Good times around the campfire, such as this one last year at Price Park, will resume soon along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
I’ve been spending a lot of time along the Blue Ridge Parkway of late, exploring the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. I’d be spending even more time if the Parkway facilities, specifically the campgrounds, were open. Which they soon will be.
The National Park Service has announced 2012 opening dates for their seasonal facilities along the Parkway. I’m finding them useful for trip planning, figured you might, too. Here are some key locations for the pedestrian explorer, when they open and some thoughts for how these locations might play into your plans. For locations, go here for a Parkway map.read more
It was a mileage marker by the side of the greenway. Having spent last week hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was accustomed to seeing mileage markers in the form of the parkway’s knee-high stone obelisks that tick off every mile. And I have seen them before on greenways, but never with such a high number. Rarely, in fact, in double digits.read more
I thought we had lost the trail but in fact we were smack dab on course. The Haw River Trail was intended, it turns out to meander through the Glencoe neighborhood of restored mill homes.
Yet another attraction of this 70-mile work-in-progress that runs from Haw River State Park above Greensboro to its namesake river’s exciting conclusion — especially after a good rain — in Jordan Lake. In addition to showing off the natural beauty along — and in — the Haw — the trail is intended to showcase, and in the process help preserve, the remarkable human history that has evolved along the river. (Check out yesterday’s 90 Second Escape along the Haw for a video perspective.)read more
If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m doing you a huge favor by sparring you 15,000 words in exchange for 15 pictures, all from my journeys this week on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Enjoy, and have a slideshow-worthy weekend.read more
For the traditional shuttle you need two cars; you can’t do a point-to-point solo. If there are just two of you, you both have to drive. That’s not only a waste of gas, it eliminates catch-up time on the drive (not that you won’t be talking on the trail). Setting up a shuttle also eats into valuable hiking time. And what if something happens to the shuttle car or driver? In November, four of us were hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail west of Mount Pisgah. As the trail crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of our party suddenly decided he was through. He flagged a passing car and before we knew it he disappeared down the road — to his/our shuttle car at trails’ end. Now what?read more
