It’s what you’ve been waiting for since September: the first weekend of the year that will feel like summer. Celebrate with a 100-mile bike ride in the coastal plain, a hike under a full moon, or celebrating one of the mountains’ most popular and playful rivers, the French Broad. Coast If you’re a cyclist looking to do your first century ride, you have a big ally in the coastal plain:…
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…
The three teenage girls sat on the stone steps at the Ledge Spring trailhead, parallel texting and oblivious. All wore sunglasses, all were elsewhere. Sensing my approach, one leaned slightly, thumbs continuing to hammer her tiny keyboard. I managed to squeeze by. At least they’re outside, I thought, trying to put some positive spin on the scene yesterday afternoon at Pilot Mountain State Park. Less than a mile down the…
A dream when I was younger was to have a house with a basketball court in the basement. A full-size court, with a knee-friendly synthetic surface. With backboards that dropped to dunk-friendly heights for an Earth-bound 5’9” guard. Throw in my vintage red, white and blue ABA ball, my knee-high tube socks and my Converse All-Stars … . Heaven, I’m in heaven … At present, we have a portable rim…
Hunt for eggs, learn to paddle, dodge a ball: Do it all this weekend in North Carolina. Coast Have the kids been pestering you to go to the beach? Have you been protesting that the water’s too cold? Compromise, fellow parents, by offering up a trip to the coast to hunt for Easter eggs. Emerald Isle kicks off the EE hunting season Sunday at high noon with an EEE (Easter…
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…
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. … * * * Paul Horne must have picked up on my perplexed look. I was staring at what looked…
Giving money to a good cause is good. Giving someone else’s money to a good cause is even better. The good cause: Kids in Parks, an initiative by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Blue Ridge Parkway to get kids and families outside more. (I know, every time I read that — or write it — I think, “Why do we even need to think of ways to get…
We’re going with an animal theme this week. Turtles at the coast, bears and other hearty survivors in the mountains … and would you believe we’re celebrating the squirrel in the Piedmont? Coast Ever been walking along the coast and come across an area marked off with yellow tape? Holy crustacean killing! you think. Actually, the area has probably been roped off to protect a sea turtle nest. Sea turtles…
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, sponsored by the American Heart Association and William J. Clinton Foundation and dedicated to battling childhood obesity, has issued eight ways families can get fit together. We list those eight ways below and go one step further, suggesting specific ways you can make this happen NOW! Meaning this week now. Take a walk. Stroll together after a family meal or walk around the mall…