Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer (technically, summer ends at 10:29 p.m. on Sept. 22). Either way, you don’t want to miss out on a weekend of fun, be it paddling after ‘gators at the coast or exploring the highest land east of South Dakota’s Black Hills.
Tanawha Trail: a North Carolina classic
Six hours into a hike that had experienced five hours and fifty-five minutes of rain, I noticed something peculiar: my fellow hikers were all smiling. They were wet, they were tired, they were a little concerned about the discrepancy between remaining daylight and distance to the car. But they were all smiling.
GetBackpacking! Your intro to backcountry camping
In late July, an essay appeared in Colorado’s High Country Times bemoaning the death of backpacking. The article relied on the author’s “anecdotal evidence” and the fact that sales of “heavy” boots and massive packs are down. Heavy boots, as in the kind no one buys anymore because lightweight boots easily handle the lighter loads of today’s backpacker. Massive packs, as in the kind no one uses because we no longer cook with cast-iron skillets and enamel coffee pots. (Titanium pots and plastic French-press mugs rule!)
Backpacking, like baseball, claimed the writer, isn’t attracting younger participants because they find it boring.
Stephen Meyers, the outdoors writer for the Fort Collins Coloradoan was skeptical. A week later, he responded with a piece titled “Backpacking may be changing, but it isn’t dying.” His article relied on facts.
Like the fact the average pack size is down because we no longer carry 50 or 60 pounds into the woods (it’s more like 30).
Or the fact the 2012 Leisure Trends report counted more than 1 million backpackers between the ages of 18 and 24, comparable to the number of mountain bikers and whitewater kayakers in that age group combined.
Or the fact that the American Camper Report for 2011 reported that of the 42.5 million Americans who went camping in 2011, 10 percent were backpackers. That’s about 4.3 million people.
Unlike the High Country essayist, my anecdotal evidence suggests a keen interest in backpacking. Since launching the GetHiking! program nearly a year ago, I’ve had a steady number of hikers ask, “What about backpacking? I’d like to give that a try.”
What about backpacking? you ask.
This weekend: Test the waters
Sample a triathlon in Cary or sample hiking on Grandfather Mountain. Or, at the coast you can workout for a cookout. Good options all for the last weekend before Labor Day weekend.
Coast
Always a smart move, scheduling a cookout with a workout, which is the gist of Saturday’s Rise and Grind Workout and Cookout Saturday morning at Hugh MacRae Park in Wilmington.
Radical Reels 2014: Filmmaker Celin Serbo brings stills to life
With his first feature-length adventure film — “feature length” in the adventure genre meaning more than four minutes — Celin Serbo admits he didn’t have much of a plan going in.
“It was definitely thrown together,” says the Boulder, Colo.-based adventure photographer and cinematographer. “We had no detailed story board. We just wanted to see what we could get.”
What emerged was 2011’s “Cyclocross Colorado Front Range,” a mix of race footage and interviews that looks like it did indeed set out with a purpose: to explain the allure of this quirky cycling hybrid that involves carrying one’s bike as much as riding it. The five-minute video includes footage from about a half dozen races shot in a local amateur cyclocross series.
“These were people doing whatever they were doing during the week, then coming out there to hammer it out on the weekend,” Serbo says.