I’ve been spending a lot of time along the Blue Ridge Parkway of late, exploring the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. I’d be spending even more time if the Parkway facilities, specifically the campgrounds, were open. Which they soon will be. The National Park Service has announced 2012 opening dates for their seasonal facilities along the Parkway. I’m finding them useful for trip planning, figured you might, too. Here are some key locations…
Get to know a new place on foot, get to know the season that started Tuesday. Coast When I was in high school I had a part-time job on the old Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. I took the job, in part, so I could get inside the inner sanctum of a military installation just to see what it was like. It wasn’t as exciting as I expected; In…
It’s not your stuffed-up imagination; the spring allergy season really is off to early start this year (and, thanks to climate change, may be trending in this direction). You can read all about it in today’s Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer, in a story I contributed to. That story is about spring allergies in general. But what about their effect on the more active among us? How does…
31.5. It was a mileage marker by the side of the greenway. Having spent last week hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was accustomed to seeing mileage markers in the form of the parkway’s knee-high stone obelisks that tick off every mile. And I have seen them before on greenways, but never with such a high number. Rarely, in fact, in double digits. The 31.5-mile marker…
This weekend, there’s a walk for non-walkers, a 100-miler in 100 days, and the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, two days of film-watching guaranteed to get you up and moving. Coast We’re always on the lookout for good reasons to walk for people who don’t like to walk. Such as Sunday’s African-American Historic Downtown Walking Tour of Tryon Palace in New Bern. This ramble through New Bern’s Historic District…
I thought we had lost the trail but in fact we were smack dab on course. The Haw River Trail was intended, it turns out to meander through the Glencoe neighborhood of restored mill homes. Yet another attraction of this 70-mile work-in-progress that runs from Haw River State Park above Greensboro to its namesake river’s exciting conclusion — especially after a good rain — in Jordan Lake. In addition to…
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….
If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m doing you a huge favor by sparring you 15,000 words in exchange for 15 pictures, all from my journeys this week on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Enjoy, and have a slideshow-worthy weekend. * * * Like us on Facebook and get health, fitness and outdoors news throughout the day. GetGoingNC.comPromote Your Page Too
The approach of spring apparently means two things in North Carolina: Get out and learn. Coast Learn about the wild habitats that make up Carolina Beach State Park at 10 a.m. nature hikes both Saturday and Sunday. The meeting place of this ranger-led hike — Flytrap Trail Parking Area — should provide some clue about the ecodiversity at Carolina Beach. “Wear good walking shoes and dress for the weather,” advises…
When I wrote “Backpacking North Carolina” and “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina,” I focused on loop trips and hikes whenever possible. The reason? Simple: Shuttles are a pain. For the traditional shuttle you need two cars; you can’t do a point-to-point solo. If there are just two of you, you both have to drive. That’s not only a waste of gas, it eliminates catch-up time on the drive (not…