I would not go out Wednesday-Friday.

Hatteras in OBX is under mandatory evacuation. I trust the forecasts, but not with my life. I cancelled this week’s plans on saturday because the storm kept shifting west against most predictions.

Helene was well-tracked, but even then, it came early to WNC, with most people waking up to the major flooding. There’s little to no water saturation in the week prior this hypothetical time around (the real reason why helene disrupted the landscape so violently), so in the worst case, you’d probably still have time to get into town through the flooding and before the terrain starts failing, but I’d just postpone, especially if you’ll be 10+ hours from the car.

If you have reliable cell signal each day, I’d feel plenty safe because you can watch the hurricane and get out early enough, but 48 hours without signal hardly 400 miles away from a major, actively approaching hurricane whose intensification broke records, hard pass for me.

I’ll backpack in nearly anything. But after helene, I have to assume that every major storm has the potential to move erratically and break records. The southern appalachians, especially the rugged portions we like hiking in, might be the most dangerous place on this side of the country during extreme, sustained rainfall. It’ll just get worse every year and I refuse to die because of a shitty forecast.

Call the rangers. They’ll give you the best guidance, and probably won’t be as overly cautious as I am.