When I'm in the US, I spend a lot of time in North Carolina, so it's become one of my favorite places to hike. One of the best places for awesome hiking trails is on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. It has a bit of a dry name but the trail is unbelievably beautiful and stretches almost 2,200 miles long from Maine down to Georgia. I've probably hiked about half of it at one time or another and, let me tell you, it's never a disappointment.

The last time I hiked part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail I started in Asheville, North Carolina and walked two one day hikes from here that were stunning. The trails were in true wilderness in parts with no one around but, on both trails, the wonderful thing too were the other hikers that I did meet - many of them - all friendly, all helpful and all loving it. I even met a couple of thru-hikers, people who were planning to walk the entire length of the trail in one season.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail does have disadvantages to completely comfortable and easy hiking. There are black bears that are seen now and again and a few different types of poisonous snake that you should steer clear of. The bugs though are the most annoying part, especially in the northern regions (I hiked part of the trail in New York State one year and was almost eaten alive with mosquitos), so make sure you have your bug repellent with you and long hiking pants. But, the positives so far outweigh the negatives that, after a while, you don't even really notice the bugs or worry about the scary snakes. The views are spectacular (come on, it's the Appalachians, of course they're gonna be) and breathing the air in the higher regions feels like breathing pure oxygen it's so clean. There are also some really cool towns that the trail passes by. I recommend Harpers Ferry, West Virginia or Hot Springs, North Carolina as two pretty towns with nice people and only a stone's throw from some awesome hiking.

My next goal is to hike part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail in Pennsylvania because there are some ghost mining towns the trail runs through. Now, how cool is that?