We are, in case you’ve been trying to ignore it, on the cusp of the holiday season. The crazy, demanding, nerve-wracking, gift-wrapping, inlaw-visiting, party-attending, work-must-go-on-and-then-some holiday season.
Which is to say, we’re entering a time of elevated stress and precious little time to do anything about it.
Or so you think.
True, you may not have time to burn a day, head to the mountains and hike 12 miles. But that’s not necessarily what you need. Sometimes, just an hour in the wild can ease your defcon level and reestablish you as a functioning member of society. And the good news: there’s likely one of these restorative escapes — a sliver of wild terrain that not many people may know about — close to you.
Throughout the holidays, we’re going to share some of these retreats statewide on the BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina blog. We’ll do five posts in all, each focused in a geographic area, each with five escapes. Our first post, on escapes at the coast, runs today. You can find it here.
Here’s a look at our upcoming posts:read more
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 or slide show 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.read more
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 or slide show 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.read more
Tuesday’s forecast calls for a high of 58 under partly cloudy skies. Which wouldn’t be bad for early winter IF TUESDAY WEREN’T CHRISTMAS!
Sorry. Feeling a little flush.
Which is why we’re offering up a little escape today to colder times, to times of snow and winter fun and winter camping and skiing and sledding and building a snowman and getting bonked in the noggen with an ice ball — well, maybe not the latter. Still, who couldn’t use a little winter right about now?
So here it is. Grab a hot toddy and enjoy.read more
“You’re a cyclist?” I ventured.
Some people guess weights, some professions. I look at someone’s physique and try to guess how they have fun.
“Yeah!” David answered.
“Road?”
“Yeah, mostly. I do triathlons.”
We were gearing up to climb early this morning at the Triangle Rock Club and the short exchange picked up my spirits. A month-plus of assorted deadlines had started taking its toll on my immune system. Physically, mentally I had wound down. I needed something.
David and I had just met, mutual friends of our third climbing partner, Joel. The awkwardness of the first-time meeting was absent, which I attribute in part to climbing mojo. Different sports communities have different vibes, not all of which are entirely supportive. Climbing, though, is a sport apart. I’ve had 5.12 climbers give me a “Nice!” at the gym after I’ve topped out on a 5.8. This after they stopped to watch me grapple with a problem and suggest a key move I didn’t see. And it travels to the top of sport. Not to name drop, but I’ve met Conrad Anker and Cory Richards, and I’m pretty sure if I’d said, “Hey, my microbus is out back; let’s grab our gear and head to Linville Gorge,” both would have been in the back asking “Are we there yet?” before I’d started the engine.
We started climbing and it came up that David had a mess of titanium in his elbow, courtesy of a mountain bike accident.
“You mountain bike, too?” I asked. We talked for a minute about where we like to ride. “So,” I asked, “you ever ride Morrisville?”
David smiled. He works for a retail developer that developed a parcel of land that previously played host to a popular, albeit illegal, mountain bike trail referred to simply as Morrisville. Rebel trail, trail developed on private property not in use, is common. Mountain bikers know such trail is ephemeral, that it can disappear overnight. Still, when it does … .
“I told my buddies, ‘If you want to ride one last time let’s do it today because we’re getting to work in their tomorrow.”
We climbed some, talked more. Soon it was time to head to work, to another day of deadlines. Work’s been a challenge. Before hitting the gym I felt like I’d hit the wall. After climbing the wall, I was ready to give my deadlines another try.read more
