GetHiking! on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at Falls Lake

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NOTE: If the above map doesn't work (and it likely won't), to get to the meeting point at Redwood and Tom Clark roads, take Exit 182 off I-85. Go Right on Red Mill Road, then a quick left on Gorman Church Road. Follow it under I-85, then onto Tom Clark Road. We'll meet about a quarter mile up, where it elbows into Redwood Road.

As part of the Triangle Land Conservancy's Wild Ideas: Getting Outside forum (see the March 3 event), we'll be hiking about 10 miles on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. We'll hike the last 10 miles (9.7 for you sticklers for accuracy), starting at Pennys Bend and hiking to Redwood and Tom Clark Roads. (The four-mile group will stop at the first crossing of Red Mill Road.) This stretch of the MST at Falls Lake has a little of a lot: swamp passages, tromps through meadows, sections along remote portions of Falls Lake and on bluffs overlooking the Eno River. A good opportunity to catch some early spring wildflowers. Not up for 10 miles this early in the hiking season? There's also a four-mile option.
We will start at Pennys Bend and hike downstream/lake. For a sense of where we'll be hiking, these are Day-Hike Sections R,S and T of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail; learn more about these sections here (http://www.ncmst.org/the-trail/plan-your-hike-2/trail-sections/section-26/day-hikes-at-falls-lake/).