I wanted to surf, but grew up a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. I wanted to be a synchronized swimmer, but the only guys who did it were these two. I wanted to play pro football, but my hair hurt when I took off the helmet. So I did other things. Things that a 12-year-old didn’t have to hitchhike a thousand miles to do. Things it was socially acceptable…

Everyone in the Triangle is atwitter over the looming winter weather event, which, according to whom you’re listening, could bring rain, a dusting, enough snow to cancel a planned trucking in of snow to Cary’s Bond Park, enough snow to make Vancouver envious. And we’re atwitter as well, meaning you can follow the advance of this storm of the century/decade/year/month/weekend on our Twitter feed, at JoeAGoGo. Every hour or so…

I’m a sucker for a good snow forecast, and far more often than not I get burned. But on the off-chance the current forecast for a major winter weather event in the Triangle holds true, I would be remiss not to share some of the best places to take your boogie board on Saturday and repurpose it as a sled. Granted, just about any slope — and there are lots…

I love carrots, crave them. Couldn’t press on without ‘em. If I can’t envision a carrot in the distance, I’m hard pressed to roll out of bed and go for an early morning run or ride, let alone in 20-degree weather. So today, a few carrots to motivate you through the cold challenge of winter. Tame the Tyger River Race and Festival 7.75-mile race/recreational float on Class II water April…

Raleigh’s Dana Hughens likes to stay fit, isn’t crazy about gyms, likes to be outside, but admits to being a “bit of a wimp in cold weather.” She took up running, ran her first marathon — City of Oaks — in November. She’d like moving outdoors to be more of a family thing; Alas, her 8-year-old son Jackson “is extremely artistic & sometimes more ‘indoor-inclined.” Any thoughts, she wondered, on…

Kids in the Eastlake and Capitol Hill neighborhoods of Seattle didn’t have a lot of fun places to ride bikes. Then the folks from the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance built the city’s first urban mountain bike skills park in the I-5 Colonnade Park. Kids in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan were in a similar situation until a couple of local mountain bike clubs — Concerned Long Island Mountain Bicyclists…

The emailroom here at GGNC gets inundated with enewsletters, and frankly, most are enews in ename only: most are eblabla. The staff is instructed to throw most in the circular efile. The January 2010 enewsletter from the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is an exception, chock full of news on several fronts. We’ll get to those fronts in a moment, but for the benefit of those of you not familiar…

OK, I’ve heard enough kvetching of late about the weather. Or did I mean to say I’ve done enough kvetching of late about the weather? Either way, the weather of late has been less than inviting. However, as it is wont to do, the forecast that midweek called for rain and cold throughout the weekend has changed. Today is now supposed to be sunny and seasonal. Based on the tinge…

“What was that!?” a woman in our group asked. It was a question we all would have asked, if we hadn’t lost our collective breath. The noise had come from somewhere not at all far behind us. It emanated from a living creature, that much I could tell. And it was by far the loudest, most attention-getting noise I had ever heard emanated by a living creature. The ground shook,…

Until I start getting my greenway information up (see yesterday’s post), you can find information on your local greenways at the following parks & rec sites. Triangle Apex: Apex Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources — 7.7 miles of greenway. Cary: Cary Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources — 34 miles Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation — 7.5 miles Durham: Durham Parks and Recreation — 24.7 miles Fuquay-Varina: Fuquay-Varina Parks,…