Yesterday, you indulged a slideshow of our trip Sunday to Panthertown Valley in the Nantahala National Forest of western North Carolina. Today, we take you with us on a quick show of our hike a day earlier on an 8-mile stretch of the Bartram Trail, from Wayah Bald to Nantahala Lake.
Tag Archives: Nantahala National Forest
Fall perfection (Part I): Panthertown Valley
This past weekend, our GetHiking! North Carolina’s Classic Hikes group hit fall perfection on a doubleheader in the Nantahala National Forest of far western North Carolina. Neither day was there a cloud in the sky, neither day did the temperature get much past 60. And if the color wasn’t peak, then it was just approaching — or just descending.
90 Second Escape: Harper Creek/North Harper Creek WSA
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
‘A Guide’s Guide to Panthertown’
Fifteen years ago I took my first trip to Panthertown Valley, a 6,700-acre playground that some call the Yosemite of the East because of its abundance of waterfalls (19), towering (if not old-growth) trees and exposed granite domes. It was also to be my first try at backpacking solo.
I get lost so you don’t have to
My slogan as a guidebook writer: I get lost so you don’t have to.
Yet in the case of London Bald, there’s no guarantee that even my most meticulous directions, derived from wandering 20 miles in less than 24 hours with GPS and maps in hand, will spare you from a similar bushwhacking fate in the rugged Nantahala National Forest. For London Bald, like the 26-mile Appletree Camp trail network it’s a part of, is in a National Forest, and when you step foot on a National Forest trail, anything can happen.