Saturday, April 25 · 8:00am: Join us for the Foothills Group Conrad Road Adopt-a-Highway Service Outing

Join us for our community service event on Conrad Road in Lewisville as we prepare it for the spring blooms, picking up trash, recyclables, and other "interesting" things. It's rewarding to see a clean road at the completion of our task, and great fun to talk to others while we work. Safety vests, gloves, trash bags, and pick-up sticks will be provided. Wear layers and footwear to keep your feet dry. The pickup takes about 3 hours.Contact Joel Wooten for details at joeltotopmountain@gmail.com. The Sierra Club requires all outing participants to sign a standard waiver.

Check back here for our next Adopt-a-Trail Work Day on the Cumberland Knob Trail

Join us for our next Cumberland Knob Trail service day.

The Foothills group maintains the Cumberland Knob Trail, their adopted trail at Cumberland Knob Recreation Area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. At our last workday, Henry Fansler led Foothills volunteers at the recreation area to clear the trail. The Cumberland Knob Recreation Area  has restrooms, parking, picnic tables, and grills. Our trail will now be open for hiking, thanks to the hard work of the Foothills crew.  The trail has been cleared of fallen limbs and is ready for pruning and tread work. The trail is composed of three spur trails and is about a mile in length with a 100-foot change in elevation. We meet at the recreation area parking lot near the restrooms. Tools are provided, but if you have pruning shears, loppers, or garden rakes, please bring them along with work gloves. You will need hiking footwear, rain gear, water, and lunch.                                                                                         

The Foothills Group co-hosted several Forsyth Creek Week Events - March 21-29, 2026

See you next year at our Foothills sponsored Forsyth Creek Week Events!

                                          Photos from 2026 Forsyth Creek Week:                                                                                                                                              

                   Bethania Bottoms                                        Long Creek Park

FUTURE HIKES

Sunday, April 19, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM EDT: Hike Rock Castle Gorge Loop Trail - 11 miles - STRENUOUS!

This is a classic spring hike that used to be an annual tradition of the Sierra Club Foothills Group. Rock Castle Gorge is in the Rocky Knob Recreation area of the Blue Ridge Parkway between Stuart and Floyd, VA. The trail is an 11-mile loop trail with about 2,700' of total elevation gain along the way.
We start this loop trail at the bottom of the gorge along Rock Castle Creek and climb unrelentingly and seemingly endlessly (actually about 2.5 miles) up to the Blue Ridge Parkway at the crest. The trail includes beautiful rock-strewn meadows, lots of wildflowers, cows, cattle guard ladder crossings, rhododendron tunnels, and mountainside traverses, ending with a 4-mile descent along the gorgeous Rock Castle Creek. 

This will be a long day. It's a 1.5-hour drive to the trailhead, then about 7 hours of hiking to complete the loop. We will be starving by then, so bring some $$ for a stop at Stuart, VA's finest Mexican food restaurant before heading back home.
This hike is not for the faint of heart or weak of leg or lung. Wear sturdy, comfortable hiking boots/shoes, bring rain gear regardless of the forecast, and plenty of food and water. Trekking poles are also highly recommended.

PAST HIKES

We will have a special hike outing this month. On Sunday, March 29th, we'll enjoy a Slow Hike in celebration and honor of the life of our dear friend, Charlie Wilson.

Dr. Charles E. Wilson died January 19th at home in Winston-Salem.
Born in 1931 in New Jersey, he and Elizabeth, his wife of 67 years, moved to North Carolina. He leaves behind his devoted wife Elizabeth, three daughters, Susan Cuthbert (Oxford, England), Laura Porter (Greenock, Scotland), and Jennifer Chrysson (Lewisville, NC), and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Charles earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Newark College of Engineering, NY University, and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He served in the Air Force and as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the NJ Institute of Technology.
He authored and co-authored several engineering textbooks, some of which were translated into Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. An expert in noise and vibration, he did work for NASA and Mitsubishi during the Gemini space program.
A man of the outdoors, Charles loved swimming, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, skate sailing, and snorkeling. He marked and preserved walking trails in the woods and local mountains. He was active in the local and national Sierra Clubs and Natural Resources Committee, even in his 90's. Charlie has requested his memory be honored by a hike.
We'll meet at the Bethabara Park parking lot beside the Visitor Center at 2pm for a slow walk along the trails of Bethabara and the greenway.  We'll get to Charlie's home at 1173 Edgebrook Drive, arriving around 3:00.  We'll visit with Liz and Jennifer for light refreshments, then return to our walk back to the parking lot.  Anyone who would like to visit with the family but is unable to enjoy the walk is encouraged to visit with Liz and Jennifer and meet us there!

We'll meet at the Bethabara Park parking lot beside the Visitor Center at 2pm for a slow walk along the trails of Bethabara and the greenway.  We'll get to Charlie's home at 1173 Edgebrook Drive, arriving around 3:00.  We'll visit with Liz and Jennifer for light refreshments, then return to our walk back to the parking lot.  Anyone who would like to visit with the family but is unable to enjoy the walk is encouraged to visit with Liz and Jennifer and meet us there!
 
Please contact Henry Fansler at henryfansler@windstream.net or 336-473-0283 if you plan to join us.

Find Fortunes With Foothills Annual Yard Sale! 

Saturday, May 30th, 7AM-Noon, Parkway Presbyterian Church, 1000 Yorkshire Road, Winston-Salem, NC  

Join our journey on our Sierra Club Foothills Annual Fundraising adventure. Help recycle, find stuff you want, and support our mission to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places that make our region so special with activities that are free and open to the public.
Yard sale Donations will be accepted Thursday and Friday, May 28 and 29, 8 am to 8 pm at the Parkway Presbyterian Church. Questions? Call 336-382-0504