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.
Long Trails of the Triangle
Sometimes you just need to stretch your legs — really, really stretch your legs. If you live in the Triangle and love a good, long stretch, you are in luck, because for an urban area it has more than its share of long trails. And varied long trails to boot. Some are paved and suitable for wheeled sports from cycling to rollerblading to stroller pushing. Some are a foot friendly, finally crushed natural surface, especially good for running. Some are the narrow, intimate singletrack perfect for hiking.
We’ve put together snapshots of five such long trails, ranging from the recently 7.1-mile Black Creek Greenway in Cary to the 60-mile section of the Falls Lake portion of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (which will soon connected to the Eno River section of the MST and does connect to the Neuse River Trail, which will soon run nearly 33 miles into Clayton). Check out the snapshots. If you’re intrigued, click the recommended link for additional information.
This weekend: Paddle up!
Paddle a swamp, paddle someone else’s boat, paddle a dragon.
Coast
There’s great cache in being able to say you paddled the Great Dismal Swamp. After all, people have gone into the massive wetland in the northeast corner of the state (and southeast Virginia) and never come out. On Saturday’s Kayaking the Canal paddle at Dismal Swamp State Park you can earn both Dismal bragging rights and, since it’s ranger-led and on a canal, be assured that you will emerge unscathed (save, perhaps, a mosquito bite or two if you don’t later up beforehand).
90 Second Escape: Over The Edge
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.
Don’t let Andrea rain on your weekend fun
Wondering what kinks Tropical Storm Andrea may have put in your weekend plans?
Paddling. If you were planning on paddling, you might think again. With projected rainfall amounts of four inches or greater, some local rivers may be swollen to the dangerous level, especially for less experienced paddlers. Your best bet for assessing paddle conditions on specific rivers is to check with the outfitters who serve them. Find a list of 44 such outfitters, specifically those who rent canoes and kayaks, here. If you’re familiar with a specific waterway, you can check levels and flows at the U.S. Geological Survey site, here. If you need help interpreting what those numbers mean — what’s optimum, what’s safe, what’s not — you should have a copy of Paul Ferguson’s “Paddling Eastern North Carolina” for the eastern part of the state, the Benner boys’ “Carolina Whitewater: A Paddler’s Guide to the Western Carolinas” for the west.