GetHiking! Classic Escape Weekend: Outer Banks Camp/Hike

Usually, when you head to the Outer Banks, your thoughts are on the beach, not the trail. Yet there’s some stunning hiking to be done, and this is the time to do it, when the temperatures cool and the crowds disappear.

From our base camp at the Oregon Inlet Campground, with the Atlantic lapping at your tent fly, we'll set out to explore a couple of trail networks unique in their own ways. Here's the general itinerary:

Friday: Arrive anytime after 3 p.m. to set up camp. We'll build a fire and roast hot dogs around 6, s'mores not long after that.

Saturday: We'll head up to the Nags Head Woods Preserve, a thousand-acre Nature Conservancy property that's home to one of the largest remaining maritime forests along the East Coast. On our 5-mile hike we'll see a wild mix of swamp, dense forest and open coastal sound.

Sunday: After a pancake breakfast we'll pack up and head to Pettigrew State Forest for another 5-mile hike, this time amid some of the oldest trees of their kind in North Carolina.

More details to come.

Fee: $85 includes Friday evening weenie roast and s'mores, pancake breakfast Sunday morning, camping, hikes, and eguide for the weekend, including details on both hikes and other things to do in the area.