Category Archives: Featured

Next weekend, long hike

If you’re a hiker who’s been sidelined by the cold and snow, you must be looking at the warmer forecast for this week, licking your chops and thinking, “I’ve got a lot to make up for.” Well, next weekend there are opportunities aplenty for making up. So you like to hike 20 or so miles in a month? How about covering it all in a day? Your options … . read more

Hikes You Can Do: Price Lake

Every Wednesday through Thanksgiving, GetGoingNC.com will feature a hike in North Carolina that just about anyone can do. It won’t be a long hike (though we may throw in a recommendation for going long), it won’t be strenuous hike (there could be a hill-climb option as well). The hikes will be timed to coincide with the changing colors of fall. This week, the 2.7-mile loop trail around Price Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway. read more

The state of preventive health in North Carolina

Two weeks ago I took the car in to get a burned-out headlight replaced. In the course of snooping around to see what else might be wrong, the mechanic looked at the odometer and asked, “You have the timing belt replaced yet?”

Of course I hadn’t, the timing belt being one of those crazy expensive procedures that involves taking apart the entire engine. “It goes, you need a new engine,” he was quick to note. Despite the fact the car was running perfectly, I had the timing belt replaced a few days later, giving little thought to the $650 price tag. A little preventive maintenance is worth not having the engine blow 50 miles from the nearest garage. read more

Hikes You Can Do: Panthertown Valley

Every Wednesday through Thanksgiving, GetGoingNC.com will feature a hike in North Carolina that just about anyone can do. It won’t be a long hike (though we may throw in a recommendation for going long), it won’t be strenuous hike (there could be a hill-climb option as well). The hikes will be timed to coincide with the changing colors of fall. First up: Panthertown Valley, a 6,700-acre oasis in the Nantahala National Forest near Cashiers. read more