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New 4th Edition of Bestseller Hiking North Carolina Invites Hikers to Social Distance Outdoors for Fall by Local Author Randy Johnson

Don’t let a pandemic keep you indoors—the brand new 4th edition of Hiking North Carolina is ready to safely entice you outside.

With social distancing in mind, the new edition of the bestselling statewide FalconGuide is full of less-visited trails. Even hikes to North Carolina’s must-see landmark locations are described with alternate starting points and strategies that make it easy to escape the crowds.

Randy Johnson’s expanded, completely updated guide details more than 500 hikes all across North Carolina. Johnson leads hikers through Southern Appalachian national forests, along the most scenic sections of the Appalachian Trail, and across the highest peaks in the East, home to the country’s most visited national parks (the Great Smokies and Blue Ridge Parkway). The book features hikes all across the Piedmont, in state parks, national military parks, and forests. On the Outer Banks trails tempt in Wildlife Refuges and National Seashores.

Readers can choose from challenging backpack trips, handicapped accessible adventures, hikes to photograph wildflowers and waterfalls, and urban greenway escapes. Easy family walks include close-to-home sections of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and a growing list of educational Kids in Parks “TRACK Trails.”

A Trail Finder organizes the options, and detailed entries offer accurate trailhead directions with GPS coordinates and GPS compatible maps, hike descriptions, mileages, difficulty ratings, elevation gains, and more for hundreds of hikes.

For those newly venturing outdoors as a reaction to COVID-19 claustrophobia, Johnson’s extensive introduction chapter reveals everything you need to know to safely hit the trail. He explores the climate and offerings of the state’s hiking regions, advises on what to carry and how to dress. He explains how to minimize impact on the environment, cope with trailside pests, practice good trail etiquette, and be smart and safe hiking with kids and dogs. The new book debuts as the first edition of Johnson’s guide reaches its twenty-fifth anniversary.

Randy Johnson’s outdoor and travel articles have appeared in some of the nation’s major newspapers and magazines. He started Grandfather Mountain’s backcountry trail program in the 1970s and is the author of the award-winning 2016 book Grandfather Mountain: The History and Guide to an Appalachian Icon. His 1987 book Southern Snow (a “cult classic” according to ski film pioneer Warren Miller) was expanded and rereleased in 2019 as the definitive guide to snowsports in the South. Johnson’s other bestselling FalconGuides include Best Easy Day Hikes Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway.

For nearly twenty years he was editor-in-chief of United Airlines Hemispheres magazine (named “world’s best airline magazine” in 2006) and editor of The North Face brand’s adventure website. Johnson is the Mountains-to-Sea Trail’s task force leader in the High Country from Grandfather Mountain to Blowing Rock.

Hiking North Carolina, fourth edition
FalconGuides® (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.) $24.95 Paperback
360 pages
6X9
61 maps, 118 color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-4930-460031
Summer 2020 www.randyjohnsonbooks.com