Share backcountry cooking tips at Cliffs of the Neuse, run a half marathon at South Mountains, have a rad time on the slopes at Beech Mountain: they’re all options this weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
Joe Jacob, owner of Haw River Canoe & Kayak Co. and longtime guide, once confided to us that the success of any trip he ran hinged on one thing: good food. It’s true. You can have a miserable day on the trail, but all is quickly forgotten if a feast awaits at trail’s end. Which is why we recommend Saturday’s Outdoor Cooking Potluck at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park near Goldsboro. Says the program description: “Show off your outdoor cooking skills! A Ranger will prepare a meal as well.” Sounds like a great way to pick up some campground cooking tips.read more
With high temperatures expected to soar into the mid-70s in parts of North Carolina this weekend, you have no excuse for not getting into the wild, be it learning to reconnoiter at the coast, scoping birds in the Piedmont or hiking the Blue Ridge escarpment.read more
One of the best opportunities to explore the outdoors in North Carolina is over the next six days at the the coastal Wings Over Water, now celebrating its 16th year.
Coast
Got some vacation time — or in these hard corporate times, “furlough” time — you need to burn by year’s end? Tell the boss you’re taking off for a trip to the coast. True, the water is chilly and it’s hard to get an even tan wearing a parka. But that shouldn’t affect you since you’ll be at Wings Over Water.read more
Explore Cherry Point via a triathlon, participate in the VIII Lake Lure Olympiad or try your hand (and feet and sense of balance) with yoga on a paddleboard. Just another summer weekend in North Carolina.
Coast
I’m partial to events on military bases, in part because it gives civilians such as myself access to the otherwise inaccessible, to a world we otherwise don’t get a chance to see. That exposure is compounded when the event is a triathlon, which lets you run and ride through these forbidden lands.read more
Surf while you can, don’t pass up a good shower, and there’s a trail run in the mountains — somewhere.
Coast
A regret that needles at me seven years after the fact: Standing on a pier in Kaanapali on Maui watching a beginner surf lesson and not ponying up the $25 or whatever to take the lesson myself. I can still see people far less athletic than I bounding atop the long, spongy beginner boards and riding two-foot swells that went on forever. Looks like fun, I kept telling myself. That bit of melancholy leads to today’s weekend suggestion for the coast …read more
