Every Wednesday through Thanksgiving, GetGoingNC.com will feature a hike in North Carolina that just about anyone can do. It won’t be a long hike (though we may throw in a recommendation for going long), it won’t be strenuous hike (there could be a hill-climb option as well). The hikes will be timed to coincide with the changing colors of fall. First up: Panthertown Valley, a 6,700-acre oasis in the Nantahala National Forest near Cashiers.
Read this: PE in a school district that gets it
A story from the Seattle Times reprinted in today’s News & Observer shows how at least one school district is taking physical education seriously. “Stretching the curriculum: Seattle schools standardize PE” describes how the Seattle Public Schools have tossed the laissez faire/lazy fare approach to gym class currently in vogue in America in favor of a more structured fitness program intended to instill a lifelong sense of the importance of exercise.
Drink up and avoid leg cramps
Yesterday, I mentioned that my bid to avoid last place in Saturday’s Cry Me A River six-hour mountain bike race was thwarted — in part — by leg cramps early on my fifth lap (a little over 3 hours and 25 miles into the race, to put it in better perspective). I was pit-bound for 45 minutes before finally taking two electrolyte tablets, which gave my muscles a needed salt injection, an injection that let me resume normal function. Or at least move.
Andy Etters, race volunteer extraordinaire
Our award for volunteer of the day at Saturday’s Cry Me A River 6-hour mountain bike race at Little River Regional Park goes to … Andy Etters! And not just because of the little white pills Andy gave me after my debilitating fifth lap. More about those pills in a moment.
It’s fall, take a hike
I hate to nag, so let’s call this something else. Prodding? Pushing? Pestering? They all seem so … controlling, which is crazy considering I’ll I’m trying to do is prod/pester/push you out the door to take a hike. And there’s no better time and place to take a hike than the fall in North Carolina. Temperatures in in the 70s, low humidity, brilliant, crisp blue skies, changing color — what more incentive do you need to get out on the trail?