north carolina

Lakeshore Trail and two creeks in the Smokies Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trailhead: Fontana Dam 5/26 - 5/31/23 (5 nights) Lakeshore Trail => Bear Creek Trail => High Rocks => Cold Spring Gap Trail => Hazel Creek Trail => Lakeshore Trail Sites: 86, 98, 75, 83, 90 Caltopo says 64 miles...

I've been mapping out a lot of packrafting linkups in the southeast this year in Kentucky and Tennessee...Red River Gorge, Big South Fork, Obed area...but I've had my eye on a few further east in North Carolina. I generally avoid the Appalachian Trail but on this trip it was a means to an end...

Wolfpit Trailhead 3/15 - 3/18/20 (3 nights) 2020 bag nights: 3 Linville Gorge has been on my todo list for a while. I had considered a trip in December but I ended up sick. In the beginning of March, I started thinking about where to go for my spring break and decided that if the weather...

To escape the craziness for a bit, my daughter and I went up to the Linville gorge wilderness on Friday. It was a beautiful day albeit quite hot (low 80s) for this time of year. It had been a few years since I had been to this part of the pisgah national forest but it has a ton of trails with...

The Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina is so diverse. The 11,000+ acre Linville Gorge has it all...waterfalls, cascading free flowing river, towering walls, amazing mountain top camps and views...and for the more adventurous there's world class rock climbing and class 5 kayaking...

6/25 - 6/27/18 I had a couple nights to myself to recover from Sweden and I realized that I had not been back to the Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock Wilderness in a while. I decided to start at the bottom and climb the Slickrock Trail to Naked Ground and then over to the Bob Bald and then maybe check...

Shining Rock Wilderness in North Carolina was included in the original 1964 Wilderness Act, and has since been expanded to 18,500 acres. Located in the Pisgah Ranger District of NC, the Art Loeb National Recreation Trail is the highlight here. Section 3 of the Art Loeb goes up and over 6,000'...

3/12 - 3/16/18 (4 nights) Day 1 miles: 6.5 Day 2 miles: 10.75 Day 3 miles: 11.25 Day 4 miles: 18 Day 5 miles: 3 Total miles: 50 miles Campsites: 70, 82, 81, 74 My planned trip was to start at the Tunnel at the end of the "Road to Nowhere" outside of Bryson City. Then Lakeshore Trail to White...

October 10-12, 2015. Western North Carolina. This was my 4th trip to this southeast gem and it did not disappoint. This area is some of wildest left in the southeast and that tends to draw bear and boar hunters in droves in October. We forgot to wear orange but no one was mistaken for Yogi...

Wed 4/29/15 Michelle and I packed everything tues night and and after showering and eating a killer breakfast we hit the road right at 0600. After about ten pit stops from drinking too much water, coffee and a stop at Chipotle for lunch in Atlanta, we finally arrived at Deep Creek around 1700...

Well, life has been crazy since I moved from Utah to Alabama this summer, but we've finally moved into a house and we're about to be settled in. So, over the Labor Day weekend I decided it was time to get out for a few days. This has been a rough summer because for nine years in Utah I've had...

Back to the jewel of the southern Appalachians, with a first timer in tow. I love sharing this place with other wilderness lovers, it exceeds their expectations every time. This trip I took the crew up to the 5200' Hangover, a 360 degree view that you have to earn to see...there is no easy way...

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ― John Muir The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness in North Carolina might be the best backcountry escape in the southeast. The views from up high on the Hangover rival anything in the Smokies, and Slickrock Creek's waterfalls...