More reasons to be active

From the research world comes more compelling evidence to be active …

Bike to work: It’s good for your heart

Remember when people didn’t have gym memberships, didn’t run 5Ks, didn’t sweat to the oldies — and not because they hadn’t been recorded yet? This would have been back when we walked to the factory where they had physically demanding jobs. When we were more concerned about how many $ our clothes cost, not how many Xs came before the L. read more

In Colorado, a rock star is just a cubicle away

One thing I love about going back to Colorado is I never know when I’ll bump up against celebrity. Celebrity in my case meaning a rock star of the outdoor world.

Two weeks ago I was in Loveland, home office of my wife’s employer, Interweave. Interweave produces books, magazines and Web sites covering the crafting world. Not the kind of workplace where you’d expect to find leaders of the mountain biking world or pioneering female rock climbers. Not unless that workplace is in Colorado. read more

This week, Take a Child Outside

It was a telling commentary on the times four years ago when Liz Baird came up with the idea for Take A Child Outside Week. The simple notion that you needed to dedicate a week to encouraging kids to go outside and play would have been preposterous just a decade earlier. Yet with the proliferation of video games and parents increasingly fearful of threats real and perceived, kids were staying inside — and being kept inside — in record numbers. The dilemma was chronicled by author and advocate Richard Louv in his 2005 bestseller, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” an account of how our kids had gone from being weaned in the wild to garrisoned in the great room in less than a generation. read more

Weekend plans? Tri, walk, hike,

This weekend, may we suggest …

Coast

You built up a good head of fitness steam over the spring and summer and it seems a waste not to capitalize on it just because summer is now officially over. Well, here’s one more chance for your day in the sun: The 32nd Annual Wilmington YMCA Triathlon in Wrightsville Beach. It’s the biggest race in the North Carolina Triathlon Series, drawing 1,300 participants. The event starts at 7 a.m. with a 1,500 meter swim with the current from the Blockade Runner, followed by a 12-mile bike ride and a 5K — all very flat. $65 (add another $10 if you aren’t a member of USA Triathlon). read more

I get lost so you don’t have to

My slogan as a guidebook writer: I get lost so you don’t have to.

Yet in the case of London Bald, there’s no guarantee that even my most meticulous directions, derived from wandering 20 miles in less than 24 hours with GPS and maps in hand, will spare you from a similar bushwhacking fate in the rugged Nantahala National Forest. For London Bald, like the 26-mile Appletree Camp trail network it’s a part of, is in a National Forest, and when you step foot on a National Forest trail, anything can happen. read more

Explore the outdoors, discover yourself.