Sock liners, hiking poles, hydration bladder ease the load

For the past two weeks I’ve been hitting local bookstores to promote my just-released “Backpacking North Carolina” (UNC Press). I talk for a few minutes about the book, show a slide show if I can figure out the projector, and, in a new twist added last night at Quail Ridge Books & Music, cooked dinner. The highlight is when I pipe down and the audience starts talking. read more

The weekend’s coming, the rain is going

Dry out this weekend by running over a bridge at the coast or through a warrior-making forest in the Piedmont. Or head to the mountains and get to know an experimental forest.

Coast

Technically, Saturday’s Run Like a Kid 2011 10K Bridge Run (and 5K and family run) is the inaugural Run Like a Kid across the bridge linking Morehead City with Atlantic City. But it’s not the first race across a bridge linking Morehead City and Atlantic City — though it may be the first on a bridge not at the bottom of the Intracoastal Waterway, which the bridge spans. That honor would go to Discovery Diving’s annual 4th of July Underwater Bike Race. That race is now run on the deck of the Indra, a landing craft repair ship intentionally sunk in 65 feet of water off the coast as part of the state’s artificial reef program. But in the early days, the underwater bike race was run atop the old bridge that once linked Morehead City and Atlantic Beach. But I digress … . read more

Do one thing: Watch those added sugars

Overhauling one’s diet can be overwhelming, what with every little nutritional nuance to keep tabs on. This week, instead of trying to ride herd over every aspect of your eating, focus on one: added sugars.

A study presented at the American Heart Association‘s recent Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions underscores what shouldn’t be surprising: added sugars contribute to weight gain. Data accumulated as part of the 27-year-long Minnesota Heart Survey, a surveillance study of adults ages 25 to 74 living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, showed a relationship between added sugars and body mass index. Seven surveys of the adults, ages 25 to 74, participating in the Minnesota Heart Survey were taken over its course, beginning in 1980. Here are the key findings: read more

Ten trips for 2011

Judging from the weekend forecast, a blanket of wet and cool will cover much of North Carolina this weekend. Not what you hope for on the first full weekend of spring.

But lots of great weather is ahead, which should help soften the damp blow. And what better way to spend a rainy weekend day than planning for your next sun-drenched outing — and indulging in a vicarious escape in the process. read more

This weekend: kite flying, paddleboarding, trail running

This weekend highlights some of the best North Carolina has to offer in the outdoors.

Coast

Not long ago, a biathlon/duathlon typically meant running and swimming. More and more, it can mean pretty much anything. Such as running and paddleboarding.

That’s the case at Saturday’s Wrightsville Beach Biathlon, where participants will depart from the dock harbor side at the Blockade Runner, paddle four miles through Banks Channel, hop off the board and run four miles ending on the ocean front at the Blockade Runner. The race kicks off at 9 a.m., proceeds benefit StandUp for a Clean Ocean read more

Explore the outdoors, discover yourself.