First Day Hike at Carvers Creek State Park (photo courtesy of N.C. State Parks).
We all resolve to be healthier and more active at the start of the new year. What we don’t always realize is that a healthier lifestyle is a day-by-day undertaking.
That said, get your first day of your active new year off to a good start with a hike. Hiking is one of the more traditional ways to start the blood flowing on January 1. (Jumping into an icy lake is another; we’ve tried that and don’t recommend it if you intend to keep the blood flowing.) Fortunately, there are lots of hike options on New Year’s Day, thanks to the First Day Hikes initiative launched a few years back by the nation’s state parks.read more
Start the year with a traditional polar plunge at the coast, then head to higher, drier and warmer ground for a hike.
Coast
We would be remiss if, in this New Year’s edition of Weekend Plans, we didn’t include at least one polar plunge, that peculiar tradition born in the north where we strip down to our skivvies and immerse ourselves in water that hasn’t frozen over — though in some northern climes the tradition requires drilling a hole through the frozen-over lake surface, then jumping in. An impressive level of lunacy.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 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
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
Round Bald on the Appalachian Trail, near Carver’s Gap.
Plum out of ideas for the adventurous person in your life?
How about the gift of North Carolina’s best hikes?
In 2015, our GetHiking! program will launch a series of monthly hikes on the trails that no North Carolina hiker’s resume should be without: Linville Gorge, Shining Rock, Slickrock Wilderness, Black Mountain Crest Trail, the Great Smokies, Mountains-to-Sea Trail, The Appalachian Trail, Mount Mitchell Trail, Bartram Trail, Tanawha Trail, Panthertown Valley. Hikes that have earned their place for great views, for impressive waterfalls, for old growth forests, for altitude or, perhaps, for attitude.read more
