Reedy Fork Creek along the Laurel Bluff Trail. I defied a rainy weather forecast yesterday and notched another hike on the Greensboro Watershed — this time in a seven-mile loop taking in the Laurel Bluff and Reedy Fork trails east…
North Carolina
Hikes in North Carolina
Cape Fear River and Raven Rock State Park
by tom • March 20, 2011 • 3 Comments
Lanier Falls at Raven Rock State Park southwest of Raleigh. The gravitational pull of the Blue Ridge causes a lot of us Triad types to overlook places like Raven Rock State Park, which hasn’t a single peak to its name.…
Waterfall hike at DuPont State Forest
by tom • March 13, 2011 • 6 Comments
Lower section of Triple Falls If I drive 170 miles one way to see a waterfall, it’s better be one kick-ass waterfall. This one is. Times two. And it’s in the coolest-named county in the Carolinas: Transylvania. DuPont State Forest…
Owl’s Roost Trail on the Greensboro Watershed
by tom • February 27, 2011 • 0 Comments
Lake Brandt in the Greensboro Watershed I won’t pretend this is a great hike. But it’s not too bad when you consider it’s entirely with the city limits of Greensboro, population 255,000. Owl’s Roost Trail snakes along the shores of…
History Hike at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
by tom • February 20, 2011 • 1 Comment
Statue of General Nathanael Greene, who led the Continental forces at Guilford Courthouse. This park is a history buff’s dream — right here in good ol’ Greensboro, the general famous for losing America to the Revolutionaries eked out a Redcoat…
First hike at Piedmont Environmental Center
by tom • January 16, 2011 • 2 Comments
Coming home with nice pictures changes the whole complexion of my hikes. Case in point: I hiked just over 11 miles Sunday on the trails of Piedmont Environmental Center, about 30 miles east of my doorstep. The hiking’s just bumpy…
First look at Crowders Mountain State Park
by tom • January 9, 2011 • 6 Comments
Weekends usually put the crowd in Crowders Mountain, the state park closest to Charlotte (metro area population 1.7 million), but the trails tend to be clear on January mornings when red’s all but gone from the thermometer. I started out…
First Hike of 2011: Lower Cascade Falls and Cook’s Wall
by tom • January 2, 2011 • 2 Comments
My New Year’s resolution is to hike a new trail every weekend. But coming up with a resolution was about as ambitious as I got Sunday morning, as I was satisfied with a jaunt to trusty ol’ Hanging Rock State…
First hike: Eno River State Park
by tom • November 28, 2010 • 2 Comments
We’re back to our late-November color pallet of dirt, bark and dead leaves, which, frankly, is a welcome break from Leaf Season and the one-hike-a-year crowd. Leaf Season was on my mind yesterday at Eno River State Park, which is…