This stretch under Lake Boone Trail is finished; only two paving projects remain on the House Creek Greenway.

If you’ve been driving Raleigh’s Beltline between Wade Avenue and Glen Eden Drive, sneaking peeks into the woods and wondering when on earth the House Creek Greenway is going to open, the answer is June 25.

That’s the official answer. In reality, it should be passable by Memorial Day.

The eagerly anticipated 2.9-mile greenway will link the 11-mile Crabtree Creek Trail to the north with the Reedy Creek/Museum of Art/Rocky Branch/Umstead/Black Creek greenway network to the south. It was supposed to open in March, but City of Raleigh greenway guru Vic Lebsock said the contractor encountered problems relocating utilities, especially around Glen Eden Drive, where the greenway tunnels under the road, then loops up to it to cross the Beltline before continuing north on the west side of the highway. Those delays late last fall pushed back the paving date, and this being a N.C. Department of Transportation-supported project, paving is prohibited between December 15 and March 15.

“You can’t lay asphalt when it’s cold,” says Lebsock. And while, yes, this was a mighty warm winter and they probably could have paved, “you need a number of continuous days in a row, and that’s hard to predict.”

Lebsock adds that the project isn’t late. “The contract date for completion is June 25. The contractor actually had been ahead of schedule.”

Tomorrow (Friday, the 13th), Lebsock says they should be paving the stretch of House Creek at Glen Eden. Next week the remaining missing pavement around Horton Street should be done. The last major work remaining will be boardwalk through wetlands, also in the Horton Street area. Lebsock says that should be done by the third week in May.

From there, it’s a matter of the contractor dotting the greenway’s i’s and crossing its t’s. But Raleigh greenway users are an impatient lot who aren’t prone to let a little incompleteness interfere with their fun.

Expect heavy thru traffic by Memorial Day.

* * *

Come back next week when GetGoingNC.com will give an update on the Neuse River Trail on Tuesday and on Wednesday take a look at what happens when the current $35 million greenway building boom concludes at the end of next year.

You know you should walk more. The evidence for what it can do for your health is overwhelming; Walking for as little as 30 minutes a day can lower your blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein (bad) cholesterol, raise your high-density lipoprotein (good) cholesterol, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes (or help you manage it if you are already afflicted), help you control your weight, put you in a better mood. Everyone from the Mayo Clinic to Martina Navratilova says you should walk.

Yet sometimes you just can’t find the proper incentive. Like something to get your mind off the fact you’re walking. Like time travel, for instance.

A number of communities in North Carolina have self-guided historic walking tours. Pick up a pamphlet featuring a map showing key historic points and you’re off. Raleigh has one. Charlotte, Chapel Hill and Wilmington, too. In fact, Google “historic walking tour” and a town of interest and chances are you’ll find something.

Or, you can get lucky and stumble upon a historic walking tour.

That’s what happened to us Saturday during a stop in Roxboro. Nosing around on Main Street we found the Historic Uptown Roxboro Walking Tour, a 1.5-mile loop taking in 39 historic sties. Most are homes dating back to Roxboro’s hey day, but there are also stores, churches, a movie theater, a grist mill ... .

Sound interesting? Tag along on our quick slideshow. We suspect you’ll be inspired to do something you may not be crazy about.

Go for a nice walk.

* * *
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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 was about 3.5 miles inside the Johnston County line along the Neuse River, on a patch of newly minted greenway that will soon attach to similar greenway making its way downstream from Wake County. Already on the opposite end, originating at the base of Falls dam, 6.46 miles of greenway opened last fall. By the end of next year, another 21.54 miles is scheduled to be done, creating 28 miles of greenway will link with this 3.5-mile stretch to create a 31.5-mile dedicated, paved, pedestrian passage, the longest in the state.

This lower stretch is the most recent to open. In total, it’s 3.6 miles. That includes the 1.2-mile Sam’s Branch Greenway, with runs from a gravel parking lot off N. O’Neal Street in Clayton to the Neuse. There, the greenway turns upstream and runs 2.4 miles, crossing the Neuse, going under Covered Bridge Road (where there’s also parking and trail access) and heading up to Marks Creek. There, a nearly complete bridge will make the remaining 1.4-mile connection up to the Wake County line. The 31.5-mile stretch will be part of the statewide Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

As it is, the just-completed greenway makes for a nice bike ride with the kids or a nice 7.2-mile (out-and-back) walk or training run.

Our two-minute tour (above) gives a sense of the experience. Enjoy.

* * *

Clayton/Johnston County Greenway

View Clayton Greenway in a larger map

* * *

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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 will cover 16 blocks (a little over a mile, by our reckoning) and 300 years of African-American history in New Bern. It’s estimated to take an hour and a half; lots of short walks with pauses in between to learn.

Banff Mountain Film Festival: "Sfinga"

Logistics: $6 for adults, $3 for students, preregistration is required, by calling 252-639-3500. Departs at 2 p.m. from the Waystation Lobby. More about Tryon Palace here.

Weekend forecast: High of 73, scattered thunderstorms.

Piedmont

Have you been looking for a good reason to visit the Charlotte suburb of Pineville — twice? We can think of no better reason than the Pineview 100 Miler, which kicks off Saturday and ends June 25.

Now, the mathematically astute among you may have picked up on the fact that’s 100 days,

Banff Mountain Film Festival: "What Happened on Pam Island?"

which is the theme of the Pineview 100 Miler: You don’t have to walk, run or bike 100 miles all on Saturday, you have 100 days — until June 25 — to make that magic happen. It’s the Pineville Parks and Rec’s effort to jumpstart your activity level by achieving this reasonable goal. Sign up online for $5 (another $15 gets you a “fashionable moisture wicking t-shirt) download the official activity log and get going. And show up for the kick-off this Saturday and conclusion June 25, of course.

Logistics: Sign up online, for $5, here. Saturday’s kickoff is at 9 a.m. at Lake Park with a 5K.

Weekend forecast: High of 75, with isolated thunderstorms.

Mountains

Banff Mountain Film Festival: "Towers of the Ennedi" (photo by Jimmy Chin)

You probably don’t need a good reason to visit Brevard, gateway to the Pisgah National Forest, DuPont State Forest and assorted other outdoor attractions. But here’s one anyway: the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Brevard College hosts the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Friday and Saturday at the school’s Porter Center for Performing Arts. Check out some of the best outdoors films to emerge in the past year, films likely to inspire you to stay an extra day and explore.

Logistics: Tickets are $10 per night, available online.

Weekend forecast: High of 72 with a 40 percent chance of precip.

* * *

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.

Todd’s Calendar

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.

* * *

On a sunny day, bikers, walkers and equestrians flock to the American Tobacco Trail.

I love a good trail, and while I’m familiar with a lot of traditional hiking trails in North Carolina (see “Backpacking North Carolina” and “100 Classic Hikes in North Carolina”) I’m less familiar with the state’s rails-to-trail’s projects. I realized this in December when, on a 50-mile backpack trip of the North Carolina Bartram Trail, I suddenly found myself on a 1.2-mile stretch of paved greenway along the Nantahala River. Later, I learned that I’d been on the Nantahala Bikeway, a U.S. Forest Service project that incorporates a half mile of old railbed along the Nantahala River in Swain County (near Patton’s Run, for you whitewater boaters).
I learned this by noodling around on the North Carolina Rail-Trails Web site, where I discovered the Nantahala Bikeway is not alone. In fact, there are 30 rails-to-trails projects in North Carolina encompassing 130 miles of trail. You’ve probably heard of one or two. In the Triangle, for instance, nearly everyone knows the American Tobacco Trail, a 22-mile, nearly complete trail that runs from western Wake County into downtown Durham. In the mountains, there’s the popular Thermal Belt Rail-Trail, which runs 8 miles from Spindale to Gilkey in Rutherford County, and the 4.5-mile Little Tennessee River Greenway in Macon County. At the coast, folks may have spent some time on the 5.5-mile Jacksonville-Camp LeJeune Rail-to-Trails in Onslow County.
What hampers the visibility of rails-to-trails projects in North Carolina is the absence of true superstars: Virginia’s 57-mile New River Trail and the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail; the 184.5-mile Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park trail in D.C. and Maryland; or the granddaddy, the 237-mile Katy Trail, which spans most of Missouri. We have no superstars in large part because, unlike in the north and  Midwest where railroad companies have been willing to abandon long stretches of line, the obvious prerequisite for a rails-to-trail conversion, rail companies here retain hope that even their abandoned lines may once again become economically viable. And so, we have 30 projects across the state that have capitalized on smaller abandonments, from the 22-mile American Tobacco Trail to the half-mile Lansing Trail in Ashe County.

The Atlantic & Yadkin takes some colorful passages under the streets of Greensboro.

(We should note that, according to North Carolina Rail-Trails, there are another 97 miles of trail in development across the state and initiatives underway to add 61 more. Find out more about those projects here.)
Here’s a quick rundown of rails-to-trails projects in North Carolina, with links to find more information:

Mountains
Brevard Bike Path, 5 miles. Brevard, Transylvania County.
Forrest Hunt Greenway, 0.8 mile, Forest City, Rutherford County.
Laurel River Trail, 3.6 miles in Madison County.
Nantahala Bikeway, 1.2 miles, U.S Forest Service, Nantahala Gorge, Swain County.

Railroad Grade Road, 10 miles, Todd to Fleetwood, Ashe County. (Note: This road is also open to automotive traffic.)
Lansing Trail, 0.5, Lansing in Ashe County.
Thermal Belt Rail-Trail, 8 miles, Spindale to Gilkey in Rutherford County.
Little Tennessee River Greenway, 4.5 miles, Franklin, Macon County.
Mount Mitchell Railroad and Toll Road, 21 miles, Yancy County.

Charlotte area

Gold Hill Rail-Trail, 1 mile, Gold Hill, Rowan County.
Marcia Cloninger Rail-Trail, 1.0 mile, Lincolnton, Lincoln County.
South Fork River Rail-Trail, 1.0 mile, South Fork River, Lincoln County.
Troutman Rail-Trail, 1.0 mile, Troutman, Iredell County.
Roger Snyder and Rock Creek Park Greenways, 2.4 miles, Albemarle, Stanley County.
Irwin-Stewart Creek Greenway, 2.93 miles, Charlotte, Mecklenberg County.
Highland Rail-Trail, 1.7 miles, Gastonia, Gaston County.
Oakboro Rail with Trail, 1.5 miles, Oakboro, Stanley County.

Triad

Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway, 7.5 miles, Greensboro, Guilford County.
Strollway, 1.2 miles, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.
Troutman Greenway, 1.0 mile, Troutman, Iredell County.

Triangle

American Tobacco Trail, 22 miles, Durham, Chatham and Wake Counties.
Eagle Spur, 2.2 miles, Durham County.
Libba Cotten Bikeway, 1.0 mile, Carrboro, Orange County.

Piedmont (rural)

Dunn-Erwin Rail-Trail, 5.3, Harnett County.
Louisburg-Franklinton Trail, 2.2 miles, Louisburg to Vance-Granville Community College, Franklin County.
Sabina Gould Walkway, 1.2 miles, Littleton, Warren County.

Coast

Jacksonville-Camp LeJeune Rail-to-Trails, 5.5 miles, Camp LeJeune to the City of Jacksonville, Onslow County.
River to the Sea Trail, 11.5 miles, Wilmington, New Hanover County.
Skewarkee Trail, 1.0 mile, Williamston, Martin County.

* * *

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A family 5K can be enchanting for the kids.

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 when it's cold or raining. Just walking in your neighborhood is great exercise; as we mentioned yesterday, living in North Carolina means your neighborhood may be a little more interesting than you think. And if your kids think walking is boring, bring along some props to liven things up. When our kids were smaller, we’d often set out for a neighborhood “walk” with skateboards, rollerblades, a Ripstik and a Trikke, swapping toys along the way.
• Choose an outing. Spend a weekend afternoon going to a pool, skating rink or basketball court. Right now, with winterlike temperatures, a good bet in this part of the country is a visit to your local North Carolina State Park. At Crowders Mountain near Charlotte, for instance, you can scramble about at The Boulders access area. In Wilmington there’s Carolina Beach, where there’s a unique collection of carnivorous plants. The Triangle has miles of hiking at Eno River and Umstead, while the Triad has great views from atop Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock.
• Take breaks. Try to fit in 10 to 15 minutes of rigorous physical activity several times a day. At our house, we call it, “Hey kids, let’s go play in the street!” time. We live at the end of a cul de sac, the perfect arena for kickball and Whiffleball and, more often, a combination of the two.
• Team up. Have the family sign up for a group run, walk or car wash. You don’t have to run a 5K, you just need to finish it. And even if you don’t think you can walk 3.1 miles, odds are that once you get caught up in the pomp, pagentry and comradery of a typical 5K, the miles will pass before you know it. Upcoming 5Ks around the state (we’ll give you a couple weeks of training to get ready): 4th Annual Sweetheart 5K and 1-Mile Family Fun Run, Rocky Mount, Feb. 4; 32nd Annual Run for the Roses, Raleigh, Feb. 11, Frostbike 5K, 10K and 1-Mile Family Fun Run, Hendersonville, Feb. 19, St. Leo’s School 5K, Winston-Salem, March 17, Winter Classic 8K and Kids Run, Charlotte, January 28.
• Limit TV. Select which shows kids will watch ahead of time and limit screen time to just those programs. A good first step: No screens in your kids’ rooms.
• Join a club. Buy a family membership to a town recreation center, YMCA or health club. Better yet, join a family-fitness-oriented Meetup group. And if you can’t find one in your area, start one. Start the process here.
• Learn something new. Have family members take a lesson in an activity, such as martial arts, fencing or gymnastics. Opportunities abound at your local parks and rec department. In Raleigh, for instance, you can learn the above as well as how to scale a mountain or right a flipped kayak, among a myriad of other things. Track down your local parks and rec department here.
• Chores count. Working together around the house or in the yard is another way families can stay active. Yes, kids, it’s true: Working around the house can be good for you. And parents, you can use this as an alternative if the kids balk at taking a hike or a Whiffleball break.

Scrub the toilet vs. playing kickball? We’re guessing you won’t have a problem.

* * *

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Of course, being realists we acknowledged that finding 30 minutes a day might not be feasible during the typically hectic holidays. From a practical standpoint, we asked what you could reasonably commit to. Every other day? Three days during the week and once on the weekend? What’s a realistic commitment for you?

The majority of you, 60 percent, thought you could commit to walking two to four times a week, 20 percent said five or six days was realistic while another 20 percent said no to compromise, we’re walking every day!

We also asked about your favorite places to walk. Citing the convenience factor, many of you mentioned your neighborhood. But everyone mentioned a destination. Here are the top five:

Lake Lynn
Raleigh
Distance: 2.8 miles
Surface: Paved.
Access: Lake Lynn Road, just east of Leesville Road; Lake Lynn Community Center; Ray Road between Lauren Mountain and Knebworth.
Description: Trail circles Lake Lynn. Backs up to several neighborhoods, occasional passages through natural areas. Flat.
Comment: “ ... close enough and a pretty change of scenery.”

Taking a walk on the wild side of Lake Johnson (there are actual bridges, btw).

Lake Johnson
Raleigh
Distance: 3.5 miles paved, 2.1 miles natural surface. Connects with 1.1-mi. Upper Walnut Creek Trail.
Surface: See above.
Access: Main parking at boathouse off Avent Ferry Road near I-440; secondary parking lot 200 yards south on Avent Ferry.
Description: Paved trail circles Lake Johnson east of Avent Ferry Road, natural surface trail rims lake west of Avent Ferry. South side of paved Lake Johnson trail has short but steep hills. (If you missed it, here's last week's 90 Second Escape to Lake Johnson.)
Comment: “Good hills on the far side of the lake.”

Durant Nature Park
Raleigh
Distance: 5 miles
Surface: Natural
Access: North: Camp Durant Road, off Durant Road; South: Off Gresham Lake Road.
Description: As the Raleigh P&R web site says, “Hike along a stream, through hardwood and pine forests, past wildflowers and ferns, through wetlands and alongside two lakes.” All in just 237 acres.
Comment: “Up and down hills, lots of wildlife, fun to sneak up on the deer.”

Al Buehler Cross CountryTrail
Durham
Distance: 2.9 miles (main loop)
Surface: Natural
Access: Two main access points off Cameron Boulevard.
Description: Extremely popular Durham trail, especially with runners.
Comment: “It’s a bit hilly but not terrible, I can do it in under an hour (so it doesn't involve setting aside half a day), and it's scenic.”

Falls Lake Trail runs 60 miles through the Triangle.

Falls Lake Trail
Wake and Durham counties
Distance: 60 miles
Surface: Natural
Access: Various points along the trail. Visit the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at www.ncmst.org for locations.
Description: Trail runs from Falls dam in north Raleigh to Pennys Bend Nature Preserve in Durham County. Long trail running through an urban area, while giving few hints that it’s in an urban area, is a rarity.
Comment: “Accessible from our neighborhood.” Convenience is nice; it’s still a great trail!

* * *

Come back tomorrow when we'll ask you about walking’s more adventurous cousin, hiking.

Finding your favorite five

View Five Favorite Walks in a larger map

If you’re looking for a time of year that’s hardest on your body, you’d be hard-pressed to beat the one that kicked off with pants-unbuckling Thanksgiving and ends with a cold pack on your head New Year’s Day. Think about the damage alone done by the one-two punch of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Thanksgiving: overeating. Estimates place the typical holiday meal at 3,000-plus calories, or closing in on twice the recommended daily calorie intake for the average person. And that’s just for the main meal; in the case of Thanksgiving you can nearly double that amount if you throw in the follow-up leftover meals that will be consumed by day’s end.

Black Friday: stress. First, there’s the business of consuming nearly 6,000 calories on Thanksgiving, then heading out at midnight to elbow your way to the $2 waffle irons table. Add to that your wacko fellow shoppers — a female shopper at a California Walmart used pepper spray to keep her competitors at bay — and you’ve pretty much taken 10 years off your life with those two days alone. And the bulk of the holiday season remains.

You want a truly happy holidays, or at least a holiday season that won’t do you in? Then you need to do something that helps you deal with both overeating and stress. Lucky for you that some thing is one thing:

Going for a walk.

Walking is the nation’s most popular form of exercise. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, 95.8 million Americans walked for exercise in 2010 (exercising with equipment was a distant second, with 55.3 million participants). There’s good reason for this: most people can walk, it doesn’t require special equipment, you can do it spontaneously, out your front door, so it can be done quickly.

There’s more reasons to walk. According to the Mayo Clinic, walking can:

• Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol)
• Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol)
• Lower your blood pressure
• Reduce your risk of or manage type 2 diabetes
• Manage your weight
• Improve your mood
• Keep you strong and fit

Walking isn’t a magic bullet. It won’t completely diffuse the stress of the holidays; but it will take the edges off and make the season more manageable. And it won’t exactly act as a cross to that batch of Christmas fudge your vampire coworkers bring in, but it will help in keeping the damage to a minimum. And, truly, a half hour at lunch, after work or at some point during the day can make a huge difference.

That said, are you ready to commit to a daily walk? And if not daily, then what is a realistic goal? Take our survey and we’ll report back in a week or so with the results. And take a minute to tell us your favorite place to walk. It could serve as inspiration to others.

* * *

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: Walking Lake Johnson.

Walking is our favorite form of outdoor exercise, and in the Triangle one of our favorite places to walk is Lake Johnson Park in Raleigh. Nearly two miles of natural surface trail on the lake’s west side offers great exploring for the more adventurous, but it’s the three-mile loop of paved greenway that rims the lake that is Lake Johnson’s chief draw. Runners, walkers, seniors, toddlers, athletes-in-training, casual strollers — Lake Johnson is home for them all. Talk a walk around the lake with us and see if there’s not something here for you.

Coast

In our quest to find not-as-demanding active benefit events (see Tuesday’s Tour de Toys post), we bring you Saturday’s Jingle Bell Walk in Pine Knoll Shores. This two-mile walk through the Beacon’s Reach area of Pine Knoll Shores is sponsored by St. Francis by the Sea and benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coastal Carolina. The walk begins at 9 a.m. from the Beacon’s Reach Management Association Building on Sunny Shores Drive off NC 58. $25 for adults, $10 ages 13-16, kids under 12 are free. More info here.

Piedmont

Haw hail the turkey! That’s what they’ll be doing Friday at Haw River State Park north of Greensboro. First, there will be some frank talk about turkeys, including why Ben Franklin lobbied hard for the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, to be our national bird. Then they’ll hit the trail in search of turkey tracks and sign. Starts at 1:30, from the main lodge. Info about the park, including directions, here.

Looking south into the Davidson River area from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Mountains

The Davidson River area of the Pisgah National Forest often gets overlooked in favor of its more well-known neighbors to the north: the Middle Prong and Shining Rock wildernesses and Mount Pisgah. Get to know this lesser-known area a little better this Saturday on a 9-mile hike by the Carolina Mountain Club. It’s the CMC’s Butter Gap Loop Hike, which will “follow parts of the Cat Gap Loop, ALT, and all of the Butter Gap trail through the beautiful Grogan Creek watershed to Picklesheimer Fields.” The hike will depart from the Pisgah Fish Hatchery at 9:40 a.m. To reserve a spot contact hike leaders Les & Catherine Love at 828.658.1458, lesrlove@charter.net. For more on the route, go here.

* * *

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.

Todd’s Calendar

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.