Tag Archives: Rock Castle Gorge

5 Trails for avoiding Spring crowds

Spring comes, so come the hikers, the seasonal hikers. The, dare we say it, the “fair weather” hikers?

Sure we dare, because they’re probably the first to admit that unless there’s not a cloud in the sky, unless the temperatures not 66 degrees (plus or minus 4 degrees), and unless there’s some pretty flower blooming or some tree putting on a color show, they’ll be doing things indoors, thank you. read more

Long hikes for cool fall days

Something about cool, fall weather makes you want to hike farther. Now that that weather has finally arrived, we’ve got some of those longer trails we think you might like. Here are 11, including nine in the Piedmont and two along the Blue Ridge Escarpment. (We’ll talk long trails at the coast in coming weeks, once the weather turns from cool to cold.) read more

Backpacking squeezes the most out of fall

It is the season that inspires our great philosophers. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, wrote: “Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.”

Or this, from a more contemporary purveyor of percipient thought:

“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” read more