A late spring day, temperature in the mid-50s under a cloudless sky, hiking down Yellowstone Prong east of Graveyard Fields along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was during that soft-focus, three-day flash that marks the transition from winter to spring, when the natural world is enveloped in pastel greens and yellows and pinks and oranges, the colors, I’ve heard, that the tress will revert to in fall. There was the slightest of breezes, just enough to make the budding trees whisper.
GetOut! Winter and Spring, in the same weekend
Welcome to the last weekend of winter — and the first weekend of spring!
Curiously, the winter end of the weekend, Saturday, has more of a springlike forecast (temperatures in the mid 70s, chance of rain), while Sunday is looking more late winter, with a high around 60 under crisp skies. That said, here’s a bit of what’s going on:
It’s Spring: Become a Hiker
We love spring. It’s a time of rebirth, of action after a winter, for many, of inactivity. Warming temperatures and a natural world come back to life put us in a mind to do the same.
One way to make that happen? Become a hiker.
OK, maybe you have hiked. Maybe a friend convinced you to go for a short hike last year. Maybe you even did a New Year’s Day hike. We’re not talking about sampling the product. We’re talking about becoming an avid, hiking-boot-owning, guide-book-wielding, join-the-American-Hiking-Society hiker. A bonafide hiker.
GetOut! Rain early, then a sunny, cool weekend
The news for this weekend is the weather. Don’t make plans for Saturday morning, do make plans to enjoy the rest of the weekend, a cool, sun-filled winter-like weekend.
Saturday morning — the exact time depends upon where you live — a cold front moves in, the kind of cold front ushered in by gusty winds, thunderstorms, possibly tornadoes. Then, sun — and temperatures that will drop into the upper 30s by late afternoon. Temperatures will drop into the low 20s overnight Saturday, rising only into the mid-40s on Sunday. Thus, you might want to reconsider the 9 a.m. Volunteer Days Saturday at Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve and Carvers Creek State Park, but you should be OK for the …
Sunday lights the way for after work adventure
On Sunday, we get our evenings back.
At 2 a.m., we spring ahead, setting our clocks forward by an hour and advancing sunset accordingly. Today, the sun sets at 6:19 p.m.; Sunday, it won’t go down until 7:22 p.m. And that’s just sunset; we’ll still have lingering light for another 20-25 minutes or so.