New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia is our nation’s 63rd – and newest – National Park.
Rock wall along the Rend Trail in the Thurmond area.
The park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along 53 miles of the New River from Bluestone Dam to Hawk’s Nest Lake.
In spite of it’s name, the New River is one of the oldest rivers on Earth, and has carved the deepest and longest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains – dropping 750 feet over 50 miles!
More than a million people visit the gorge each year to kayak, canoe, and fish in the river or hike, bike, and camp on the land.
For the past few years, I’ve been one of them!
Each Summer, my family has a reunion in Indiana over the July 4th holiday.
One of the smaller Falls at Sandstone Falls in the Park.
It’s a long drive, so on the return trip I’ve stopped at New River Gorge National Park to break up the drive and check it out.
The first year, I only had a day at the Park, but this time I scheduled 4 whole days! I was NOT disappointed 🙂
So I abandoned my spot on the Ark, and took off on a solo roadtrip down the East coast.
Starting from the Raleigh area, I drove all the way to St Augustine, FL (which is a story for another time) and then worked my way back up the Coast towards home.
Peacocks on the grounds of the Fountain of Youth archaeological park in St Augustine.
My first stop on the way back up was St Simon’s Island, Georgia 🙂
It’s a favorite family beach destination for visitor’s in the summertime.
Off the beach, St. Simons Island is dotted with remnants of historic sites you can visit, like the St Simon’s Lighthouse, Fort Frederica National Monument, and Christ Church.
The beach near St Simon’s.
You can also follow the ancient footsteps of the very first tourists to the island, who travelled either by walking the forest paths or paddling down the waterways.
I did some research and found a historic hiking spot at Cannons Point Preserve on the north end of the Island.
Among other reasons to visit, the trail at Cannon’s Point Preserve leads you to some extraordinary abandoned historic ruins along the coast.
It’s time to get back in shape after…..*whatever* happened over the Holidays to make you feel less than your optimal buff self 😉
It’s REALLY hard to maintain your exercise and diet goals during the holiday season.
Maybe you’ve just been really busy, or worn out from your Christmas and New Year’s adventures, or – like me – you’ve been laid low by seasonal cold and flu?
Or maybe some of you – also like me – can’t remember how to dress yourself to go anywhere if red, green and glitter aren’t the dress code?
Author ready for a hike
Well, you’d better get over it pretty quick, because February is almost here, and you know what that means?
Resort travel and Superbowl parties. That’s right, and you won’t be able to hide under that bulky “ugly” sweater for all of them.
Some Resort travel will require swimwear (ack!!) and some gatherings may even require tight jeans or the dreaded slinky dress.
The Ugly Christmas Sweater isn’t appropriate at the beach…
And then there are all of those relatives and former classmates – perhaps even at the same resorts and gatherings…..
In North Carolina, it’s pretty much always warm enough to get outdoors and exercise – even in the Winter.
So, now that the cheesecake and chocolate truffles have been put away, I’ll start getting serious again 😉
Get The FREE PDF!
Sign up and get your FREE pdf download of this training!
Everything that you need to start your 6 week training plan is included in this post.
But it’s a long read and may be hard to refer to while you’re training.
For your convenience, you can click here to sign up and download your FREE “Get Back in Shape” PDF file.
Then you can print it out and refer to your plan anytime you want. Happy training! LJ
Honestly, though I feel like a slacker, I never really stopped hiking.
That said, ever since last June, when I returned from my epic hiking trip to Scotland, I HAVE slacked off on my indoor cross-training – and it shows!
Author at the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Scotland
I worked my butt off for months prior to that trip, so I’d be able to do the Ben Nevis summit hike without hurting myself – and it was great!
But that was more than a few months ago, and now I could use a quick tune-up before slipping into that slinky party dress or Spring resort wear.
Keep reading to learn more about how I’m doing a quick tune-up for my upcoming trips and gatherings – and how you could, too!
We have miles and miles of local greenways available near where I live in North Carolina.
Greenways are a great off-road resource for healthy outdoor family activities like bike rides, hikes and walks.
This is especially important these days, when most State Parks and National Parks have been closed or partially closed since some recent devastating hurricanes, flooding, and ice storms – and we don’t know when we’ll be allowed to fully use them again.
This is the 5th year in a row that I’ll spend 8 weeks training to get in shape for an awesome epic hike later on.
But this year I won’t be starting until March!!
There are a couple of reasons for that:
I tried something new during the Holiday season this year, that I called “The 12 Days of Hike-Mas”.
Kind of like the 12 Days of Christmas, except it started the day after Christmas, and the idea was to hike every day – symbolic of the journey of the 3 Kings from the Orient to Bethlehem, and then have the last day be Epiphany (King Day).
Journey of the Magi in Christian tradition
It took a bit for people to start getting into it, but then it was going really well – up until the 9th Day of Hike-Mas, when we returned from a cold hike to find my car with a flat tire!
Luckily one of my resourceful hikers had a tire pumper thingy, that allowed me to get to the tire place, but unfortunately I had to walk home wet in the cold wind to be home in time to entertain for a family gathering.
And so I got the plague. For 2 solid weeks, trying to hork up a lung! And honestly, I’m still not entirely well…
But anyway, so that’s the one reason for starting Awesome Training later.
The other is that I’m going to hike the Scottish Highlands in early June, and I want to train closer to that point so I’ll be in the best shape for it!
From hiking the Sottish Highlands, anyway…
My training in 2023 was for an epic 2 weeks of hiking in Greece, specifically hiking Mt Olympus, the Vikos Gorge and all over the island of Corfu.
We took hike breaks in the sea while on Corfu.
The training did it’s job, and I didn’t have any issues with any of the hikes.
In 2024, I hiked in Iceland and Portugal. I used this training and didn’t have issues with being ready for either trip!
At this point, I don’t know yet which Highland hike will be my goal hike for 2025. But it’s still a good idea to be ready to hit the trails by Spring – or for me this year, by June at the latest!
A couple of years ago, the NC General Assembly) designated 2023 to be “The Year of the Trail” in North Carolina, and if their goal was to promote more use of NC outdoor recreation resources – it was a success!
Hikers at a local park
Last year both local and regional NC trails saw more traffic, especially from beginning hikers.
Now it’s been catching on more, and the trails will likely be even more popular – and populated! – especially in peak times.
Last year’s bucket list hike was Mt Olympus in Greece
It’s safe to say the shorter, easier, and easier-to-get-to beginner-level trails will likely be the most crowded.
All the more reason to train up early, so you can tackle the more ambitious trails when the easy ones are crowded!
The “8 Weeks to Awesome” hike training plan will help you do that, and you’ll be in great shape by Summer for any hike you want to do 🙂
The Holidays are just now winding down…
The Holiday season is just now winding down, so this past week I started to focus on getting back to my usual pretty disciplined training routine – within reason, you know since I’m still trying to fight the Plague. 😉
That routine includes several hikes per week, and starting late January I’ll post the training hikes on my hiking Meetup, so you can hike with me!
And of course, there’s weight training and cardio each week, with stretching every day.
Over the holidays – which for me was a series of gatherings for the whole month of December and into mid-January – I went kind of overboard with the cheese intake.
Holiday eating caused me to abandon my usual healthy eating habits, so now I’ve got to get strict with myself again.
Because of my asthma, I’ve adopted a “clean” diet ( you can read about my Anti-Asthma Diet here ) that focuses more on protein and veggies, and less on dairy, breads and grains.
Combined with intermittent fasting, this diet works pretty well for just about anyone, whether you’ve got asthma or not!
Motivational sign in my home gym.
Luckily, I live within walking distance of a couple of different grocery stores, so for extra exercise I could walk to the store for smaller trips and carry groceries home in my back pack.
I’ve been very sick with chest/sinus congestion during this past Holiday season, and have been pretty much grounded from hiking – except for indoors on my treadmill.
No specific injury, just hard to breathe with all the buckets-o-snot, and very tired….
So this year, I’ll be training back up from the ground along with everybody else! (Please don’t hurt me…)
I made a checklist/tracker to help everyone measure their hike progress.
For your amusement and (I hope) to help with motivation, you can follow along with my journey in my weekly Training Logs. I’ll be adding them as I complete each week – starting in March this year.
The Grayson Highlands Park is right on the edge of the areas of North Carolina and Virginia that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
That said, the Park is open (with some restrictions) and many of the surrounding communities are open for business and could really use your Fall vacation dollars to help rebuild!
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest Park, Trail and road repairs.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia is a great place to go hiking and look for wild ponies!
I was lucky enough to spend a few days there this past September.
The Park covers 4800-acres, and is adjacent to Virginia’s highest peak at an elevation of 5,729 feet, Mount Rogers.
You’ll find camping, picnicking, overnight horse stables, a visitor center, hiking trails, and access to the Appalachian Trail at Grayson Highlands.
But the ponies were the REAL attraction for me 🙂
A young pony being friendly.
The mountain balds are inhabited by a herd of ~120 ponies that run wild within the confines of the Park.
They’re not at all shy, so you get a lot of chances to see them.
Grayson Highlands is home to other wildlife, too.
Visitors might also see black bear, bobcat, red fox, ruffed grouse, deer, and wild turkeys – and also longhorn cattle!
These cattle were blocking the trailhead, and also adorable 🙂
Read on to learn about the park and area history, hiking trails, and all of those wild ponies just waiting for you to visit!
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a favorite Summer family vacation spot!
Located in the center of the 60-mile long stretch of beach known as “The Grand Strand”, it’s one of the major tourist destinations in the entire country, attracting over 20M visitors each year.
Myrtle Beach Spring Break
Spring Break reveler at Myrtle Beach 🙂
Myrtle Beach is also a notorious Spring Break destination, but it’s not what you think!
The Spring Break crowd in Myrtle typically has adult supervision and isn’t the crazy College break scene like you get in Fort Lauderdale.
So Myrtle Beach is a good choice for both adult travelers and families with school-aged children on Easter break.
Winter at the Beach
I usually go to Myrtle in the off-season, because it’s both less crowded and less expensive then.
North Myrtle Beach in February.
And I like the beach in the Winter, because you can walk by the water for miles without suffering heat stroke 😉
That said, more things are open in the Summer season, when more people are around.
Read on to learn about fun activities I’ve found in every season – including the beach – that work for adult travelers and families, too.
This year we’ve had an especially prolonged pine pollen season. It started in February, and was still going strong in early April.
If you’re lucky, it’s just annoying.
Author, out standing in a field – full of bees!
Other people spend weeks this time every year wheezing and sneezing and taking LOTS of allergy meds.
Still another group of people (who never used to wheeze or sneeze in the Spring) find that they suddenly HAVE become allergic to the pervasive yellow dust….or something else, like, say bee stings.
How can that be? What happened?
The truth is that allergies and asthma, including what your triggers are, can change over time and strike without warning.
A busy bee doing it’s thing.
I experienced an unexpected new allergy earlier this year, with frightening and nearly deadly results!
Read on to learn more about my death-defying experience, plus how allergies change, and what you can do about it.
The Great Channels are right on the edge of the areas of North Carolina and Virginia that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
That said, the Park is open (with some restrictions) and many of the surrounding communities are open for business and could really use your Fall vacation dollars to help rebuild!
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest Park, Trail and road repairs.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
I finally got to explore the Great Channels on Brumley Mountain, Virginia earlier this Fall after obsessing over it for nearly a year!
On the Navajo Trail in Bryce Canyon, Utah
The Great Channels sit at the summit of a mountain, and features a maze of slot canyons similar to those you might find in the parks in Utah or Arizona.
But the Great Channels formation is a surprise geologic gem hidden in southwest Virginia!
Anyway, last year, while planning a hiking trip to Grayson Highlands State Park (more on that later), I stumbled across an article about the Great Channels.
“Stumbled” is probably not the best word for a hiker to use, but you know what I mean 😉
I made some new friends at Grayson Highlands State Park.
The Channels are a series of deep crevices worn into prehistoric sandstone outcrops, where you can walk down into the maze-like network of crevices and explore.
You can also climb up on top of the Channels to get a stunning 360 view of the surrounding mountains!
Read on to learn how you can hike to the Great Channels, too.
Apple Hill Farm is very close to Grandfather Mountain and other areas of North Carolina and Virginia that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
Grandfather Mountain State Park, along with many other NC State Parks are closed. That said, many of the surrounding communities are open for business and could really use your Fall vacation dollars to help rebuild! So please check with Apple Hill Farm directly.
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest area Park, Trail and road repairs.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
I found Apple Hill Farm – a working Alpaca textile farm – when I was hiking out in the Grandfather Mountain area few weeks ago.
I was looking for an activity to take a break from hiking (uphill!) in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, but was still outdoors.
Apple Hill Farm was the perfect find! It’s a working textile farm on the site of an old apple orchard that offers farm tours, and even has a fiber gift shop on site.
Alpaca graze at Apple Hill Farm.
The farm was started in 2002 by a single Mom (and cancer survivor) with just 2 pregnant female alpacas and one young male.
Today Apple Hill Farm is home to 9 kinds of animals: alpacas, llamas, angora goats, zebu cattle, horses, pigs, donkeys, chickens, and livestock guardian dogs.
The farm site includes 15 fields, 4 barns, and a farm store on 43 acres of land.
They’re still a working textile farm, and lucky for us, they now also give visitors educational tours of the farm all year round.
Read on to learn about my tour, and how you can visit too.
The Blue Ridge Parkway runs through or very near areas of North Carolina and Virginia that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
The North Carolina section of the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed, along with many other NC State Parks. That said, the Virginia side of the BRP and many surrounding communities are open for business and could really use your Fall vacation dollars to help rebuild!
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest area Park, Trail and road repairs.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
I’ve been driving the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) in North Carolina and Virginia to get between places for more than 25 years.
But, I have to admit – until the last couple of years – I have completely neglected Blue Ridge Parkway hikes!
Then last year, a hiking friend introduced me to the Rock Castle Gorge trail near Rocky Knob on the BRP. Ever since then I’ve kept an eye peeled for new Parkway hikes I could try.
Tunnel beneath the BRP on a carriage road at Moses Cone Memorial Park.
And this summer… I found some! 🙂
This past season, I hiked some trails in and around Grandfather Mountain State Park (more on that later) and found myself driving the Parkway more than once to get from my lodgings in Banner Elk, NC to nearby trailheads and attractions.
One afternoon I finished a hike earlier than planned, and spotted Moses Cone Memorial Park on the way back.
It was a beautiful day, and I still had a couple of hours until sundown so I stopped to check it out.
Hike the carriage roads to the Flat Top Observation Tower.
I found beautiful grounds with 25 miles of hikes along old carriage roads, including a 5-mile RT hike to the Flat Rock Observation Tower!
Read on to learn more about the Flat Top Tower hike in Moses Cone Memorial Park and all of the other beautiful bridle and hiking trails you can experience there, too.
The Shenandoah National Park is right on the edge of the areas of North Carolina and Virginia that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
That said, the Park is open and many of the surrounding communities are open for business and could really use your Fall vacation dollars to help rebuild!
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest Park, Trail and road repairs.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
I made the journey to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia again last Spring, specifically to (finally!) hike the iconic Old Rag summit hike.
Until this year, Old Rag was my Moby Hike – the one that got away!
It was the hike that got away – my Moby Hike!
I’ve had plans to hike Old Rag for the past three years – but each attempt was thwarted by weather or logistics.
So I went back to try again – and I’m so glad I did!
It was a perfect-weather weekday in May before all of the families started their Summer vacations, so there were other hikers on the trail, but the place wasn’t over-run.
There’s a long rock scramble to the mountain’s summit that works better with some teamwork – especially if you’re a little bit vertically challenged, like I am 🙂
I conquered Old Rag, then I found a couple of other rock-scrambly hikes in Shenandoah that were a little less daunting to do the next day.
Read on to learn how you can hike Old Rag, and those other hikes too!
I’ve been exploring and hiking on trails in North Carolina for more than 20 years, but one thing I’ve neglected – partly because they don’t have many long hiking trails – are the State Natural Areas.
Though not great for hiking North Carolina State Natural Areasare good for exploring nature and different habitats in a fairly small space.
This kind of place can be an exciting outdoor adventure for small children, like your kids or grandkids.
Mitchell Mill State Natural Area in Northern Wake County is one such very unique spot to explore.
The 93-acre site is a Registered Heritage Area, and sits atop one of the largest granite domes on the east coast, called the Rolesville Batholith.
Plant life from lichens to full grown trees sit atop the Rolesville Batholith.
Mitchell Mill State Natural area protects this Paleozoic-era granite, and also houses a fragile and rare ecosystem, including native plant communities that can only grow in such a “granitic flatrock” environment.
Read more to learn how you can visit and explore this unique State Natural Area!
