It was a sentiment echoed numerous times by participants in the opening session of the first Great Trails State Conference last week in Winston-Salem: We need trails.

Last week’s inaugural conference was an outgrowth of sorts from 2023’s popular Year of The Trail, a celebration of trails authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly and backed with a $29.15 million investment in trails. The sponsoring Great Trails State Coalition (co-sponsored, actually, with the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources*) was eager to see how much lingering support there was for trails in the state. They were hoping to attract 300 attendees; they had to cap attendance at 378.

The three-day conference was full of revealing moments, such as the one delivered by Mr. Pulley. Among them:

• 100 new miles of trail have been officially added to North Carolina’s 14 State Trails. By “official,” that means they have received “official” designation, ticking off all boxes to qualify as a State Trail. As a whole, 3,400 miles of State Trail are envisioned in North Carolina, about 1,000 miles of which have been officially designated. 
• The Roanoke River State Trail became the first State Trail to be declared officially complete. The paddle trail runs for 140 miles through the coastal plain and includes 16 camping platforms.
• There are four trail collections in the state. The one most of us are familiar with is the Carolina Thread Trail, currently encompassing more than 300 miles of trail and 170 miles of blueways in 15 counties in the Charlotte area. There is also the Piedmont Legacy Trails (550 miles of trail and 250 miles of blueways in the Triad region), Triangle Trails Initiative (trails in 15 counties in the Triangle region), and the Hellbender WNC Trail Network (linking multiuse trail in western North Carolina; about 18 miles are complete).
• The outdoor industry in North Carolina contributes $14.6 billion to the economy, exceeding Colorado’s $13.9 billion outdoor rec economy.
• Outdoor recreation accounts for about 146,00 jobs statewide.
• North Carolina’s Equine State Trail was approved as a State Trail in 2023 and is currently in the planning stages. The trail will travel through eight North Carolina counties: Chatham, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore and Richmond.
• For years, there’s been talk of a rail trail through Person County that would nearly link the American Tobacco Trail’s northern terminus in downtown Durham with the Virginia line. And for years, the Norfolk Southern Railway has balked at letting go of the line. However, it was revealed in a session on rails-to-trails projects that the railroad’s stance may be softening (the trail would become part of the East Coast Greenway, the North Carolina portion of which is a State Trail).
• The NC Paddle Trails Association, which disappeared in the early 2000s, is back! At the time it was the best source of information for paddling east of I-95.

There was more, which we will cover in the coming months. Suffice it to say that if you worried that Year of the Trail was a passing fancy, it wasn’t. The General Assembly followed its Year of the Trail investment with allocations of $25 million for both 2024 and 2025. The next goal of the Great Trails State Coalition: secure recurring funding for trails in the state.

And in case you wondered what Forrest Pulley and the folks in Allegheny County have in mind, it’s a 25-mile loop trail that would begin and end in Sparta and include a stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here’s hoping that’s a hike we can do in the not-too-distance future.

* The author employed by the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, as a Rural Advisor in the department’s Hometown Strong rural initiative.

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Great Trails State Coalition

For more on the Great Trails State Coalition and its efforts to grow trail in North Carolina, go here.

The Coalition also has a calendar of trail events being held statewide. Find it here.

The post Great Trails State continues Year of the Trail momentum appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Work in the form of hikes.

One of the many objectives of Year of the Trail, as this year has been designated by the N.C. General Assembly, was to have a trail-related event in all 100 North Carolina counties. Going into this month, 91 counties had hosted Year of the Trail events. For those of us not gifted in mental math, that leaves 9 counties to go. All of which are in more remote, rural areas of the state. Since I was hired by the state last year primarily to promote Year of the Trail in rural counties under Gov. Cooper’s Hometown Strong initiative, I’ve taken it as my goal to make sure a Year of the Trail events gets done in those 9 remaining counties.

Next week, I either will be leading or assisting with 5 hikes. I would love to see you on those hikes, which are:

• Calloway Forest Preserve, Aberdeen (Hoke County), Tuesday, Dec. 19, 10 a.m. 3.2 miles. This nearly 3,000-acre The Nature Conservancy preserve sits in the sandhills, one of the best places we know of for a winter hike. It will be lead by TNC’s Jeff Marcus, NC Longleaf Applied Scientist, and Rhonda Sturgill, TNC Conservation Coordinator. If you care to hike farther, you can up the total to around 6 miles. Learn more and sign up here.
• Boney Mill Pond at Farrior Park, Wallace (Duplin County), Friday, Dec. 22, 10 a.m. 1.2 miles. We will hike the Little Pond Loop from Farrior Park to Boney Mill Pond, then around the pond and back. The trail is especially good for kids, as it is a Kids in Parks’ TRACK Trail featuring 8 Animal Athlete activities. Learn more and sign up here.
• Kinston’s Riverwalk, Kinston (Lenoir County), Friday, Dec. 22, 1 p.m. 1 mile. We’ll take a leisurely pace hiking this roughly 1-mile out-and-back along the Neuse River. The trail is paved and relatively flat, making it kid and stroller friendly. Come early and explore the nearby CSS Neuse and Gov. Richard Caswell Memorial State Historic Site (open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), the Neuseway Nature Park and downtown Kinston. Learn more and sign up here.
• Caswell’s Landing Nature Park, Hookerton (Greene County), Friday, Dec. 22, 2:30 p.m. Roughly 1 mile. Caswell’s Landing Nature Parkis a well-kept secret along Contentnea Creek in Hookerton. Join us for a short hike on trail and gravel road as we wind through bottomland forest. A winter visit means we’ll be able to peer deeper into the naked woods to learn its secrets, both natural and of the area’s human past.Learn more and sign up here.
• Franklin County’s de Hart Botanical Garden, Sunday, Dec. 24, 1:30 p.m. 3 miles. The de Hart Botanical Garden south of Louisburg might be the most ecologically diverse 92 acres in the Piedmont. From the bamboo forest protecting a small creek, to two waterfalls, to the boulder-bordered pond known as a scenic outdoor wedding venue, to the ancient white oak in the preserve’s far reaches, you won’t be disappointed. Founded by Allen de Hart, the noted outdoor author and the man who jump-started the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the preserve has something in bloom every month of the year. Learn more and sign up here.

Ok, 91 – 5 means there are four counties to go. They are:

• Currituck
• Hertford
• Northampton
• Pamlico

Those hikes will likely be the week between Christmas and New Year’s. I have some thoughts on locations, but if you have any favorites in these counties, pass them along, to joe.miller@hts.nc.gov. I will post the remaining four hikes in the next week.

In the meantime, I hope to see you on one of next week’s Year of the Trail hikes!

The post Year of the Trail: Join me down the home stretch appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

I’m reminded of this memorable event because I wonder if, 53 years from now, I’ll remember where I was on my very first Great Trails State Day. OK, probably not because I would be 130 and my memory might have faded by then. But I won’t be fuzzy on my whereabouts because of a lack of great ways to observe Great Trails State Day, which is this Saturday.

Great Trails State Day is part of our ongoing Year of the Trail activities in North Carolina. Year of the Trail was decreed by the State Legislature, and it wasn’t an empty proclamation. It came with $29.15 million for the Complete the Trails Fund (target to North Carolina’s then 12, now 14 State Trails), and the suggestion that if there was good response to Year of the Trail, more state money for trail development might be forthcoming. And it was: the state budget recently passed for 2023-2025 included $25 million for trail development.

Back to Saturday. How will I be observing Great Trails State Day?

• Will I be in Burnsville, celebrating the fact there are more than 100 miles of public hiking trails (not to mention climbing and paddling) in Yancey County?
• Will I be in Caldwell County participating in Hudson Parks & Rec’s “Story Walk,” held in conjunction with Smart Start?
• Perhaps I’ll throw the bike on the rack and head to Goldsboro for “Ride the City” for one of three levels of guided bike rides.
• Of course, there’s also the “Pinecone Pathways Special Edition Treasure Hunt” in Moore County, where there’s the chance to find one of 10 glass-blown pinecones secreted along the trail.
• There’s also the “Downtown Greenway Guided Walking Tour,” a 4-mile guided walk through downtown Greensboro.

As of 9 a.m. on Oct. 18, there were 32 Great Trails State Day events listed on the Great Trails State Coalition website, with events to be found across the state, from Corolla (“The OBX Way: Corolla Trail Talk)” to Old Fort (“McDowell Moves 2023“).

Actually, I do know where I’ll be for Great Trails State Day: Shelby, where the City of Shelby and the N.C. Department of Natural Resources’ Hometown Strong initiative will celebrate Shelby Trail Days with three days of events, starting Friday and ending Sunday afternoon. The event includes hikes on the Shelby greenway system, including the dedication of the first mile of the new Carolina Harmony Trail, a rails-to-trails project that will link downtown Shelby with the South Carolina state line. Thirteen trail-related events in all, AND, it’s held in conjunction with Shelby’s Mush, Music & Mutts Festival. (As part of the event, even though it’s not on Saturday, is a guided hike at Crowder’s Mountain State Park from the Boulders Access, which you can learn more about here.)

All in all, Great Trails State Day will be a day to remember. Perhaps even when you’re 130.

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For all the Great Trails State Day events, visit the Great Trails State Coalition website here.

GetHiking! Fall Weekend Escape on the AT at Hot Springs

Looking for one last hiking fling for 2023? Join us Nov. 10-12 for two days of hiking on the Appalachian Trail out of Hot Springs. Both hikes start from Tanyard Gap: Saturday’s heads up to Rich Mountain, then returns to Hot Springs on Forest Service Trail down a long ridge; Sunday’s hike follows the AT west over Lover’s Leap into Hot Springs. Learn more about the weekend and sign up to join us here.

The post Will you remember where you were on the first Great Trails State Day? appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

As goals go, it my not be the loftiest. 

Or is it?

For a good 5 years this simple ambition has been on my to-do list. Yet it remains undone. Why?

Because until now I’ve simply viewed it as “a thing to do.” A thing I really want to do, but, in the pecking order of life, simply a thing to do; it never occurred to me to elevate it to “goal” status. Goals, after all, are things you work at: a million in sales through Q2, discovering a cure for the doldrums. Showing up for work on time. Goals usually take the form of resolutions you set on New Year’s Day, like fitting into your high school Speedo by Memorial Day. Having a processed pastry and Sanka while sitting on a tree stump isn’t exactly an achievement you’d include in the Christmas newsletter. 

Yet it’s been something I really wanted to do. So I’ve elevated it to goal status. 

September has been deemed “Set a Goal” month by the Year of the Trail people. That, along with the promise of cooler, drier air, has gotten me thinking more about my own trail goals. I’ve set several goals for the month, which I wrote about last week. Some would fit into the more traditional, performance-based definition of a goal: doing a 17-mile hike at Doughton Park, for instance. Or hiking 40 miles in a week. And some, like eating a Pop-Tart, don’t.

So what is a goal? Here are six things to take into consideration when setting a goal. Your goal doesn’t have to meet all five criteria, but it should reflect one or two.

1. Is it something you really want to do, no matter how silly it might seem (e.g. the Pop-Tart)?
2. Is it something you’ll feel especially good about having done after it’s over? Note the “after.” (If you aren’t familiar with the Three Types of Fun, brush up here.)
3. Is it something you could explain in an elevator speech? Not that you’d need to; a goal only needs to make sense to you. But “goals” can be squishy, and a squishy goal is hard to achieve. For example, “I want to feel better about myself as a hiker in three months.” OK, but what exactly will make you feel better about yourself? That’s what your goal should be. Average a 3 mph pace on a 10-mile hike? Do a hike with 1,000 feet of elevation gain? Those are goals you can explain briefly and succinctly.
4. Is it realistic? “I want to climb Mt. Everest” is an admirable goal, and perhaps doable if you have a year to train and can spend a month in Katmandu getting acclimated. Oh, and if you have a spare $100,000. A goal should be something you haven’t done, but is within the realm of possibility. Set your sights high; it’s good to dream. Just be aware of your limitations.
5. Make sure the journey to your goal is as enjoyable as the goal itself. If, say, you plan to climb Mount Mitchell from the Black Mountain Campground, gaining 3,700 vertical feet in 5.5 miles, make sure you have some fun — and, of course, challenging — training hikes leading up to it. 
6. Have an “easy’ goal in the mix. Getting that first goal out of the way is a confidence builder. 

Even if it’s simply eating a Pop-Tart.

The post Goals for reaching goals appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Goals.

Goals are typically associated with January and the new year. But when it comes to hiking, goals is ideal for September, which for many marks the start of the hiking season. Cooler temps, drier air, blue skies, fall color — who doesn’t want to hit the trail? And to make sure you hit it as often as possible, why not set some hiking goals for the month? I have.

1. Hike the Doughton Park Loop solo. I’ve done this hike, which ranges from 14 to 17 miles, 8 or 9 times, every time leading a group. Leading is fine, but when done right (see Goal No. 3, below) only a fraction of your attention is on the trail and scenic surroundings. This loop in particular deserves your full attention. The proper progression: Start from the Longbottom Road access and head up the Cedar Ridge Trail. You get about 80 percent of your climbing out of the way on this 4.5-mile trail, and 80 percent of that in the first mile. You also get your first views. At the top, take the Bluff Mountain Trail (a k a Mountains-to-Sea Trail) west for 6-7 miles, mostly through rolling mountain-top meadows. There are three ways to descend: the shortest (and most brutal) is the Bluff Mountain Primitive (very primitive, very steep) trail; the Flat Rock Ridge Trail, the longest, a generally mellow descent bordering game lands); and, my favorite, Grassy Gap, which crosses a gorgeous stone bridge and may require a knee-deep stream crossing near the end. The ideal way to spend a 70-degree September day.
2. Hike a new (to me) trail. This is a bit of a challenge because I’ve been hiking in North Carolina 30+ years, writing guidebooks and leading hikes along the way. My resume is deep — but a little less so in the Great Smokies, and fortunately I’m attending a conference mid-month in Cherokee, the eastern entrance to the Smokies. I’ll be looking for something in the 5-mile range, something I can fit in between the last presentation of the day and the awards dinner. Since it’s a three-day conference, I might even be able to get in two new trails.
3. Do a group hike that I don’t lead. I love leading hikes. I love exposing people to places they haven’t been, and to places they may have been but in a different season, or under different conditions. However, when you’re leading a hike, you’re constantly thinking about the hikers (or should be). About their safety, about whether someone is struggling, about whether the folks in the back are feeling pressured to keep pace with the speedgoats out front, about keeping everyone on track. It’s nice, for a change, to let someone else think about all that.
4. Log a 40-mile week. Back when I was guiding full time it wasn’t unusual to hike 40 miles in a week. With up to four guided hikes a week, and the training to stay in shape to lead them, it wasn’t hard to log 30 to 40 miles. Now that I’m a dedicated State of North Carolina worker, it’s not so easy. My psyche and my waistline miss those 40-mile weeks. Now I understand why folks were amazed at my ability to rack up 40 miles in a week: it wasn’t the distance, it was finding the time to do it. Forty miles a week averages out to nearly 6 miles a day, or about two hours. Who has time for that? That’s why I’ll likely need to piggyback this goal on the week I tackle Doughton Park. Even so, I’d still need to average nearly four miles a day for the remaining 6 days. If it’s to be done, September’s the month to do it.
5. Lead a night hike. I started night hiking in the mid-1990s, started leading night hikes a decade ago. Until last year, I was leading one a week. In the past year, though, I’ve led one (and that one gets an asterisk because it ended before official sunset). Night hikes are especially rewarding with first-timers, who often view the notion of entering the woods after dark as something out of a Grimms’ fairy tale. And yes, that first hike can be a little scary — but scintillating as well. I can’t recall a single soul I’ve led on a night hike who ran from the woods screaming, never to be seen again. It’s so rewarding. And yes, while one goal is to not lead a hike this month, another is to lead one.

Keep that last thought in mind as you set your own Year of the Trail hiking goals for September. Goals are often associated with only the highest of bars. In fact, a goal should simply be something you want to achieve. Forget about how a goal may look to others, it need only make sense to you.

I’ll talk more about that next week as I set out on a sixth September hiking goal. One that involves a Pop-Tart.

The post For YOTT, resolve to set a September hiking goal appeared first on GetGoing NC!.