Tag Archives: North Carolina

Let’s talk Adventure, Carolinas

Looking for a new adventure?
Let me answer that for you: Yes, you are.
I know this because you visit this site for one of two reasons: Either you’re already into adventure and are always looking for more, or the idea of adventure intrigues you, you just haven’t found the right fit.
My goal here at GetGoingNC is to help you find that fit. That’s also the goal of my new book, “Adventure Carolinas.
Billed as “Your Go-To Guide for Multi-Sport Outdoor Recreation,” the book focuses on six key adventure sports and touches on 10 more.
The six keys: mountain biking, flatwater paddling, whitewater paddling, rock climbing, scuba diving and backcountry exploration.
The 10 more: downhill skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, tubing, kiteboarding, hang gliding, ziplining, standup paddleboarding, windsurfing, geocaching and caving.
Sure, I’d like to you buy the book. But first, I’d prefer that you learn more about it, ask a few questions. And for that reason, I have a number of appearances set up statewide over the next month. Check out the list below, mark your calendar.
Let’s talk about your next adventure. read more

90 Second Escape: Let the boat rental season begin

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

Exploring North Carolina’s northeast corridor

At our weekly GetHiking! Triangle hike a couple weeks back, I was approached at the trailhead by a woman who introduced herself as being from Virginia Beach, Va. She, her daughter and a friend were in town asked if they might tag along with our group. read more

Hike in the New Year

Another year, another opportunity for change. And what better way to think about what that change may look like and how you can make it happen than with a head cleared by fresh, clean air. Fresh, clean air inhaled on a New Year’s Day hike.

Lucky for you, such events abound.
Thanks to the North Carolina State Parks’ First Day Hikes program, every park in the system is hosting a hike today. That means that no matter where you live in the state, there’s an organized New Year’s Day hike near you.
The hikes vary in length and when they start. To find out what’s happening at a state park near you, go to ncparks.gov.
A great way to start a new year. read more

Make Christmas count, for the birds’ sake

Aficionados and amateurs alike are welcome at the Christmas Bird Count.

At the turn of the 20th century, it was a big deal to go out on Christmas Day and look for birds. At the time, though, the “looking”  involved bringing a shotgun.
Frank Chapman was a fan of the custom, though not necessarily the gun part. So on Christmas Day 1899 he got the idea to go out and identify and count the birds, not shoot them. The idea caught on and 114 years later tens of thousands of folks throughout the Western Hemisphere take to the outdoors to look for birds as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count. The exercise helps scientists keeps tabs on the bird population and identify potentially harmful developments in the bird world.
Here’s how it works: Each count is assigned an area 15 miles in diameter. Volunteers spend the day canvassing the area counting as many different birds as they can find. The results are then shipped to the National Audubon for analysis. You needn’t be an accomplished birder to participate; In fact, one of the great things about the count is that it often gives amateurs an opportunity to hang with and learn from accomplished birders. Not to mention the chance to lurk about the woods all day in search of nature.
The count occurs over a three-week period, this year ending Jan. 5. From the Carolina Bird Club website we’ve culled the counts remaining in North Carolina.  For the full list of counts in North Carolina (and South), visit their site.
For more about the count, visit the Audubon CBC site here.
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