“They draw pictures of bears and lions and all these really big animals,” says Weems, the center’s senior manager of early childhood programs. At the end of the program, when she asks them to draw a picture of what they actually did see at this 45-acre natural oasis in the heart of Raleigh, she gets sketches of tadpoles, frogs, crickets, ladybugs … .
“The reality is it’s really much more fun to get close to a lady bug,” says Weems, who has been in the business of exposing kids to the outdoors for 30 years.
The reality is also that today more than ever, too many kids like the ones viewing Prairie Ridge as a wild jungle have only a vague notion of what’s going on outside their living room windows.
That’s why in 2006, N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences’ Director of Education Liz Baird deemed it necessary to create Take A Child Outside Week, seven days at the end of September dedicated to introducing our increasingly insulated youth to the great outdoors. Take A Child Outside Week 2013 begins Tuesday and runs through Monday, Sept. 30. At least 82 Take A Child Outside-related programs are scheduled throughout the state. (To find an event close to you, check our calendar, here.)
“The average child spends seven hours a day in front of a screen,” says Baird, “with no logged time outdoors. Obviously, we still need to remind parents to get their children outside.”
Take a Child Outside Week was spurred by Richard Louv’s 2005 bestseller, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” an account of how, in less than a generation, our kids have gone from being weaned in the wild to garrisoned in the great room.
To anyone who came of age pre-1980, the notion of having to be reminded to go outside and play would have seemed crazy; outside — in a local forest, along a nearby creek, in a neighborhood park — was where kids went to escape. But as Louv notes, a proliferation of electronic options and increasingly protective parents have conspired to keep our kids inside.
Some disturbing numbers: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
Need another triathlon before the season ends? We’ve got one? Another century ride? Got one of those, too, in the mountains, no less. And if you’re just into a good time with food, music and water, water everywhere, we’ve got that covered as well.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
Chuck Millsaps, who had climbed once in the past year, sends a V1 bouldering problem on The Wave wall.
Need incentive to visit a spanking new climbing gym? Try this: If you’re, say, a 5.7, 5.8 climber, there’s a good chance you could send a 5.9 on a freshly minuted climbing wall.
“I came in and did two 5.9s,” Raleigh climber Phil Gruber said of his first visit to the Triangle Rock Club’s just-opened gym in North Raleigh. “In a row,” he was quick to add. “I’ve never done that. And I talked to a guy who did three 5.11s.”
“The grades are a little soft,” TRC Managing Partner Joel Graybeal said during a climbing session this morning.
Today was my first attempt at the wall, and I wouldn’t say the routes are easier — they’re set by chief TRC routsetter Scott Gilliam and his crew, the same group responsible for routes in TRC’s flagship Morrisville gym. The difference: the holds are all new and exceptionally grippy. Thousands of hands have yet to act as the indoor equivalent of wind and rain to smooth the holds’ surfaces.
I developed an appreciation for this phenomenon climbing a 5.8 rife with grippers (small holds that require greater hand strength to hang on to. After getting a feel for the route by watching Phil and Chuck Millsaps before me, I took my turn. I third of the way up, in a 15-foot stretch of nothing but the small holds, I managed to keep moving and punch through. The grippers were like flypaper.
Alas, there are new holds in this gym that may be grippy but require techniques that eluded me this morning. Always good to have a new challenge.
If you’re an existing climber looking for a confidence boost or a newcomer who likes to excel the first time out, check out the new North Raleigh Triangle Rock Club soon. The grip won’t last forever.read more
