Today’s 90-Second Escape: Garner’s White Deer Park.

I love discovering a new park, and was especially thrilled a couple years back when my daughter Hana and I discovered Garner’s White Deer Park, which opened in 2009. The park had a nice path for cycling — a path that was recently connected to Timber Drive by a one-mile greenway — fun playgrounds and fields for open play. And should you get tired of this park, cross Lake Benson Road to Lake Benson Park.

I did a short film on the park after we discovered it, decided it was worth revisiting today.

Enjoy.

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Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.

Today’s 90-Second Escape: First Dip of the Season.

First day of Spring Break for the kids, my step daughter’s 14th birthday, a promising forecast for the coast ... . It all added up to a trip to the beach on Friday — and the season’s first dip into the ocean. A chilly ocean, it should be noted, with the water temperature at Johnnie Mercer’s Pier a brisk 64. That’s about 20 degrees below the mid-summer average, btw.

For the record, it’s not an official dip until your head goes under. Was mine official? Take 90 seconds to find out.

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When I drive through a small town, I wonder what unsung recreational treasures are hidden within. Sometimes I get lucky and stumble upon them. And every once in a while I get a call from the director of a local parks and rec department asking if I’d like a tour. ...

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Paul Horne must have picked up on my perplexed look. I was staring at what looked like three pieces of modern sculpture plunked down in the middle of Mary Hayes Barber Holmes Park, a 10-acre greenspace that opened in 2009 on Pittsboro’s north side. If it hadn’t been in mulch, usually an invitation for play, I would have expected a chastising “Do not climb!” sign in front.

“It’s a climbing feature,” said Horne, Pittsboro’s park planner — and parks and recreation staff. “I’m told it has 5.10 moves.” Sure enough, small holds were carved into jungly creation, the work of a Colorado firm that makes climbing walls and structures.

“Our goal,” said Horne, “is to create a sense of place that reflects Pittsboro.”

Creating a sense of place and play would seem to be a tall order, especially in these days of tight municipal budgets. It's a truism of the times that has forced Horne, who’s been on the job four years, to get creative in his parks planning.

Take Mary Holmes Park. The 10-acre site was donated and the town found grants to cover much of the construction cost. Horne has also held costs down by keeping his eye out for good deals. For instance, many of the boulders strategically placed around the park came from a construction site that was eager to be rid of them. A woodworker, Horne, who grew up in Granville County and went to UNC, has helped with the “sense of place” mission by doing some of the less-demanding woodwork that helps give Pittsboro’s six parks their natural feel. And he’s constantly on the lookout for items that give a personal touch.

“C’mere,” he says, walking quickly through a light rain to a gazebo. “Look up.” From the rafters' apex a Nordic-looking god carved of wood stares down at us. “It’s a Green Man carving,” Horne says. “I pick them up when I find them and put them in places like this. I don’t know how many people notice them.”

In the end, an asset to the town valued at over $1 million cost Pittsboro about $30,000.

It occurs to me that this little recreational oasis off US 15/501 just south of the US 64 bypass would make a great leg-stretching stop for travelers taking the scenic route across the state. If only they knew it was here. There’s no mention of a park from the highway (unlike the heads-up you get for the nearby McDonald’s and KFC), and even from US 15/501 there’s only a small sign to suggest the fun that awaits two blocks in.

That’s more notice, though, than you’ll get for Pittsboro’s newest park, the 52-acre Rock Ridge Park located three miles south of town off US 15/501 — again, anonymously.

“I’m working to get a sign out here on the highway,” says Horne.

Rock Ridge is worth the search, however. The first phase of the park opened in September and includes a kilometer-long paved walking trail and play area that features two especially cool features: a German-engineered (“over-engineered,” says Horne) pendulum swing that looks like it’s not for the weak-of-stomach, and an 80-foot zipline. Horne initially wanted to run the zipline down a steep slope on the property (a hilly plot donated by 3M, which has quarry operations nearby), but that idea was nixed  as "too dangerous." There’s also a high fort, intended as an escape for kids but also a good aerie for parents to keep tabs on their kids, and hiking trails. Phase II of the park’s development calls for mountain bike trail. “I want to say six miles," says Horne, "but I’m not sure.”

In addition to building new parks, Horne is trying to spruce up Pittsboro’s longstanding ones. Thirty-six-acre Town Lake Park had become overgrown by invasive species. Efforts are underway to reclaim the park and lake, in part by yanking the strangling vines and underbrush that obscure the lake’s beauty. That will also enhance existing hiking trail at the lake and give incentive to build more.

Tight budgets or no, Horne is working on future parks projects. Pittsboro has its first installment on a greenway system, a 1,200-foot stretch of crushed gravel path along Robeson Creek through town, a skateboard park is in the offing at McLenahan Street Park, and Horne would like to blaze hiking trail along a 6.5-mile frontage of the Haw River, roughly between US 64 and Bynum. That land isn’t in Pittsboro’s town limits but it is within its 3-mile planning jurisdiction. That land, fyi, is part of the Lower Haw River State Natural Area: a trail currently runs along the river’s jungly east bank, but folks familiar with the west bank, the area under Pittsboro’s purview say the terrain is much different, more mountainlike.

It’s the town’s smallest park, Kiwanis on less than an acre off Credle Street, that Horne’s Pittsboro-specific parks mission is best expressed. Earthy, arty Pittsboro, home to a thriving arts community, a customer-owned grocery and perhaps the only steampunk cafe in the Piedmont, is reflected here at Kiwanis, where fruit-bearing trees provide natural snacks, playground equipment is carved from wood and creative play is encouraged at every turn.

Says Horne, “We hope to make the park system highlight the town’s strengths.”

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Explore Pittsboro’s parks

For general information on Pittsboro’s parks system, go here. For a map of the parks, go here.

Click on the following parks to learn more about them.

Kiwanis Park
Mary Holmes Park
McClenahan Park
Rock Ridge Park
Town Lake Park
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Today: Explore your neighborhood

One of the many great things about living in North Carolina is you don’t need to go far to find adventure. Some of the best adventures I’ve had with the kids have been, literally, right out our front door, where at the end of our cul de sac a creek emerges from a storm drain and winds for perhaps a quarter mile before feeding into the headwaters of Walnut Creek. It’s all engulfed in a tangle of floodplain forest that hides I-40 just to the east, our neighborhood just to the west. It’s an oasis we retreat to when time doesn’t allow a longer adventure.

Odds are there’s a similar escape in your neighborhood. Start by donning some grubby clothes and shoes, then looking for a floodplain where developers are prohibited from building. There, my friends, is your adventure. Take a backpack with snacks and water, a camera, binoculars if you have them, a length of rope (who knows?) and maybe a drawing pad and pencils to capture the magic in abstract. And don’t forget a compass: Even in the seemingly smallest area it’s easy to get discombobulated.

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Previously in our Holiday Escapes series ...

Dec. 19: Go paddling
Dec. 20: Hit your neighborhood park
Dec. 21: Climbing the walls
Dec. 22: Take a guided hike
Dec. 23: An educated walk
Monday: Go play in a parking lot
Tuesday: I spy a bufflehead

Today: I spy a bufflehead

Great blue heron, spotted earlier this month at Jordan Lake.

Kids are easily distracted: Throwing a tantrum over a new toy not living up to expectations (specifically, expectations virtually assured by Saturday morning TV cartoon advertising)? Look! Shinny thing! Or, for our purposes today, Look! An American bald eagle, once on the verge of distinction now making a heroic comeback and, in 2007, removed from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants! Kids love discovering stuff, and this time of year there’s no better place to discover stuff with wings than at a local, sizable, lake. Today, for instance, at Jordan Lake on the southern fringes of the Triangle, join ranger Steve McMurray for an hour of waterfowl ID at Jordan Lake. Spotting scopes and expertise provided in this free program, which commences at 9 a.m. at the Ebenezer Church Recreation Area.

A fine activity, btw, with or without expert assistance. Pick up a guidebook at your local library, grab the binos, head to your local (sizable) lake and see what you can see.

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Previously in our Holiday Escapes series ...

Dec. 19: Go paddling
Dec. 20: Hit your neighborhood park
Dec. 21: Climbing the walls
Dec. 22: Take a guided hike
Dec. 23: An educated walk
Monday: Go play in a parking lot

Today: Go play in a parking lot

Today, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cliffs of the Neuse State Park near Goldsboro invites you to come and play — in its parking lots. Located on a bluff overlooking the Neuse River, Cliffs of the Neuse is a marvelous outdoor playground with 892 acres of both Sandhills and Piedmont forest to romp through. Yet today, it’s their paved parking lots that the park touts — and the strategy is genius. “Does your child have a new bicycle, remote control car or boat, or another new toy that they want to play with but you don't have the room?” asks the park, which notes that it will close its lots to traffic for the express purpose of letting your kids put their new toys through the paces. If you’re not in the area, you don’t need to drive to Cliffs of the Neuse to score an acre of empty macadam: Many large businesses close for the holidays and high school parking lots are barren as well, to site just two examples. Odds are there’s a vacant parking lot near you just waiting for a new skateboard to keep it company.

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Previously in our Holiday Escapes series ...

Dec. 19: Go paddling
Dec. 20: Hit your neighborhood park
Dec. 21: Climbing the walls
Dec. 22: Take a guided hike
Dec. 23: An educated walk

This could be you and three people you may or may not know if you participate in Saturday's Charlotte Challenge.

Benefit the land this weekend with ride at the coast or a hike in the mountains, benefit yourself with a crazy 5K scavenger hunt in Charlotte.

Coast

You don’t get many chances to take a group ride at the coast, so when you do it’s wise to act. Saturday is one such chance, when the N.C. Coastal Federation holds its Cycle for the Coast fund raiser. Ride options of 20K, 40K and 80K are available, on a route that takes in Emerald Isle, Salter Path, Indian Beach, Pine Knoll Shores and Atlantic Beach along bike-friendly NC 58.

If you belong to the Federation — the N.C. Coastal Federation, not the other Federation — it’s $35 to ride, $50 for those of you outside the federation. Begins and ends at the Salter Path Public Beach Access (milepost 10.5 on NC 58), with the 80K riders heading off at 8 a.m., the smaller K riders thereafter.

More info, call the Federation at 252-393-8185.

Piedmont

The Charlotte area is overrun with 5K races this weekend, but only one of the races promises to “test your brains as much as your legs.” That would be the Charlotte Challenge, an urban adventure race that requires you to “solve tricky clues, strategize the best route, and explore undiscovered corners of the city.” Costumes are encouraged (to the extent there are two $50 prizes for best costume), and if you come in fourth or fifth you win a $50 bar tab. (First place, btw, gets $300 in cash.) Speed is important, but so is the quick thinking required to solve 12 clues to navigate the course.

Race begins and ends at StrikeCity at EpiCentre, 210 E Trade St. Packet pick-up is 11:30-12:45 , the races commences at 1 p.m. The Challenge is one of 37 being held nationwide this year.

More info here.

Mountains

Here’s another rare opportunity you shouldn’t pass up: a guided hike on mountain land that few people know about and that hasn’t changed much in 80 years. That opportunity comes Saturday when the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy hosts a 3-mile hike into the Swannanoa Mountain Range. According to the SAHC, “hikers will begin passing through a gorgeous stand of poplars before entering the oak-hickory forests with some very large, tall trees and even areas of virgin old growth forest. Numerous wet coves also provide for a very rich and diverse herbaceous layer home to various rare plant species.” Note, too, that there’s about 850 feet of elevation gain on this hike, scheduled to run from 10 a.m. -2 p.m.

For details on the hike, including where to meet, contact Rich Preyer at rich@appalachian.org or visit here.

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Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

I can’t remember where we were — the middle of Nebraska? the middle of Missouri? — but it was time to visit another rest stop. We’d been driving for a day and a half, a day and a half and twelve hundred miles of sitting with virtually no exercise. My body was starting to petrify, my mood was increasingly surly. Marcy hopped out, opened the rear hatch of the M5, rooted around for a moment, then emerged with the antidote.

A hula hoop.

Exercising on a road trip is an oft-discussed, little-acted-upon phenomenon. LizzyGMobile makes underappreciated videos (6 views as of yesterday) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R61g57MfgYw on the subject, and truckers’ forums touch on the topic from time to time. http://www.truckersforum.net/forum/f18/get-out-exercise-rest-stops-5506/ Yet a GetGoingNC/Google investigation revealed that no states appear to incorporate exercise into their rest areas, despite offering everything from snack bars to wifi, according to the Interstate Rest Area Guide. http://www.roundaboutpublications.com/ebooks/index.php?recid=1&maincat_id=1&page=1

Thus, it’s up to you to make your own RAW — rest area workout.

The trick is to get some movement going, to get the blood flowing, the muscles engaged, the back realigned — without conjuring a sweat that will stick with you to Topeka. That’s one reason we like hooping. A recent study by the American Council on Exercise found: “Hooping is an excellent form of exercise that compares pretty favorably with most other group classes” — boot-camp, step aerobics, cardio kickboxing — “in terms of heart rate and calorie burn.” (Read the entire study here.) Plus, while your gyrations may warrant a curious glance or two, unlike with a bout of rest stop cardio-kickboxing, you likely won’t get a visit from the rest stop SWAT team.

An even greater plus: the rhythmic nature of hula hooping is a great way to ease the stress of driving and dissipate a potential case of road rage. And there’s surprisingly little collateral sweat.

Hula hoop: Add it to your packing list this Labor Day weekend.

Games are good, Exhibit A: ‘Exergames’ beat a treadmill
A study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that some interactive video games are a good way for kids to burn calories. The study took 39 kids, average age 11, and put them in front of interactive video games to see how much energy they burned. But first, to establish an exercise baseline, they had the kids walk on a treadmill at 3 miles per hour to establish their metabolic equivalent (MET), an approximation of how much oxygen the body uses during an activity. The kids measured an average MET of 4.9 on that activity.
Here’s how the games compared (the higher the number, the better; for the sake of you adults, “light” gardening has an MET of 2, running an 8 mile-per-minute pace — that would be a roughly 24-minute 5K — pulls a 13.5):

Sportwall — 7.1
Jackie Chan Alley Run by Xavix — 7
Lightspace Bug Invasion — 6.4
Cybex Trazer Goalie Wars — 5.9
Dance Dance Revolution — 5.4
Nintendo Wii Boxing — 4.2

The Sportwall game, incidentally, was the most popular with the kids; the Jackie Chan Alley Run the least popular. Overweight kids enjoyed the games over all more than kids with lower body mass indexes.

In a separate study, published recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, a study of 100 adults ages 18-35 found the amount of energy required for different types of interactive video games varied widely. “Shooter” games only increased energy expenditures by 23 percent over doing nothing. Games in which people pretend to play instruments saw energy output jump 73 percent, dance stimulation games saw a 298 percent hike and fitness games required 322 more energy than sitting on the couch.

More on the study here.

Games are good, Exhibit B: Shag a fly ball, dodge a Jeep

Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign finds that college kids who play sports are less likely to get hit by a car while waking across the street while talking on a cell phone and listening to music. Researchers took 18 NCAA Division I athletes and pitted them against 18 non-athletes in a video street-crossing program. Both groups were given cell phones and MP3 plays and told to get across the a virtual two-way street as cars whizzed by at 40 to 55 miles per hour. Collision rate for the athletes was 25 percent; 37.5 percent of the non-athletes got splattered.

Playing right field: It could save your life.

More here.

Games are Good, Exhibit C: Sprints beat endurance when it comes to heart health

Remember when you were in 4th grade PE and the gym teacher said, “OK, line up! We’re going to do the 50-yard dash!” and you thought, “Cool, ‘cause I can run like a madman for 10 seconds.” But when "Coach" Payne yelled, “Time to run the mile, people!” your people looked for the nearest bleacher to hide under.

Sprinting is good for you.

If Coach Payne’s objective was to build your cardio, he should have stuck with the sprints. A study published earlier this month in the American Journal of Human Biology finds that sprints beat endurance when it comes to fighting cardiovascular disease.

In the study, 47 boys and 10 girls were divided into moderate and high-intensity exercise teams. Each group exercised three times a week for seven weeks. The MODs ran steady for 20 minutes each session, racking up 420 minutes of overall running. The high-intensity kids (or HITs, for study purposes) did a series of 20 meter sprints, exercising for 63 minutes overall. And yet, while both groups exhibited improved cardiovascular risk factors, the HITs were able to achieve similar results in 15 percent of the time.

More on the study here.

A lot of folks liked Chapman’s idea, and thus was born the Christmas Bird Count, an event that, 111 years later, spans the Western Hemisphere, includes tens of thousands of participants and helps identify potentially harmful developments in the bird world.

Here’s how it works: Each count is assigned an area 15 miles in diameter. Volunteers spend the day canvassing this area counting as many different birds as they can find. The results are then shipped to the National Audubon for analysis. You needn’t be an accomplished birder to participate; In fact, one of the great things about the count is that it often gives amateurs an opportunity to hang with and learn from accomplished birders. Not to mention the chance to lurk about the woods all day in search of nature.

The count occurs over a three-week period, this year between this past Tuesday and January 5. But the bulk of the counts, at least in North Carolina, are this weekend. Of the 47 counts planned in North Carolina this CBC season, 16 are this Friday, Saturday or Sunday, according to the Carolina Bird Club. A list of this weekend’s counts follows, broken down by geographic region. For the full list of counts in North Carolina (and South), visit the Carolina Bird Club Web site.

For more about the count, visit the National Audubon CBC site here.

Coast

Saturday

• Kitty Hawk: Jeff Lewis, 252-216-6336

Sunday

• Morehead City: John Fussell, 252-240-1046

Piedmont

Friday

• Rocky Mount: Brian Bockhahn, 919-676-1027

Saturday

• Gastonia: Steve Tracy, 704-853-0654
• Greensboro: Elizabeth Link, 336-273-4672
• Raleigh: John Connors, 919-733-7450 x602
• Raven Rock State Park: Erik Thomas, 919-880-7809

Sunday

• Durham: Jacob Socolar, 919.636.0326
• Southern Lake Norman: Taylor Piephoff, 704-432-1391
• Southern Pines: Susan Campbell, 910-949-3207

Mountains

Friday

• Highlands Plateau: Brock Hutchins, 770-486-3715

Saturday

• Buncombe County: Jamie Harrelson, 828-280-1659
• New River: Katherine Higgins, 276-768-8619
• Tryon: Jerry Johnson, icbirds@windstream.net

Sunday

• Mount Rogers-White Top Mountain: Allen Boynton, 276-677-4121

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Those are GGNC’s thoughts for an active weekend. Find out other ways you can get out this weekend by browsing our super calendar, a collection of events calendars from throughout the state, below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.