“In the coming weeks and months, we will be surveying the trail and assessing damage, but trail restoration is a very low priority in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis facing western North Carolina … it is likely that sections of the trail will remain closed for a significant length of time.”

Trails are a low priority in the recovery scheme of things. An incredible amount of work needs to be done to get the communities of WNC back up and running. But when the time comes for trail restoration, we need to be ready to tackle a big job.

How big? Consider the case of the statewide MST. “As a result of the storm,” Laurenz wrote, “the entire North Carolina section of the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed. The MST from Kuwohi [formerly Clingman’s Dome] through Stone Mountain State Park should be considered closed and highly dangerous. This is roughly a third of the entire route of the trail.”

A third of the entire 1,125-mile MST.

When the time comes, the land managers responsible for our trails will need your help. The MST has already set up a form for volunteers who wish to be part of the effort; you can fill it out here. “There will be a need for sawyers,” Laurenz wrote, “those who can clear trail and rebuild it, those who can oversee work crews, but also for those who can help support the volunteers.”

Other land managers will be in a similar position.

Take the Appalachian Trail, for instance, which is overseen by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The ATC is “part of a unique cooperative-management system, working with numbers of local, state and federal partners to ensure greater protections for the Trail.” Key to the AT’s health are the hiking clubs that help maintain it. In Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, there are a dozen hiking clubs that each maintain a section of the AT. These clubs also maintain other trails in their regions; their impact on reviving not just the AT but many other mountain trails is will be huge. 

Below are links to these 12 clubs; click on the link(s) you’re interested in to learn more about the clubs and their volunteer activities. Note: Join the club and you’ll be the first to know when these opportunities arise.

• Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club
• Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club
• Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club
• Outdoor Club at Virginia Tech
• Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club
• Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers
• Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club
• Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club
• Carolina Mountain Club
• Smoky Mountains Hiking Club
• Nantahala Hiking Club
• Georgia Appalachian Trail Club

You might be surprised by the number of trails you hike that are owned/managed by land conservancies. They, too, will need your help both in repairing their damaged trails. Click the link(s) below for more information.

• Conservation Trust for North Carolina
• Blue Ridge Conservancy
• Conserving Carolina 
• Catawba Lands Conservancy
• Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina
• Mainspring Conservation Trust
• New River Conservancy

North Carolina’s State Parks will also need a hand. Volunteers for State Park restoration will be coordinated through the Friends group for that park. Those groups include:

• Friends of Chimney Rock State Park
• Friends of Crowders Mountain State Park
• Friends of the Fonta Flora State Trail
• Friends of Gorges State Park
• Friends of High Country State Parks (Elk Knob, Grandfather Mountain, Mount Jefferson, New River state parks)
• Friends of Lake James State Park
• NC High Peaks Trail Association (Mount Mitchell)
• Friends of South Mountains State Park
• Friends of Stone Mountain State Park
• Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
• As we become aware of specific volunteer opportunities, we will post them here on the GetGoingNC website and on our Facebook page.

The opportunities to help rebuild our trails will come, but as the MST’s Laurenz notes, that’s “a very low priority at this point.”

Be patient. The time to rebuild will come.

The post How (and when) to help rebuild our mountain trails appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

A week from Saturday, June 4, the first Saturday in June, is National Trails Day. As it’s been since its inception in 1993, it’s a day set side for us to celebrate our nation’s trails at NTD-designated events, of which there are 368 nationwide.

Actually, that’s just the number of NTD events officially registered with sponsor the American Hiking Society. That does not, for instance, include five NTD events listed on the North Carolina State Parks website, or 27 events on the Virginia State Parks site.

Because not all events are officially registered, it’s difficult to say just how big National Trails Day is. On the celebration’s 20th anniversary in 2012, 2,000 events drew 157,000 participants. And in 2019, a “trail service world record” was set, with 1,164 events and 41,424 participants.

So how was a record set in 2019, when there were 116,000 more “participants” in 2012?

National Trails Day events come in two flavors: play and work. The majority of events celebrate trails with events hiking or paddling them (“blue” trails are also a part of National Trails Day). A smaller percentage involve work: trail building, for instance, or maintenance. Those would be the “trail service” events.

How important is that trail service work, the work of volunteers showing up with pickaxe and pulaski to build trail?

The majority of trails we hike are there because of volunteers. Volunteers play a big role in trail construction, and account for a huge percentage of trail maintenance. For example, in 2020, volunteers logged 27,497 hours of work on the trail. (Using a formula used by N.C. Parks that puts the hourly trail work rate at $27.30, that’s about a quarter of a million dollars in labor cost savings.)

What to expect

If you elect to do a National Trails Day Event, here’s what to expect, from both types of event:

Hiking. In general, these events are more of an introduction to hiking, aimed at beginners and the hiking curious. As such, the hikes tend to be short and slow-paced.There’s often an educational component as well, possibly about the basics of hiking, more often about nature. They usually last an hour or so. Difficulty level: easy

Trail work. Signing up to do a workday has so many benefits:

• You work with experienced trail builders and thus, can learn the ins and outs of how a trail comes to be.
• You get to learn new new tools. Not a chainsaw your first time out, but possibly a pickaxe or a pulaski. 
• Food. There’s typically food associated with workdays, maybe a breakfast to get you started, trail snacks to keep you going.
• Swag. Occasionally, if there’s a business sponsor involved, you’ll get swag, like a t-shirt or cap.

Work days are typically three hours and you will work, Difficulty: moderate to strenuous. You’ll likely be asked to wear sturdy boots ore shoes and bring gloves.

Where to find events

Here are your prime sources of events.

• American Hiking Society. For starters, check out the events registered with the AHS, here.
• As mentioned, North Carolina State Parks and Virginia State Parks have numerous events planned. 
• Land trusts. Check with your local land trust to see if they have an event planned. Find a list of land trusts here.
• County and municipal parks. 

So, busy June 4? We thought so.

The post A busy first Saturday in June appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Coast

Last weekend, our GetHiking! Triangle group explored Goose Creek State Park. Few had previously visited the 1,208-acre park on the north bank of the Pamlico River downstream from Little Washington. Many hadn’t even heard of the park. But all came away big fans.

Hence, our recommendation for Saturday’s Live Oak and Huckleberry Trail Hike at Goose Creek. The hike will explore two of the park’s ecosystems: a Live Oak river community and a pine woods savannah. Coastal hiking is at its best on a clear, cool late fall day, which is in the cards for Saturday (see below).

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 22, 2 p.m., Goose Creek State Park, Washington. For more info, call 252.923.2191.

Saturday forecast: Sunny skies, high of 52.

Piedmont

We’re entering the season of, ‘tis better to give than receive. What’s best, though, is to give and receive, which is what will happen if you take part in Umstead State Park’s Can You Dig It? volunteer workday. Show up with sturdy boots, work gloves, water and the will to work hard for two hours and you can help improve the quality of Umstead’s over-loved trails.

No special skills required, just the ability to take direction and, again, work hard.

Logistics: Saturday, Nov. 22, 9 a.m., Harrison Avenue/Reedy Creek entrance (off I-40) to Umstead State Park, Raleigh. Reservations are required, by calling 919.571.4170.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 52.

Mountains

Here’s a hike you probably haven’t done but should: the Appalachian Trail north of Hot Springs. The climb up Lovers Leap Ridge offers repeated views of the French Broad River and Hot Springs below. Then, the way the Carolina Mountain Club plans to hike it on Sunday, interconnecting trails will provide more intimate streamside hiking.

And there’s the apres hike in Hot Springs, one of the classic AT trail towns. Be sure to include a visit to Bluff Mountain Outfitters,  where you can score just about everything a hiker could need — and more importantly, want.

Logistics: Sunday, Nov. 23, 8:30 a.m., Appalachian Trail, Hot Springs. For specifics on meeting time and location, contact Paul Benson at 828.251.1909 or pdbenson@charter.net.

Sunday forecast: High of 55, chance of rain.

* * *

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

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Beavers can be quick to judge.
I realized this Sunday at Falls Lake as I crossed a lengthy boardwalk leading to the footbridge over Little Lick Creek. Normally, Lick Creek is maybe 12 to 15 feet across. But after a good rain, like we’d had the past two days, the surrounding wetlands are flooded. Hence, the lead-up boardwalk on this section of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Durham County.
I heard a spectacular splash and looked up to see a radiating circle of disturbed water about 25 yards north of the bridge. At the base of the bridge, on a spit of land that wasn’t submerged, stood a man holding loppers who also was checking out the splash. Moments later the beaver slapped again.
“She’s mad at me,” offered Gregory Scott. Undeservedly so.
Scott is one of the hundreds of volunteers responsible for blazing and maintaining the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the 950-mile work-in-progress that will one day link Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee line with Jockey’s Ridge

on the Atlantic. About 550 miles of the MST have been completed, including the 60-mile stretch along Falls Lake. Scott is responsible for maintaining the 4.7-mile stretch, known as Section 15, between the Little Lick Creek bridge and Cheek Road. Sunday morning, he was busy returning sticks to a beaver lodge below the bridge, sticks that had been relocated to high ground near the bridge, apparently to make a campfire. The mama beaver seemed to misunderstand Scott’s intentions.
Ideally, section heads such as Scott are asked to walk their stretch once a month, clearing the trail of downed limbs and branches and picking up trash. They generally take loppers to trim back growth. If they find something big, like a downed tree, they call for backup (volunteers certified to chainsaw).
Scott told me he’s out patrolling his stretch of trail about every weekend. He’s been volunteering with the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail for longer than he can remember. Longer, in fact, than he’d even known there was a Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
If I was surprised to encounter a volunteer on the trail, I shouldn’t have been. A couple hours later, on Section 16, I encountered another lopper-bearing vol, Benjamin Trotter, and less than an hour after that, Jon Cochran, newly appointed leader for Section 17. Actually, the odds of running into an MST volunteer are pretty good. Last year, 851 volunteers donated a total of 18,500 hours to trail development and maintenance. Of those 851 volunteers, 37 gave 75 hours

or more to the trail.
What do they get in return?
“I see individuals, couples, dog walkers, groups — hiking groups,” says Scott, who is on a first-name basis with some. “Sometimes I hear coyotes, a whole group of them, yapping away.”
He pauses to take in the expansive view, a rarity on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, especially in the  Piedmont.
“I love this section.”

* * *

Volunteer

Want to the feel the love that Gregory Scott feels? The Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is holding a volunteer workday on Saturday, March 16, on Section 15 of the trail. Main item of business: building a 24-foot bridge over a small creek. For more information, check the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Web site, or call 919-698-9024.

* * *
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We stood in a circle, this group mostly in our 50s, 60s and 70s, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was 8 again, shuffling nervously in a schoolyard playground. Our team leaders were choosing work crews, but it had the unmistakable feel of picking teams for a pickup football game.

“Do you want to take Steve?” John Lanman asked.

“I don’t want Steve,” Bruce Wisely replied.

Fortunately, Steve didn’t have the fragile ego of an grade schooler accustomed to being picked behind his kid sister. And Bruce’s rejection wasn’t about Steve’s ability; rather, he realized Steve’s expertise could better be used on another project. What Bruce needed was people who could carry stuff, which is how I wound up on his team.

About 60 of us had shown up Saturday morning in a light drizzle that would escalate to a steady rain before day’s end. We stood huddled at the Thunder Hill Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, eager to help complete a 5-mile stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail that would establish a 300-mile segment of the 1,000-mile trail-in-progress between Soco Gap and Stone Mountain State Park. The MST, which is over half finished, will one day run from 6,643-foot Clingman’s Dome on the North Carolina/Tennessee border to Jockey’s Ridge on the coast. It’s being built by volunteers operating as the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. And not just a handful of volunteers pitching in here and there: In 2010, more than 1,000 volunteers put in 18,295 hours on the MST.

Mostly, the trail is cobbled together on Saturday afternoons when local volunteers gather to clear a mile-or-two stretch of trail, install steps, build a bridge — whatever needs to be done to forge a hiking trail. Every once in a while, when there’s a group of projects to be tackled on a consolidated stretch of trail, the FMST holds a work weekend, issuing a statewide call for volunteers. This past weekend the call attracted 60 volunteers, from Asheville to Morehead City. It seemed the perfect opportunity to answer a question I’d had for some time:

What kind of people give up an average of 2.3 days a year for back-breaking trail work?

* * *

John Willis, recently of Hillsborough via Indiana, camped next to me in the Price Lake campground, his Mini-Wini next to my REI two-person half dome tent. Friday evening a group of us were chatting about the area’s dense, rhododendron-dominated foliage when someone made a comparison to the Amazon.

“I’ve been to the Amazon a couple times,” John said.

I don’t often run into people who’ve been to the most inhospitable places on Earth, and having just read “River of Doubt” I was all over John, like malarial mosquitoes on Teddy Roosevelt, with questions. Turns out he’d taken a paddle boat — “about the size of the African Queen” — up river a ways, then gone up a tributary to a town of 65, maybe 70,000 people. The town was isolated; the only way to get there was by boat, yet it had electricity, roads, nice restaurants. He spoke of the adventure from six years ago with the same enthusiasm and awe as if he’d returned last week.

Likewise when he mentioned having been to the top spot on my list of exotic destinations:  Machu Picchu.

* * *

Around a campfire Saturday evening Allen de Hart, the godfather of the MST, introduced me to Steve Joines, an FMST board member from Sparta and avid backpacker. Joines had spent a cold (0 degrees one night), snowy (chest-high drifts) and wet (a washed-out bridge forced him to cross a frigid creek in his bare feet) week backpacking the Smokies this past winter. A year earlier he’d gotten altitude sickness on a trip up California’s Mount Whitney and had to be evacuated by helicopter. That wasn’t the remarkable part of his story.

“Do you do a lot of day hikes?” I asked. Surely he must to stay in shape for his weeklong backpack trips.

Hardly ever, he replied. Joines has worked for the same company for 28 years (remarkable!), a factory (even more remarkable!). His shift starts at 7 a.m., so at 5:30 he’s at the gym doing some kind of cardio workout.

“But not on weekends,” he clarified. “I don’t get up at 5 on weekends.” On weekends, he either runs 6 or 7 miles, or does a 28-mile bike ride — on an elderly mountain bike. That’s before heading off to work a second job he’s held for years, tending cattle. Small sacrifice to support his passion.

“I’m not sure what I’d do if I didn’t have my hiking trips to look forward to,” he said.

* * *

On a day when others were bundled in fleece and rain gear, Bruce Wisely appeared content in a T-shirt.

“Aren’t you cold?” I finally asked.

He flashed a smile that came easy. “I work in a cold room,” said Wisely, who quickly described his work researching proteins. “I get in trouble for not wearing a lab coat.”

Wisely is the MST’s bridge engineer and was our crew leader for the weekend. Our main mission was to build a pair of 16-foot bridges, which seemed ambitious for eight guys in two days. Ambitious, that is, until I learned that Bruce precuts all the lumber and marks where the pieces go. All we had to do was cart the wood into the forest and assemble.

In 2007, Bruce thru-hiked the MST (23 people have done so to date, one, Scot Ward, has done so four times). He did the trip self-supported and stayed in his vehicle, which meant he had to set up his own shuttle — on a used $25 bike he picked up on eBay shortly before the trip.

“One night about 4 a.m. I was flying down the Parkway, going about 40,” he told us during a break. “It was pitch black — I had a little headlight on the handlebar, of course — when a deer ran in front of my bike. I mean right in front. I think there’s still some deer hair in my front tire.”

* * *

I also met: James from Newton-near-Hickory who discretely pulled an insulin pump from his pocket for a periodic check. (As he downplayed the delicate dietetic balance he had to monitor I thought of how I mindlessly consume whatever’s handy for fuel.) There was Charles from Asheville who volunteered to take our soggy, muddy crew to-and-from our worksite in his pristine Hyundai. There was Grace, one of our senior members, who spent Saturday retrieving rock and sand from Goshen Creek and, late that evening, was practically sitting in the campfire still trying to get warm. There was 20something Anthony from Clayton who endured the wet cold in shorts, T-shirt and sneakers. There was Steven from Clemmons who led us to a hermit’s cave covered with brush just off the trail. There was the aforementioned John Lanman, a retired attorney specializing in international law. There was a guy in dreadlocks driving a 1970s VW van, there were guys driving shiny new extended cab dualie pickups with throaty diesel engines.

In short, there were more stories than there were people, which made a wet and cold weekend of hauling heavy lumber and trying to get stout tree roots to accommodate our bridges go by in a flash.

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