This weekend: Go fly a kite (or watch someone who really knows how), paddle through 2,000-year-old trees, take a hike on top of the state.
Coast
This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, it’s theKitty Hawk Kites Annual Outer Banks Stunt Kite Competition. This is competitive kite flying at its best, on the Eastern League Circuit (were you aware there was an Eastern League Circuit for sport kite flying?) and sanctioned by the American Kiting Association (ditto?). While the spectating promises to be swell, amateur kite flyers can get in on workshops, demonstrations and kite making for kids. Stuff to watch for: kite ballet competitions set to music and fast-paced team flying that blend a both kite control and speed.read more
Question: How many miles would 42 hikers have to walk in one day to raise $145,000?
Answer: 1,188.6.
Impossible, you say? Many of those 42 hikers might have agreed with you last summer. But by 6:55 p.m. Saturday evening, all 42 were believers— all having hiked 28.3 miles as part of the Ultimate Hike. 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 this trying transition, we’re running a new feature every Monday called 90 Second Escape. Essentially, it’s 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 in the sun.read more
It’s October, and last we checked the forecast called for true fall-like weather in North Carolina. Weather that would be a shame to waste … .
Coast
Two reasons to do Saturday’sTwin Bridges 8K Road Race in Morehead City. One, you get to run over two bridges. Starting in Beaufort (at the drawbridge) you get to run to neighboring Morehead City, go over both the city’s high-rise bridges, then wind up in Atlantic Beach (in the parking area of Bella Pizza & Subs — how convenient). The other reason: The race kicks off the North Carolina Seafood Festival. Show some restraint at Bella’s and you should have room for plenty of fresh seafood.read more
That’s the official word this morning from Raleigh Senior Greenway Planner Vic Lebsock. Officially, there’s only 20 feet left to finish, on a boardwalk a little over two miles south of the northern trailhead (off the old Falls of Neuse Road). A stretch under Capital Boulevard and greenway under the new Falls of Neuse Road — both of which were under construction a month ago — have been completed, Lebsock said. That means you could start from the southern trailhead, at the WRAL/CASL Soccer Complex off Perry Creek Road between Capital Boulevard and Louisburg Road, and travel unencumbered six miles upstream.read more