Fall is a great time to be outdoors in North Carolina; this weekend there are several ways to enjoy the season: hike a swamp at the coast, run a marathon in a Piedmont forest, paddle a mountain river — at night.
Coast
Lots of people go to Merchants Millpond State Park, almost all to paddle the cypress- and tupelo-peppered millpond. But the park, nestled in the swampy northeast corner of the state, also has hiking trail (it even has backcountry camping). Saturday, you can tag along with a ranger on a nature hike through the park, a good opportunity to learn about the swamplike environment. Bug spray recommended.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
This photo by Sara Cunningham was a finalist in last year's CampOut! Carolina photo contest in the Best Iconic Camping Photo category.
You’ve meant to go camping, and yet … .
And yet for a variety of reasons you haven’t made it happen. When I ask people what outdoor activity they’ve wanted to try but haven’t, the most common response is camping. There’s always an excuse, usually built on speculation: I’m not sure about sleeping on the hard ground I can’t imagine going to bed dirty It seems like a lot of work Raccoons! I worry about marauding raccoons!
Well, the time for speculative abstention is over. This weekend, EarthShare North Carolina sponsors CampOut! Carolina, a push to get you fence-sitters off the fence and into a tent.
You can participate in one of two ways. If part of camping’s appeal is the desire to survive on your own, to erect your own shelter (a roomy eight-person tent with separate living and sleeping quarters) and forage for your own food (or at least the firewood to fuel the fire to cook your straight-from-the-butcher steaks over), the CampOut! Carolina website has all kinds of helpful first-timer information.
If you have no illusions about your capacity to rough it, you can take part in one of seven organized events being held statewide. One such events is the Fourth Annual CampOut! Carolina Jamboree this Saturday and Sunday at West Point on the Eno city park in Durham. Sponsored by Durham Parks and Recreation and the Triangle area REI stores, the event will feature helpful information on camping, hikes, storytelling around a campfire, s’mores and more. A limited number of tents and sleeping bags are available free of charge. The event is free, but space is limited; register by calling 919.560.4405.
If you are interested in camping out on your own this weekend but aren’t sure where to go, our friends at Great Outdoor Provision Co. have you covered. Their website includes 35 prime campgrounds near seven of the state’s metropolitan areas (Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington, Winston-Salem), plus another 15 campgrounds in the mountains that are open year-round. The descriptions include all the details you need to plan a great overnight in the wild.
Looks like you’re finally out of excuses, procasticampers. Enjoy your weekend under the stars.read more
Fall revs up in the high country with increasing color while paddling opportunities linger in the Piedmont.
Coast
We venture into the wild for various reasons. One of those reasons: to learn about, and see new things. A visit to Lake Waccamaw State Park offers some especially interesting learning opportunities. For instance, the park’s website informs us: “Lake Waccamaw’s water quality contributes to an interesting mix of animal life in the park. Several species are found only in or around the lake and nowhere else on Earth. These species are known as endemics.” Among those endemics: Waccamaw darter, Waccamaw silverside, Waccamaw killifish, Waccamaw spike and the Waccamaw fatmucket.read more
Rod gives his followers a rare (and short) break on a hike at Umstead State Park.
“Uh!” Kathy groaned about three quarters of the way up the grinding march up to Moore’s Knob at Hanging Rock State Park. “I wish I’d started doing this when I was younger.”
“Better late than never,” her sister Judy offered.
“Yeah,” I added, “and hiking is something you can do for another 40 years.”
Kathy looked at me like I was nuts. “I’ll be 60 this fall!”
OK, maybe another 20 years. The point, as sis so eloquently put it, it’s never too late to start an activity, especially when that activity is health-friendly hiking.
According to a 2005 report (the most recent year for which I could find demographic information for free), the average age of a hiker was 38 and nearly a third of the nation’s 76.7 million hikers were 45 or older. That’s about 25 million hikers — 25 million smart hikers, considering a 2009 study found that the decline in our level of fitness begins to accelerate after age 45. Because of the constant impact of hiking, it’s especially helpful for women trying to stave off osteoporosis. The additional health benefits of hiking are numerous: hiking regularly can lower your blood pressure by four to 10 points, reduce your chances for cardio vascular disease, reduce your odds of getting diabetes, help you keep weight off, lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels and, perhaps most importantly, clear your head and help you maintain your sanity.
And it doesn’t discriminate on the basis of age.
Take Emma “Grandma” Gatewood. In 1955, at the age of 67, she hiked the entire 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail. That was the first time she hiked the AT; she did it again in 1960 at age 72, and again, when she was 75, in 1963. Lee Barry became the oldest person to thru-hike the AT when he completed the trail in 2004 at age 81. The oldest AT section hiker was 86 when he finished wrapped up the trail.
Closer to home, Triangle hikers have been trying to keep pace with Rod Broadbelt since he started his monthly hikes, mostly at Umstead State Park, in the 1990s. Rod goes anywhere from 8 miles (in the dead of summer) to 22 miles (in the briskness of February) on his hikes, which often leave much younger hikers gasping for breath. On a hike last year he said his goal was to continue leading the hikes after he turns 80. He was 78 at the time.
And lest you be an older hiker and think you don’t have the knees for hiking, we have two words of advice: hiking poles. For just as full-suspension bikes have extended the riding lives of many an older mountain biker, and the over-sized tennis racket meant more control and less darting about the court for aging tennis players, so have hiking poles made it possible for the weak-kneed to keep on hiking. Plus, with poles, not only do you still get a good cardio workout, but your upper body gets to share the toning benefits of a hike.
We can’t blame Kathy for wishing she’d started hiking sooner; think of all the great places she’s missed seeing. But then, think of all the great places she’ll visit in the next 20 years.
Or 40.read more
