I was on a bike ride early Saturday, headed out of town on a route I’ve been doing about twice a week for most of the summer. A mile into the ride, settling into my groove, I noticed, with the binocular from Vortex I’d bought, a car with a kayak rack parked in a gravel pullout on the opposite side of the road. Just beyond, I noticed a narrow clearing in the lush woods leading down to an oxbow in the Eno River, a spot where the river slows pools up. I didn’t think much of it and pedaled on.
GetOut! Your Nudge for Weekend Adventure
Summer called: it misses you and wants you to know it won’t be around forever — would it hurt you to pay a visit?
Did I say summer or your mother? In any event, Labor Day weekend, the ceremonial end of summer, is in three weeks and we have a most summer-friendly weekend on tap that you should get out and enjoy (before it’s too late): temperatures in the upper 80s under mostly sunny skies. Get Out and enjoy!
Take a quick backpacking escape this fall
It was about 10:30 on a Friday night, mid November, when we pulled out of the light rain and into the covered bank drive-thru in Canton, N.C. After a quick surveillance, with particular attention for the local constable, we decided the coast was clear: the five of us scrambled out of the SUV and quickly slipped into our rain gear. We wanted to be as prepared as possible when we hit the trailhead in a half hour or so to finally get our two-day backpack trip underway.
GetOut! Your Friday Nudge for Weekend Adventure
We take a slightly different approach this week, inspired by what seems to be a greater-than-usual offering of intriguing critter programs this weekend in our state parks system. Today, we simply list the program title, the park hosting it, when it is, and a link. You have no reason not to learn a thing or two this weekend.
There’s a little Alex Honnold in you
Talking with author/climber Mark Synnott earlier this week about his new book, “The Impossible Climb: Alex Honnold, El Capitan and the Climbing Life,” I was touched by something vaguely familiar. Vaguely, and weirdly, because the book is about one of the most audacious physical and psychological feats of our time: Honnold’s ascent of El Capitan, a 3,000-foot near-sheer rockface in Yosemite National Park — without any form of protection to save him should he slip from one of the wall’s precarious microscopic holds. What could possibly be familiar about that?