[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from Blackwood Farm Park in Orange County as we take you hiking and biking across the state.

We'll learn all about e-bikes, go cycling in Surry County, and take an epic hike across the Linville Gorge.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - Hi everyone, welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week, we're taking you across the state hiking and biking.

Right now I'm at Blackwood Farm Park in Orange County, halfway between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill.

And this park, which is over 150 acres, has just been reopened with new trails and historic sites.

We'll explore more throughout the show, but first, you may have heard about a rise in popularity for e-bikes and wondered if an e-bike might be right for you.

Well, we sent Rick Sullivan, who is an avid cyclist himself, to go check it out.

[cheerful music] - [Rick] Walking with the family and dogs used to be a daily ritual for Kim Desselle of Cary, but this wife and mother of two suffers from increasingly reduced mobility due to painful psoriatic arthritis.

Good news though, walking has given way to a less inflammatory method of exercise, bike riding.

- [Speaker] Good form, good form.

- [Rick] Specifically an electric bike.

- I used to walk for exercise every day.

Where I have my arthritis the most is in my feet and attacks my joints, my ankles, and my heels primarily.

So I'm not able to walk anymore.

But since I wanted to exercise and he's a cyclist, he had the idea of getting an e-bike to help me try to exercise and stay active.

- [Rick] Kim's husband, Gary, routinely trains alone at high speeds and long distances.

But with this e-bike, Kim can now join him for some of those rides.

Her bike can reach speeds of up to 28 miles per hour with pedal assistance.

It can also go as fast as 20 miles per hour with only a throttle, no need for her to pedal.

- It's worked better than I thought it was gonna work.

I didn't think I would like it at first.

I was a little nervous about how fast it might go, but it's been great.

We've been able to spend time together, which is fun, doing something that he loves.

I'm learning to love cycling now.

I used to like it and I'm able to get the exercise I need since I can't walk anymore.

- I was anti electric bikes until I got on one and now seeing her on it and what she can do versus before, I could say I get it now.

She's able to keep up where she would struggle before and have a hard time with just getting up the small hills that we encounter on some of the trails around here.

And now she just hits them no problem and usually goes a little faster than I do and I found myself having to keep up with her.

- [Rick] E-bike capabilities are divided into categories.

The most popular e-bikes are classes two and three.

Class two e-bikes can throttle or pedal assist up to 20 miles per hour.

Class three bikes can hit 28 miles per hour with pedal assist.

E-bikes are typically heavier than conventional bikes, but their capabilities for on-road and off-road riding can be just as diverse as the unpowered bikes.

- [Kim] I've been on the greenways.

I've been a little bit in some dirt, on the bridges, on the roads, sidewalks, and it has handled all of the terrain beautifully.

It just goes over everything.

- I didn't expect the level of quality.

There's a nice interface that it came with.

Nice lights, brake lights, so she's visible for out a little bit close to dark, and the battery charges pretty quickly.

- I think one of the first myths is that every e-bike has a throttle on it and you can sort of ride it like a scooter, but that's in fact the minority of products we sell have a throttle option.

- [Rick] One of the many e-bike dealers in North Carolina is eBike Central in Greensboro.

This is one of the few sellers in the southeastern United States that deals exclusively with e-bikes.

The showroom here at eBike Central keeps a healthy variety of e-bikes in stock and customers are encouraged to sample.

- Because so many people have not seen the product before, you're simply not gonna buy it if you can't see and test it.

We try to have a variety of models, also sizes, and some of the different components or accessories so people can get a feel for the e-bikes in general by seeing and testing maybe a few bikes.

And then we can always order a bike if they don't find something here in the store.

- [Rick] But you can find a bike for pretty much anyone who is willing to consider the many possibilities it could be used for.

- We think a compact bikes being the smallest with smaller wheels that even fold.

So we've had bikes fit in airplanes, vans, buses, RVs and boats.

Then we get into something like a cargo bike that can carry up to five or 600 pounds and up to three children.

Another category would be off-road bikes if you want to go mountain biking.

Then the most common category would be urban bikes, anything with fenders and a rack that can be sort of general use either for errand running or just going out and having fun and getting exercise or commuting.

- [Rick] The concept and feel of pedal assistance is hard to describe, but it's a good feeling.

eBike Central store manager Eric Jackson was a college bike racer before he was exposed to e-bikes.

He could produce plenty of wattage on his own, but he still digs riding an e-bike.

- How it felt for me the first time riding one of these bikes, it felt like I was like four or five when you're first riding without training wheels and that helper, you know, my dad pushing me along.

- [Rick] It's a subtle thing, sometimes even hard to know if it's working until you bump the control up to the next level and get a little extra help.

It's also easy to turn off the assistance and go it alone for an old fashioned ride, but why would you do that when you can do this?

[bikes whirring] - There are dozens of quality bike shops selling e-bikes in North Carolina.

eBike Central is one of the few that deals exclusively with e-bikes and their showroom is at 400 State Street in Greensboro.

You can find them online at ebikecentral.net or give them a call at 888-876-6473.

I'm with Peter Sandbeck, a cultural historian with Orange County, and right now we're standing in front of the old Blackwood farmhouse.

Peter, what can you tell me about the history of this place?

- When Orange County purchased this in 2001, they didn't really realize that this 152 acre piece of land covered the entire history of this region from the Indigenous people to the transformation of farming in the 1940s and '50s.

And as we started to study the land and develop the land into a park, we hired archeologists to do an archeological survey of the park.

We had historians do research and we studied the buildings to learn more about them.

And we learned incredible things, lots of evidence of activities of some of the early Indian tribes here, Sissipahaw, the Occaneechi and others making tools and they leave flakes of special stone.

The archeologists identified those.

And then we learned that starting in about the 1740s and '50s, a whole bunch of Quakers moved into this area to start settling the area along the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.

And by the 1770s, one of the Quaker settlers, Mr. Marlett, had purchased the house and started farming here.

As the Quakers started to understand the nature of the slavery system of this area, they began leaving.

The Strayhorn family purchased the farm after that.

James Strayhorn was a successful planter.

He raised all kinds of crops and developed this land as an active farm.

He ended up, at the time he died in 1849, having 16 enslaved workers living here on his land.

And we know through his will the names of all those 16 workers, which is an amazing thing.

You don't often know that.

Our archeologist discovered a burial ground for the enslaved workers off in one corner of the property.

Very sacred site today.

We've cleared that out and identified 34 graves up there and that is now marked with an interpretive marker as part of our hiking trail system, so people can see that.

- It's amazing that someone would know and recognize this as a burial ground.

- It is amazing, you know, archeologists do this on a regular basis and they were able to identify 34 graves total, and 14 of those were children.

And I think we knew that Strayhorn owned 16 enslaved workers when he died.

But what this tells you is that these are families that grew up here, lived here, worked here, died here , and over several generations.

And so you think of, oh, he owned 16.

Well, there were many, many more members of the families here.

And just seeing the 34 graves helps me understand that.

And when people come here today and they read the sign, they get very quiet and peaceful and it's almost a place to contemplate and a sacred space almost.

It's a very important stop on the trail.

And then when Strayhorn was here, he built a new farmhouse in 1827.

There's amazing carved stones in the chimneys that show the date of that construction and then expanded the house.

And eventually after his death, the farm went into kind of disuse in the 1850s and '60s.

We think family members leased it and nobody really lived out here until Herbert and Alice Blackwood purchased it in 1906 and then they kind of rejuvenated the farm, rebuilt the farmhouse and added all these farm buildings, barns, chicken coops, corn cribs and that kind of thing.

And developed a real active farm with their eight children out here.

And they continued to own it in the Blackwood family until we purchased it in 2001 from Nannie and Mary Blackwood.

And we're very grateful for that family for kinda holding onto this land until we were able to put it into this use.

- A terrific destination for visitors to Orange County.

Love it.

- It is, it is.

[gentle music] - Blackwood Farm Park is at 4215 North Carolina Highway 86, right between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill.

And it's open daily from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

To find out more, visit orangecountync.gov and look for parks.

It's so pretty and spacious out here.

It really is a wonderful place to bring the family.

And if you're looking for more picturesque views as well as some great biking, let's go along with Rick Sullivan 'cause he found some in Surry County.

[cheerful music] - [Rick] Surry County's natural beauty is on par with any location in North Carolina and cycling is one of the best ways to experience it.

The most visible and famous geological feature is Pilot Mountain.

It can be seen from most any high spot within 20 miles, but the county has over 500 miles of roads that it calls scenic bikeways, roads that are favorable for scenic and or challenging bike rides.

- I think Surry Scenic Bikeway really stem from the fact that cycling has been a huge pastime for a lot of people in Surry County.

I moved here 17 years ago and became passionate about cycling, joined up with a lot, I met a lot of new friends through cycling.

- [Rick] The county decided to hire Dave Petri, a marketing consultant, cyclist, and local resident to make bike riding in Surry more navigable and practical, something that might attract more bike riders to the area.

- I think the county recognized that it had a great asset for cyclists to come and ride.

Rolling Hills, flat roads, climbs up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

- [Rick] Petri put his marketing and bike skills to work, making surryscenicbikeway.com a more powerful website tool for cycling anywhere in the county.

- I set out and created GPS tracks for all the Surry Scenic Bikeway routes.

There's four loops and three spurs.

I digitized them, created downloadable Garmin tracks, Google Maps with the routes on 'em and had the information that you could do the route either clockwise or counterclockwise.

- [Rick] These are Petri's video clips from his travels on the Surry Scenic bikeway.

At the website, you can download digital maps for the bikeway or you can order a free hard copy map.

Points of interest are notated.

- Breweries and wineries and restaurants and places you could stop and rest.

- [Rick] In fact, stopping in Surry County doesn't even have to be about the rest.

Visiting any one of the dozens of wineries and breweries now populating the area is a frequent routine for local and visiting riders.

[indistinct chattering] Jan Kriska owns Thirsty Souls Brewery in Mount Airy.

He's also ridden some of the most popular bike destinations in the world.

- We have more, it's just all these sites have just one thing, which are great at, but we've got roads.

[bike whirring] We've got wine, we've got breweries, we've got urban stuff.

We also have natural stuff.

We've got 12 months of riding, which you don't get that when you go north and you don't get that when you go south because it's too hot.

And if you really feel like it's hot, you just climb up the mountain and it's 7 to 10 degrees less.

- I would consider Surry County a world class destination.

I think what's unique about Surry County for cycling is it has everything a cyclist I think would want to challenge them.

It has flat, straight, flat waves where you can really get up a good sprint.

It has rolling hills where you're changing your speed and your technique for riding as well as the opportunity to do some serious climbing.

Here at Pilot Mountain, you can climb up to the top of the Pilot Mountain.

It's about a 1,200 foot, 1,300 foot climb with 9%, 10% grades at at certain points.

If you wanna go go riding and see just the beautiful rural countryside, this is a place to go do it.

- [Rick] For anyone who takes the bikes to Surry County for a day trip, you'll find lots of valuable information to make your ride more safe and more fantastic by going first to the bikeways website.

But if you're making an overnight visit, here's an insider tip for lodging.

Most every winery has onsite lodging and is located near a Surry Scenic Bikeway.

- To find out more about biking in Surry County, go to surryscenicbikeway.com.

We came to High Point University just in time.

Now, the theme of this episode is hiking and biking and we focused a lot on the biking, but that's because we wanted to save space for our last story, which is pretty epic.

Our producer Miriam McSpadden has some experience as a backpacker, but her husband not so much.

So when they decided to take a hiking trip recently, she also decided to take her camera along and record the highs and lows of their adventure.

- Hey, we're Brian and MJ.

We've been married for the last eight years and we are full-time filmmakers, which means we're typically behind the camera.

But for this story, we thought it would be fun to take you along with us.

I grew up backpacking with my family in the mountains of Oregon my whole life, but Brian has never been backpacking before, so we thought it would be fun to take you along on his first backpacking trip.

- Before we get on the trail, we had to learn about the gear we need while we're out here.

We visited our friends at Great Outdoor Provision Company and learned about all the gear that is available.

- Welcome.

- Hi, I am Brian.

- Good to meet you, I'm Chad.

I manage Great Outdoor Provision Company's Chapel Hill, North Carolina location.

We're a local outfitter with nine outlets in North Carolina and Virginia.

I understand you need some gear.

- [Brian] Yeah, I'm a first time backpacker and just wondering what I need.

- Super, I've got all kinds of ideas.

Let's get started.

Well, footwear is where it all starts.

It's where the rubber meets the road.

People think that the height of a boot is what determines its ankle support.

In fact, it's the mid sole that determines a boot's ankle support largely.

Start your lacing at your toes and cinch a firm tension all the way up.

A leather boot should start off comfortable.

You should know that it's gonna get more comfortable over time as it conforms to your foot.

[gentle music] So much like footwear, finding the right fit in backpack is just of critical importance.

This is the the Osprey pack sizer.

Connect the buckle there in the front.

Grab a hold of the tail of both of these pieces of webbing.

You're gonna move 'em forward and backwards.

It's gonna allow your hip crest to find the the window here on the side.

And what I'm gonna do is read the back of this to find where that bump in your neck is, that C7 vertebra.

And that'll help us determine what pack size to go with.

It's a 50 liter pack.

Take your heaviest stuff, like maybe your water, and you're gonna try and keep that as close to your body as you can.

Your camping mattress can strap to the outside.

You've also got a place where you can put your water bottles or you can put tent poles here.

[gentle music] - [Brian] It feels really good.

Ready to do 30 miles.

How many miles are we doing?

- [MJ] We haven't decided yet.

- [Brian] Many miles.

- Now it's time for us to think about your home on the road, your tent.

- So we'll probably be looking more so at a two person tent.

- Sure, and a two person tent can still feel plenty spacious.

There's a rain flight that goes over this as well that makes it fully sealed.

So even the biggest storm, you're not gonna get any water in.

And a high quality tent like this doesn't have prominent seams on the floor.

And the ones that are there actually have seam tape over them, so you're not gonna have water oozing its way up on the ground.

Some people have called these essentials for the trail.

We've got some sunscreen and some insect repellent.

You need a way to navigate that doesn't rely on batteries and technology.

A knife is a great thing, a folding knife is good.

Some people use multi tools.

Headlamps give you light around camp.

You need some way to start a fire.

You need either an extra layer or an emergency shelter like we have in the super bivvy.

To safely drink water in the back country, you need to filter it.

Food has evolved, really high quality foods.

They just take five minutes and you're eating on the trail.

We've moved more and more to butane isopropane.

You open the valve, you light a match and you're cooking.

Always important thing is some sort of a med kit and Adventure Medical kits has been a provider of these for many years and they do a great job of picking out the most essential items.

- I think we're ready to go on the trail.

- That sounds good to me.

- We are at the trailhead now with my new friend, Jim Grode.

And Jim, can you tell us a little bit about what the MST is?

- Sure.

The MST Mountains-to-Sea Trail is North Carolina's flagship state trail.

It stretches from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Jockey's Ridge on the Outer Banks.

It's a beautiful trail and a great way to learn more about North Carolina.

So we're big advocates for leave no trace principles.

First of those is plan and prepare.

Second is stick to trails and overnight right.

And that means stay in established places.

Third, trash your trash.

If you bring it in, take it back out with you.

Similar to that is leave it as you find it.

Not only should you not leave what you brought in, but you shouldn't take things out that were already there.

Be careful with fire.

Use a campfire ring if you can.

Keep it small.

Keep wildlife wild.

Don't feed the bears, don't feed the deer.

And last, be considerate of others and share the outdoor.

- [Brian] We're super lucky you're going to be joining us for the first few miles.

- I am really excited to get to hike with you for a little while, so let's get going.

So this white dot here is the symbol of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

This means that there's a turn coming up.

The two dots are angled in the way that shows you which way to go.

One of the things that I love about hiking and backpacking is stopping to see what's around.

You can hear the sounds around you better.

Build in time to stop and just soak in what you're doing.

Well, I think I'm gonna turn around here, but I've really enjoyed hiking with you.

I hope you have a great trip.

- Really appreciate all the advice and looking forward to updating you on how the rest of it goes.

[gentle music] [water splashing] - That tastes good, it's cold.

[gentle music] We came from all the way down there.

That was tough.

- We're gonna set up our tent, make some dinner, and get some sleep.

[objects rattling] [water running] - Good.

It tastes perfect after today.

- [MJ] 8:38, we are in bed - And we are ready to go to sleep.

- [MJ] Yeah.

All right, good night.

- Good night.

- After our perfect weather yesterday... - It's raining this morning, but we got coffee.

We got packed up, feeling better than last night, and we're ready to knock off some more miles.

- We're hoping that the rain will let up at some point.

It's gonna be a bit of a soggy day.

We realize that we forgot a waterproof covering for Brian's bag.

Inside his backpack are a few dry bags that will help keep his clothing dry.

- [Brian] Thanks to selling me on these waterproof pants.

They're coming in handy right now.

- And the rain is really picking up again a lot.

Oh, you got water in your shoe.

Yesterday, it was the uphill that kicked our butts.

And today, it's the downhill.

- Just taking a nice little rest.

- At mile 10-ish.

Got an exciting obstacle ahead of us.

- I unfortunately didn't bring water shoes, so I'll be doing this barefoot, but it doesn't look too deep.

- Wow, it's cold.

Are you okay?

- Yeah.

- [MJ] Oh my gosh, we crossed that!

- [Brian] It was a rainy day, but it's a beautiful evening now.

We're just gonna enjoy it.

[gentle music] [spoon tapping] - Our final morning.

- Last climb.

[gentle music] - [MJ] I think we made it to the top.

- [Brian] It was hard.

It's beautiful up here.

Now we're gonna hike back to where we dropped off our car at the end and go home.

[gentle music] - We made it!

And it's something that I've dreamed of doing for a long time and I'm really proud of you.

I think I might cry.

So a good job.

[gentle music] - To plan your hike along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, go to mountainstoseatrail.org.

And for more great trails around the state, visit Great Trails NC.

And for more trail adventures around the state, visit greattrailsstatenc.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show!

We've learned a lot here at Blackwood Farm Park here in Orange County.

It's so beautiful out here.

Just a perfect place to bring your family for a picnic, hiking, or even to learn a little bit of history.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Or you can find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[cheerful music] ♪ [cheerful music continues] ♪ [cheerful music continues] ♪ [cheerful music continues] ♪ [cheerful music continues] ♪ - [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[cheerful music]