My senior year in high school I went to a new school. In football, we went 0-9, in basketball, 0-18. I always wondered how our cheerleaders could muster the enthusiasm, the optimism, to encourage us to push on. 

I find myself in a similar situation, facing a rainy weekend, wondering how to encourage y’all to put on a happy face and head out the door for a weekend of adventure. So … well, grab your rain gear and let’s head out! Some options …

• Discovery Hike, Saturday, 10 a.m., Jones Lake State Park, Elizabethtown. We love the loop hike around Jones Lake because it’s so diverse. Start at the lake, a Carolina bay whose shallow, tanic waters resemble sweet tea, continue through a pine savannah, then round the far end of the lake and enter a dense, coastal forest. Your ranger guide describes what’s going on. Learn more and sign up here. 
• Spring Hike, Saturday, 11 a.m., Dismal Swamp State Park, South Mills. If your chances of finding spring anywhere this early in this rainy end of winter, it’s at Dismal Swamp, about as coastal as it gets in North Carolina’s state park system. A little spring, a few stills (retired) — sounds like a hike to us! Learn more and sign up here.
• Amateur Photography Hike, Sunday, 2 p.m., Carvers Creek State Park. Wish your photos even remotely resembled what you see in the wild? This class won’t solve all your problems, but it should help you figure out what to look for in your shots and how to frame them. 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

What are we up to this weekend? 

• GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking. For starters, we’ll be graduating a class of backpackers at South Mountains State Park through our GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking program. While it’s too late to matriculate with this group, we have another class starting April 13. Learn more about that class and sign up here. 
• GetHiking! Winter Wild Off-Trail Adventure to the Birkhead Mountain Wilderness. This trip is full, but there’s still time to get in on our next Winter Wild adventure, at Raven Rock State Park. Learn more about that March 16 trip and sign up here.

Live the video

Indeed, this week’s video was shot last weekend, just as the sun was poking out after that week’s long run of rain. Maybe there’s hope for this weekend. If so, we highly recommend exploring the Horton Grove Nature Preserve, a Triangle Land Conservancy property in northern Durham County. Learn more here.