Mel writes: “I am the Hiking Merit Badge coordinator for Troop 395 in Raleigh and we are looking to put together our hiking itinerary over the next 12 months. As you may know, to earn this MB the Boy Scouts have to do five 10+ miles hikes and one 20+ mile hike.”
Leave the driving to a park ranger on a boat trip up the Scuppernong River, hike Hanging Rock with GetHiking! Triangle, or hike into history in the Swannanoa Valley.
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Pettigrew State Park offers frequent tours of the Scuppernong River. Usually, those tours are by canoe, a great way to experience the Scuppernong but not everyone’s cup of tea-colored water. Saturday, the park lets you leave the paddling to others on its afternoon Scuppernong River Tour. One advantage: without having to deal with navigation you can focus on the waterway’s abundant wildlife and natural beauty.
What better way to celebrate your mom than with the mom to all, Mother Nature.
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Renoir’s “Woman in Boat” is one of those classic impressionist paintings that you get lost in for a while before snapping to and thinking, “I should get Mom out in a boat. She’d like that.” OK, maybe that’s not necessarily what you think at the time. But now that the seed has been planted, it’s a good idea, no?
A cool weekend is on tap across North Carolina: weekend highs will be lucky to top 50 and there’s a chance of snow in the west. If you’re going outside — and you know you will — it’s a better idea than usual to keep moving.
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Five miles is a nice distance to run, we’ve always felt. A 5K — 3.1 miles — feels too short, too fast. And a marathon just seems ridiculously long (our judgement on this may be clouded as we’re signed up for the Umstead Trail Marathon Saturday and the thought of a 5-mile race is darn attractive right now). If you also like the sounds of a 5-mile run, then head to Greenville Saturday for the 2013 Patriot Run benefitting Fort Bragg’s Survivor Outreach Services, which helps families who have lost a serviceman/woman in combat. Awards by age category.
Sunday, Marcy and I headed over to Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary after roadside flashes of sourwood red and dogwood peach suggested the fall color show was just getting underway. Roadside trees — stressed by the heat of automotive exhaust — are often the first to show their chromatic hand. When they start to go, we grab the camera and head for woods.