Not hardly.

Not when you live in part of the country where you can experience a rare coastal forest escape, hike on the country’s most iconic trail, and explore a high country oasis all while enjoying the cold embrace of the season, minus the threat. Sure, it can get cold and there can be snow. But not to the extent you need extreme weather gear to survive. Rather, winter here offers a stark beauty that can be enjoyed in solitude. And if you really don’t like the “cold,” but can tolerate cool, winter backpacking at the coast offers an experience you can’t have any other time of year.

This winter, GetBackpacking! offers three trips that capture the best of what backpacking has to offer during a season too often associated with hibernation, not exploration. Two are classics that we’ve done the past several years, one is new to our GetBackpacking! program.

January

Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest, Havelock 

• 21 miles
• 2 nights

The 21-mile Neusiok Trail takes you backpacking where most people least expect to go backpacking: a coastal swamp, But it’s more than just that. For our hike, we start late Friday afternoon and hike 2 miles to camp. It’s a hike at dusk, where the sun sets over the expansive Newport River, dipping below the horizon about the time we turn inland to camp. Day 2 takes us through coastal woods so dense the only clearing is the wide-foot-wide  path that slices through bay thickets and a variety of bushes before opening into pine savannah. On a cold, sunny winter’s day it doesn’t get much better. Day 3 begins the same, then morph’s for 5 miles into rolling terrain and woods more reminiscent of the Piedmont before concluding with a mile-long run along the mile-wide Neuse River, which at this point more resembles the Pamlico Sound it will shortly feed into.

Dates: January 28-30 

Learn more and register here.

February

Appalachian Trail between Max Patch and Hot Springs

• 21 miles
• 2 nights

Part of the thrill of this 21-mile trek — and the reason we do it every February — is that you never know what to expect. Three years ago, the forecast, at one point, called for up to 20 inches of snow and temperatures dropping to 7 degrees (we postponed that one). Another year, the temperature hit 70 degrees and, I swear to Colin Fletcher, we saw spring beauties popping up at 4,500 feet. We begin Friday afternoon taking a shuttle from Hot Springs to Max Patch; we soak up the view, then hike 2 miles to camp for the night. Saturday is 11 miles of AT delight, hiking mostly through classic Southern Appalachian hardwood forest, passing through a couple of gaps, hiking over 4,692-foot Bluff Mountain, then dropping into Garenflo Gap, to camp. The 7-mile hike out on Sunday ascends Lamp Knob, then mellows out, for the most part, with a descent into Hot Springs — where a variety of burger options awaits.

Dates: February 25-27 

Learn more and register here.

March

Mount Rogers, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Virginia

• 20 miles (basecamp backpack)
• 2 nights

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.

Dates: March 11-13 

Learn more and register 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:

• Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest, 21 miles. Jan. 28-30 (see above)
• 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 winter/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. 

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

Some folks, even avid hikers, have a knee-jerk reaction to backpacking. To the perceived discomfort, the perceived inconvenience, the perceived difficulty. Backpacking’s sometimes negative image is, in our opinion, a perception problem.

To put backcountry adventure in the proper perspective (meaning “our” perspective) we revisit a piece from 2019 that describes a trip some would, based on the start, view as a nightmare of a weekend. Or at lease a weekend filled with discomfort, inconvenience, difficulty. Stick with it though, and we think your perception might change. Or at least the way you view your fellow backpackers.

* * *

We hiked in three miles in the cold (about 40 degrees), the rain (roughly two inches would fall over a 36-hour period), the dark. The one consolation? The frozen rain that was forecast failed to materialize.

In the end, our trip to the Birkhead Mountain Wilderness was the best trip in a year full of pretty great trips.

Why? Because backpackers are a little different. They start out as regular day hikers. Short, hour-long hikes at first. Then half days that become full days. Then one day the sun is setting and they aren’t ready to leave the trail. So they take the next logical step and make it so they don’t have to. They become backpackers.

If you haven’t made it to backpacking yet, you may be wondering how cold and rain and dark translate to a great weekend. Here’s how:

The forecast

Backpack enough and you learn to take the forecast into consideration, but you don’t take it as gospel. The forecast for our trip started out with a good chance of freezing rain. Then the rain window became a moving target: maybe it would begin Thursday and end Friday night, maybe it would begin in the wee hours of Friday and run through mid afternoon Saturday. Rain looked like a given, cold likewise. Consider those two factors as givens and it shouldn’t matter when they might occur.

Get a plan

Set up dry and you should stay dry. Since it looked like rain was a good possibility upon arriving at our campsite, we took an extra tarp, an 18’ x 18’ piece of super light polycro — that two of us could take turns holding while a third camper pitched his tent underneath. The weight and space investment was minimal in light of the benefit of setting up dry. A good bet, it turned out, since it was indeed raining when we set up camp Friday night around 8:30.

The plan also included making sure everyone came equipped with rain gear, either an adequate poncho or rain jacket and pants. It was a little over 3 miles to camp, about an hour and fifteen minutes of hiking in, yes, a steady rain. Again, good planning, a good investment of weight, that polycro.

The likelihood of rain also meant bringing extra clothes. Rain gear may keep out the rain, but even when the temperature’s a nippy 40, wearing it and hiking in full pack will build up some heat making sweating is inevitable, even with the best rain gear. Layers that get even a little moist stay that way unless the weather turns dry and sunny.

Always look on the bright side of life

Another consequence of hiking in the rain: crossing rain-swollen creeks.

In our case, the forecast did suggest the rain would end, anywhere from mid-morning Saturday to late in the day. Cloudless skies were forecast for Sunday. It was a forecast that made any inconvenience, any discomfort on the front end worth the trip if there was a chance of hiking a stark, winter forest under a bright sun.

Saturday, we set out about 9:30 a.m. for a 10-mile day-hike in the Birkheads. It was moody when we hit the trail, but not raining. We had a very light spritz around lunch. Around 3, the sun made its first appearance, breaking out for good around sunset.

Saturday sunset

Here’s where putting up with a rain early on started to pay off. As we were sitting around the fire having dinner, Aaron stopped. “Look at the sunset!” We all stopped and looked west and south, where the late-day sun was peeking over a lingering bank of low-level clouds. We readjusted to take in the sunset, which lingered for a good hour, switching from yellow to pink to orange to crimson to deep crimson. Our camp was atop one of the wilderness area’s rounded peaks: devoid of its canopy, we had a good view of the glowing Uwharrie Mountains to the south and west. Sunset held our attention until it was dark, the fire and its warmth for about an hour after that. When our supply of both was exhausted and we started to feel the temperature plunge into the 30s, we retired for the night.

Sunday sunrise breakfast

As promised, the day dawned with nary a cloud. We packed up, hiked out, then drove about 20 minutes to a trail leading less than a mile to the lone unobstructed view on the Uwharrie Trail, atop 922-foot Little Long Mountain.

Almost everyone loves a view. Not everyone is willing to work for it. When you do, though, it’s all-the-more special. It wasn’t the eight-tenths-of-a-mile hike up to Little Long Mountain that made the view so stellar. If that were all it took, the view would have simply been “nice.” But for us, the view was a full-circle, 180-degree, zero-to-60 special viewing. We’d begun the weekend in a drenching rain, set up camp wet, spent Saturday hiking under a threatening sky. Saturday evening’s sunset marked the turning point, the start of being well-rewarded for our patience and perseverance. The forecast had promised a carrot and we were gnawing at it like Bugs Bunny. It got better with Sunday’s magnificent sunrise, with the dry hike out from camp, with the summit of Little Long Mountain.

To us, standing atop Little Long, taking in the sweeping view, soaking up the warming sun, basking in the quiet, the experience wasn’t just nice.

It was why we do this.

* * *

Intro to Backpacking

While we won’t announce our full first-half 2022 lineup until next week, we are announcing that registration is open for our first GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking class of the year. This three-part class includes a 1.5-hour Gear session via Zoom on Wednesday, Feb. 23; a 5-hour in-field training session at Morrow Mountain State Park on Saturday, March 5; and a weekend graduation trip to South Mountains State Park March 18-20. Some loaner gear is available. For a full rundown of the course and to register, go here.

The post Why we backpack appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

OK, technically summer doesn’t begin until the summer solstice on June 20. But culturally in the U.S. summer always commences Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend. (And yes, technically summer doesn’t officially end until the summer equinox, this year on September 22).

Traditionally, summer has been in the season of play in this country. It’s when we take our vacations, it’s when we’re least surprised to find people we need out of the office, it’s when we leave early on Friday — often with the boss’s permission — to jump-start the weekend. There are so many ways to play over the summer. And our goal is to provide you with a variety of options. Among them:

Become a backpacker. Why wait when you can start today! Well, next Wednesday actually, when our summer GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking session kicks off. We begin with a virtual gear session on June 9, we proceed to a 5-hour, in-field training session at Morrow Mountain State Park on Saturday, June 12; we conclude with a weekend graduation trip to South Mountains State Park the weekend of June 18-20. Everything you need to know to become a bonafide backpacker by month’s end. Learn more and sign up here.

Go backpacking. If you’re already a backpacker (or once you become one with our Intro class!), we take regular backpack trips, at least once a month, throughout the year. Our next trips include:

• Virginia Triple Crown: a 4-day, 3-night, 35-mile exploration of Virginia’s Triple Crown, taking in Dragon’s Tooth, Tinker Cliffs and McAfee Knob. For experienced backpackers. That trip is June 24-27; learn more and sign up here.
• Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E, July 16-19. 3-day, 2-nights, 14 miles. Beginner/intermediate. We take time to savor this iconic stretch of the AT along the North Carolina/Tennessee line. Three balds at the start, more fabulous views from Little Hump and Hump mountains near the end, great Southern Appalachian forest along the way. Learn more and sign up here.
• Wilson Creek. There is no better place in the summer than Wilson Creek and its preponderance of pools collecting cold runoff from Grandfather Mountain above. We hike 7 miles in day packs both days, allowing plenty of time for water play along the way. Learn more and sign up here.

Learn to navigate the wild. Our GetOriented! Finding your Way in the Woods classes are back after a pandemic-induced hiatus. We spend the first 20 minutes or so of this 3-hour class getting familiar with basic map and compass skills, then head down the trail — and off — to put this skills to use and to become comfortable navigating the woods. We have two classes in June, at Eno River State Park and at Umstead State Park. Click the links for more info and to sign up.

Mountain hiking/camping weekends.  Also back this year are our basecamp hiking weekends! We set up camp Friday afternoon/evening, then do day hikes Saturday and Sunday. Our first trip of the year is to the oldest tract of land in the Pisgah National Forest, the Curtis Creek area outside of Old Fort. Both hikes take in old-growth forest, both originate from the campground: park your car Friday, forget about it until Sunday afternoon. Learn more and sign up here.

Weekly summer hikes. Interested in keeping up your hiking over the summer, but need a little incentive to do so? We have two weekly hike programs that are just the thing!

• Tuesday Evening Hike Series. Every Tuesday evening at 6:30 we hike 3-4 miles on a different local trail. We take advantage of the late-day light and retreating temperatures for a mid-week after-work escape. Learn more and sign up here.
• Sunday Summer Hike Series. Every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. we meet at a different trail in the Triangle to hike 3-5 miles before the heat sets in. This hike series runs through August 22. Learn more and sign up here for single hikers, here for couples and families.

Discover camping. You’ve been telling yourself for a while that you’d like to give camping a try. The only thing keeping you? No gear. Our Let’s GetCamping! program takes care of that, providing key camping gear — including a spacious tent, rockin’ camp chairs, a hammock, camp stove and more — and providing direction on what you need to bring for a great introduction to camping. Learn more and sign up here.

It’s summer, it’s time to play! Let’s play together.

The post Kick off a summer of fun 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!.

What say we get together and do a little exploring? Here are some of the adventures we have planned for spring.

Winter Wild Off-Trail Adventures

This series of off-trail adventures started in winter but it’s trickling over into spring — in part, because weather caused a postponement or two. It’s also because we’ve had such a blast on these hikes — a portion of which are on official trail, most of which aren’t — that we decided to extend the program through March. Still to come:

• Raven Rock State Park, Lillington. Saturday, March 2, 10 a.m. Objective: The North Side of the River. 8 miles
• Birkhead Mountain Wilderness/Uwharrie National Forest, Asheboro. Saturday, March 16, 10 a.m. 7-9 miles
• Falls Lake / Butner Game Lands, Saturday, March 30, 10 a.m. 6-8 miles

Tuesday Night Hikes

This is another winter program that we’re continuing through March because it’s been such fun. Basically, we don headlamps and hike about 3 miles in the dark on Triangle-area trails. Still to come:

• Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake, Section M, 45 minutes out/45 back (about 4 miles). Raleigh. February 26. 
• Brumley North Nature Preserve, 3 miles. Hillsborough, March 5 
• Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, 3 miles. Chapel Hill, March 12 
• Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, 2.5 miles, March 19

GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods

We spend the first 30 minutes in this 3-hour class going over basic map and compass skills, then head down the trail — and off — to test your ability to navigate by map, compass and terrain. Dates:

• Morrow Mountain State Park, Albemarle, Saturday, March 9, 10 a.m.
• Morrow Mountain State Park, Albemarle Saturday, March 9, 2 p.m.,
• Haw River State Park, Greensboro, Tuesday, March 19, 5 p.m.

Intro to Hiking

Not a hiker, but want to be? Or maybe you have a friend who wants to get into hiking? We started GetHiking! in the fall of 2013 with the goal of being a place where newcomers could learn the ins and outs of hiking at their own pace, without fear of getting dropped. Nearly six years later, that’s still a driving force behind what we do, and it’s the main goal of our spring Intro to Hiking program. 

Every Sunday at noon, from March 10 to April 28, we’ll hike a different trail in the Triangle region. We start easy, with a 2.8-mile hike at Umstead State Park, then we progress to a final hike of 4.2 miles on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake. In between, we hike at nature preserves, at Duke Forest, at county parks and at state natural areas and recreation areas. You’ll get to know the best places to hike in the area.

Hiking for Hikers

These hikes are geared toward more experienced hikers, hikers who may be a little rusty from over the winter, hikers who are looking to build strength and speed for a big summer adventure, and hikers who are looking to expand from 3- to 4-mile hikes to maybe twice that distance. Every week, we’ll hit a local trail for a hike of 5 to 8 miles. These are more informal outings: we provide the basics for the hike, we guarantee a sweep, and we take you to different locations to expand your hiking horizons. In part, this is a build-up for the longer weekend mountain hikes we’ll be doing this summer.

You can find these hikes in your local GetHiking! Meetup group.

It’s getting warmer, the days are getting longer, the world is set to bloom. Join us on the trail this spring!

Happy trails,

Joe

Next week: Backpacking

Join us!

For more information about the adventures listed above, click on the appropriate link below:

• Winter Wild: Raven Rock State Park, go here.
• Winter Wild: Birkhead Mountain Wilderness, go here.
• GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods (Morrow Mountain State Park), go here for the morning session, here for the afternoon.
• GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods (Haw River State Park), go here.
• Tuesday Night Hikes: For details on the remaining Tuesday Night Hikes, email joe@getgoingnc.com
• Intro to Hiking, go here.

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