But where to go first? A tough decision: You want to hit all your favorites first. 

Alas, because you can’t be in two or more places at once, you need to plan your hikes accordingly by taking into account the best time to take each hike. You still may not be able to hit all your favorites this fall, but with smart scheduling you can hit a goodly number of them.

Here’s how we approach the fall hiking season.

September

We associate the start of fall with the Labor Day weekend, the start of school, the start of football. In fact, according to the calendar fall doesn’t officially start until Sept. 22 — even then, we can still experience temperatures topping 80 for another month. The point: take advantage of this continuing warm weather by taking two factors into consideration:

• Elevation. It will start cooling — but not yet be cold — at higher elevations in September. Take advantage of this early pleasantness by hitting the high country trails you missed in summer. Come mid-October, you’ll begin dealing with true cold above 4,000 to 5,000 feet, and by November, limited access due to snow, ice and seasonal road closings on Forest Service land. Examples: North Carolina’s Black Mountains and the Shining Rock Wilderness; the Mount Rogers area of Virginia.
• Water. If you didn’t get a chance to hike this summer on a trail with multiple stream crossings, waterfalls and pools for lollygagging, you did not have a complete summer. Air and water temps at lower mountain elevations — 3,000 feet and below — will remain warm enough through the month for a summer-like experience. Examples: Wilson Creek in North Carolina; St. Mary’s Wilderness in Virginia.

October

Four factors to keep in mind for your October hikes:

• 

  Fall color. Here’s another misconception: The start of October means immediate fall color. In fact, the fall color change typically doesn’t begin until mid to late October in the Piedmont. Even at the highest elevations, it doesn’t begin until late September. If you’ve got a hankerin’ for early fall color, put the high country on your early October list, and keep an eye on the fall color tracking websites (ExploreAsheville.com, VirginiaisforLovers.org) which track where the color is currently best (depending on temperature, cloud cover and rainfall, the emergence of color can vary wildly). Examples of early fall color: Elk Knob State Park, Mount Jefferson State Natural Area in North Carolina; Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area in Virginia.

• Crowds. Fall, especially October, is the most popular time of year to hike. Folks who otherwise balk at having to park in the outer lot at the mall suddenly channel their inner John Muir and hit the trail. The good news: they generally gravitate to trailheads that have: 1) a Visitor Center, 2) Restrooms, 3) paved parking, 4) an address to plug into their GPS device. Avoid these four traps, especially on idyllic fall weekends, and you should be fine.  Examples of off-the-beaten-path trailheads: Pilot Creek and Pinnacle Hotel Road accesses to Pilot Mountain State Park in North Carolina; Osprey Point Access, Smith Mountain Lake State Park in Virginia.
• Temperature. From the beginning of October to the end, you’ll notice significant drops in temperature. Remember to layer.
• Sunset. Likewise, the amount of afternoon sunlight you’ll have diminishes significantly during October. For example, on Oct. 1, sunset in Raleigh is at 6:59:49; on Oct. 31, the sun will set at 6:21:37. Be aware when planning late day hikes.

November

November, especially the first half, is the sweet spot of your fall hiking season. In reality, in the Piedmont fall color is near peak at this time, and the cooler temperatures — too cool for the occasional hiker — make for ideal hiking conditions. There’s a quiet that dominates the woods, and there’s just the slightest hint of the coming transition to winter. Great color, fewer people, perfect weather — now is the time to hit the more popular trails, even on weekends.

Fall is prime hiking season in the Southeast. Make the most of it by planning accordingly.

The post Fall hiking: A month-by-month approach appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

As part of my Monday morning ritual, I check the weather forecast for the hikes, trips and classes we have in the week ahead. It may be the most frustrating thing I do all week. What I have discovered, though, is there’s a whole lot more to deciding whether to proceed or pull the plug than simply checking the chance of bad weather.

Here’s a look at the process I’ve developed, using as an example a backpacking trip coming up this weekend.

Consider the event and the location. This weekend, we have a GetBackpacking! trip to Linville Gorge. It’s an Intermediate Skills class, focusing on water crossings and navigating a designated Wilderness Area, where trails are rarely marked or maintained. 

Know the hikers. These backpackers have previous backpacking experience and decent gear. Their previous experience means they’ve probably been through less-than-perfect weather and are equipped — both mentally and gear-wise — to deal with the elements. 

Know the area. Certain areas — Linville, Grandfather Mountain and Mount Rogers in Virginia, in particular — are notorious for generating their own weather. So while you may have a fairly benign forecast for a region, keep in mind that it might not apply if you’re headed into a meteorological anomaly. 

Check the source. When I’m checking several forecasts simultaneously on my Monday survey, I stick with one source. My go-to is the 10-day forecast on  WeatherUnderground.com. If the event is four or more days out, I just try to get a general feel for what the weather is looking like. This time of year, I look to see if a pattern of rain and thunderstorms is developing. Rain isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker; electrical storms are. On Monday, my Linville Gorge check for Friday, Saturday and Sunday were dominated by a gray cloud, a thick lightening bolt and daggers of rain — 70 percent chance each day, in fact. Time to panic? Not just yet.

Bore in. If I see something worrisome, I’ll switch from my overall source to a source more focused on our destination. For the central and northern mountains of North Carolina, I rely on Ray’s Weather out of Boone. Ray’s was begun as a hobby in the 1990s by Dr. Ray Russell, a computer science professor at Appalachian State. It’s evolved into a source that marries modern forecasting models with local knowledge of mountain weather. Ray’s forecast for Linville rang true with typical summer weather patterns: partly cloudy with widely scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms. This suggests that we should hike early in the day and have camp set up by mid-afternoon. (For mountain trips, I’ll bore up as well, using a source such as mountain-forecast.com. But, for this Linville trip, it won’t be helpful). 

Have patience. The reason I don’t start checking the forecast until five days out at the earliest stems from a four-day winter trip on the Appalachian Trail three years ago. On that trip, I started checking 10 days out, at which point 4 to 6 inches of snow was forecast, as were overnight lows in the upper teens. The next day, the snow forecast total had jumped to 12 inches and the overnight lows had dropped into the mid-teens. Over the next three days the forecast called for as much as 18 inches and the overnight low dropping to 7. Twice I was a mouse-click away from canceling the trip. Then, two days before the trip, the forecast backed off to about three inches. We did the trip and awoke the last morning to just an inch of snow, which made for a gorgeous hike out.

Check the radar. One of the last things I do, usually two to three hours before an event, is check the radar. I check for splotches of green, yellow, orange and especially purple, and I click the one-hour replay to see if the splotches are advancing toward our hike. One caveat: in summer, heat convection can cause stormy cells to pop up out of nowhere; just because weather wasn’t headed your way an hour ago doesn’t mean it isn’t now. Those wicked afternoon storms may cause me to cancel an after-work hike, but often it won’t bring an end to a weekend backpacking trip. 

Make the call. You may think that there’s nothing worse than canceling an outing because the weather looked bad, and it turns out to be lovely. What’s worse is rolling the dice, saying what the heck, forging ahead — and running headlong into trouble. 

All it takes is one bad guess to convince you. Play it safe.

The post Check the forecast — and know what to do with it appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Basin Hike, Saturday, 10 a.m., Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Kure Beach. This is about the time when we start getting excited about hiking at the coast. I know, we’re just hitting peak color in the Piedmont, but the cool temperatures and clear skies are made for a coastal adventure. And this hike is always the first one that comes to mind: the 1.1-mile hike starting on the beach, heading inland through salt marsh, past a World War II bunker that once housed something of a celebrity, and finally to an overlook overlooking The Basin and Zeke’s Island beyond. Some of the most wide-open space you’ll encounter on trail in North Carolina. Space is limited, reserve a spot by calling 919.458.5798. Learn more here.

Fall Birdwatching Hike, Saturday, 2 p.m., Lake James State Park, Nemo. As the event description accurately notes, the Paddy’s Creek area, where the hike will be held, “offers just the right mix of open water, shoreline woods and fields to see lots of species ….” And on this guided hike, with Ranger Jamie Cameron as your guide, you’ll learn what those species are. Bring binos and a field guide, if you have ‘em. Learn more here.

Birding and Nature Hike, Sunday, 8 a.m., New River State Park, Laurel Springs. Often in the deep woods, you hear birds, but you don’t always see them. Thus, a more useful way to ID a bird is by its call. That’s the goal on this 2-mile hike: learning to identify a call and understand what it likely means. Learn more here.

Hike DIY

Three more options, all DIY (with a little direction):

• The weekend’s weather begs for a long day on the trail. A reminder that we wrote about long trails in the region on Oct. 20. Find “Long Hikes for Cool Fall Days” here.
• You can find 5 more long hikes in our eguide, “5 Long Hikes for Getting in Shape,” available in our store, here.
• If you’re looking for a hike that’s more season-specific, check out our “3 Hikes for Mid Fall,” also available in our store, here.

Whatever you do this weekend, GetOut! And enjoy.

The post GetOut! Another great weekend to fall for fall appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

When it comes to fall color, outdoors types take the changing of the leaves pretty seriously.

How seriously?

Virginia has a fall foliage hotline — 800.424.5683 — that you can call for the latest breaking fall color news. Operators standing by; in our book, that’s quite serious. And, curiously, quite practical.

Fall color can break out overnight. Generally, the chromatic change begins at the highest elevations and cascades downhill. In North Carolina, that means you might head first to Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet) or Clingman’s Dome (41 feet shorter, at 6,643 feet), and in Virginia, to Mount Rogers (5,729 feet) or its neighbor, Whitetop Mountain (5,518 feet). More northerly locations, with generally cooler temperatures, can also see earlier color. The various microclimates that exist in the rugged Southern Appalachians can also affect when fall color will appear.

The main factor to track, though, is the weather, because without the right weather, good color isn’t happening no matter how high you are. On that front, things are looking pretty good for a colorful autumn in the mid-Atlantic.

And the prospects for fall color in the mountains?

“Our warm, wet weather this summer and fall, along with tropical storms moving through the area, could put a little damper on fall color this year,” says Western Carolina University Professor of Biology Professor Beverly Collins. “Although the National Weather Service predicts near-normal temperatures and a wetter than average September, the 90-day period through November is predicted to be warmer than average.”

On the plus side, she predicts the fall color season may extend later into the year than usual. ” …our color season may run from late September well into November from high to low elevations and north to south in Western North Carolina – unless a late storm knocks the leaves off the trees, of course.”

Typically, warm, dry days and cool nights — with minimal rain — bodes well for bright colors. And that was the case the beginning of September.  Here’s how, depending upon where you live:

Virginia

As we mentioned, Virginia has its fall foliage hotline. Then, beginning Thursday you can set your leaf peeper cam to one of several webcams in Shenandoah National Park to get realtime views of the action. The park will also keep you abreast of color developments on its various social media outlets, which you can find here.

The Virginia Department of Forestry is also on top of things, with a weekly fall foliage report that’s now underway. Its fall foliage home page points you to great places to catch fall color, descriptions of which leaves turn which colors, why they turn color in the first place — just about everything you need to know. Find it here.

The Virginia Department of Forestry adds that, typically, the color changes in the mountains from Oct. 10-20, in central Virginia Oct. 15-25 and in eastern Virginia Oct. 20-31.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, ExploreAsheville.com   keeps tabs on the latest color displays, which can help you determine where your color-seeking hikes should be focused. They also have an interactive fall color map that shows you in four-day increments where you should be able to find the best color (and also spots where there’s “minimal change,” “partial change” and “some color left”). It also suggests particularly good viewing locations and when to hit them.

Another key player in North Carolina: RomanticAsheville.com.  They advise getting the latest reports from their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Find it all here.

For general tracking purposes, between now and mid-October, expect the best color around 6,000 feet and above, dropping to the 5,000-foot level between the 16th and 20th, to 4,000 feet between the 21st and 25th, to 3,000 feet by the end of October, then popping at the 3,000- to 4,000-foot level into the first week of November before migrating into the Piedmont.

When the time comes to find fall color — when the hotline says it’s go time — we’ve got a 10 favorite places of our own you should check out; find them here.

Here’s hoping you have a color-filled fall!

Join us on a color-filledl trip

Here are two places we’re headed this fall that have the potential for great color. Click on the link for more information:

GetBackpacking! Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E, Oct. 15-17. 3-day, 2-night backpack trip on an iconic 14-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina and Tennessee. Learn more here.

GetHiking! Fall Weekend Escape: the AT at Hot Springs, Nov. 12-14. A 6-mile hike Saturday on the AT from Garenflo Gap into Hot Springs, a 7-mile hike Sunday from Tanyard Gap into Hot Springs. Learn more here.

The post When, where to find fall color appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

And this weekend’s lionlike forecast?

Well, some of it could be nice. Then again, it could be cloudy at times. And maybe rainy. And perhaps with storms of Oz-like dimensions. In short, it’s a weekend to play it by ear. Some thoughts on that:

• Saturday looks a wee less turbulent than Sunday (storms are possible both days)
• Morning looks better than afternoon
• It will be warm, depending upon where you live, getting up to around 80
• Sudden pop-up storms are possible. Thus, it’s a good idea to check the radar on your phone before heading out and check it periodically while you’re on the trail. Storms that may not have been there when you hit the trail could easily materialize within a half hour or less. 
• Take a rain jacket
• Seek out lower-lying trails. Avoid ridge lines, if possible.
• Keep an eye on trails with multiple stream crossings. Especially if you’re on a mountain hike and headed uphill, crossings that were doable lower on the mountain may not be on the return trip should a cloudburst move through.
• Focus on shorter hikes. Better to get caught by rain in the middle of a 4-mile hike than an 8-miler. Better still to find a trailhead with access to shorter hikes: finish one, no storm? Take the other.

Certainly not all the tips you need for a weekend of unpredictable weather, but a good start.

GetOut! And enjoy.

GetOut! Trail Guides

Some hikes from our GetHiking! Trail Guide library that might be especially appropriate on an in-like-a-lion March weekend.

• 5 Great Short Hikes in the Triangle. Short hikes of less than 4 miles perfect for beating a looming storm. Find it here.
• GetHiking! Guide to Brumley Forest North in Hillsborough. A 3.5-mile trail network made for a weekend like this: you can hike one trail, you can hike ‘em all, if the weather holds. Find it here.
• GetHiking! Guide to Hiking Raven Rock’s Bridle Trails. Hankerin’ for a long hike, but not hankerin’ to get wet? These two 4-mile loops start from the same trailhead: finish the West Loop and the coast (or, rather, the sky) is clear? Tack on the East Loop for an even 8. Find it here.

Find all of our GetHiking! Trail Guides here.

The post GetOut! Tips for dodging March’s pop-up storms appeared first on GetGoing NC!.