As has been the case since the early ‘90s, this Saturday, the first Saturday of June, is National Trails Day. It’s a day when all throughout the land we celebrate our trails, by hiking, biking, paddling or sprucing them up. And we do so largely by taking part in a bevy of organized events.
Tag Archives: North Carolina
10 of our Favorite Fall Mountain Hikes
We’ve run this post before. It’s what we call an “evergreen,” meaning, with a tweak or two, it stands the test of time: What held true when it first rain — the hikes we thought were classic fall hikes then — we feel remain the classics.
This year, though, we run it with added enthusiasm because one of the trails mentioned has just reopened after being closed for nearly a year: the Mount Mitchell Trail at Mount Mitchell State Park. A couple quick caveats:
Fall is Nigh! Time to Ramp up your Hiking
The following first appeared at the start of Fall 2019. It appears again today, updated and tweaked, but relevant as ever as we head into the Fall 2025 hiking season.
From an astronomical standpoint, fall doesn’t begin until around 2:19 p.m. on September 22. That would be the autumnal equinox, that magical day when we have as many hours of daylight as dark.
5 cool hikes for when the heat returns (and it will)
A variation of this post originally ran Aug. 6, 2014, titled “SUMMER HIKING: BEAT THE HEAT.” Two years later, we played with it again and reran it on July 20, 2016, as “HIKING: WHERE TO BEAT THE HEAT.” It appeared under that heading again on July 6, 2021. On Aug. 11, 2023, it ran again, paired down from 10 hikes to 5, but with more detail on each hike. It runs again today, on the 11th anniversary of its initial appearance, with one caveat.
Celebrate National Trails Day This Saturday
Saturday is National Trails Day. OK, every day is trails day, or at least it should be. But things get in the way of us honoring trails on a daily basis, so for the last 40 years or so we’ve set aside the first Saturday in June to make sure there’s at least one day we won’t forget about our trails.