On a recent Sunday at crowded Umstead State Park, we honestly weren’t looking to get all Miss Manners on our trail companions. But events conspired to make apparent that it’s time for a reminder about trail etiquette.
Here are a few things to keep in mind on the trail:
Come late fall and winter, temperatures in the Piedmont slip into the 30s and 40s. At the coast, though, they remain comfortably in the 50s, even 60s. It’s cool enough to keep mosquitoes and no-see-ums at bay, and perfect weather for a hike.
Two of our favorite coastal hikes will be included in our GetHiking! Classic Escapes Weekend on Nov. 2-4.
Saturday, our Gethiking! Triangle crew will hike a 5-mile stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail north of Durham. Known as Day-Hike Section S, it’s one of our favorite stretches of the MST through the Triangle because of its ecological diversity: it spends time skirting edge forest, it sidles up to Falls Lake and a large farm pond, it passes through emerging hardwood forest and mature bottomland woods, it takes advantage of long abandoned farm roads.
Goodbye summer, hello fall. And the start of the fall hiking season.
Labor Day is the ceremonial opening for fall (even though summer doesn’t actually hand over the keys until Sept. 22). It marks things that signify the end of summer: pools close, schools are just underway, football gets into full swing, and we’re done with summer vacationing.
We’ve got a lot going on this fall, for hikers, campers and backpackers.
You love a mountain hike in the fall. What you don’t love is driving there and back in a day. Or paying leaf season rates for a motel. So don’t.
This fall, we’ve got four weekend camping/hiking trips planned to some of the best hiking in the mountains, and one late fall trip to some pretty cool hiking at the coast.
