GetHiking! Southeast: Recent Episodes
Joe Miller
The best thing about hiking on a cold winter’s day? You can hike forever.
This is why winter is made for the long hike. In summer, after an hour on the trail, you’re done. You’re soaked in sweat, your eyes sting of salt, you’re coated in spider webs. In winter after an hour you’re just getting warmed up.
The cold itself is good incentive to keep moving. And the more you move down the trail the more you realize what a magical time of year this is in the woods. Winter’s sunlight knifes bright through a leafless canopy, illuminating a forest floor littered with coppery leaves. Somehow, those gray tree trunks manage to betray the drab and muster a twinkle. Winter’s dry air cranks up the volume of the season’s quiet. It’s an experience you don’t want ended prematurely after an hour.
Today we share 10 of our favorite long winter hikes and why they’re especially well-suited for the cold. You can find additional details on each of the hikes, starting with how and where to find the trailhead, here.
Year of the Trail
Find more information on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Bailey Mountain Hike in Mars Hill here.
Find more Year of the Trail events at Great Trails NC here.
Learn more about North Carolina's Year of the Trail here.
Find news of Year of the Trail at GetGoingNC.com, here.
This week, the last week of 2022, we kick off 2023 and North Carolina's year of the Trail. We talk with Beth Heile with the Great Trails State Coalition, a nonprofit created to promote trails in North Carolina, and we talk a little about our work with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources' Hometown Strong initiative to promote trails in North Carolina's 80 rural counties. This week, we have a special emphasis on the start of Year of the Trail with a plethora of First Day Outings and how you can find out about them.
Some helpful links related to this week's show:
- Great Trails State Coalition. Learn more about the Coalition and their work by clicking here.
- The Great Trails State Coalition is keeping a comprehensive calendar of all Year of the Trail events, including Sunday's First Day Outings. You can find it here.
- Interested in taking a First Day hike at one of North Carolina's State Parks? Check out the 47 First Day events at State Parks by going here.
- Mention is made in the podcast of North Carolina's 12 State Trails. Learn more about those by going here.
- Finally, if you'd like to join us on New Year's Day, we'll be working with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission's NC Bird Atlas program and N.C. State Parks on a Birding and a Hike First Day adventure in Wilkesboro and at Rendezvous Mountain State Park. Learn more about this event and sign up to join us here.
Today on the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we revisit North Carolina’s 12 State Trails. Revisit, because in March 2021 we spoke with State Trails Coordinator Smith Raynor about the trails. That discussion was a more broad-based chat about the State Trails program. Today, we take a closer look at each of the 12 trails, and later we will revisit these trails again to see how 2023, designated The Year of the Trail in North Carolina, will impact the development of these long trails. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.
Today’s podcast is from one of our twice a month Lunch with GetHiking! Zoom sessions, this one from June 30.
Learn more
About North Carolina's 12 State Trails at the State Parks website here.
About 2023 The Year of the Trail in North Carolina at the Great Trails State Coalition website here.
News
Learn more about Dr. Morgan Smith's free online presentation, “Exploring Tennessee’s Submerged Cultural Landscapes and Resources,” here.
Register to attend the aforementioned “Exploring Tennessee’s Submerged Cultural Landscapes and Resources" presentation here.
Interested in hiking the recently renovated and reopen Big Creek Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Find trail information, including a map, here.
Explore with Us!
Join us for an upcoming hike, trip or class by visiting our GetGoingNC.com site and clicking on Explore with Us!
The first 6 miles of trail in a project to eventually add 42 miles in the Old Fort area of North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest have opened. That and more national forest news, from Virginia and Tennessee, in this week's report.
For more information on the trail opening and the Old Fort project, start here.
For more information on the reopening of the High Knob Recreation Area in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, go here.
Come summer, we head to the high country of the Southern Appalachians to escape the sizzling heat at lower elevations. Today, we talk about 7 of our favorite high country hikes for summer, hikes that meet one of two criteria for summer exploring: they either need elevation to escape the heat, or they must have access to water. Better still, both.
You can find more information on these hikes and other great mountain hikes in this GetHiking! guide, 7 Mountain Hikes for a Sizzling Summer.
In the News
In our news report, we cover the closure of the Carden Bluffs Campground in the Watauga District of Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest due to campers being careless with food and trash. How can you keep from having your favorite campground shuttered by nutty bears? By following the advice offered by bearwise.org, which you can find here.
Explore with Us!
Join us for an upcoming hike, trip or class by visiting our GetGoingNC.com site and clicking on Explore with Us!
Today, we share 10 bits of advice primarily for folks 50 and older who are interested in getting into into hiking, as well as for established older hikers who want to continue hiking late into life. It’s taken from a Lunch with GetHiking! Zoom session on June 2. (Lunch with GetHiking! is an every other Thursday event done via Zoom, in which we discuss a variety of hiking topics. Find out when our next event is by joining our GetHiking! Meetup page here.)
In the News
For more on the opening of the country's longest rubber-bearing multiuser trail, in Tennessee's T.O. Fuller State Park, go here.
For more on closures in Virginia's George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, including at Peters Mountain and Whitetop Mountain, go here.
Explore with Us!
Join us for an upcoming hike, trip or class by visiting our GetGoingNC.com site and clicking on Explore with Us!
Since 1993, the first Saturday of June has been observed as National Trails Day. Administered by the American Hiking Society, it's a day when we celebrate our trails, either by hiking (or, in the case of "blue" trails, paddling) them, or by rolling up our sleeves to do trail maintenance or blaze a new trail. Today, we talk a little about the history of National Trails Day as well as what's going on this year.
To learn more about National Trails Day, visit the American Hiking Society web site here.
In the news
For more information on the reopening of portions of the Occoee National Whitewater Center in Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest, go here.
To find what facilities are now open along the Blue Ridge Parkway ion North Carolina and Virginia, go here.
Explore with Us!
To learn more about our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! adventures, visit GetGoingNC.com, click on Explore with Us!
Camping has grown in popularity, especially over the past couple of years. Time was it wasn't hard to score a campsite at the last minute. That's changed, even at less popular campsites. Today we look at how to book a site during the camping boom.
In the news
Check on forest fire levels and on scheduled prescribed burns at these National Forest websites:
Georgia
North Carolina
Virginia
Tennessee
South Carolina
West Virginia
Explore with Us!
For information on our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! trips, visit GetGoingNC.com and click on Explore with Us!
Imagine approaching 70 and wondering how many years of hiking you have left? Five, 10, maybe 15? Now imagine you’ve only reached the midpoint in your hiking career, that you could easily have another 70 years — or more — of hiking in you. Jerry Kroll has long been a cutting-edge kind of guy, dating back to his sustainable clothing venture in the late 1980s to his ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corporation, which has produced a single-occupant electric car — with three wheels no less. Now, Jerry is a year into his most far-sighted venture yet, Jevitty Life Science, which is creating an app — now in the beta stage — that could help you take advantage of existing and emerging technology to live to be 200 years old — or older. Today, in one of our GetHiking! 50+ episodes, Jerry, who is 62 and an avid marathon runner, talks about Jevitty and how Mel Brooks’ 2000-year-old man may be a stretch, but a 200-year-old human may not be so far-fetched in the near future.
To learn more about the Jevitty app, go here.
In the News
- Ocoee Whitewater Center fire. To learn more about the 1996 Summer Olympics whitewater events site, which was destroyed by fire April 26, go here.
- Barnett Branch Fire in North Carolina. For the latest on this wildfire along the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Pisgah Inn, go here.
- Morrow Mountain State Park renovations. Head here for more details on the year-long renovation of facilities and trail.
- Mother's Day feast at Tennessee State Parks. Learn more about the Mother's Day meals, including the menus, at four Tennessee State Parks, go here.
Explore with Us!
Learn more about the trips mentioned in today's podcast and other trips and classes coming up in our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! universes by going here.
The U.S. Forest Service will close the Catawba Falls Trails on May 2 to make a number of trail improvements to make access to its popular namesake falls safer. But can they possibly make it safe enough. This week, a short rant about the need not necessarily for fool-proof trails, but for awareness and a little common sense.
Resources
You can learn more about our "Let's GetHiking: A Quick and Comprehensive Guide for the Aspiring Hiker," and order a copy, here.
Find basic resource for hiking at the American Hiking Society website, here.
Explore with us!
Learn more about the trips our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! groups are taking at GetGoingNC.com, click on Explore with us!
Hiking at night offers rewards not offered in daylight. This type of hiking calls for a different level of concentration: your world is defined by the sphere of light cast by your headlamp. You tune in the sounds of the night, which are not the same as the sounds of daytime: more owls than warblers, more raccoons than squirrels. Pause in a clearing, snuff your light and you can see the glories of the vast night sky. It’s a special place, the night world, and it is one well worth exploring. Today we offer tips on how to take a safe and successful evening-into-night hike.
Night Hike Tips: For the GetHiking! Rule the Night tips sheet on hiking into the night, go here.
In the news
For more on the Schoolhouse Ridge Trail reopening, go here.
Explore with us!
To learn more about our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! hikes, trips and classes, go here.
The trails have long been crowded come spring and fall. In the last two years, they've become even more so as an increasing number of people have discovered hiking as a safe way to recreate. So what's a long-time hiker to do, hibernate in the best two hiking seasons of the year and wait out the masses? Not hardly, especially if you know how to beat the crowds.
In today's episode, we share some tips on how to find the solitude you crave on the trail, even during the active spring hiking season.
In the News
- 14-day camping limit imposed. To learn more about the 14-day camping limit imposed in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, go here.
- Ramps gathering in Tennessee. To learn more about the permits being issued to collect ramps in the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest, go here or call 423.397.8455.
- Forest fire danger. To check on the danger of forest fires throughout the Southeast, visit the State Climate Office of North Carolina's Fire Weather Intelligence Portal here.
Seasonal closures don't always end when they're supposed to: it pays to double check before heading out, especially this time of year. Also, spring break is coming: do you know where you'll be spending it?
For more on Seasonal closures (and reopenings) in National Forests, check the appropriate National Forest Service website and look under "Events & News"/"Alerts & Notices".
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- West Virginia
Interested in taking the family outdoors for spring break? See what your local State Park has anything happening by checking here:
- Georgia
- Virginia
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
This past Sunday, March 13, marked the return of Daylight Saving Time throughout the land, and whether you think it a devious contrivance designed entirely to benefit the vast Barbecue Industrial Complex — I know, we’re in the South, I should call it the vast Grilling industrial Complex — or think Daylight Saving doesn’t go far enough, that we should have 24 hours of daylight, Daylight Saving Time is here and we should make the most of it. In today's episode we discuss how to do just that.
In the News
For information on the Sliding Rock Recreation Area in the Pisgah National Forest, go here.
For information on the opening of nearly 50- developed recreation sites in the Monongahela National Forest, go here
For information on seasonal openings in Virginia's George Washington and Thomas Jefferson national forests, go here.
To find a hike in Tennessee State Parks' Spring Hike Series, go here.
Explore with Us!
For information on our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! trips, visit GetGoingNC.com and click on Explore with Us!
We love winter, but when mid-February rolls around we can't help but be on the lookout for signs of spring. What are the harbingers of the season and where do we search for them? That's the topic of today's podcast.
Download our Spring Wildflowers tip sheet, here, for more info on what spring wildflowers to look for at the beginning of the season, and where to search for them. Find it here.
In the News
For a rundown of cliff faces in western North Carolina National Forests closed through Aug. 15 for peregrine falcon nesting season, go here.
To reserve a space to hike Old Rag in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, go here.
Explore with Us!
To learn more about the GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! trips mentioned in today's podcast, visit GetGoingNC.com, clock on Explore with Us!
Looking to get into the mountains a lot this year and explore new trail? Or maybe you’ve got a hiking vacation planned. If you’ve got big hiking goals, you need a good training program to to meet them. It needn’t be a strictly regimented program — not necessarily one that requires running stairs in your 12-story office building before and after work. Rather, it needs to be one you’ll adhere to and thus, is fun. In today's episode we talk about devising a practical hike training program suited to you.
Looking for a long trail to train for long hikes on? Check out this post on long hikes at GetGoingNC.com from February 2.
News
For updates on the Smith Creek Trail reopening following the Unicoi fire, go here.
To find out when planned prescribed burns in the Mount Rogers area will take place, check out Mount Rogers National Recreation Area social media: Twitter or Facebook.
Learn more about visitation to National Parks in 2021 by visiting the National Park Service Social Science website and by visiting the NPS Visitor Use Statistics website.
Explore with us
Check out the trips mentioned in this podcast at GetGoingNC.com, click on Explore with Us
Like a lot of us, Robin Barefoot got her first taste of being outdoors as a kid, in her case, on the summer vacations her family took in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. And, also like a lot of us, life intervened as she got older and she found herself playing in the woods less and less. Then, in the early 2000s her interest in the woods was rekindled on a trip to the Smokies with her two kids and a friend. Then, a couple years ago, the Durham resident decided to act. She wandered into her local outfitter and asked if they knew of any local hiking groups. They did, setting Robin on the path to achieving her new goal of becoming a hiker, at the age of 62. Robin shares her story in this GetGoing at 50 segment of the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast.
Second ChildhoodIf you're interested in learning more about gene expression or other aspects of aging successfully, check out Daniel J. Levitin's "Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives," published in 2020 and now available in paperback.
Today we talk about some of resources we use for scouting and planning hikes and trips, and for simple entertainment. The links follow:
Trail status, road conditions
- North Carolina State Parks
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Croatan, Nantahala, Pisgah and Uwharrie National Forests
- Shenandoah National Park
- Virginia National Forests (George Washington and Jefferson)
- Virginia State Parks
- Appalachian Trail
- Virginia State Parks
Sunrise, sunset
- Sunrise-sunset.org
Leave No Trace
- Center for Outdoor Ethics’s Leave No Trace website
Volunteer Vacations
- American Hiking Society's Volunteer Vacations page
American Hiking Society: general hiking resources
- American Hiking Society
Fastest Known Times
- fastestknowntime.com
Wildflower ID
- A Virtual Wildflower Garden Across Time
FAQ on hiking the Appalachian Trail
- Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Frequently Asked Questions
National Trails Day events
- American Hiking Society's NTD page
Mountains-to-Sea Trail
- Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
Fire danger
- State Climate Office of North Carolina Fire Weather Intelligence Portal
Campsite Assist
- Campsite Assist portion of CampitePhotos.com
Hiking with dogs
- "Best Hikes with Dogs: North Carolina"
The night sky
- Skywatching page at space.com
**Bonus resources
State state educational forests**
- North Carolina Educational State Forests
Need a trail name?
- Trail Name Generator
Hiking etiquette
- American Hiking Society's Hiking etiquette page
By mood? We're always in a good mood when we backpack — how could we not be? Rather, by "mood" in this instant we're referring to the kind of backpack trip we'd like to take, or that we have time for. In short, the type of trip we're in the mood for. Thus, we break down our favorite trips by category. They are:
- Best Weekend Trip
- Best Winter Trip
- Best Basecamp Trip
- Best Wilderness Trip
- Best Avoid-the-Masses Trip
- Best Trip, Period
You can learn more about each trip and find a link with details on taking your own Best trip on our GetGoingNC.com blog, here.
Join usOur GetBackpacking! program will lead four of this trips between now and summer. Click the link for more information and to sign up.
- Appalachian Trail: Max Patch to Hot Springs, February 25-27
- Shining Rock Wilderness via Big East Fork, April 22-24
- Virginia’s Triple Crown, May 19-22
- Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E, June 17-19
Not a backpacker, but want to be?Our Spring GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking classes are starting soon Each includes, among other elements:
- 1-hour Zoom Intro to Gear Session
- 5-hour in-field training session, covering all aspects of backpacking
- Weekend graduation trip
Learn more by clicking on the appropriate session:
- North Carolina
- Virginia
In the news
Learn more about stories in our news segment.
Mount Mitchell Trail improvements
- For more information on the improvements themselves, go here.
- For details on the American Conservation Experience, go here.
- For info on the N.C. High Peaks Trail Association, go here.
Think about your recent hikes. Notice anything about your fellow hikers? About their age? That, maybe they’re a little older than you might think? According to the latest Outdoor Participation report from the Outdoor Foundation, hiking is the most popular form of outdoor recreation for people ages 45 to 64. And it’s not surprising that this trend would be especially noticeable on trails here in the Southeastern U.S. because of the number of older people who relocate here, sometimes to be closer to their kids who’ve moved here, sometimes simply for the more moderate climate.
And even if these folks didn’t hike before, the preponderance of hiking trails here proves an attractive way to stay healthy and enjoy the weather, especially our moderate winters. The seven states that comprise our primary focus area here at the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast — Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina and Kentucky — have a combined 11,500 miles of trail. In fact, more than half of the Appalachian Trail — 1,190 miles — is in the Southeast.
Today, in an occasional series we call GetGoing Over 50, we begin looking at this phenomenon of older adventure-seekers, starting with a conversation with two guys who could be the poster children for the retired, but not relegated to the recliner. Bob and Henry relocated to the Triangle area of North Carolina from Chicago and Long Island, respectively, and are now more active than ever. I caught up with them at the start of one of their weekly outings together, this one an 8-mile hike — much of it off trail — along the Eno River in the Piedmont of central North Carolina.
NewsWe promised you links, here are the links:
- For more information on the Georgia DNR Career Academy, go here.
- To learn more about the new pilot program limiting visitation to Shenandoah National Park's Old Rag, go here.
Have you ever been hiking through an area that was so captivating that you didn’t want to leave — ever? Well, that dream can come true at Bluestem, a fledgling 87-acre nature preserve in northern Orange County North Carolina. Here, you can walk through open pastures, in fringe forest, along a small piedmont creek, past a farm pond … and when you’re done hiking — for good — pick your favorite place in the preserve and stake your claim — for eternity. Because Bluestem isn’t another nature preserve with 3 or 4 miles of hiking trail, it’s also a conservational burial ground, a place where you can have a low-impact green burial and not only enjoy the rolling Piedmont landscape in perpetuity, but become a part of it as well.
Recently we caught up with Heidi Hannapel and Jeff Masten to learn more about this emerging conservation cemetery — and hiking destination — that they’re creating northwest of Durham.
For more information on:
- Bluestem, go here
- Conservation Burial Alliance, go here
- Green Burial Council, go here
In the News
To learn about the nearly 90 seasonal road closures in North Carolina National Forests, go here.
Back in 2011 I was approached by Curesearch, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating children’s cancer, asking if I’d be interested in helping with a new fundraising program they were starting, the Ultimate Hike. The deal was this: I would lead a 12-week training program with the ultimate goal of hiking 28.3 miles on the Foothills Trail straddling the North Carolina / South Carolina line — that’s 28.3 miles all in one day. Along the way, they would vow to fundraise a minimum of $2,500 to help fight kids cancer. Hiking and helping kids? Who could refuse that!
One of the hikers on my second hike was Chris Morton. Chris and his wife, Candi, were casual hikers with a keen interest in Ultimate Hike’s mission: their 1-year-old daughter had a rare form of liver cancer and was undergoing treatment at the Duke Cancer Center in Durham, North Carolina. So motivated by the hike and Curesearch’s mission was Chris that he continued doing the hike after that first year. When I left as coach of the Triangle area after five years, Chris became my replacement.
Chris now has 20 Ultimate Hikes under his belt, and is gearing up to lead yet another group of hikers in the battle against childhood cancer. Chris joins us today to tells us about the Ultimate Hike, from his boots-on-the-ground perspective.
If you're intrigued by the idea of hiking 28.3 miles in a day and helping kids with cancer at the same time, go to the Ultimate Hike website for the Foothills hike for additional information and to find the time of the next information session. And, register by January 15 and enter the code HIKENC at checkout and save 50 percent off the $100 registration fee,
Don't live in the Triangle area of North Carolina? Training sessions will also be held in:
- Atlanta
- Charlotte
- Columbia, S.C.
- Greenville, S.C.
In the NewsFor more information on the MY TN State Park fundraiser, go here.
To find out when roads and trails will be closed as a result of the Mt Storm-Valley electricity transmission line project in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia, go here.
To learn more about the mission of the U.S. Forest Service, to here.
For information on the reopening of trails in the Lost Cove area of Wilson Creek in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest, visit the North Carolina National Forests Facebook page here.
Explore with us!
To learn more about the trips mentioned in today's podcast, as well as other hikes, trips and classes planed by GetHiking! and GetBackpacking!, go here.
The notion of beginning a new year with a brisk walk goes back ages, but the modern concept of First Day Hikes is relatively new, dating back only to 1992 when a Massachusetts State Park held the first First Day Hike. With the lure of hot soup, the hike drew 380 hikers. Massachusetts State Parks began offering similar First Day Hikes throughout Massachusetts in 2008, and the concept went national in 2012 thanks to America’s State Parks, which represents State Parks nationwide. More than 400 hikes were held across the US that first year. Last year, more than 55,000 people welcomed 2022 with a First Day Hike.
In today's episode, we look at First Day Hike options at state parks throughout the Southeast. You can learn more about the hikes mentioned, as well as other First Day Hikes in the region, by clicking the appropriate State Park link below:
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
Not in our listening area? You can find a rundown of First Day Hikes nationwide at the America’s State Parks website, here.
Find a history of the First Day Hikes concept here.
Not accustomed to cold weather hiking? The American Hiking Society offers tips for cold weather hiking here.
You can learn more about our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! adventures, and everything else we do at GetGoingNC.com, click on Explore with us!
In today's podcast on 2022 hiking goals, we throw out some options. Here are links you can click to learn more:
- South Beyond 6,000 Challenge
- Pisgah 400
- Carolina Mountain Club Challenges page
- Mountains-to-Sea Trail
- Uwharrie National Recreation Trail
- Neusiok Trail
- Art Loeb Trail
- Mount Mitchell Trail
- Appalachian Trail
In our News segment:
- On road and facility closures, you can find a comprehensive rundown in the Monongahela National Forest here.
- To keep tabs on closures on the Blue Ridge Parkway, go here.
- To find a First Day Hike at a State Park near you, click the appropriate link below:
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
We welcome winter with some great state park programs — and news of seasonal closings. Also, Pilot Mountain State Park reopens after a devastating wildfire.
For more info
On the 5 Virginia State Parks winter programs discussed in today's podcast, go here.
On closings: Key links for checking ahead on closings and road conditions:
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- N.C. Department of Transportation
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- North Carolina State Parks
- North Carolina National Forests (Croatan, Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie)
- Virginia Department of Transportation
- Shenandoah National Park
- Virginia National Forests (George Washington and Jefferson)
- Virginia State Parks
Tis the season for holiday visitors. And what to do with them while they're in town? Why, take them on a hike, of course. Now, for the non-hikers in your group that may be easier said than done. This week, we offer tips on how to make sure your visitor has a great first experience on the trail.
Looking for more tips on how to make sure your visitor's first hike is a great one? You'll find them at a post we wrote for our friends at Blue Cross NC, "Make sure you plan ahead for full-day hikes."
Looking for specific hikes that are good intro hikes? In North Carolina, we offer some suggestions in this post at GetGoingNC.com, "10 Hikes for Holiday Visitors."
First Day HikesIn our News segment we mention upcoming First Day Hikes as a way to celebrate the New Year. Click the appropriate state park system to find the First Day Hike nearest you.
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- West Virginia
Ah, winter, beguiling winter, the season that drops its guard when it drops its leaves. Minus the lush canopy, minus the understory and ground cover you see deeper into the woods and discover the forest's hidden treasures: the foundation of an old homestead, an impressive rock outcrop, an old roadbed that leads ... somewhere. The urge to go off trail and explore is a siren song that can be too great to resist. But before you venture from the safety and security of the trail, there are a few tips you should be aware of; those tips are the focus of today's podcast.
For our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods Guide, with lots of tips on exploring off trail, go here and enter code FindingYourWay at checkout.
News
For more on the state of North Carolina's inclusion of $29.25 million for the Complete the Trails Fund, go here.
We are in the process of turning the corner on fall color and for some, that means the close of the fall hiking season. The color is gone — what's there to see? goes one argument. And there's: the holidays are coming — who's got time to hike with all the demands of the season? In short answer to the latter, who doesn't have time to hike because of all those holiday demands!? I mean, isn't part of the reason we get out to escape the stress of everyday life? As for the former — What is there to see in winter? — the short answer: plenty. We elaborate on the joys of winter hiking in this episode.
Winter escapes
We're working on our winter lineup of hikes and trips; here's what we've got so far:
GetHiking! Winter Wild. From November thru March we take advantage of the exposed terrain and the dearth of creepy crawly things to explore some of the more wild lands in our midst. Learn where we go and why, here.
GetHiking! Hike Through the Holidays. If you live in the Triangle area you're in luck. We have a package of 16 hikes in November and December on four days of the week to different locations. Even with the busiest holiday schedule, you're bound to find a great hike or five in this package. Learn more and sign up to join us here.
Now that Halloween has passed and the holiday season is in full swing, we suggest considering the gift of adventure — a gift that can also benefit the places you love to take your adventures. While our focus is on gifts available through Georgia State Parks, every State and National Park in the region has gifts suitable for swell gifts. Click the links below to start your holiday gift-buying:
State Parks
- Georgia State Parks
- North Carolina State Parks
- Virginia State Parks
- South Carolina State Parks
- Tennessee State Parks
- West Virginia State Parks
National Parks
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- Shenandoah National Park
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Bryan DeLay was 12 when he took his first backpacking trip, with his Scout Troop, in the mountains of Tennessee; he was smitten. But it wasn’t until he was 35 and realizing there had to be more to life than developing shopping centers that he got into backpacking big time. Over the next 30 some years the Knoxville resident estimates he’s spent 75 to 100 nights a year in a tent, bringing his number of nights on the trail to around 1,600, and the number of states he’s backpacked in to 25. Despite taking a big trip out West every August, Bryan, a native of Tennessee, still prefers backpacking in his backyard, the Southeastern United States.
In 2008, Bryan started documenting his trips on YouTube, as Backpacking with Bryan Delay. Today, we talk with Bryan about his adventures and why he prefers the Southeast backpacking experience.
Check out Bryan's videos on his YouTube Channel, Backpacking with Bryan DeLay, here.
In the News
For more on the Tree Cookie celebration Saturday, Oct. 30, at Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park in Tennessee, go here. For more on exploring the park itself, go here.
Check out the new WNC Outdoor Industry Job Board here.
From her post at Pilot Mountain State Park near the Blue Ridge Escarpment, N.C. State Parks Ranger Maggie Miller talks about the coming fall color — specifically, when it's coming and the best places to catch it.
- For more information on the North Carolina State Parks she mentions — or for any other state park in the Tar Heel state — go here
- For information on the Hawk Watch program mentioned by Ranger Smith, check out the North Carolina State Parks Events and Programs page here.
In the News
We also catch up on fall color in Georgia and Virginia, with information on where you can find the latest breaking news in those states. Click the appropriate state below:
- Georgia State Parks
- Virginia State Parks
Controlled burns will be occurring in the Cherokee and Monongahala National Forests. For specifics:
- On controlled burns in the Cherokee National Forest, go here.
- On controlled burns in the Monongahala National Forest, go here.
The National Park Service reports that 2 million people visit the Blue Ridge Parkway in October alone. That is a whole of traffic and a whole lot of potential company as you seek fall color and solitude. In this episode, the National Park Service offers 10 tips on how to make the most of October on the parkway — and we share some thoughts as well.
Related resources
- Road Status. To see about road closures and delays along the Blue Ridge Parkway, go here.
- Rocky Knob Recreation Area. To learn more about Rocky Knob and the Rock Castle Gorge Loop Trail, go here.
- Doughton Park Recreation Area. To learn more about the Doughton Park Recreation Area and its 30 miles of trail, especially those accessible from Long Bottom Road, go here.
- To get the latest info on fall color along the Blue Ridge Parkway, check out their social media:
While our goal is to put foot to trail, the drive to the trailhead and back home can have its illuminating moments as well. On the drive out, we speculate about the adventure ahead, on the drive back, we reflect on the adventure had. Car time can be a rare time to be alone with our thoughts. And a scary time, too. Today, we let the recorder run as we make the two-and-a-half-hour drive to a backpack trip in South Mountains State Park.
NewsWith bears feeding up to hunker down for the winter, and with the fall leaf peepers out in drives, it's no surprise that an altercation or two occurs. A picnicking couple and their dog had a skirmish with a bear on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville; learn about what you should do in a similar situation at BearWise.org
Fall color comes to West Virginia. Learn when and where to expect it here.
Busy time on the trail, fall. Something about temperatures in the 60s and trees ablaze in color brings out the hiker in darn near everyone. For the next couple of months, the trails will be packed. Well, some of the trails. In today's GetHiking! Southeast Podcast, taken from our first Lunch with GetHiking! Zoom session, we discuss how to find the trails less traveled during the fall hiking frenzy.
As mentioned, the episode is taken from our new Lunch with GetHiking! series: every other Thursday at noon we'll gather on Zoom to discuss hiking topics pertinent for the season. Here's a schedule of our topics through year's end, followed by the Zoom link to join in.
Sept. 16 — Finding the Trails Less Traveled. This early run of fall-like weather has been both blessing and curse. After a summer of heat and humidity, the first half of September has been hiking-perfect: Sunny, dry days coupled with clear, cool nights. You can’t wait to get on the trail — and neither can the seasonal masses who discover hiking every year at this time. In the first of our every-other-Thursday Lunch with GetHiking! Zoom gatherings, we’ll talk about ways to find the trails less traveled. Some may be obvious, some not so much.
Sept. 30— Our Favorite Trails Less Traveled. Last week we told you how you can find the trails less traveled, this week we tell you about some of our favorites. .
Oct. 14 — Fall color comes to the piedmont. Color should be beginning to blossom in the Triangle. We discuss what to look for, where to look for it. We might bring in someone with State Parks to talk specifically about color in the parks.
Oct. 28 — Longer hikes. Maybe your hikes have been in the 3- to 5-mile category so far this fall. And lately, maybe you’ve felt you’d like to hike farther: cool weather will do that. We discuss what to consider as you start hiking longer as well as some of our favorite Piedmont hikes in the 5- to 10-mile range.
Nov. 11 — Coastal Hiking. It’s finally cool enough, the biting bugs and slithery critters are at bay. It’s time to look east for a hiking destination. We discuss 5 of our favorite coastal hikes, with handout.
Nov. 24 (Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving) — Where to take the visiting kin for a Thanksgiving Day/Weekend hike. Our shorter favorite trails that showcase the best the region has to offer. Includes handout.
Dec. 9 — Winter hiking. It’s a knee-jerk reaction: it’s getting cold, time to hang up the hiking gear until spring. Winter can be a magical time on the trail; we discuss how, and why you should keep hiking through the winter.
Dec. 23 — Hike in the New Year. Where to hike in the new year and what to expect on a First Day hike. Plus, setting goals for 2022.
Join us! Here's the link to join us at noon every other Thursday for Lunch with GetHiking!
When you’re hiking a trail, you have questions. All kinds of questions, especially if you’re hiking in the nature- and history-rich southeastern United States. What kind of tree is that? Why is it growing in this particular spot? And how did this trail come to be, anyway. Last week I had a chance to get a lot of my questions answered on a hike with Patrick Boleman, Land Stewardship manager for the eastern properties of the Triangle Land Conservancy, based on Durham, North Carolina.
Related links:
- Learn more about the Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve where we hiked, here.
- Learn more about the work of the Triangle Land Conservancy, here.
- Learn more about the work of land trusts in general, and find the land trust nearest you, at the Land Trust Alliance, here.
In the News
For information on the upcoming fall leaf season in Georgia, visit GaStateParks.org/LeafWatch, and for North Carolina, visit romanticasheville.com.
For more on the National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship Sept. 18 at Tennessee's Standing Stone State Park, go here.
As hikers, we get excited whenever there's a changing of the seasonal guard. But we get especially excited when the season changes to fall. So little time — about three months — so many plans. Today, we offer some quick tips on how to take the best advantage of the fall hiking season.
You can find additional tips, as well as more information on the tips we mention in the podcast, here.
The News
For the latest on what's open and what's not in our regional National Forests in the wake of Tropical Depression Fred and Hurricane Ida, click the appropriate link below:
- Pisgah National Forest (North Carolina)
- Cherokee National Forest (Tennessee)
- George Washington and Jefferson National Forests (Virginia)
- Monongahela National Forest (West Virginia)
Learn more about Tennessee State Parks' offer of a 50 percent accommodations discount for Louisiana residents displaced by Hurricane Ida, here.
I'll take a sign, any sign, that the heat of summer is waning, the brilliance of fall on the horizon. This year, that sign came in the form of Thursday.
**In the news
Pisgah National Forest closures**. Find the most up-to-date information on closures in the Pisgah National Forest of North Carolina at the USDA Forest Service website, here.
Help! To help the Forest Service in its efforts to open trails in the Pisgah following Tropical Depression Fred, you may either email Natalie Lester, the Pisgah District Volunteer and Partnerships Coordinator, at Natalie.Lester@usda.gov, or check in with one of these groups to volunteer:
- Pisgah Area Southern Off-Road Bicycling Association
- Carolina Mountain Club
- Backcountry Horsemen
- Carolina Climbers Coalition
Cherokee National Forest seasonal road closings. To learn which roads in the Cherokee National Forest are affected by closings that go into effect starting Sept. 6, go here.
Every Monday and Friday, we invite GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! peeps to join us on a 20-minute-or-so hike to talk things hiking on Facebook Live at our GetGoingNC page. On today's podcast, we take you on a recent Morning Walk, along a stretch of the Eno River in the piedmont of central North Carolina. (Join us on our twice weekly Facebook Live hikes, on Monday and Friday mornings around 8 a.m., at our GetGoingNC Facebook page, here.
In our news segment we discuss recovery efforts on public recreation lands in the mountains following flooding and wind damage resulting from Tropical Depression Fred, on Aug. 16-17. While some areas have reopened in the mountains, many remain closed. Check with the appropriate land manager before heading out for your next adventure.
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- N.C. Department of Transportation
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- North Carolina State Parks
- North Carolina National Forests (Croatan, Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie)
- Virginia Department of Transportation
- Shenandoah National Park
- Virginia National Forests (George Washington and Jefferson)
- Virginia State Parks
Yes, thru-hiking is a genre of backpacking. So is there a difference? Well, yes, there are some obvious differences — the time you're on the trail, how much stuff you can take. But we take issue with a fellow podcaster who compared thru-hiking to a marathon and backpacking — in this case, of the 1-, 2-, 3-night variety — to a "fun run." Those aren't exactly fightin' words, but they do require a response, a clarification of sorts, which we give in brief in today's podcast.
Also, in our news segment we mention the closure of the Bald River Falls Trail in the Tellico River District of Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest for repairs. For more on the closure go here, for more on the trail itself, go here.
If you're interested in any of the GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! trips we mention, you can learn more about them by visiting GetGoingNC.com and clicking on Explore with Us!
This week we explore Basecamp Backpacking, which marries the best of backpacking — camping in a remote, primitive location — with the freedom of lightweight day hiking. How? That's in the podcast, silly.
News links
From our News segment, find more information by clicking the appropriate link:
- For details on "Anna Ruby Falls Closed for Maintenance," go here.
- For details on the Benton MacKaye Trail opening at Thunder Rock in Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest, go here.
- To follow Nimblewill Nomad as he attempts to become the oldest hiker, at age 82, to hike the Appalachian Trail, go here.
Basecamp Backpacking
- To read more about Basecamp Backpacking, read this post from our blog at GetGoingNC.com
- To learn more about the 5 Basecamp Backpack trips mentioned in the podcast, check out our post, "5 of Our Favorite Basecamp Backpack Trips," here.
- Care to join our GetBackpacking! crew on a Basecamp Backpack trip? We have three scheduled so far for fall; learn more and sign up to join us by clicking the appropriate link below:
- Doughton Park, Oct. 22-24
- Rock Castle Gorge (VA), Nov. 19-21
- Birkhead Mountain Wilderness/Uwharries, Dec. 10-12.
This week on the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we answer that age-old question, which is it you can get a permit to gather firewood in, a National Park or a National Forest. We also look at two efforts to open the outdoors to a wider range of people.
Related links
Interested in gathering firewood in the Hanging Rock Day Use Area of the Clinch Ranger District, George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia? Learn more here.
To learn more about the Virginia Outdoor Foundation's $20,000 grant to let kids from Richmond explore Virginia State Parks, go here.
This week we scout a trail system in Virginia that we hope will make for a good weekend backpack trip for beginning backpackers. Along the way, we explain what makes a great trip for a first timer.
In the episode we make mention of "Backpacking Virginia: The Definitive Guide to 40 Can't-Miss Trips from Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean," by Johnny Malloy. Learn more about the book here.
If you're looking for recommended first-time backpack trips, check out these 5 from "Backpacking North Carolina: The Definitive Guide to 43 Can't-Miss Trips from Mountains to Sea."
This week we look at a shortage of campground hosts that's closing National Forest campgrounds and at the issue of ebikes and how our National Forests are looking to accommodate them.
Links
Interested in being a campground host, or in any number of other volunteer opportunities on federal and state lands? Check out the possibilities at volunteer.gov.
We mention off-road ebikes, and cite as example the Pedal All Wheel Drive II. Get a sense of what it's like here.
Three of the most iconic spots on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia are Dragon’s Tooth, Tinker Cliffs and McAfee Knob. And combined with three trails in the North Mountain trail system they can be done in a loop of about 35 miles. In today's episode, we follow 10 backpackers on a four-day, three-night trip that covers these geologic icons and some pretty phenomenal scenery in between.
ResourcesCheck out this all trails.com description of the hike here.
Find our GetBackpacking! Guide to Virginia's Triple Crown here. Download before July 16 and it's free.
It's all about the July 4 weekend in today's episode, including:
- Where you can catch catch the Brood X Cicada Choir and their 100-decibel performance.
- The answer to the question you've possibly been wondering: Are fireworks allowed in National Forests? (No.)
- Speaking of which, is there one convenient location where you find out the fire danger — and other cool fire-related stats — before heading into the woods? (Yes.)
- Are there still campsites available for us procrastinators? (Yes.)
Links
To discover the convenient location mentioned above where you find out the fire danger — and other cool fire-related stats, go here.
Reserveamerica.com
Recreation.gov
For info on Virginia's Sky Meadows State Park and the Brood 10 cicada concert, go here.
To read the Blue Ridge Outdoors article on cicadas, go here.
Hiking is great, but nothing beats a post-hike gathering at the campsite. Over the years we've become a connoisseur, of sorts, of group campsites; today, we share 5 of our favorites.
Learn more about these sites and make reservations by visiting this post at our GetGoingNC.com website.
Bears have been getting into more campers gear of late: the reason? Improper food storage. In this week's quick listen, we talk about the importance of food storage on the trail.
For more information on food storage and dealing with blackberry in general, visit bearwise.org.
About 12 percent of the United States is protected as natural area. That’s roughly 456,000 square miles of the nation’s total land mass of roughly 3.8 million square miles.
Now, when most of us think of land set aside to protect nature, at least here in the Southeast, we think of National Parks, we think of National Forests, we think of State Parks. Yet nationwide those three entities only account for about 10 percent of total protected land. What about those remaining 3.3 million square miles? You'll find them in thousands of small nature preserves peppered all around. Preserves such as the Al Bungard Conservation Area, one of four small preserves in Savannah, Ga. These preserves can provide adventure you'd never expect on land so small, as the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast discovered when we discovered the Al Bungard property just a half hour walk from our airport hotel in Savannah.
Where can you find a similar adventure, either near your home or when you're traveling? A good place to start is The Land Trust Alliance, which represents land-preserving land trusts around the country. Find The Land Trust Alliance here.
Also, check out The Nature Conservancy, at nature.org.
As was the case with the Al Bungard Conservation Area, we had to do a little digging to find it. That process of unearthing little-known preserves and green spaces is the focus of "Explore Your Neighborhood: A Guide to Discovering the World Immediately Around You," which we wrote last year. Learn more and purchase a copy here.
The 77-mile Foothills Trail jumps back and forth along the North Carolina South Carolina state line, along the rugged Blue Ridge Escarpment. Backpackers who thru-hike the trail generally take 5 to 7 days to complete the challenging trek. And those are backpackers who typically have several years of experience and have trained for the hike. Now imagine being someone with little or no hiking experience and being challenged to hike more than a third of the entire 77-mile Foothills Trail in one day, but you have to be ready in four months or less to do it. That’s the challenge faced by folks who undertake the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Trailblaze Challenge: train for 16 weeks, then, in one day, hike the westernmost 28.3 miles of the Foothills Trail.
Today, we talk with Chris Webber, Director of Development for the Central & Western North Carolina chapter of Make-A-Wish. Chris tells us a little about Make-A-Wish and the Trailblaze Challenge, then provides some personal insight — he did the training and the hike in 2016.
If you're intrigued by the Trailblaze Challenge — and by the opportunity to help a child with a critical illness fulfill the dream of a lifetime — you can learn more through Zoom information sessions starting in June for the fall Trailblaze Challenge. You can sign up for those sessions, and learn more about the program, at the Central & Western North Carolina Chapter website; find the link here.
Live elsewhere but are interested in participating? Find a link to the Make-A-Wish chapter near you, here.
"Software update" — that's the best way to describe why this week's episode is just 7 minutes long. We hope to be back next week with our chat with Chris Webber, Director of Development for the Central & Western North Carolina Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, as we discuss the Trailblaze Challenge, a 28.3-mile hike on the Foothills Trail of North Carolina and South Carolina to raise money for Make-A-Wish. In the meantimes, you can check out their work and learn about the Trailblazer Challenge here.
We also talk about the Shenandoah Spririts Trail. Learn more about it, here.
Henry Perangelo spent much of his life as a scuba diver. In fact, it wasn’t until he took a job on the Caribbean island of Saba, shortly before retiring, that he, a scuba diver, discovered hiking. He continued hiking after moving to the Northeast three years later and began taking weekend backpack trips. It wasn’t until five years ago or so, when he and his wife retired to Cary, that he became more interested in backpacking, but still taking trips typically in the 2 to 3-night range. Then, in 2019 he got the idea to section hike the Appalachian Trail. Or at least take one section hike, to see if he liked it.
Today, we talk with Henry about his transition to becoming a section hiker — he recently completed his third section, the 67 miles from Newfound Gap in the Smokes to Hot Springs — and will embark in June on his 4th, the 120.4-mile run from Hot Springs to US 19E. He hopes to end the year in Damascus, Virginia. Henry talks with us about making the transition from weekend backpacker to spending 10 days on the trail, including the planning that goes into each trip and how that planning has evolved since he started at Springer Mountain nearly two yeas ago.
Henry mentions several resources for planning a section hike on the AT. Links follow:
- A.T. Guide, a.k.a. “The Awol Guide.” This classic (since 2010) has become a must for folks planning a section hike or thru-hike on the AT.
- Appalachian Trail ConservancyAppalachian Trail Data Book 2021. Up-to-date information from the agency responsible for managing the AT.
- Long-Distance Hiking: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail. Includes a wealth of information gained from more than 100 AT hikers on various aspects of their experience.
- Guthook Guide to the AT. The app of choice for AT hikers, from Atlas Guides. Updated frequently, including comments from current hiker.
- Alltrails. Henry likes this app because it allows you to record your hike.
When Jess Lancaster was growing up in northwest Indiana, her family took a vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains, and Jess was smitten! She moved to Nashville in 2009 to finish her undergraduate degree, and started hiking near home and in the Cumberland Plateau region of eastern Tennessee. In 2013, she started the shehikestn.com, and has been promoting hiking in Tennessee ever since. As she states on her website:
"I’m based in Nashville and determined to prove that middle Tennessee is just as much of an 'outdoor state' as Oregon, California or Colorado. There’s so much beauty and diversity in nature right here in the South. My wish is that this blog is a jumping off point for your outdoor explorations. I’ll give you a basic overview and information about the hike and then it’s up to you to experience what you want. I want you to be able to be an active participant in your own hiking."
You can find details on the hikes mentioned in the podcast at shehikestn.com.
In the news:
Find more information on the Jacobs Creek Campground here.
To learn more about the paving projects along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, go here.
This week, we share some regional trail news —including the opening of a photo exhibit at Tennessee's Norris Dam State Park — and talk about 5 of our favorite resources. Below are the pertinent links for those 5 resources:
- American Hiking Society
- Road closings. Here are links to some of the sites mentioned:
- Blue Ridge Parkway
- N.C. Department of Transportation\
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- North Carolina State Parks
- North Carolina National Forests (Croatan, Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie)
- Virginia Department of Transportation
- Shenandoah National Park
- Virginia National Forests (George Washington and Jefferson)
- Virginia State Parks
- Sunrise-sunset.org
- Outdoorgearlab.com
- PictureThis app
Also, for the latest on the Mill Creek Fire in Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest, go here.
To learn more about Elkmont's synchronous fireflies, go here.
To learn more about the trips mentioned at the end of the podcast, visit GetGoingNC.com, Explore with Us!
The Vicious Circle had the Algonquin Roundtable, "Friends" had The Perk, and the "Cheers" gang had their beloved bar. And backpackers? Backpackers have The Campfire.
Now, non-campers generally believe the purpose of the campfire is to keep warm, maybe cook food. But backpackers know otherwise. Yes, a good fire helps us stay awake past 6 o'clock on a winter trip. But it's also the nexus of conversation, of talk about anything, and everything and nothing. "Seinfeld" gone wild, if you will.
This week, we share snippets of conversation from 'round the campfire from a recent weekend trip to the Wilson Creek area of North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest. Even if you have no idea what's being discussed, if you're a camper, the conversation will sound most familiar.
Also this week, we discuss:
Wildfires that have burned more than 1,000 acres in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Find updates on those fires here.
AT shelters. The status of Appalachian Trail shelters in national forests in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia (they're open after being closed for more than a year). Learn more by checking the specific National Forest website:
- Tennessee: Cherokee National Forest
- Georgia: Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests
- North Carolina: National Forests in North Carolina
- Virginia: George Washington and Jefferson National Forests
Fee increases in National Forests in Virginia and West Virginia. Learn more here.
Explore with us!
For more on our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! trips and programs, visit GetGoingNC.Com, Explore with us!
In a short episode this week we look at 2020's COVID-crowded trails and contemplate whether they'll continue to be as popular once restrictions begin to ease.
In the news, we look at:
- Access opening to the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. Learn more about Dolly Sods here.
- A new Superintendent named for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
- Ascent WV, a new program intended to draw adventurous remote workers to West Virginia through a $20,000 incentive program.
For more on our trips and programs, visit GetGoingNC.Com, Explore with us!
This week we look at the world of FKTs, or Fastest Known Times, which saw record activity in 2020 (and 2021 promises to see even more). We listen in on a conversation with the holders of three FKTs set in 2020, one for the entire 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and two — male and female — for the Pitchell run, from Mount Pisgah to Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, a stretch of trail that gains 11,400 vertical feet in 62 miles!
The conversation comes courtesy of our friends at the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail; the discussion with Tara Dower, Tory Grieves and Kyle Curtin, moderated by Chuck Millsaps with Great Outdoor Provision Co., was a panel discussion as part of this year's annual Gathering of Friends, referred to this year as the Ungathering, since it was conducted over Zoom.
Two links you'll find of interest:
FastestKnownTime.com. The site, rightfully so, bills itself as the "sentinel of all things FKT." Here, you'll find stories and all sorts of info on FKTs, including every FKT that's been set around the world (at least the ones that have been reported).
Mountainstoseatrail.org. Everything you ever wanted to know about the MST, but didn't know who to ask, is here. Foremost, complete guides to help you navigate the 1,175-mile trail.
In the news
Learn more about items in our News segment by clicking the following links:
- Virginia's International Dark Sky Parks, go here.
- The Conservation Fund and U.S. Forest Service protection of 237 acres at North Mountain in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, go here.
- West Virginia Wildflower Pilgrimage, call 304.558.2754.
- West Virginia National Forest upcoming controlled burns, go here.
- Virginia National Forest upcoming controlled burns, go here.
Explore with us!
For more information on our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! programs, trips and classes, go here.
It's been a newsy week. This week we look at:
Seasonal campgrounds and other facilities opening on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Shenandoah National Forest and in national forests in North Carolina and Virginia.
Also, 91 new acres have been added to the Carvers Gap area of the Pisgah National Forest courtesy the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
For more on campground openings, visit GetGoingNC.com.
This week we talk with Richard Harris with the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, who fills us in on this 285-mile companion trail to the Appalachian Trail. Like the AT, the BMT starts at Springer Mountain, Ga., but takes a more westerly route north, to Fontana Dam on the southern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. From there, it traces the eastern border of the Smokies to its northern conclusion at Davenport Gap.
Key links promised in the podcast
- Benton MacKaye Trail Association. Here you’ll find background on the BMT as well as a variety of resources to help you hike the trail, whether it’s a short day hike or the entire 285-mile trail. You can also find guided hikes on the site.
- Cherokee Hiking Club. Also active in the area and full of helpful resources.
Key facts about the BMT
- Nearly half the route is on land managed as Wilderness by both the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
- Average grade: 6 percent
- Maximum Grade: 22 percent
- Low point: 765 feet at crossing of the Hiwassee River in Reliance, TN.
- High point: 5,843 feet at summit of Mt. Sterling in the Smokies.
- Blaze: White diamond, 5″ across by 7″ tall. (None permitted in wilderness.)
From our news segment:
Camground hosting
- For information on campground host openings in the Clinch Ranger District of the George Washington and Jefferson national forests of southwest Virginia, go here.
- For volunteer opportunities in general in National Forests, go here.
Ramp collecting
For more information on collecting ramps in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, go here.
In this week's episode:
- Retail Therapy. We introduce a new feature, Retail Therapy. Sure we're all about the spiritual release of being outdoors — but being outdoors in good gear doesn't hurt. In this debut of our Retail Therapy segment we walk into the Great Outdoor Provision Co. shop in Chapel Hill, N.C., and ask: "What's latest gear we've gotta have?" Chad's answer: the On Cloudventure hiking shoe. For details on the shoe:
- Cloudventure women's
- Cloudventure men's
- News. If the weather's warming seasonal closures are beginning to lift! We talk about U.S. Forest Services openings in the Chattooga River District of the Chattahoochee and Oconee national Forests, as well a reminder to check for controlled burns (there've been 17 in Virginia's National Forests alone since March 1), and to also check on wildfires. All information you can find by visiting the home page of the National Forest of interest:
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- West Virginia
- Fonta Flora Follow-up. In a follow-up to last week's interview with North Carolina State Trails Director Smith Raynor we went out and hiked one of those trails, the Fonta Flora. Here's our report — and some links in case you'd like to pay a visit:
- Burke County Fonta Flora State Trail page
- View the Fonta Flora Trail map (Summer 2020)
- For status updates and additional information, visit the Fonta Flora Trail Facebook page here.
- For information on the trails in Lake James State Park, go here
This week we chat with Smith Raynor, N.C. State Parks Trail Planner, about North Carolina's 9 State Trails. Helpful links follow:
Fonta Flora State Trail:
- Burke County’s Fonta Flora State Trail site (where you’ll also find trail maps)
- Fonta Flora State Trail Facebook page
- Destination By Design’s Fonta Flora page
As for the N.C. State Trails program as a whole? This week’s GetHiking! Southeast podcast interviews Smith Raynor, N.C. State Trails Planner, to learn more about the the program, the trails and their development. Check it out here.
N.C. State Trails
Learn more about the State Trails program on the State Trails web page. Then learn more about each trail at it’s website:
- Deep River State Trail
- Fonta Flora State Trail
- French Broad River State Trail
- Hickory Nut Gorge State Trail
- Mountains-to-Sea Trail (also see the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail website)
- Northern Peaks State Trail
- Overmountain Victory State Trail
- Wilderness Gateway State Trail
- Yadkin River State Trail
A short report this week focused on the return of Virginia State Parks 15-race Adventure Series, controlled burns announced for National Forests in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, and 42 miles of new trail planned in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest around Old Fort.
Pertinent links for this week
Virginia State Parks Adventure Race Series, go here.
National Forest Service controlled burns. Click on the appropriate state link for details on planned burns by state:
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Virginia
Old Fort Trails Project. For more information on the 42 miles of new trail planned for the Grandfather District of the Pisgah National Forest near Old Fort, go here.
Today, musings on that first warm day of the year (upper 60s, in this case), the one that reminds you that, in the Southeast at least, winter will end long before the calendar says so. A few key links related to the coming longer, warmer days. Note: Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 14, at 2 a.m.: don't forget to spring forward.
Sunrise/Sunset times. Enter your location and the date and sunrise-sunset.org will tell you not only the official sunrise and sunset times for a given day, but the amount of twilight on both ends as well.
Spring wildflower ID. Like to know what you're looking at as spring unfolds? The piedmont-centric A Virtual Wildflower Garden Across Time identifies spring wildflowers both by color of petals and when they typically emerge, making it easier to tell your asters (which bloom as early as January) from your fleabanes.
Park closing times. Longer daylight means longer hours at your local parks. Many North Carolina State Parks, for instance, begin staying open until 8 p.m. in March (and as late as 10 p.m. as summer nears). Check local state park hours at the links below:
- North Carolina State Parks
- South Carolina State Parks
- Virginia State Parks
- Tennessee State Parks
- Georgia State Parks
- West Virginia State Parks
National Forests. Roads and campgrounds in national forests will begin reopening. You can check the latest status of your favorite area below.
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- West Virginia
National Parks. Check on what's reopening when by clicking on the link for a given state, then clicking on the NPS unit of your interest.
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- West Virginia
Years ago, an adventure began with a visit to your local outdoor shop and some quality time spent pouring over an array of unruly topographic maps. Today, our adventures begin by scrolling through YouTube videos to scout places we'd like to explore. Because in addition to videos about dancing pigs and how to make cute crop-tops out of old t-shirts, you'll find an abundance of adventure videos covering every bit of the globe.
This week we review four of our favorite channels that cover the Southeast. And we review them with a purpose: to find our next new GetBackpacking! or GetHiking! adventure for fall. Listen along as we sort through some pretty decent offerings to find our next big adventure.
Pertinent links
Here are links to the videos mentioned in today's podcast, as well as a few others we like but didn't have time to review.
- Zach's Mild Adventures
- Sintax77
- The Outdoor Gear Review
- Hiking with Braids
Also worth a watch:
- Backpacking with Jason
- Smell N Roses
- Blackalachian
- Shugemery
In the past year, an unprecedented number of people have sought solace in the nation’s state parks. The outdoors has been deemed one of the few places where we could safely escape, and the nation’s state parks have provided that much needed escape. Imagine having lived through 2020 without that vital escape.
Good.
Now, imagine it’s 60 years ago and that escape isn’t available — at least not to you. That was the case for millions of African Americans throughout the South; beginning in the 1930s, State Parks had sprung up across the land, but you could only enjoy them if your skin was a certain color.
Today, Veronica Flick with Virginia State Parks and the system's Director, Melissa Baker, share the story of how one disenfranchised man from Danville, Virginia took the first step, in 1948, in a long journey toward ensuring that everyone, in his home state at least, could enjoy the escape that state parks provide.
Relevant links
- For more on the pre-civil rights era of Virginia State Parks, go here.
- To read more about the overall history of Virginia State Parks, including the period we discuss on on the podcast, go here.
- Visit the Virginia State Parks website here.
- In our news segment we discussed the success of Tennessee's successful My State Park fundraiser. Learn more about that here.
GetHiking!Visit GetGoingNC.com for more information on our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! programs. Find that information, click on Explore with Us!
This week, Brian McRae, Division Chief of Land and Water Access for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, discusses the hiking opportunities abundant in the half million acres of land owned by the WRC across the state. Be warned, though: these aren't your tamed and groomed state or national parks. They tend to be a little wilder — and a lot less crowded. In short, they require a little extra preparation before exploring, and Brian discusses the various resources available to help you do just that.
Helpful links:
- N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission website, and specifically the maps page.
- Avenza Maps. Find pdf versions of all NCWRC gameland maps on the Avenza app, including location service.
- OnX. Also find maps, geared more toward hunters, on the OnX app.
Check out gamelands in other Southeast states:
- Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
- Virginia Division of Wildlife Resources
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
- Georgia Wildlife Resources Division
- West Virginia Division of Natural Resources
In the News segment:
- Read the Asheville Citizen-Times article on Linville Gorge's South End Trails Project here.
- Learn more about Outforia's look at deaths in National Parks between 2010 and 2020, here.
In this episode we look at 7 big hikes we couldn't take in 2020 because of the pandemic, but we're hopeful of getting in in 2021. Those hikes and links to where you can find details on how to hike them are below:
Mount Mitchell Trail
- Find the Alltrails.com route description here.
Black Mountain Crest Trail
- Find a map and additional information on the BMC on the N.C. State Parks website here.
- Find a route description of the Black Mountain Crest Trail from Hiking Upward here.
Sam Knob Loop
- "Backpacking North Carolina," Trip No. 14
Doughton Park Loop
- Visit the National Park Service site here for information on Doughton Park and a map
- "Backpacking North Carolina," Trip No. 11
North Mills River Loop
- Visit the National Forest Service site for North Mills Riverhere
Standing Indian AT Loop
- Visit the National Forest Service site for Standing Indianhere
Cataloochee ValleyVisit the National Forest Service website for Cataloocheehere.Learn more about these hikes on our GetGoingNC.com blog,here**.
Public lands visitation**Read more about North Carolina's record state park attendance in 2020 here.
This week we look at 8 backpack trips we hope to take in 2021 (we had planned to do them in 2020, but, well, viruses happen). We talk a bit about each hike and they're particular attraction, from a couple of quick overnighters that are surprisingly close to home, to a couple or shorter thru hikes. We also look at recent land acquisitions that have boosted North Carolina State Parks' land and water holdings past the quarter million acre mark, including expansions for the Deep River State Trail and the Salmon Creek Natural Area.
8 Backpack trip resources
For more information on the 8 backpacking trips discussed:
Mount Rogers National Recreation Area / Grayson Highlands State Park:
- Sherpa Guides overview of the area
- Mount Rogers National Forest Service website
- Grayson Highlands State Park website
North Carolina Bartram Trail
- North Carolina Bartran Trail Society website
Middle Prong Wilderness Area
- Middle Prong Wilderness Area National Forest Service website
- Middle Prong Wilderness on Wilderness.net
Neusiok Trail
- Neusiok Trail National Forest Service website
- Neusiok Trail on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail website
Deep Creek Loop / Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- "Backpacking North Carolina," trip No. 20, page 22
Panthertown Valley
- Friends of Panthertown website
- Panthertown Valley Backcountry Area National Forest Service website
- "Backpacking North Carolina," trip No. 28, page 157
Appalachian Trail in Virginia: James River to Punchbowl Mountain
- Hiking Project: Punchbowl Mountain to James River
Birkhead Mountain Wilderness Area
- "Backpacking North Carolina," trip No. 35, page 193
- Birkhead Mountain Wilderness National Forest Service website
- Hiking Upward: Birkhead Mountain Wilderness
For more on these hikes, check out our blog, at GetGoingNC.com.
In the news
Find more information on the two areas mentioned in the News segment here:
Deep River State Trail
Salmon Creek State Natural Area
This week we talk with Don Childrey, author of the "Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide." Don's guide first came out in 1996, a second edition followed in 2014. The updated version covers more than 215 miles of trail and 113 named trails, an offers 95-multi-trail trips. Don began exploring the Uwharries at an early age, as a Boy Scout growing up in nearby Burlington. Work as a bridge engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation led him to work in Troy, on the southeast side of the forest, where he lived during the 5 years he spent creating the guide. Don shares his knowledge of the trail and some if its best places to explore in this episode.
In Trail News this week we look at seasonal closings in the National forests of western North Carolina to protect nesting peregrine falcons, plus the free-for-all unleashed by the latest stimulus package on the images of Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl.
- For peregrine related closings in the Pisgah National Forest, go here.
- For peregrine related closings in the Nantahala National Forest, go here.
In the Don Childrey interview:
- Learn more about Don and his book, "Uwharrie Lakes Region Trail Guide, here
- Don mentions the new Walker Creek trailhead on the Uwharrie Recreation Trail; learn more about it here.
- Learn more about the Uwharrie National Forest here.
- Don mentioned the Uwharrie Trailblazers, the local trail club responsible for much of the trail maintenance and new trail construction in the Uwharries. Find out more about them here.'
- The Three Rivers Land Trust plays a key role in helping to secure land for the trail as well as to preserve land throughout the region. Learn about their mission here.
- Oblique mention was made to the Uwharrie's own Big Foot. This 2014 article on Our State magazine looks into the local Sasquatch legend.
For our main segment on exploring North Carolina Game Lands:
- For more on exploring North Carolina's Game Lands, visit the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission Game Lands website, here.
- For an NCWRC map of the R. Wayne Bailey Caswell Game Lands go here.
- Check out our GetHiking! Guide to the Bunter-Falls of Neuse Game Lands go here.
Links for our News/Tips piece on check the status of roads before heading out:
- Blue Ridge Parkway: Realtime Road closure map
- Skyline Drive: call 540-999-3500, option 1, option 1.
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
- NCDOT: Real-Time Traffic Conditions here
- VDOT (Virginia): Virginia Traffic Information
- TDOT (Tennessee): SmartWay
- SCDOT (South Carolina): 511SC
Check out our related blog post on road closings at GetGoingNC.com, here.
Every once in a while here on the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we’ll go literary on you, sharing a favorite piece of outdoor writing or retelling a story either long forgotten or pretty obscure to begin with. Today, we share from a 2017 essay by author John Toohey on who may well be the first people — the first people of European descent, at least — to hike the length of the East Coast. Who they are and when they did it may surprise you.
- To read John Toohey's entire essay, go here.
- For more stories of yore, adventure and otherwise, check out The Public Domain Review here.
In addition, we share news of the National Forests of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, and discuss how you can make use of the National Forest websites to plan and successful execute your adventures.
Below are the links to the following National Forest websites:
- North Carolina (Croatan, Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie)
- South Carolina (Francis Marion and Sumter)
- Tennessee (Cherokee)
- Virginia (George Washington and Jefferson)
How much land is encompassed by our National Forests? Find out here.
We mentioned the size of our State Parks as well. Here's where that information came from.
Our upcoming trips!We mentioned several upcoming trips in our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! worlds. To learn more about these trips and to join us, visit GetGoingNC.com and click on Explore with Us! Those trips include:
- GetBackpacking! on the coastal Neusiok Trail, Jan. 8-10
- GetHiking! Winter Wild on the Caswell Game Lands, Jan. Jan. 17
- GetHiking! Winter Coastal Escape to Jones Lake State Park, Jan. 22-24
- GetHiking! Winter Coastal Escape on the Weetock Trail, Jan. 30
- GetBackpacking! AT: Coldspring Mountain Loop, Feb. 19-21
In our inaugural episode, we:
- Tell you who we are and what we plan to do
- Take a look at First Day Hikes in the Southeast: who's holding them and who's not
- Talk with Jim Grode, Trail Resource Manager for the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, who discusses how to use the MST's trail resources to find a stretch of trail that meets your hiking needs — and that likely won't be overrun with hikers. Especially helpful information on New Year's Day, when everyone, it seems, resolves to start a year of healthy living with a hike!
- Share where our GetHiking! and GetBackpacking! programs will be exploring in the months ahead.
Find simplified written directions to help you create your own hike at the GetGoingNC.com website.