hike two-hours north on the Ridgeline Trail. At 10 a.m., hikers will about-face and return to the Boulders. Depending upon a hiker’s pace, Lisa estimates they will cover anywhere from 6 to 12 miles. The trail is through rolling terrain. Learn more and sign up here.

• 

  GetHiking! Triad, Doughton Park. Hike leader Jean loves hiking, but she absolutely adores this hike: the 16-mile loop at Doughton Park beginning from the Longbottom Road Access. This Saturday hike begins with a 4.3-mile climb up the Cedar Ridge Trail. The good news? Cedar Ridge constitutes about 80 percent of the climbing on this hike. From there, it’s a memorable 7.5-mile hike on the Bluff Mountain Trail, through vast meadows offering great views, then a 5-mile descent down the Flat Rock Trail. Learn more and sign up here.

• GetHiking! Triangle, Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake. Whoa! you may be thinking: doesn’t the MST run for

  

  60 miles along Falls Lake? This statewide trail does indeed spend 60 of its roughly 1,100 miles hugging the reservoir’s south shore. Our GetHiking! Triangle group will tackle about a sixth of that total: the 10.6 miles from NC 50 west to the Rollingview Recreation Area MST Access. A good kickoff hike for the fall: not too hilly, considerable tree cover, some quality time with the lake. This hike begins at 9 a.m. Learn more and sign up here.

Starting temperatures for all hikes should be in the low 70s, under sunny skies.
Join GetHiking! in getting a jumpstart on fall.

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The post Take a fall hike this weekend appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

We offered some thoughts yesterday, in our weekly Weekend Plans segment: we’re back today with additional thoughts and direction.

Hiking

We start with hiking because once the hot weather sticks, one of the last things we’re inclined to do is hike. Copious sweating and being encased in spider webs aren’t on the American Hiking Society’s list of reasons to hike.

We won’t tell you where to hike, but we will tell you where to go to figure out where to hike. Four suggestions:

• Mountains-to-Sea Trail. It’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail Month, so hiking a stretch of the 550 miles of completed MST seems a natural. You’ll find about 50 miles down in the coast and coastal plain, nearly 200 miles in the Piedmont and a little more than 300 in the mountains. You can find helpful descriptions of where to take a hike on the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail website.
• GetHiking! Our three GetHiking! groups — in Charlotte, the Triad and the Triangle — all have hikes planned for Sunday, all on the MST: Charlotte on an eight-mile stretch along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Triad will be doing 6.5 miles along the Watershed Lakes in Greensboro, the Triangle as a 15-miler planed along Falls Lake. If you’d like to explore the MST but would also like some company, click on the appropriate link and join us.
• Great Outdoor Provision Co. Over the past two years, the Great Outdoor Provision Co., with assistance from GetGoingNC, has been developing an online trail guide. So far, we’ve got 55 trails in North Carolina and 15 in Virginia. All the information you need to assess, plan and execute a hike. Start your search here.
• Carolina Mountain Club. This venerable (formed in 1923) hiking club offers at least three hikes a week and has an extensive database of hikes in the Appalachians. A great resource.

Paddling

First, a warning: all that rain means the local rivers are running high, local lake levels are up. Unless you’re an accomplished paddler, you might want to steer clear of rivers in particular this weekend. Your best bet: Get a copy of Paul Ferguson’s “Paddling Eastern North Carolina,” find the river you’re interested in paddling, check Paul’s recommendation for maximum runnable river level, then check the latest USGS streamflow numbers.

Lakes may also be a challenge; if possible, call before throwing the boat on the car to check on conditions. And if you need to rent a boat, don’t forget our “51 Places to Rent a Canoe, Kayak or Standup Paddleboard in North Carolina.”

Mountain biking

This is one activity you may be shut out of this weekend. Most trail networks close when wet; even those that don’t might be impassable in spots due to the rain. Again, before throwing the bike on the roof rack, call to see if your destination is open. Find a list of statewide mountain biking destinations here.

Running

This is the time of year when a race can either be sublime or a sufferfest. Most runners are in pretty good shape at this point in the spring, but that first hot race can easily bring even the best-trained to their knees. With morning temperatures forecast in the low 60s  this weekend, it’s PR time.

If you’re a runner and don’t have a race scheduled for this weekend, you might reconsider. The North Carolina Running Calendar has 38 races listed for this weekend, starting with tonight’s Hopewell Hustle 5K in Monroe and The Great Glow Run 5K in Raleigh, to Sunday’s Greensboro Half Marathon (and 5K and 10K). You may have to pay a premium to enter at this point, but it could be well worth it.

Learn about the natural world around you

There’s a lot going on this time of year in the natural world; gain some insight at one of the numerous free nature programs offered by North Carolina state parks.  to the meat-eating plants at Carolina Beach State Park. Check out this weekend’s curriculum here.

Plan for the future

A personal plug here: Yes, get out and explore this weekend. But also take a few minutes to think about your next adventure, by, say, joining me at one of this weekend’s “Adventure Carolinas” talks. Saturday at 11:30 p.m., I’ll be discussing my new book from UNC Press at the Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, while on Sunday from 2-3 p.m. I’ll be at the Barnes & Noble in Burlington, at Alamance Crossing off I-40/85.

Can’t make it this weekend? I’ll be making the rounds for a while. Here’s my schedule.

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Why the infatuation with the MST?

It’s great hiking, for one. And May is Mountains-to-Sea Trail Month.

The MST, if you’re new to these parts, is a statewide trail begun in the mid-1970s. The goal was to create a 1,000-mile hiking trail linking Clingman’s Dome in the Smokies, on the Tennessee line, with the dunes of Jockey’s Ridge on the Atlantic. The project advanced slowly at first, but in the mid-1990s, Allen de Hart, North Carolina’s Mr. Hiking, revived the effort, which has been advancing at breakneck speed since.

A few things to know about this effort.

One, while the MST is technically a state park, it is an almost entirely volunteer-run operation. It has two paid positions: Executive Director Kate Dixon and JoEllen Mason, Outreach & Membership Coordinator. Other than that, the MST is made possible by hundreds of volunteers statewide who put in thousands of hours to make the trail what it is today, which is, with more than 500 miles finished, more than half complete.

Most of the finished trail is in the mountains. There’s also a goodly amount finished in and north of the Triad, and through the Triangle, where more than 100 miles of MST runs from near Hillsborough down the Eno River, along Falls Lake, then south along the Neuse River into Clayton.

The purpose of Mountains-to-Sea Trail Month is to raise awareness of the trail as well as money to help make the rest of the trail — especially the stretch between the Triangle and the coast — happen. I’ll write more about this later.

The purpose of today’s post is to encourage you to get out and see the MST during one of the best statewide hiking months of the year. Here’s what our GetHiking! programs have on tap:

GetHiking! Charlotte

Saturday, May 10: 10.4 miles, Basin Cove Overlook to Devil’s Garden Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Sunday, May 18: 8 miles, Jumpinoff Rocks to Sheets Gap along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Saturday, May 24: 5-7 miles, Harper Creek Wilderness, Wilson Creek area
Saturday, May 31: 7.9 miles, Tanawha Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway along the east flank of Grandfather Mountain

GetHiking! Triad

Saturday, May 10: 7.75 miles, mostly within Pilot Mountain State Park.
Sunday, May 18: 6.5 miles, Greensboro watershed lakes (Nat Greene and Laurel Bluffs trails)
Saturday, May 24: 7.3 miles, Greensboro watershed lakes (Peninsula, Osprey and Townsend Trails)
Saturday, May 31: 10 a.m., Doughton Park to Devil’s Garden Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway

GetHiking! Triangle

Tuesday, May 6 (tonight): 4.1 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Possum Track Road to Bayleaf Church Road)
Saturday, May 10: 8.3 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Six Forks Road to Shinleaf Recreation Area)
Tuesday, May 13: 3.7 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Shinleaf Recreation Area to NC 50)
Sunday, May 18: 14.9 miles, MST along Falls Lake (NC 50 to Rollingview State Recreation Area)
Tuesday, May 20: 4.7 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Lick Creek Bridge to Cheek Road)
Saturday, May 24: 11 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Cheek Road to Red Mill Road)
Wednesday, May 28: 3.8 miles, MST along Falls Lake (Red Mill Road to Penny’s Bend)

For more information on these hikes, click the link to the respective Meetup group.

And you don’t have to hike the MST with an organized group. The trail is agreeable to individual inspection as well. Learn more about how to explore the MST at the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail website.

The post A Month on the MST appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Why do I push hiking?
For one, it’s accessible. North Carolina is blessed with great hiking trails. No matter where you live, from the coast to the mountains, there are great trails a short drive away. (We even have a trail, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, linking the coast and the mountains.)
Hiking is social. Of all the ways you can get your heart rate up, hiking is perhaps the most amenable to doing so with friends. The movement, the fresh air, the surroundings regardless of where they are, all contribute to a convivial atmosphere.
It’s soothing. For a lot  of us, being in the woods is a sedative. That’s not just me talking, there’s science to back that up (see below).
It doesn’t feel like a workout. Sure, there may be times at the end of a long day where you realize your body is working, but typically that realization doesn’t occur until later on — when you try to get out of the car, for instance.
All of which is why last September GetGoingNC, with support from Great Outdoor Provision Co., launched the GetHiking! program. GetHiking! focuses on two audiences: Folks who have long been interested in hiking but, for whatever reason, have yet to take their first step into the woods. And more experienced hikers who would hike more if they knew more places to hike.
For the former, our hikes are lead from the rear, meaning you’ll never hike alone. A guide will always be at the back of the pack. For the latter, we try and hit new trails every week, ensuring that you expand your universe of hiking options.
The program launched in the Triangle in September. To date, we now have more than 500 members. Our weekly hikes can be intimate, with as few as 15 hikers, or they can be events, with upwards of 70 participants.
Based on our response in the Triangle, we are expanding GetHiking! into Winston-Salem and Charlotte, with hikes scheduled to begin in both regions later this month. You can learn more about the Triad program here, GetHiking! Charlotte here.  And you can find out about our hikes and other events, and join up, by visiting the following:

• GetHiking! Charlotte, go here. We have a kickoff event scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 16 at  6:30 at the Great Outdoor Provision Store in the Park Road Shopping Center.
• GetHiking! Triad, go here. We have a kickoff event scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Great Outdoor Provision Store in the Friendly Shipping Center in Greensboro.
• GetHiking! Triangle, go here.

There’s another big reason I started the program, one especially pertinent to folks interested in living healthier in the new year:
It’s good for you. Consider:

• Hiking reduces your chances of heart disease.
• Hiking on a regular basis can lower blood pressure by 4 to 10 points.
• A frequent walk in the woods can help reduce your chances of getting diabetes. If you already have the disease, hiking, combined with proper diet, can reduce or even eliminate the need for insulin therapy.
• As a weight-bearing exercise, hiking can help stave off osteoporosis.
• A regular exercise program centered around hiking, coupled with a sound diet, can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Depending upon your pace and other factors, you can burn up to 500 calories per hour hiking.
• A walk in the woods can clear your head — and that’s not us talking, that’s your endorphins, according to recent studies. Hiking is also effective at reducing stress and relieving anxiety.
• Hiking improves muscle fitness.
• Hiking lowers your cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
• Hiking can lower the risk of colon and breast cancer.

Hiking is a well-rounded activity. If you’ve been reluctant to hit the trail because you’re fretful of going alone, or you don’t know where to go, then you no longer have an excuse. You have GetHiking!
So get going, join your local club and we’ll see you on the trail.

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