Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Started
The North Carolina 100-Mile Challenge is an initiative launched by North Carolina State Parks to encourage everyone to get outside and explore our trails and waterways.
North Carolinians can walk, hike, run, bike, paddle, roll, ride or skate anywhere in the North Carolina outdoors to complete their 100 miles.
Visit nc100miles.org and click "Register". This will take you to the registration page. Complete the registration form, and you will receive an email confirming your registration.
The challenge must be completed in North Carolina. You do not have to be a resident of North Carolina to sign up for the challenge. Apart from that, there are no restrictions on where you complete the 100 miles — whether you walk around your neighborhood, hike at a state park, run at a city park or bike at a national park, it all counts towards the 100-Mile Challenge.
To comply with state policy on children's privacy, we require that participants with individual user accounts are aged 13 or older. Children younger than 13 years old but want to participate in the challenge may do so by having their parent or guardian sign up for an account and then add them as a "buddy" on that account. The Buddy Miles feature allows you to add family members to an account if they can't create their own — whether it's a child under 13 years old, a grandparent without an email address or a pet. Buddy Miles allows you to keep track of everyone's mileage separately, and each buddy will also earn his or her own badges separately.
Memories and the satisfaction of knowing how hard you worked to get as far as you did. We’re proud of you!
Prize giveaways ended in May 2021.
In spring of 2016, we launched the 100-Mile Challenge program in our state parks by handing out challenge pamphlets, where people could write down their miles. The 100-Mile Challenge website allows people to keep track of their miles online, and it allows us to reach more people to invite them to join the challenge.
If you are already participating in the pamphlet program, you should create an account on nc100miles.org. You can either log your past mileage and continue making your progress to 100, or start the challenge anew.
This year's challenge ends on December 31, 2019. If you sign up for an account during the middle of the year, you can retroactively log your past hikes from this year.
Logging your miles
You must have an account on the NC 100-Mile Challenge website, and you must be logged in to your account in order to keep track of your miles. Once you log in, the right side of the home page has a box called "Log My Miles." Then:
- Enter the date you completed your activity. Getting some miles in on specific days will get you holiday badges!
- Select the type of activity you completed. You get separate badges for the miles you complete hiking, running, swimming, etc.
- Type in where you completed the activity: either at a park, trail or neighborhood. You get badges for completing miles at each state park. If you participated in a specific event, type in the event code to get a badge for that event. The box will show you suggestions as you type.
- Choose who completed the activity so the right person or buddy can earn the badges.
- Enter the number of miles you completed.
- Click "Add Miles." A small pop-up at the top of the page will let you know that the miles have been logged.
Log in to your account on the NC 100-Mile Challenge website, then visit the My Miles page. Here you can view and edit all the activities you've logged.
Yes! You can log any miles you've completed in the past.
By default, everyone's progress is kept private on our website.
Our website has a Find A Trail page to help you find trails near you. The list is currently limited to state park trails, but we will be expanding the list in the future to other trails in the state.
You can visit nc100miles.org on your mobile device to log your miles if you're away from a computer. Our website is mobile-friendly.
Badges are awarded for reaching certain milestones as you complete the 100-Mile Challenge. Some badges are awarded by number of miles, by doing certain activities, by completing activities on a certain date or by visiting specific locations.
You can see all the badges you can earn on the Trophy Room.
You will earn badges as you log your miles, so keep exploring North Carolina trails to unlock more badges!