[bright music] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," we're experiencing our state one adventure at a time.

We'll hit the mountain bike trails in Old Fort, enjoy fresh oysters on the Outer Banks, and check out a rail line turned greenway in Hendersonville.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] 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] [cheerful music continues] [cheerful music continues] - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend," everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we're experiencing North Carolina in all kinds of different ways.

I'm at Horseshoe at Hub RTP in Research Triangle Park, part of a new 100-acre downtown destination featuring dining, shopping, entertainment, trails and all kinds of adventure.

Our first stop takes us to Old Fort, where producer Mike Fink joins bike pro Chad for a ride along the Old Fort Gateway Trail System.

Let's see what these guys got up to.

[lively music] - [exhales] Whew.

Welcome to mountain bike North Carolina, otherwise known as Old Fort, population 800.

Old Fort is quickly becoming North Carolina's premier mountain bike destination, and it is easy to see why.

Whoo!

Just 30 minutes outside of Asheville and in the foothills of Mount Mitchell, feels like everything in this town is linked together by this love of mountain biking.

You see it in the murals on the sides of buildings.

You see it in the breweries.

They've got trails for beginners.

They've got trails for more experienced riders.

- [Chad] Yeah, don't forget to breathe.

- [laughs] I'm lucky enough to have hiked and biked on trails all over the world, and I'm proud to say that North Carolina has some of the best of the best.

So come with me, and let's explore Old Fort on two wheels.

[bike rattles] [lively music continues] Old Fort is such a perfect mixture of old and new.

In some ways, it still feels like an old mountain town with its tiny population, and in some ways it feels like an up-and-coming outdoor destination with breweries and pubs and good restaurants on every single corner.

Everywhere you look, there's trails to explore.

There's mountains to climb.

There's things to do, and there's people that love everything that has to do with the outdoors.

To start our mountain biking journey, I'm headed to the Old Fort Bike Shop to meet my friend Chad, a local pro who knows these trails like the back of his hand.

- Old Fort, it has a small-town charm to it, but it has always been on the radar of mountain bikers.

This is the true first taste of actual mountain terrain from the east.

It's just lush green everywhere you look.

[birds chirping] [plaintive guitar music] - [Mike] Chad is taking me to the Gateway Trail System just two miles outside of town, 20 miles of varied trails with another 20 on the way.

Mountain biking is one of my favorite outdoor activities, and the best thing is with trails like these so close to town, anyone can do it.

- Bicycles provide the closest thing to flight, feeling like you're a bird flying down the trails.

[bike thuds and whirs] - Whoo!

[Chad laughs] - [Chad] What do you think, Mike?

- Love it.

- All right.

Being out in the woods and completely unplugged from any type of screen, you remember what it's like to live in your own body and your brain to just wander.

[laughs] I think that's something that's lost on today's society.

We don't just stop and look and take it in.

I think that inside there's a child that needs to play, and if we forget to let that kid play, then we lose part of ourselves.

[Chad laughs] Whoo!

When we do reconnect with that child and play, we see that child in other people, and that connection is extremely important for all of us.

Bikes bring us together without words.

- Old Fort.

- Old Fort, get out here.

- Whew.

Awesome.

Thanks, man.

[frenetic music] Before my next stop, I'm headed to the Watershed Brewery to fill up on some good vibes and some good, good barbecue.

And it's also a downhill mountain bike park.

[bike swooshes] Okay, let's try something just a little bit different, a little bit more slowly paced.

This is the Catawba Falls Trail.

This is the crown gem of easy hiking trails in Old Fort.

[gentle guitar music] How cool is this?

This is Catawba Falls.

So all up this side, you've got these incredibly beautiful waterfalls with this massive structure, 500 steps taking you from the bottom of the falls all the way to the top.

Ah, so cool.

The lower Catawba Falls is beautiful enough, so you don't have to climb the 500 stairs if you don't want to, but I wanna see what's at the top.

The difficult part is gonna be going back for my camera.

[upbeat music] Once I was at the top, I was blown away by this beautiful oasis and the biggest falls yet.

[gentle upbeat music] [water babbling] [water splashing] [gentle upbeat music continues] Old Fort is a tiny town that's been transformed by its love of the outdoors.

When you're here, you won't have any difficulty finding an incredible trail, great food, breweries, or just really, really cool people to meet.

And in just 30 minutes outside of Asheville, it is so close to so many people.

This town is a hidden gem, and I've had so much fun exploring it.

- To learn more about Old Fort's Gateway Trail System, visit g5trailcollective.org /gateway-trails.

Our next adventure takes us to the Outer Banks, where two cousins, Johnny and Marty, team up with farmers from around the area to serve fresh, locally sourced oysters at their pop-up bar and events.

Let's check them out.

[festive music] [seagulls crying] - So Cousins' Oysters really is the premier pop-up oyster bar on the Outer Banks.

Kind of the first catering company to come to your house, the grill, raw and roasted oysters, locally sourced, maybe harvested that day, within 48 hours, guaranteed.

So, just fresh local oysters anywhere you want 'em.

We do a lot of pop-ups.

You can find us at the Blue Point on Thursdays during the fall.

My name's Marty Martier.

I'm half of Cousins' Oysters.

Happy to be here with my cousin.

- And I'm Johnny Dilworth, the other half.

We just kind of fill in the cracks for each other, and, you know, over five years now, we've kind of put together this great oyster service that we felt like was much needed here in the Outer Banks.

- And we really are cousins too.

Ah!

- I always say we kind of channel our grandfathers sometimes, especially when we're doing like pop-ups.

- [chuckles] Yeah.

- Like, you know, I'm kind of in the front shucking, and he's more back of house on the grill.

And we think of like his grandfather Bob and our shared grandfather, Pappy or Chuck, and he was real personable and like over the top, and here Bob's there to be like "Get out," you know?

- Yeah, yeah.

[Johnny laughs] He was quiet, strong type that would just be kind of scary in the background.

- Yeah, and like, we know the day of who needs to be which grandfather.

- Yeah, exactly.

[laughs] - You know?

It's pretty funny.

[festive music continues] [oysters clattering] [tranquil upbeat music] We kind of use the grill as kind of like your gateway to enjoying them raw.

Our flavors were originally kind of inspired by like some sentimental stuff, like one of our most popular grilled oysters, we call it The Pappy after our grandfather.

He's Calabrian, so we have a Calabrian chili herb butter with Pecorino, Romano, and capers and some lemon and white wine and herbs.

And you have such a great vessel for flavor, and it's fun for us to kind of open people's minds a little bit with like, "Wow, I never had anything like this."

And then eventually they'll start eating them raw and just be hooked, hopefully, right?

- [Marty] You know, our mission at Cousins' Oysters is just to kind of be that bridge between the farm and the table.

So, that's us.

It's like we're kind of the middleman of like working very closely with these relationships with the farmers that we've built and being hands-on out there, harvesting as much as we can personally.

[upbeat music] - Hi, my name's Hans Tyler Hofe, and I'm co-owner and operator of Kinnakeet Oyster Company.

So Johnny and Marty, we have a mutual friend from Rodanthe who's big in the restaurant scene.

He knew that we had started this farm, and he said, "Hey, I wanna link you up with these guys.

They started a catering, you know, a pop-up raw bar kind of thing, and you need to give 'em a shout."

And at that point, we had just kind of started harvesting.

So we have Cousins' in Kinnakeet.

We've kind of come up at the same time.

- He called us out of the blue, somehow heard, and, you know, he was picking our brain on the market and what people were after out here.

And we kind of formed a good partnership with him early on and over the years getting to know him and his process.

- Most farm-raised oysters, not all, but most are raised on the top of the water column, so nothing's touching the bottom.

They're either in floating gear or a suspended long line.

So these bags hang from a wire in the first couple feet of the water column.

It's all about just kind of harnessing the wave energy from the wind, and it's just a constant kinetic energy over the course of their life that's pruning the oyster and producing this really dense shell, clean.

- We can tell while shucking oysters if they haven't been handled properly or- - Absolutely.

- Or if they've been forced to grow in too tight of cages with other oysters, and, yeah, you can tell a happy oyster for sure.

[lad-back music] [waves lapping] You just see his dedication, and, you know, he's made it his whole life, really.

And he personally feels responsible for the 750,000 lives he has in the water that he maintains and invests in for his future every year.

The handling of the oysters and the meticulous care is something you're not gonna get with a really large-scale farm.

- When people buy from us, it's like, this is my house.

I live upstairs with my wife.

I look at the farm from my couch as I'm drinking coffee.

You're getting a piece of us 100%.

So when people do find us, you know, I'm like, "They're my friend."

I can tell you the age of every oyster, you know, the story.

So, you're getting that.

It's just that's that kind of farm-to-table thing, you know, that's that connection with your food.

I mean, it doesn't get any more real.

[laid-back upbeat music] - [Johnny] So, yeah, the healthiest oysters come from areas that, you know, you have an influx of salt water, of course, and then you have clean water, and then you have a lot of wave and wind energy.

And I can't think of an area within hundreds of miles that suits that as well as the Outer Banks and the Pamlico Sound.

- [Marty] People do kind of underestimate the oyster production out of the Pamlico Sound, especially on the Outer Bank out here.

- The biggest is that they're putting the Outer Banks, Hatteras Island, Eastern North Carolina, showcasing the oyster of North Carolina, which people are sleeping on North Carolina.

They don't really realize what we've got going on here, but guys like that, they do a good job of showing what we got.

[upbeat music continues] - Cousins' Oysters is based on the Outer Banks and hosts pop-ups and events around the area.

For upcoming events and offerings, visit cousinsoysters.com.

In Concord, an old movie theater has new life as a place where people like to gather, eat, shop, and enjoy entertainment.

Let's see how they do it inside The District Exchange.

[bright electronic music] - We are a community hub, so we wanted to create a destination for downtown where all of our friends and families and community can meet under one umbrella and experiencing the building throughout the day.

- And it's the only two-story shopping, entertainment, dining experience in Cabarrus County.

- [Deborah] Tristan and Kristen Adamczuk are the owners of The District Exchange and chose a historic property in the heart of Concord's historic district to become a gathering place.

- [Tristan] It's an old movie theater.

It goes back nearly 100 years.

- [Deborah] It was called The Cabarrus Theatre.

When it closed, it became a bank, and when the bank closed, it sat empty until Tristan and Kristen decided to give the old historic structure another chance.

- For this to have a new life as The District Exchange is really exciting for us.

- It feels amazing.

It brought Concord downtown back to life.

- [Deborah] The way they did that was to create something for every interest.

- We have clothing, hamburgers, coffee, retail, a sewing company, popcorn company, a micro bakery, a barbershop, a vinyl record store.

Well, nail salon's in here.

It's just an eclectic group of people.

- The majority of them are micro retail tenants.

Three of them are anchors for the building.

So we have coffee, burgers, and a bar.

- [Deborah] Right in the middle is Bae's Burgers, [employee laughs] [laid-back music] a name given in honor of the owner's wife.

- It's just like a way of saying kind of babe, but bae.

- [Deborah] Their burgers are valued just as much, and it's what customers expect.

- Honestly, has to have some good flavor.

- [Deborah] Does this have good flavor?

- Yeah.

[utensil clanking] - So our burgers are smash burgers, and they're brisket, short rib, and chuck.

Then we have our regular fries, and we have our garlic Parmesan fries, which is a fan favorite.

- [Deborah] At the end of the building where the theater screen used to be is First-N-Flights for beer, wine, and spirits.

- So First-N-Flights is a tie into the North Carolina aviation community with North Carolina being first in flight.

Also, my husband and I are retired air traffic controllers, so we have directed a lot of flights in our life, and so now we're directing flights of beer, flights of wine, flights of whiskey and tequila.

- [Deborah] And that homegrown connection of all the businesses is important.

- [Tristan] Absolutely, majority of them are from this area.

It brings a lot of people together that believe in the same passion that this beautiful town has.

- They have really exceeded our expectations to what they have done here.

- [Deborah] Like Decadence Popcorn with over 60 flavors.

- We make everything fresh every day.

- [Deborah] That includes everybody's favorite, Carolina Blend.

- Caramel and cheddar cheese all in one bite.

It's addictive.

- [Deborah] And not only are they all North Carolina businesses.

They are unique.

- [Tristan] Yeah, we look for personalities, small businesses that are looking for an opportunity to grow their business, and eventually maybe the traditional storefront never worked out for them, where two to 3,000 square feet isn't what they're trying to sign their life away for.

[upbeat music] - [Deborah] Thanks to the variety of businesses, The District Exchange has something for everyone.

- It's very unique.

So in the morning, you may come in here and experience coffee.

At 8:00 AM, it's more of a relaxed feel where people are just starting to begin their day in downtown Concord.

And then throughout the day, it morphs into an energetic lunch crowd that will continue the shopping, get a burger, get some food.

And in the afternoon, it turns into a live music concert hall with bar, food, friends, family.

The community comes together and become a great hub for everybody.

- [Deborah] In other words, life at this historic property has come full circle.

- What's really special for us is that knowing that these bricks were laid and these beams were put in by people that knew this place was gonna be built for community and connection and entertainment, and yet this building sat for 50 years with no one in it.

It's exciting for us to see the community back in here and connecting and giving it that energy again.

- The District Exchange is at 22 Union Street North in Concord.

For individual store hours and information about upcoming events, visit thedistrictexchange.com.

Next, let's head to Hendersonville, where an old rail line has been transformed into a multi-use greenway system.

It extends a little over 19 miles from Hendersonville to Brevard.

Let's check out the Ecusta Trail.

[intriguing music] - I kept hearing murmurings about the Ecusta Trail coming to Hendersonville.

I was like, "That's where I wanna be.

That's where I want my future self to be."

It took me about a year to find a place, but, yes, I couldn't be happier living on the trail.

- The Ecusta Trail began a thought process about 15, 20 years ago, as the railway was not utilized anymore.

It kept developing and developing into what we now have as six miles of finished Ecusta Trail, and then it will go on into Brevard, our neighboring county, with about 11 to 13 miles in total.

With the Ecusta Trail, you may start at trailhead.

Welcome Center has maps to give the whole Ecusta Trail, to give other businesses that are along as well as what else is in Henderson County.

So there's just the vineyards, the breweries, just a multitude of different things that you can do.

- We started this brewery two years before the trail opened.

We knew the trail was coming, and that's why we called this Trailside Brewing 'cause we wanted to be right on the trail, and it was a great experience.

The trail has enhanced this experience.

It's really done a lot for us, and we love operating this.

When my wife and I started Trailside, we didn't want this just to be a brewery.

We wanted to be a community center, and it is.

Trailside Brewing is a community center first and a brewery second, and the trail has a lot to do with that.

A lot of the community that comes here is finishing a run.

They're finishing a bike.

A lot of 'em just hiked, and then they came down here, finished the day with a good beer right on the trail.

And we wanted this to be a community place, and it is, and we're really grateful to be a part of that.

- I love to hop on the bikes after working all day.

We'll come down here to Trailside, grab a quick IPA, ride our bikes back to Packa's Place, probably have another beer at Packa's Place, and then we head back up the mountain for the end of the day.

- All these businesses were waiting for this.

As soon as they heard, they popped up.

It's really a great sense of community for folks.

It's a place to meet, to join up.

We're fortunate enough that we can get to Lennox Station pretty easily.

We're in Horseshoe pretty close to Packa's Place.

So we'll come down.

We'll either walk or ride the bikes in for, you know, a tasty beverage, and they have a great IPA here at Trailside.

They have a lot of rotating tabs at Packa's.

So, in between you know, little exercise and a little cold beer, it's always a good thing.

- My favorite things about the Ecusta Trail, I think it's a great trail, first of all.

It's really wide, which is super convenient, because in town here, it tends to get a little more crowded.

It's a little less crowded out by Packa's Place, and it's just so pretty the whole way.

It runs right across a creek.

It's very quiet.

You don't have to worry too much about cars.

It just feels very peaceful.

- Other great qualities of the Ecusta Trail is, you know, it starts in downtown Hendersonville, takes you through some of the smaller communities, and then you get into the countryside, and it's just beautiful green areas.

And eventually you'll be able to go all the way down to Brevard, North Carolina, which is another great community.

So, it's just a great trail, great experience all around.

- I'm on it multiple times a day with my dog, Gumdrop.

I believe she was a Hurricane Helene dog, so she was a stray in Asheville.

When I got her at home, I realized that she loved adventure and to actually do more than just sitting around the house, and so, introduced her to running and to biking, and she loves doing those activities with me.

- The Ecusta Trail gave opportunity for folks to come, stay with us, be able to walk the trail, be able to ride the trail, but it also helps the local residents be able to get out, have that health benefit of walking, walking their kids, walking their pets, and being able to be a part of a community that is in this beautiful land that we call Henderson County in Hendersonville.

- Seeing people come in and having the ability to have a safe space to walk, run, jog, walk their animals, bike, is just so cool.

And it really has just elevated Hendersonville as a whole to be not only a destination place, but a place that people want to live and to be.

- You know, you can go 15 minutes down the road and end up at Packa's Place, where they have beefalo and the farm and just a really relaxed outdoor atmosphere where everybody's welcome.

It's just a great time.

- The Ecusta Trail, I think, is a gift to this community and the people who visit on a number of different reasons.

You can be an avid outdoorsman, or you can be just starting.

There's a lot of great people, a lot of great businesses along the trail, a lot of great folks just to welcome you and be a part of this great community.

So if you haven't done it, come on out, see us, see everybody else, and it's gonna be a great weekend.

- I went to high school in Hendersonville, never thought I would move back here, but the trail was such a big draw that it really shaped my present, and it will shape my future.

- The Ecusta Trail is currently still under construction, but the first six miles are now open.

For trail updates, visit ecustatrail.org.

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

We've had a great time showing the many different adventures you can enjoy across North Carolina.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, and you can find all of our stories on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[cheerful music] [cheerful music continues] - [Announcer] 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.

[bright music]