Go short, go long, go fast: Those are among your options this weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
Whenever I run across someone who’s just been to Goose Creek State Park for the first time, their first comment is, “Wow! Why didn’t I know about this place?” Maybe it’s because it’s off the beaten path (it’s between Washington and Bath off a lesser traveled stretch of U.S. 264). Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have a famous landmark at it’s core (the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, Bear Island at Hammocks Beach State Park). Maybe because it doesn’t have easily accessed recreational opportunities, such as the rental canoes at Merchants Millpond State Park.read more
Sometimes when I’m at the gym, I look at the woman next to me on the bike, the guy across the way doing bench press, the class behind glass doing Power Yogalates (something like that) and I wonder, “Why are they here? What’s motivating them?”
Maybe that’s because I’m not entirely sure why I’m there. Yeah, it makes be feel good (afterward). Yeah, working out helps make it possible for me to backpack and mountain bike and paddle and a lot of the other things I like to do. And yeah, I know that staying in shape now will help ensure that I can continue to lead an active life later in life. For me, it’s an amalgam of reasons rather than one specific thing.read more
You’d expect scientific news about chocolate coming out of the Hershey Center for Heath & Nutrition to be favorable toward the brown elixir. And you wouldn’t be disappointed.
Chocolate, which recently has been embraced as the ultimate recovery drink by recovering athletes, has been deemed by the Hershey center as a rich source of antioxidants, those naturally occurring elements that helps us fight disease. Further, chocolate contains more polyphenols and flavanols than fruit juice. The testing found this property for antioxidants in dark chocolate and cocoa. (Hot chocolate was also tested, but proved not as rich in antioxidants because of the processing involved.read more
Fifteen years ago I took my first trip to Panthertown Valley, a 6,700-acre playground that some call the Yosemite of the East because of its abundance of waterfalls (19), towering (if not old-growth) trees and exposed granite domes. It was also to be my first try at backpacking solo.read more
A quick sampling of what’s going on around the state this weekend.
Coast
Sometimes it takes a push from our creative side to jump-start our active side. That’s one incentive for checking out Lake Waccamaw State Park’s monthly Nature Journal Hike. Once a month, participants, with journal and pen in hand, head out with a park ranger to explore this unique park 12 miles east of Whiteville in the coastal plain. Lake Waccamaw State Park is dominated by a 9,000-acre Carolina bay, one of thousands of oval lakes that dot the middle of the eastern seaboard — or once did, for many of the shallow lakes have long-since filled in. The lake (pictured) is the subject of this month’s hike, from 3-4 p.m. on Saturday. It’s free — even the journal is included.read more