weekend

GetOut! Your Nudge for Weekend Adventure

We’ve got a good, seasonal, winter-like weekend on tap — temperatures in the 40s, mostly sunny skies — which means lots of opportunity for good, seasonal, winter-like fun. Such as …

The Loooong Hike — Mountains-to-Sea Trail, Saturday, 10 a.m., Eno River State Park, Durham. 8-mile hike. Cold weather makes for great long hikes — so much incentive to keep moving. And such a scenic hike, passing the Eno Quarry, snuggling up to rocky sections of the Eno, gaining some elevation, passing two waterfalls, and maybe fording a stream or two where Florence wiped out a bridge. Free, but pre-registration required by calling 919.383.1686. Learn more here.

Bennetts Creek Trail Hike, Saturday, 2:30 p.m., Merchants Millpond State Park, Gatesville. See the video? Part of it was shot last week along the Bennetts Creek Trail — in fact, the canoeists are on Bennetts Creek. This 2-mile hike explores wetlands but manages to stay above the marshy fray by utilizing ridges and boardwalks. A great hike for exploring a swampy area. Learn more and sign up here.

Don’t Overlook the Overlooks, Sunday, 2 p.m., Mount Jefferson State Natural Area, West Jefferson. Before we walk, we must crawl. Or maybe drive. That’s our thinking, anyway, by recommending this event for our readers who have been more armchair adventurers up to this point. On this afternoon excursion, you’ll drive to the three overlooks on the road up Mount Jefferson to learn local natural history. You’ll be so wowed, we think, that you’ll be motivated to visit similar scenic spots on foot. Learn more and sign up here.

As always, you can find more opportunities this weekend here:

  • North Carolina State Parks have a variety of adventures planned for the weekend. Check those options here.
  • North Carolina Environmental Education Centers has an extensive calendar of what’s happening at its affiliates; check it out here.
  • You can also find more adventures right here, at GetGoingNC.com

GetHiking! this weekend

As for GetHiking!, here’s what we’ll be up to this weekend:

GetHiking! Winter Wild: Hanging Rock State Park, Series of monthly hikes that take you to the places you know to explore (off trail) the terrain you don’t. Next hike is Jan. 26 at Hanging Rock State Park, where we’ll take the trail up to Hanging Rock, then veer east in search of a plane that crashed in 1963. Learn more here.

GetHiking! Charlotte: Deep Woods Hike, Saturday, Jan. 26, 9 a.m. Crowders Mountain State Park, Kings Mountain. 6-mile hike that goes over Pinnacle Mountain on Ridgeline trail. Learn more here.

Live the video

If you’re inspired by today’s video, you can spend a couple hours at Merchants Millpond State Park on the Bennetts Creek hike cited above, or you can spend the weekend with our GetBackpacking! crew on a trip there the weekend of Feb. 8-10. Details here.

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