This morning I learned from WRAL Website that today is the start of “meteorological” spring. “The term is supposed to signify a noticeable change in the weather as the harshest 90 days of winter come to an end,” says the site.
Noticeable change?
Hmm.
I say this after watching the forecast for this week — especially for Saturday — grow colder by the day. At the beginning of the week the day was expected to start around freezing and make it into the low 50s. Today, we’re still looking at a freezing start, but the high is only supposed to hit 47. And there is mention of snow flurries. I don’t thing that’s the direction of change the good scientists who came up with the term meant.
I’m especially disappointed in this, the advent of meteorological spring because tomorrow is the Umstead Marathon, and last I looked my name was among the 250 race entrants. While cool weather trumps hot for running a marathon one truism of aging I’ve learned is that there’s a disproportionate relationship between cooler temperatures and the time it takes to rev your body up. That is, at 40 degrees, it takes a 30-year-old five minutes to warm up, a 56-year-old (moi) 10 minutes. At 30 degrees, it takes the 30-year-old (still running in shorts and a T-shirt, by the way), maybe six minutes; me, it will take most of the morning.
True, you may note, It’s a marathon — you’ve got 26.1 miles to warm up. You’ve got all day, ha ha!
Technically, no. There’s a cut off — I only have 6 hours.
My point: tomorrow’s weather may be good for a lot of things, I’m just not sure a marathon is one of them. But I’ll get back to you on that.
So what is this weekend’s weather good for? Two things:read more
A cool weekend is on tap across North Carolina: weekend highs will be lucky to top 50 and there’s a chance of snow in the west. If you’re going outside — and you know you will — it’s a better idea than usual to keep moving.
Coast
Five miles is a nice distance to run, we’ve always felt. A 5K — 3.1 miles — feels too short, too fast. And a marathon just seems ridiculously long (our judgement on this may be clouded as we’re signed up for the Umstead Trail Marathon Saturday and the thought of a 5-mile race is darn attractive right now). If you also like the sounds of a 5-mile run, then head to Greenville Saturday for the 2013 Patriot Run benefitting Fort Bragg’s Survivor Outreach Services, which helps families who have lost a serviceman/woman in combat. Awards by age category.read more
Beavers can be quick to judge.
I realized this Sunday at Falls Lake as I crossed a lengthy boardwalk leading to the footbridge over Little Lick Creek. Normally, Lick Creek is maybe 12 to 15 feet across. But after a good rain, like we’d had the past two days, the surrounding wetlands are flooded. Hence, the lead-up boardwalk on this section of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Durham County.
I heard a spectacular splash and looked up to see a radiating circle of disturbed water about 25 yards north of the bridge. At the base of the bridge, on a spit of land that wasn’t submerged, stood a man holding loppers who also was checking out the splash. Moments later the beaver slapped again.
“She’s mad at me,” offered Gregory Scott. Undeservedly so.
Scott is one of the hundreds of volunteers responsible for blazing and maintaining the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the 950-mile work-in-progress that will one day link Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee line with Jockey’s Ridgeread 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 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
There are times when you flat-out need to sleep in a tent but don’t have time to get out of town.
Like when the first warm days of the year present themselves and you realize it’s been … how long since you’ve been camping?
Or when you realize the kids have been hibernating behind their screens all winter and need some fresh air.
Or when you’ve had it with work and need to be as far from any electronic reminders of civilization as possible.
Times that you need to be encased in ripstop nylon but don’t have time to be encased in steel, glass and plastic to get there.
For those times, you have your local campground.
You might be surprised at how close the nearest campground is. In the Triangle, for instance, between Jordan Lake and Falls Lake alone, there are more than 1,300 campsites at six campgrounds. And the Triangle is not unique. Charlotte, Greenville, the Triad and Wilmington all have camping opportunities within their city limits.
In our ongoing collaboration with Great Outdoor Provision Co., we have identified five top campgrounds in each of the outdoor retailer’s seven markets (Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem). We’ve compiled everything you need to know — from location (down to the latitude and longitude) to number and type of campsites to cost to what activities you can do nearby — to plan a quick trip.
You can find the information in one of two places.read more
