This is considered the first weekend of summer in the tourism industry. The kids are mostly out of school, let the family escapes begin. To the coast, for a standup paddleboard or kayak tour, to the Piedmont for some fat tire fun, to the mountains for a mellow hike.
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.
A gorgeous weekend — clear skies and temperatures around 80 are forecast across the state — and three stellar festivals — 2014 Carolina Cup (standup paddleboarding), French Broad Classique (canoeing and kayaking), and TuckFest (everything) — make this the weekend to be out and having fun in North Carolina.
We’ve got hikes in the Piedmont (along the Eno River) and in the mountains (up Little Pisgah Mountain), and a hike, of sorts (walking on water counts, right?) at the coast.
Coast
The Cold Stroke Classic is on our “Pushing-The-Limits-But-Certainly-Doable” lifetime achievement list. Now in its sixth year, Cold Stroke lets amateurs and more competitive types compete in standup paddleboard racing, on protected waterways, at the coast, in winter. There’s a 3.5-mile course for more recreational types, a 7-mile course for the “elite.”
It’s the transition season in North Carolina: standup paddleboarding at the coast, skiing in the mountains and hiking in between.
Coast
The Surf to Sound Challenge at Wrightsville Beach typically marks the end of the standup paddleboard season at the coast — a late and chilly end, in most folks’ books. The two-day challenge features the 6.5-mile Surf to Sound Challenge and the 4-mile Harbor Island Outer Loop challenge on Saturday, and a new competition, the Surf SUP Competition on Sunday. If you’ve got the will and a wet suit, head on down to Wrightsville Beach.