I have lived almost all my life in East Tennessee living around the Cherokee Forest. Then had some adventures in the Nantahala and Pisgah Forests. But I see North Carolina has two more national forest systems, Uwharrie and Croatan Forests, and I was wondering what they are like.

I been looking at the North Carolina's Forest website, and it lists a couple ~20 mile trails. And I see the MST runs through the Croatan. Any good sights and camping opportunities on those trails?

And I see that the Uwharrie has a small wilderness area. Is it another good hiking area?

Uwharrie is huge with the 4x4 crowd great rock gardens

Uwharrie is a wonderful place. Great trails and good camp sites. The uwharrie trail is a 20 mile one way hike but the lower section can be combined with the dutchman's creek trail for a 20+ mile figure 8 loop. Birkhead mountain Wilderness has its own trail system that is rich in history and makes some great weekend loops. These are great places to take newbies or kids because the highest peak is Mt. Dennis at 900ft. so there are no long climbs. Be careful because this area is also popular with hunters.

The Neusiok Trail in the Croatan National Forest offers some very neat walking through salt laden estuary, deciduous forest, pocosin (elevated swamp), pine forest, and fresh water river, all over the course of 20 nearly pancake flat miles. It offers a shelter near the mid point and another mid-way up the northern half.

When I first hiked it in 1995, it was in rough shape, but since it became a part of the MST, it has received much better maintenance as well as the two shelters.

I filed an old trip report on a 2004 trip (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41341) to give folks a bit more of a feel for it.

A lot of reports that I had read on the Uwharrie talked about what a great area it was to hike in so we went and did an overnight there… I didn’t enjoy it. There are a ton of campsites throughout the trail but there isn’t a lot of diversity in the scenery and it was just a boring hike. We put in a good 8+ hour day and it was just repetitive and dull. It wasn’t that physically demanding, a couple of climbs that made your quads burn, but nothing too intense. Its highly unlikely that I’ll go back but there is no way that my wife would go back.

If you haven’t been yet then check out Panthertown Valley near Cashiers, NC. You get some balds, incredible waterfalls, and a lot of diversity in the scenery. If you go there just be sure to get a map…

My trip report on the Uwharrie (http://maritaladventures.blogspot.com/2008/10/uwharrie-national-forest.html) (long and rambles)
My trip report on Panthertown Valley (http://maritaladventures.blogspot.com/2008/10/panthertown-valley-national-park.html)(long and rambles)