The wildest place we know of in the Southeast is Linville Gorge. Most of the 11,651 acres is wilderness. The gorge is just three-quarters of a mile across, from rim to rim, and is as deep as 1,500 feet in spots. On its 13-mile run through the gorge, the Linville River drops 2,000 vertical feet. So inaccessible is much of the gorge that it contains virgin timber, a rarity in this part of the world. Trail descriptions are peppered with such phrases as “very strenuous,” “very primitive,” and “notoriously steep.” There is no “easy” in Linville Gorge. 

That makes its spectacular scenery all the more desirable.

One of my most memorable views of the past couple years was from a spot along the Linville River not far from Pinch-In Trail. I glanced across the river and up, up about 1,900 vertical feet to The Chimneys, a prominent rock outcrop that loomed like the prow of an ocean liner over a row boat. To earn this view, I had descended, in full pack, the ridiculously steep, roughly defined Leadmine Trail, then hiked up the boulder-choked Linville Gorge Trail. It was laughingly slow going. But then this view.

Explore, don’t expire

Not every backpacker, I realized as the eight in my group wrestled with the trail, is ready for this level of adventure—at least in full pack.

So we came up with a trip, scheduled the weekend of Oct. 5-7, that includes the best of backpacking—spending the night in the wild—and the best of day-hiking—exploring with a light daypack that keeps you nimble enough to climb over downed hemlocks and hills of house-size boulders. The trip works like this:

Friday afternoon, we’ll hike in from the Wolf Pit Road access at the southeast end of the gorge. It’s a steady climb, but at just 1.7 miles, it’s doable even for a backpacking novice. We establish basecamp on Shortoff Mountain, in the vicinity of “Camp Shortoff,” where a run of rock outcrops affords some of the best views of the gorge and some of the best sunsets imaginable.

Saturday, we don our day packs and hike about 3 miles north on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the flattest 3 miles of trail in Linville, brushing the rim, with more great views of the gorge. 

At the 3-mile mark we descend on the Cambric Ridge Trail, which drops, quickly, a little more than a mile down to the river. You won’t see this trail on most maps; it’s one of the primitive trails that are all but hidden in the gorge. We’ll take it down to the river; if the water level is low, we may cross and head downstream and loop back up to basecamp. If the river is up, we’ll hang out, have lunch, maybe take a dip, before heading back to camp. We’ll be in the heart of the gorge, in an area that’s infrequently visited.

Like taking a test drive

Saturday’s hike, about 9-10 miles in all, is a good way for a person to get a feel for experiencing challenging terrain before tackling it in full pack. Even for someone who’s day-hiked rugged areas, doing it as part of backpacking expedition helps put such terrain in a backpacking perspective and thus prepare better for venturing out in full pack. Downed hemlocks—and there are a goodly number of them—are fairly easy to scramble over in a day pack, but what about in a 60-liter pack carrying 30 pounds? Perhaps pare down the load. How about those steep descents? Maybe you don’t use trekking poles on day hikes, but think about all that weight and its impact on your knees dropping down a trail with a 45-degree descent.

We backpack so we can spend as much time as possible on the trail, not because we’re into being punished. A basecamp approach is the ideal marriage of backcountry camping and hiking, especially well-suited to our wildest places. 

See you on the trail!

Joe

Find out more

Learn more and sign up for our GetBackpacking! An introduction to Linville Gorge, here.

We also have a somewhat similar GetBackpacking! trip planned to the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock/Citico Creek Wilderness for Oct. 25-28. Learn more about it and sign up here.

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That said, two things. One, a forecast is just that, a guess based on what appears might could happen. Sometimes, it seems like more of a whimsical guess, although in this case, where the whole of North Carolina is looking to get wet, it seems less whimsical, more meteorological. And two, a little rain needn’t necessarily stop you from heading out and having fun.

With the latter philosophy in mind — and with a suggestion that you consult our March 6, 2012, post (but updated this week), “Gear Up for Walking in the Rain” — we make our recommendations for the weekend ahead.

Coast

According to the current forecast, the rain is scheduled to depart the northeast part of the state just in time for Canoe the Pond, a periodic ranger-led canoe trip on Merchants Millpond. Forecast: we see the cypress and tupelo gum glistening with new-fallen rain, the Spanish moss dripping more than usual, a brilliant sun poking through as you shove off from the boat house at 1 p.m.

How’s that for optimism!

Logistics: Sunday, Sept. 27, 1 p.m., Merchants Mill Pond State Park, Gatesville. Canoe, paddle, pfd provided. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 74, parting skies.

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Looking ahead: Carolina Beach Half Marathon & 5K, Sunday, Oct. 4, 8 a.m. More info here. http://runcarolinabeach.com/

Piedmont

OK, maybe it’s not the ideal weekend to hold Reach the Peaks at Hanging Rock State Park. But frankly, if you’re going to be out in the dampness isn’t it better to be out with several hundred other soggy souls?

In this quickly emerging classic benefitting the Stokes County Arts Council, participants summit Moore’s Knob, Cook’s Wall, House Rock, Wolf Rock, and Hanging Rock — 11 miles in all. If you’re familiar with the park’s Five Peaks Challenge, this is essentially the same, albeit with lunch, an original t-shirt, free canteen, a patch and more! Armor yourself against the elements, earn some peak-bagger bragging rights, and help the local arts community.

Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 26, 8 a.m., Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. $35 (though you may not get a t-shirt with day-of registration). More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 65 … the good news is that the chance of rain drops from 96 percent at 8 a.m. to 58 percent the rest of the day.

* * *

Looking ahead: Among the great birding opportunities coming up in North Carolina’s State Parks is the Sunday, Oct. 11, Bald Eagle Count at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area in Apex. More info here.

Mountains

The farther west you go, the chances of rain diminish — slightly. That and an action-packed lineup recommend Saturday’s Family Hiking Day Celebration out west in Fontana Village. Guided hikes on the Appalachian Trail and Llewellyn Cove Nature Trail, a plant and animal scavenger hunt, nature activities and crafts, birds of prey and other educational presentations and a cookout lunch! Sounds like a day full of family hiking fun.

Logistics: Saturday, Sept. 26, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Fontana Village. Free. More information here.

Saturday forecast: High of 73 with a chance of thunderstorms.

* * *

Looking ahead: Introduction to Tenkara: Oct. 24, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Pisgah Center For Wildlife Education, Pisgah Forest. An intro to Japanese fly fishing. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

* * *

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A cool bike ride in the mountains or a leisurely day on the water in the Piedmont and coastal plain: Those are but three of your options this weekend in North Carolina.

Coast

What better place to spend a muggy, 90-degree day than on a river? And not just an hour or two of the day, but at least half of it.

That’s the plan at Lumber River State Park Saturday as they celebrate Lumber River Day with: “Canoe rides, canoe races, display booths, exhibits, fancy dancers, ol’ timey tractor parade, display of historic tractors, dulcimer lessons, blue grass music, Native American dancing and drumming, local artists at work, horseshoes, kids wet t-shirt races, kids fishing contest, casting contest, face painting, free prizes, giveaways, and more.” More?

Logistics: Saturday, July 20, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. More info: 910.628.4564 or here.

Saturday forecast: High of 90, 40 percent chance of afternoon rain.

Piedmont

Most park-sponsored, guided canoe trips are short. An hour, maybe two and that’s it. Saturday, though, is a different story on the Mayo River. They’ll be putting in at 10 a.m. and taking out sometime around 4 p.m. — six hours on a river you may not have paddled. Advises the sponsoring Mayo River State Park: prepare to wade, prepare to get wet.

Logistics: Saturday, July 20, 10 a.m. Free, all equipment provided. More info by calling 336.427.2530 or going here.

Saturday forecast: High of 88, afternoon chance of thunderstorm.

Mountains

This month’s Cycle to Farm ride in the high country originates in Black Mountain and begins with free locally roasted coffee courtesy Dynamite Coffee. That after three free yoga and stretching. Such a civil way to begin a ride.

Alas, the metric century is sold out but you can still get in on the 15-mile ride that hangs close to Black Mountain. Not a bad thing because that way you’ll get back to that free coffee all the sooner, not to mention the post-ride party featuring a locally sourced and produced meal of pizza, pasta, side dishes and desserts. Live entertainment, too. And, a musette bag full of “various goodies” from local sponsors.

Logistics: Saturday, July 20. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 82, 50 percent chance of rain in the afternoon.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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“I did see a boatload of great blue herons,” I offered. He seemed unimpressed and continued paddling to the upper reaches of Bush Creek. Understandable, I guess. I’d actually seen more than a boatload of the gawky birds — 13 — over three hours on the water. While great blue herons are remarkably common, I’m still in awe every time I watch one rise pterodactyl-like from water’s edge, give an annoyed honk and laboriously fly on ahead, only to be re-disturbed re-annoyed in another 15 minutes.

Granted, an osprey or bald eagle would have been great, and not all that uncommon on Jordan Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers impoundment south of the Triangle. The lake’s shallow waters and abundant pines make it an attractive habitat for the bald eagle, especially in the more remote fingers of the lake fed by tributaries such as Bush Creek. Such a sighting would have been icing on a cake that had already more than sated my adventure appetite for the day.

Throughout the preceding workweek, I had been dreaming of a paddle adventure. Those dreams generally led me east, well east of I-95 and closer to the coast, where an abundance of small creeks, lazy rivers, swamps and sheltered estuaries offer some of the best flatwater escapes around. As the end of the week grew near, those dreams turned to desolation as I realized work wouldn’t allow for a daylong escape. I could steal a few hours on Saturday, maybe, but certainly not enough for a full-throttle adventure.

A melancholy set in that got me to thinking about my last true adventure. As I dismissed candidate after candidate for not being “adventurous” enough, I found myself trying to define just what, exactly, constitutes adventure. It has to be somewhere new, but, as writer Douglas Coupland contends, is adventure without risk Disneyland? Maybe, I reckoned, as long as that risk isn’t of life, limb or moderate-to-extreme discomfort. Does adventure have to involved the unknown? The unknown, yes; it’s an adventure the first time, an outing the next. But an adventure could include the familiar: paddling a swamp new to me could be an adventure even if the swamp was full of familiar cypress and tupelo, and certainly alligators. Probably the toughest qualifier: whether a true adventure had to occur in some exotic, far-off local. A half-day’s drive, minimum.

I should mentioned that I was having this internal conversation in the front yard while raking leaves. I should mention, too, that a mild but frustrating breeze was undoing most of my work. I paused to watch a gust move a phalanx of white oak leaves back to the front. In doing so, I happened to glance out to the cul de sac. And there lay the answer to my question: There, at the end of the cul de sac not 30 feet away was where my last true adventure had begun. We had just moved into the house and lost a tennis ball to the storm drain during a game of whiffle-tennis-ball. We followed the storm drain a short distance to a small creek, followed the creek into a tangled 50-yard-wide wilderness separating two neighborhoods, followed the creek  farther to where it deposited into the headwaters of Walnut Creek, itself anchoring a football-field-wide wilderness between our neighborhood and I-40. Our three kids and I spent four hours exploring this wild oasis, walking downed tree trunks over creeks, building dams, stalking squirrels and finding “artifacts” (a pair of laptop computers).

Now that was an adventure, I thought to myself. And it had begun out of my own front yard.

I put up my rake, went inside and got out a navigational map for Jordan Lake (GMCO’s Pro Series Map of Jordan Lake). I looked at put-ins within a half-hour drive (I still had work to do, but I figured I could spare a half day: an hour total in the car, three in the boat. I decided on the Farrington Point Wildlife Resources Commission boat ramp off Farrington Road, popular with motorboats, but also offering quick access to an intimate drainage called Bush Creek. Within half an hour, the Old Town Loon 100 was strapped to the top of Civic and we were heading west on U.S. 64.

What intrigued me about Bush Creek was that the map suggested clear paddling north for about a mile and a half. There, the creek took a hard left and headed west, and while the passage remained wide — judging from the map — it was filled with symbols indicative of “marsh or swamp.” According to the map, Bush Creek’s main channel hugged the south bank; I tried that option first but quickly encountered an impenetrable wall of reeds. I retreated, paddled the north bank and made a little more progress upstream before being stymied by a grove of willows. I was almost able to squeeze through two trunks but a submerged log six inches from the surface nixed that option. I could have gotten out and pulled the boat over the log, but periodic soundings showed the water a good three feet deep. I contemplated the whole risk thing and decided this fell into the “moderate-to-extreme discomfort“ category. Maybe another, warmer, day.

I beached the boat and explored a floodplain forest on foot for about a half hour. I ate lunch (PBJ) and began the slow paddle back, a paddle peppered with long passages of no paddling as I soaked up the surprisingly warm, for 60 degrees, sun, the listless high cirrus clouds in a brilliant blue sky, and the lake in general as it powered down for the winter. I got out the map and took note of Jordan Lake’s various creek-fed fingers, fingers such as Bush Creek that offered the prospect for future adventures, adventures that could be squeezed in to a half-day window, that offered a reasonable degree of risk, and that married the familiar with the unknown. All spread out over nearly 48,000 acres.

It’ll be a while, I thought, before I have to worry again about where my next adventure is coming from.

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