From an astronomical standpoint, fall doesn’t begin until around 9 p.m. on September 22. That would be the autumnal equinox, that magical day when we have as many hours of daylight as dark. 

In the psychic realm, however, fall begins with the passing of Labor Day, the traditional end of summer. Goodbye pool parties and cookouts, hello fleece and football. The trouble with the psychological version is that the heat tends to overstay its welcome, lounging about into mid-September, into late September, into October. Mentally, you’re ready for changing leaves and a chill heading out the front door. In reality, you’re still in flip-flops and shorts. 

And so it goes, until that one day, usually in early to mid-October, when you head out the door one morning and — whoa! I need a coat. We may hit another day or two in the low 80s, but it’s pretty much 70s, then 60s, with the occasional “high” of 50 thrown into the mix. For the avid explorers among us, the cold air heats up our hiking genes. We want to get out and go long, to get our heart pumping, to savor the cool and quiet of fall. And there are so many great places in our part of the world to do just that.

In the Piedmont, for instance, the avid among us will ramp it up after Labor Day, the lingering 90-degree day or two be danged. By mid-October, we’re in mid-season form. Alas, that’s about when the promise of cool, colorful fall weather starts to come true, luring the the masses as well. When they’re headed through the front gate, we need to be hitting the trailheads off the roads less traveled. For instance:

• Pilot Mountain State Park, Pinnacle. In 2019, when this post first appeared, the park’s website this time of year often warned of a 30-minute wait simply to park in the main, mountain-top lot. Today, on a fall weekend you can’t even drive to the top on a fall weekend, you have to take a shuttle from the base. But if you know about the park’s secondary entrances, there’s no trouble parking and hiking straight from your car. Say, from the Pinnacle Hotel Road access, which feeds the Mountain Trail at the base of the mountain, or the Boyd Nelson Road Access, where you hike beneath stately hardwoods on the Pilot Creek Trail (which connects with the Mountain Trail, as well as the Grindstone Trail, which will take you to the top).
• Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. More parking may not result in a 30-minute wait to park, but it does means more people. But you’ll find nary a soul at the Flinchum Road Access, where the 3.6-mile Indian Creek Trail quietly escorts you to the park’s Visitor Center (where you can sneak past the throngs heading up to Hanging Rock and instead take the 4.2-mile loop to the quieter viewscape on Moore’s Knob.
• Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Umstead is among the most visited state park in North Carolina. That’s especially true come the cool, colorful days of October. Cars park out the Harrison Avenue entrance back to the I-40 entrance ramp, and can be found helter-skelter on either side of the entrance off Glenwood Avenue. Psst! The Lake Crabtree neighborhood entrance is where the action ain’t. Hike in the bike & bridle trail to the less trod segments of the Company Mill and Sycamore trails in the middle of the park.
• Crowders Mountain State Park, Gastonia. Shuttle buses? Please. The Boulders Access has fewer visitors and you can pick up the Ridgeline Trail and hike into another state (South Caroilina). How’s that for escape?

They’re eager for fall hiking as well in Charlottesville, at the base of Shenandoah National Park.

“The cooler mountain temperatures make for great hiking days, plus there’s no bugs,” says GetHiking! Charlottesville Hike Organizer Pepper Ernst.. “Also, the changing leaves are beautiful and as they fall the trails take on a new look as views that didn’t exist in the summer open up: a ridgeline hike that was a green tunnel in the summer can evolve into 360-degree, long-range views in the fall.”

Two of our favorite mountain destinations in early fall: 

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  South Mountains State Park, less than an hour and a half from much of the Charlotte area, offers one of the closest mountain-like experiences to the Queen City. It also offers a good opportunity for solitude: most visitors to South Mountains, with more than 18,000 acres North Carolina’s largest State Park, don’t make it past High Shoals Falls, about a mile in; with more than 40 miles of trail, that leaves a lot of backcountry to your lonesome.

• Panthertown Valley near Cashiers may offer the most scenic variety of any spot in the state: mountaintop views, multiple waterfalls, mountain creeks and vast stands of pines, all in about 10,000 acres.

Remember, too, that you’re welcome to sign up for trips in GetHiking! Meetups outside your region. Our weekly enewsletter keeps you up on who’s hiking where. If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so by simply emailing joe@getgoingnc.com.

Fall is almost here. Get ready to hike!

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GetHiking! Meetups

Here’s a rundown of our GetHiking! Meetups. Feel free to join one or all!

North Carolina

GetHiking! Charlotte

GetHiking! Triad

GetHiking! Triangle

GetBackpacking!

GetExploring! Greenville

Virginia

GetHiking! Charlottesville

GetHiking! Virginia Beach  

Plan a plan for fall hiking

If you missed last week’s post, “Fall hiking: a month-by-month approach,” check it out. We offer advice on how get the most from the fall hiking season. Check it out here.

The post Fall is nigh! Time to ramp up your hiking appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

A crisp, brilliant day without a cloud in the sky — perfect weather for a hike. Except, you say, for the cold.

We love hiking this time of year. The air is typically dry, the diminished foliage lets you see deep into the woods, the slanted winter sunlight seems to light the forest from the ground up.

Yes, it’s cold, and maybe some of you shy away from hiking in the cold. But you don’t have to give up stretching your legs in the woods just because there’s a nip in the air.

Here are some tips to get you into the woods, no matter the temperature.

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  Regulate your thermostat. An easy and efficient way to regulate body heat is with hat and gloves. You can quickly lose heat through your head and hands. Start your hike with a wool cap and gloves to keep heat from escaping. Once you warm up, try shedding one or the other. Give it a few minutes to see what effect the change is having. This short tutorial from Johanna Breed with Great Outdoor Provision Co. elaborates.

• Pack smart. If you’re undecided between a lighter fleece and heavier fleece, pack both. And pack more snacks than you might in warmer weather; you burn more calories in the cold.
• Layer up at breaks. When you stop for a snack, grab a layer before grabbing your gorp. You’ll want to retain the heat you built up hiking.

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  Hike in the sun. On an especially cold day you can up your odds of staying warm by choosing a trail that lets in a bit more light. That can mean picking a trail that you know has more hardwoods, which have shed their umbrella of leaves for winter, rather than hiking under evergreen pines. That can mean looking for trails that are double-track, which are wider and thus have a wider opening in the canopy, rather than narrower single-track. A couple ways to distinguish between the two on a map: a wider double-track may be marked with parallel dashed lines, and trails marked as “multiuse,” especially if they allow horses, are more likely double-track.

• Hike in the sun II. Pick a trail with a southern exposure. You’ll need to know how to read a topo map to pick a south-facing trail. Or have the number for the local ranger station handy.
• Hike early. You’ll want to take advantage of the sun as much as possible. So start early, when the trail is still be in shadows, and finish while the sun is at its brightest, rather than finishing as the sun is setting and the air is cooling.

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  Hike early II. Remember that the sun sets early this time of year. Today, for example, official sunset in Raleigh is 5:02 p.m., with diminishing light remaining for another half hour. Note that with the winter sun deeper into the southern sky, you will lose light hiking the north side of a mountain even earlier. The temperature can drop like a rock once the sun sets.

• Start cool. Too many folks start a hike all bundled up: five minutes down the trail they’re starting to sweat. Instead, right before heading out, strip off that outer layer. You’ll be cool for a minute or two, but should warm up quickly.
• More about layering. Add layers to get warm, then, at the first hint of sweat, strip down to cool down. We actually have a whole post on layering, which you can check out using the link below.

This little bundle of tips can get you out of your hibernation den and into the forest over the winter months, perhaps the most revealing time of the year to be in the woods.

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Learn more

• Layering. Learn more about layering here.
• Why hike in winter? Find additional reasons to embrace winter hiking here.
• Winter backpacking. If you’re already onboard with hiking in cold weather, then you might be a candidate for our winter backpacking programs, designed to equip you with the knowledge and gear for a winter overnight. Learn more about those programs and our other backpacking programs, here.

Need incentive?

Nothing keeps you on task like making a commitment. Sign up for a hike (especially one you’ve paid for), and you’re far more likely to do it. Besides, your new hiking friends will miss you if you don’t show!

Here are three ways we can help you keep hiking over the winter: 

• GetHiking! Hike Through the Holidays, December 2021. A total of 15 hikes spread throughout the week — on Sunday morning and afternoon, Tuesday night, Friday morning and on two Wednesday afternoons — to keep you hiking during the busy, stressful holiday season. Learn more here.
• GetHiking! Sunday Winter Hike Series, Jan. 9 – March 13, weekly. Every Sunday we hike a different trail, with the goal to keep you hiking and, hopefully, to expose you to new trails. For information on the morning session (10 a.m.) go here, the afternoon session (1 p.m.), here.
• GetHiking! Tuesday Night Hikes, Jan. 4 – March 8, 6:30 p.m. Every Tuesday evening for 10 weeks we scoff at the notion you need sunlight to hike, don our headlamps and hike 3 miles on a different trail in the region. Learn more here.
• GetHiking! Winter Wild Series, November thru March. Once a month we take advantage of the winter-exposed woods to take a hike mostly off trail. Locations include: Eno Wilderness, Lower Haw River Natural Area, Birkhead Mountain Wilderness, Three Sisters of the Sauratown Mountains, Caswell Game Lands. Learn more here.

The post This year, warm up to cold weather hiking appeared first on GetGoing NC!.