Randy Johnson - Hiking North Carolina: A Guide to Hundreds of the States Greatest Hiking Trails

Hiking North Carolina

A Guide to Nearly 500 of North Carolinas Greatest Hiking Trails

Second Edition

Randy Johnson

To my mother and father.

My dad

for taking me to my first mountaintop.

My mom

for teaching me to appreciate it.

Copyright 1996, 2007 Morris Book Publishing, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or by the publisher. Requests for permission should be made in writing to The Globe Pequot Press, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, Connecticut 06437.

Falcon and FalconGuides are registered trademarks of Morris Book Publishing, LLC.

Text design by Nancy Freeborn

Maps by XNR Productions Inc. Morris Book Publishing, LLC

All interior photos are by Randy Johnson unless credited otherwise.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Randy, 1951

Hiking North Carolina : a guide to nearly 500 of North Carolinas greatest hiking trails / Randy Johnson. -- 2nd ed.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-0-7627-9743-1

1. Hiking--North Carolina--Guidebooks. 2. North Carolina--Guidebooks. I. Title.

GV199.42.N66J65 2006

917.56--dc22

2006009212

Second Edition

The author and The Globe Pequot Press assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

Contents

Acknowledgments

My involvement with trails has been long and life-transformingwhich brings me to you. My fondest hope is that readers of this book will encounter inspiration, if not in these pages, then in the places they take you. Thank you for helping make this book, and my life in the outdoors, possible.

If you have a reaction to share, a correction to make, a question to ask, please visit me at randyjohnsonbooks.com. Youll find much to interest you on the site.

Credit for any book goes way beyond the writer. Working with rangers, managers, and other park employees is the best thing about writing a trail guide. Dedicated, enthusiastic, andin most caseswoefully underpaid, they work tirelessly to help hikers more deeply appreciate the states special places. When you meet them on the trail, please take time to thank them.

A few of the people who helped in this project include Marcia Lyons and Chris Eckard at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Mary Jaeger-Gale at Chimney Rock Park, and Dennis Foster at Croatan National Forest. Every North Carolina hiker is indebted to Gene and Susan Huntsman and the Carteret County Wildlife Club for their insight and enthusiastic creation of the Croatans Neusiok Trail. Rachael Carlyle and executive director Todd Miller of the North Carolina Coastal Federation reflect the organizations pivotal role in protecting the coast. My thanks go to Judson Edeburn at Duke Forest, Dave Cook at Eno River State Park, and Dick Thomas for help with Piedmont Environmental Center trails. Andy Whitaker and Robin Bennett at Pilot Mountain State Park, Eric Nygard of Hanging Rock State Park, and Morrow Mountain State Parks Ron Anundson provided thorough fact checking and advice. Ed Farr shared plans for new trails at Stone Mountain. Mike Simpson helped cover trails in Greensboro, and in Winston-Salem, Ellen Kutcher showed true enthusiasm for Bethabara Park. Cara McLeod and Victor Lebsock shared plans for Raleigh greenways, as did Jennifer Bahus at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Martha Woods at William B. Umstead State Park and Leigh Marston of Uwharrie National Forest round out a short list. My thanks to all, and to those not mentioned.

Im especially indebted to those in North Carolina whove shaped my path in this outdoor life. Without Hugh Mortons encouragement, I never could have created my own job at Grandfather Mountain and worked for preservation and public access to the mountains backcountry. He saw my proposal for a private land trail fee program at Grandfather as a practical environmental approach that matched his own. He passed away in 2006, and like many other North Carolinians, Ill miss him. Also at Grandfather, Im grateful for help from Harris Prevost, Catherine and Jim Morton, Winston Church, and Steve Miller, Grandfathers current trail manager. The mountains new president, Crae Morton, has a great tradition to uphold.

This boardwalk in Croatan National Forest lifts the Neusiok Trail through subtropical greenery.

Without the volunteer work of many close friends, I would not have been able to establish the mountains trail management program. Among them were my brother Ken Johnson, Steve Owen, Betsy Johnson, Jerome Barrett, Robert Branch, and Gerry McDade. Ed Schultz, Kinney Baughman, and Jim Boone labored long on the Profile Trail, one of the accomplishments of which I am most proud.

Thanks in publishing go to Julie Marsh, Gina Grasso, Stephen Stringall, and Scott Adams of The Globe Pequot Press. They have my deep appreciation for producing the book you hold in your hands.

Ken Ketchie, founder of The Mountain Time s and The High Country News, in Boone, North Carolina, and Doug Robarchek and John Bordsen of The Charlotte Observer all helped me take North Carolinas trails to a national audience in the 1970s. William Bake inspired me as the ultimate wilderness writer/photographer.

Without getting too personal, my thanks go to Dr. Tim Adamson at Carolina Neurosurgery and Spine in Charlotte for his innovative surgical skills. When I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, he told me Id be carrying a pack again in three months. I was, and I still do.

Park professionals ultimately inspired this book. Gary Everhardt, the consummate park superintendent, brought the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain. John Hendee, author of Wilderness Management, and VPI forestry professor Joe Roggenbuck are friends and wilderness scientists who motivated my own backcountry research, a phase of my career that started with Ed Spencer at the Appalachian Mountain Club.

The people mentioned above encouraged me to explore my own potential as I made the backcountry a backdrop for my life. This book celebrates the love we share for wild places.

Introduction

North Carolina is one of the United States premier places to hoist a pack and hit the trail.

Our national forests, from the Nantahala and Pisgah in the west, to the Unwharrie in the middle of the state, to the Croatan on the coast, rank near the top in hiker days of trail activity.

North Carolinas national parks, the Great Smokies and Blue Ridge Parkway (both partially in neighboring states), are the nations most popular units of the national park system. Many people havent even heard of another part of the national park system, Greensboros Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, or the battle that was fought there. It may have saved the American Revolution, and the parks trails do it justice.