Length: 20.5 miles
Recommended Season:Year Round
Use: Medium to Heavy
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
USGS Maps: Morrow Mountain, Badin, Lovejoy, Troy
Trail Beginning: Trailhead parking on highway 24/27 10 miles West of Troy.
Trail End: Trailhead parking on SR 1306, 2 miles East of Ophir. Trail continues across Barnes Creek with sharp right but most of trail above this point is on private land.
Access: Three main trailhead parking lots access the trail. These include the beginning and ending points, and one on hwy 109, eight miles North of Troy. Other roads also cross the trail.
Description: The Uwharrie National Recreation Trail offers a variety of scenery, streams and rocky climbs. The trail can be hiked in long or short sections as the trail crosses several access points. The trail is marked with white blazes.
Attractions And Considerations: Dutchman's Creek Trail, marked with yellow blazes, starts at the same point as the Uwharrie Trail and was constructed as a loop system to be used as an alternate route when hiking the southern portion of the Uwharrie Trail. Dark Mountain on the northern portion of the trail offers an excellent western view. Camping areas along the trail include Woodrun Camp, Yates Place, West Morris Mountain and other primitive camps. Old house places, cemeteries, and gold mines exist along or near the trail.

Hikers can thank an old-time trapper's son, Joe Moffit of Asheboro for this trail. He blazed it almost 25 years ago. Moffit grew up in the Uwharries during the Great Depression and learned to live off the land at an early age. Moffit was a scoutmaster when he started the Uwharrie Trail project in 1972 to help his Boy Scouts earn their Eagle rank. They completed the 33-mile path in 1975 and founded the Uwharrie Trail Club.

There are plenty of streams in the forest but all drinking water should be treated with a water purification kit to prevent trail diarrhea. Ticks plague the forest and can be kept at bay with repellent or the new mesh clothing on the market. Always keep a watch for the trophy timber rattlesnakes and copperheads that live in these woods.

For more information, contact: Uwharrie National Forest. Rt. 1, Box 237, Troy, NC 27371, (919) 575-6391, or The Uwharrie Trail Club, P.O. Box 2073, Asheboro, NC 27203.