Coastal trails beckon for winter hiking

Just as a retailer’s thoughts turn to Christmas once Halloween has passed, our thoughts turn to the coast once the fall color starts to fade here in the Piedmont. While I love a summer’s day at the beach, the coast — and coastal plain — are at their most alluring in late fall and winter. A week at a vacation beach house is swell over the summer, but a week at the coast in winter leaves memories that aren’t soon forgotten.  read more

Monday, Monday! Keep hiking thru the hectic holidays!

Maybe, in the course of human kind, there’s been a better time to be out in the wild. But we can’t imagine how or when.

In case you missed the weekend, here’s a look at how ours went: specifically, our Sunday GetHiking! hike at Medoc Mountain State Park.  And when you’re done kicking yourself for not taking advantage of this incredible, vow not to let it happen again. In fact, vow to not let it happen despite the fact we are heading into the busy holiday season. Because really, there’s no reason not to get out, especially since we’ve put together a holiday hiking package that includes 16 hikes in November and December on various days (and nights of the week): Sunday afternoon, Tuesday night, Friday morning — even a couple of Wednesdays at the end of December. You’ve got a free minute? We’ve likely got a hike planned.  read more

GetOut! Time to Fall Back in Love with Morning

It was still on the murky side of sun-up when we gathered this morning for our weekly GetHiking! Friday Morning Hike. As we fine-tuned our clothing strategies for dealing with the cold — at 30 degrees, the coldest morning since April — we scanned the eastern sky for signs of the type of day ahead. Gradually, the rising sun revealed a mostly clear sky as it lit the autumn canopy above.  read more

Keep your healthy mojo revving thru the holidays

The following originally ran in November 2012. We rerun it today, with some tweaks, because its message is timeless come November. Here’s why.

Come November, we’re usually in fighting’ shape. A lot of folks start hiking again, in earnest, come September; by early November we’re hiking farther, we’re spending more time on the trail. Then come the holidays. read more

Friday Morning Hikes: Why wait to start your weekend?

Why wait for Saturday to kick off the weekend when you can start with a Friday Morning Hike. We’re on the trail at 7:30, off by 9, and even if there’s a day of work ahead, we’ve got our weekend mojo humming! 

On this Friday Morning Hike — literally this Friday morning — we kick off the weekend with a 3-mile hike at the Triangle Land Conservancy’s Horton Grove Nature Preserve in Bahama, N.C., which is brimming with fall color.  read more

Explore the outdoors, discover yourself.