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With the highest mountains east of the Black Hills, 5 national forests covering nearly 3 million acres, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 34 state parks and 4 state recreation areas, and numerous additional lands held by various land conservancies, North Carolina is a top destination for hiking and backpacking. Explore your options at NCHikes.com.

 

Trail Notebook

01.26.2012

January is a good month for daydreaming — and planning.

Daydreaming can be a guilty indulgence, especially if you’ve got a pile of work you should be doing instead. But channel that daydreaming into planning and you turn from slacker into industrious go-getter. Someone who knows no mental downtime, who's constantly engaged and on the go. And someone destined to have some great adventures in the months ahead.

At least that’s how I justified a recent workday afternoon when I wiped a pile of work off my desk and got out the maps. The result? Five adventures I haven’t done, but will by the end of 2012.

AT.US19E.JPG1. Snowbird Mountains. 
2. A new area of the Great Smoky Mountains.
3. West flank of the Black Mountains.
4. Black Mountain Crest Trail in winter.
5. Appalachian Trail: US 19E to Damascus, Va.

Read more about these epics here.

 

4.02.2012

When I wrote “Backpacking North Carolina” and “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina,” I focused on loop trips and hikes whenever possible. The reason? Simple: Shuttles are a pain.

For the traditional shuttle you need two cars; you can’t do a point-to-point solo. If there are just two of you, you both have to drive. That’s not only a waste of gas, it eliminates catch-up time on the drive (not that you won’t be talking on the trail). Setting up a shuttle also eats into valuable hiking time. And what if something happens to the shuttle car or driver? In November, four of us were hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail west of Mount Pisgah. As the trail crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of our party suddenly decided he was through. He flagged a passing car and before we knew it he disappeared down the road — to his/our shuttle car at trails’ end. Now what? Read on ...

 

 

Merchants Millpond: a night in the swamp

11.12.2011

The next time I go backpacking alone in a swamp for the first time, I think I’ll go with someone. By day, a swamp isn’t much different than the rest of the outdoors, albeit a little wetter. But as the light begins its hasty retreat for the day (a retreat made all the hastier by the dense swamp vegetation: the dense canopy of a hardwood forest with its share of impressive beech trees, a dense understory chocked with bays) it’s amazing how much more amplified and primordial a swamp sounds. Ducks taking flight could be pterodactyls, squirrels crashing about in the brush take on the aural heft of eastern cougars, mischievous raccoons might as well be black bears (which do, occasionally, enter the park) lurking in the dark. Light (or the lack there of) and sound do wonders for time travel. Read on ...

 

 

Bridge to link 60 miles of Triangle MST

8.30.2011

Good news for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in the Triangle: A crucial bridge that will link two long stretches of statewide trail looks like it will be done by year’s end. It’s completion means the MST will run 60 continuous miles through the Triangle, the trail’s longest continuous stretch outside the mountains. Read on ... .

 

 

Dig this: 300 continuous miles of MST

6.22.2011

A volunteer work-weekend July 16-17 promises to punch through a key five-mile missing link of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a link that will establish a 300-mile stretch of continuous trail from Soco Gap near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Stone Mountain State Park. The stretch essentially parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway, and offers some of the most scenic hiking on the MST. Read on ...

 

 

6.10.2011
 
Looking for a good 80-or-so-mile backpack trip through an urban wilderness? It could happen before long on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail through the Triangle. The Mountains-to-Sea Trail is a work-in-progress path across North Carolina. Starting atop Clingman’s Dome on the North Carolina/Tennessee border and ending about 1,000 miles later at Jockey’s Ridge on the coast, the trail, about half of which is done, would provide an opportunity to walk the length of the state. A key component of that goal: places to camp along the way. Read on ...

Older posts

January 27, 2011 - A 20-mile walk in the woods with Rod Read on ...

February 17, 2011 - Take the back door into Middle Prong Read on ...

March 19, 2011 - The ... interesting life of a guidebook writer. Read on ..

May 9, 2011 - North Carolina State Parks gets an app. Read on ...

July 21, 2011 - In the woods a bridge is born. Read on ...

July 14, 2011 - 'Stories in Stone' a worthwhile wait. Read on ...

May 2012 Trail Picks: Mountains, Piedmont, & Coast

ztn.17307.jpgIt’s the transition season for hiking in North Carolina, as hot, buggy weather moves in at the coast, driving hikers to higher ground. And, save for the start of the afternoon thunderstorm season, that higher ground is looking increasingly attractive. This month, we offer one last hurrah at the coast (Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve), a preserve oft-forgotten (Howell Rains Environmental Education Center) and lofty retreat near Charlotte (Crowders Mountain) in the Piedmont, and in the Mountains, a climb up Graybeard Mountain and an unlikely tropical retreat. Read on ...

 

 

Grace’s Granola

Looking for a good granola recipe to fuel your next trip? Grace Duling won my tastebuds with this concoction she’s been refining for three years:

Ingredients:

3 cups whole rolled oats

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup coconut (shredded)
1/2 - 1/3 cup each of almonds, cashews, walnuts
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sofghum

Directions:

Mix together; spread in Texas sheet pan.
Drizzle 1/4 cup 100 percent real maple syrup over top.
Sprinkle cinnamon over top.
Bake in oven @ 280 degrees for 30 minutes.
Take from oven and let sit. Add dried fruit if you like.
Lift from pan in chunks.