Target: King Mountain
Type: Highpoint
State: North Carolina

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The low slung hills of the Uwharrie Mountains are remnants of a once great coastal range, eroded by time and humbled by geology in the form of the rising Piedmont plains. Now barely clearing a thousand feet, man further reduced their grandeur by completely deforesting the entire range until large swaths received federal protection in the 1960s. The forest came back in some fashion and recreation took over from farming and grazing.

This is mostly a local’s playground. There’s a regionally famous network of 4×4 trails, a popular lake on western edge, and enough game to keep the hunters active during season. Almost everyone you meet is from somewhere nearby. The Forest is a utility of sorts, something that is used, even if that use is simply walking. And that’s part of the charm. These are small town churches, not grand cathedrals. Places where you can be a stranger and yet feel like you belong.

I chose a modest goal for this first adventure, number one of what is currently 216 destinations. I started with a simple highpoint, barely a few miles of total hiking, going to the top of King Mountain and back.

I arrived the night before, not sure what the camping situation would be. The Joe Moffit trailhead is pretty remote, at least for this area, and I was able to park and camp nearby with no difficulty. Despite being near a road (gravel) it was very quiet all night.

I took my time with coffee and oatmeal in the morning, then set out for the mountain. The trail was in bad shape, either from disuse or recent bad weather. There was a large section washed out and other parts were deeply rutted and muddy. Even so, it didn’t take long to get to the top.

Being my first time, I wasn’t really sure what I was trying to do yet. I sat down on a log, tried vainly to achieve some sense of momentousness, thought about what I could think about, and then eventually just sort of header back down. This is when I started to think there might be some flaws in my plan.

I started this checklist as a way to get out and experience things I might not otherwise do. My first checkbox had turned into exactly that, not an adventure, not an experience, just a mark on a metaphorical paper and an empty sense of achievement. As I drove on the Pisgah I realized that this was never going to work as long as I was looking forward to the next thing. When I was in a Forest or Park I needed to be completely there. I needed to to get to know the place a little, maybe accomplish a goal, and then take time to understand what I had done before moving forward.