For those of you who like to stand on formality, the official opening of the first stretch of the Neuse River Trail is Wednesday at 3 p.m. For those of you who like to stand on accuracy, the trail clocks in at 6.46 miles, not the 8 that I have previously reported.
90 Second Escape: The Night Hike
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.
Updates: Forest Ridge Park, Neuse Greenway and a parking lot
You ask questions, I try to answer them. Among your recent inquiries:
Forest Ridge Park, Raleigh
Lance was noodling around on the site, discovered an old post about Forest Ridge Park-to-be in North Raleigh and wondered “if there is any news there. It looks to me like things are moving toward construction starting next spring … .”
This weekend: New trail, high trail or hightail it to Wilmington
New trail opens along the Eno River, there’s a hike on some of the state’s highest trail and there’s a run on battleships at the coast.
Piedmont
We don’t normally recommend ribbon cuttings, but when that ribbon cutting is part of a chance to hike 1.5 miles of virgin Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which connects with another 8 miles of what might be the sweetest hiking on the Eno River — coupled with what’s forecast to be a lovely fall weekend — well, we’ll make an exception.
Just getting in the toughest challenge of some races

The hardest part of a race? Anymore, it’s just getting in.
This morning, at 7:59, I sat at the keyboard, my right index finger poised of the Enter key. In the window of my browser was this address: http://www.sportoften.com/events/eventDetails.cfm?pEventId=7902 — the site to register for the Feb. 4 Uwharrie Mountain Run. The site was set to go active at 8 a.m. today, Nov. 1, 2011.