Content from A Classic Hike in the Smokies

Since I answer the question differently every time it’s asked, the notion of a classic hike, obviously, is difficult to pin down. In essence, I define it as a hike that you could do 100 times, and every time will yield a unique experience. Some of that has to do with the trail itself. A lot has to do with the season. A lot, too, with the weather.

When I first hiked the Mt. Sterling/Cataloochee Valley area in 2005 — Trips 17 and 18 if you’re following along in “Backpacking North Carolina” (2011, UNC Press) — it was on a late November day. There were light, indifferent clouds overhead, the landscape had turned from predominantly green to predominantly brown and gray. The landscape was stark, the air cold. The sky, while not threatening, suggested I not overstay my visit atop 5,843-foot Mt. Sterling. A decade later, I still have vivid memories of that trip, though not of the reality TV variety.

This weekend, I made my first return visit, with GetHiking! North Carolina’s Classic Hikes. This time it was early spring in the high country. Wildflowers were prolific. The hardwoods had budded in the valley but not at elevation. It was cloudy with a light rain falling most of the day, with late day reports of sleet and fat snowflakes from the summit. The world was a shiny, wet green, with flashes of color — blinding white dogwood blooms in the understory, the forest floor peppered with white, yellow and purple blooms — popping in contrast.

Memorable in a different way than my first visit. Not necessarily better, different. And, I’m sure, it will be different the next time I visit.

Despite the fact I use the word “classic” liberally despite an imprecise definition, it’s not a word I use lightly. Maybe I can’t define a classic hike, but I know one when I hike it.

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A few years back I was nearing the top of the Mount Mitchell Trail when I came across a group of youngsters intently examining the balsam firs that begin appearing above 5,500 feet. As they probed about, an older fellow explained what they were seeing. The gentleman had a professorial look; not surprising, I soon discovered, considering these were forestry students from N.C. State. I lurked in the shadows and got a free education on the challenges of life above 6,000 feet in a Southern Appalachian forest.
Sure be great if you didn’t have to go to school to get this kind of education, I thought.
Last night, I discovered, you don’t.
Before a packed house Tuesday evening at Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, Steph Jeffries and Thomas Wentworth discussed their just-released guide, “Exploring Southern Appalachian Forests: An Ecological Guide to 30 Great Hikes in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia” (UNC Press). It’s a scientific look at the forest written for a lay audience.
Jeffries and Wentworth are uniquely qualified to write “Exploring Southern Appalachian Forests.” As N.C. State professors — she in the Department of Forestry, he in Plant and Microbial Biology — they’ve been exploring these woods for years. On one outing with students several years ago, Jeffries yelled to Wentworth: “We need to write a book about this.”
“Exploring Southern Appalachian Forests” is peppered with insights that can’t help but make a hike all the more enjoyable. A sampling:

• Hope for the balsam fir. Most folks who’ve poked around much above 5,500 feet are aware that the balsam fir population has been taking a hit from the balsam wooly adelgid since the 1950s. Wentworth showed a shot of skeletal balsam fir tree trunks atop Clingman’s Dome to illustrate the point. Then he showed a shot of thriving balsam fir saplings in the same area. It’s too soon to tell if the balsam firs are coming back, he said, but it’s a hopeful sign.
• Freeze your branches off. If you’ve ever hiked an exposed mountaintop and wondered why the trees only have branches on one side, there’s good reason. In winter, Jeffries said showing a slide of one-sided trees atop Grandfather Mountain, ice accumulates on the west side (from which most winter storms move in); the added weight snaps off the branches.
• Life’s a beech. Hiking the mile-long Summit Trail at Elk Knob State Park, I’ve often wondered why the ramrod-straight trees near the trailhead are so different from the gnarled ones up top. Turns out they’re both beech trees, but the ones near the top are  exposed to howling winds and rugged weather, and end up being shaped by their environment.
• Fire good. Everyone fears a forest fire, right? Humans, perhaps, but not certain trees. The table mountain pine, for instance, relies on periodic fires to release its seeds from its resin-sealed cones. Human efforts at fire suppression over the years are threatening the pine’s ability to reproduce.

In addition to great insights, “Exploring Southern Appalachian Forests” provides the practical advice — including trailhead directions, GPS coordinates, trail length and difficulty — to plan and execute a hike on the 30 trails covering more than 100 miles in the book.
A great addition to your guidebook collection if you’ve ever stopped and puzzled over why a tree appears to be growing out of a rock. FYI, that tree would be a yellow birch, which can take root in the thinnest of soil — a bed of moss, for instance.
It’s in the book.

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Appearances

Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 p.m.: Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh
Thursday, May 15, 7 p.m.: Barnes & Noble, Cary
Saturday, May 17, 11:30 a.m.: Country Bookshop, Southern Pines
Sunday, May 18, 2 p.m.: Barnes & Noble, Burlington
Friday, May 30, 7 p.m.: Scuppernong Books, Greensboro
Saturday, May 31, 2 p.m.: Park Road Books, Charlotte
Sunday, June 1, 1 p.m.: City Lights, Sylva

If you have a bookstore, an outdoors shop, an outdoors club, a civic group, a business wellness program — whatever — and would like to have a talk about adventure, drop me a line at joe@getgoingnc.com.

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A cold front sweeps through the state Saturday afternoon dropping daytime temperatures from the 90s into the upper 70s in the Piedmont and overnight lows into the 40s in the high country.

Translation: Sunday will bring us our first true fall hiking of the season. So get done what you need to get done on Saturday and reserve Sunday for a day in the woods.

Where? you ask. Here’s a quick list of our favorite resources for finding a good hike.

• North Carolina State Parks. North Carolina has 41 state parks, natural areas and recreation areas crawling with good hiking trail, and you’ll find them pretty evenly distributed from the coast (Jockey’s Ridge) to the highest spot in the high country (6,684-foot Mount Mitchell). The state park Web site has helpful information for planning a trip, including downloadable versions of the maps you’ll find at the parks. Investigate here.
• Carolina Mountain Club. The venerable (est. 1923) hiking group maintains by far the most extensive database of hikes in North Carolina’s mountains. Not only do they have a lot of hikes but they have all the details you’ll need to plan, find and execute your hike. Investigate here.
• NCHikes.com. Our sister site includes a trove of hiking information, including longer hikes and tips on executing your hikes. Investigate here.
• More of a guidebook person? There are lots of good ones on North Carolina, some covering the entire state, some focusing on specific areas. We’ll humbly start you off with two recommendations, “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina” (2007, Mountaineers) and “Backpacking North Carolina” (2011, UNC Press).

Cool, fall weather is coming Sunday. Make a date with a trail.

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Like an MSR Pocket Rocket Stove. Or a Thermarest Scout Lite Sleeping Pad. Or a set of great birding guides.

Those are some of the incentives we’re offering as part of the Backpacking North Carolina Challenge 2011, which kicks off this evening at 7:30 at the Great Outdoor Provision Co. store in Raleigh’s Cameron Village.

Background: Last month, UNC Press published my book, “Backpacking North Carolina,” which, says the cover, is “the definitive guide” to “43 can’t-miss trips from mountains to sea.”  The book is geared toward beginner and intermediate backpackers — though I’ve heard from a number of seasoned vets who’ve added it to their libraries — and provides detailed information on 43 trips, yes, statewide. Most (33) are in the mountains, but there are eight trips in the Piedmont and two at the coast. (Go here for a rundown of trips in the book.) Maps, elevation profiles, a 500-word essay on the experience, trailhead directions, where to find water and campsites, what maps to take — just about everything I could think of that might be helpful in planning and executing a backpack trip.

The Challenge: Between now and October, do two trips in the book and become a member of the “Ridgeline” club, entitling you to a free water bottle and T-shirt courtesy Challenge sponsor, the Great Outdoor Provision Co. Elevate yourself to “Prospector” status by doing four trips, and GOPC will award you a free MSR Pocket Rocket stove. Do six trips from the book in the coming five-plus months and you will become a full-fledged “Mule,” earning both the MSR Pocket Rocket and a Thermarest Scout Lite Sleeping Pad.

We’ll be using Great Outdoor Provision Co.’s Facebook page for scorekeeping: Simply post photos from your trip (and a word or two about the experience) to receive credit. Prizes will be awarded at Great Outdoor Provision’s October Mountains-to-Sea Trail event, date tba.

Interested but don’t have equipment? Great Outdoor Provision is working with a couple of gear makers to provide some of the basic (and most expensive) gear for rental. Interested but don’t know anyone to go with? I may lead a trip or two over the next few months. We’ll share details on all this soon.
Got questions? Then come to tonight’s kickoff at Great Outdoor Provision Co.’s Cameron Village store in Raleigh. I’ll do a slideshow, cook a little something over the camp stove, and entertain questions — which, more often than not, are better answered by knowledgeable members of the audience.

See you tonight at 7:30.

This blog is being simulposted on our sister site, NCHikes.com.

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