Stuffed inside the chimney with no apparent place to go my thoughts flashed back 17 years. It was a similar situation, only that time I was clinging to the side of a 600-foot granite dome thinking a thought I’d never had in the outdoors: I’d rather be in an office. An air conditioned office, behind a desk, both feet flatly planted on cheap, stained carpet. Maybe even with an impossible deadline looming.
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
My life of late has been ruled by two pairs of Rs: Radical Reels and Roots Rated.
Radical Reels Tour 2012: Every year, the best action sports films submitted to the acclaimed Banff Mountain Film Festival go on tour. This year, the tour stops in Chapel Hill — tonight, in fact. I’ve written about the Radical Reels Tour and its offerings for Great Outdoor Provision Co. (read that here) and I interviewed one of the filmmakers, Rush Sturges, in this space a couple weeks back.
I began my journalism life writing about business, so sometimes, to my source’s surprise, I start asking more questions about marketing strategy and business plans than about nail-biting adventure. In some cases, my questions draw a blank stare. When that happens I make a mental bet with myself about how much longer this guy will be in business. Usually, though, there may be a brief blank stare — of surprise — before they light up and launch into all that is prudent to divulge about the business side of what they do.
Today I’m heading down to the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte to do some … reporting. Yeah, that’s it, reporting.
That’s a taller task than you might imagine because the Whitewater Center is about more than just whitewater rafting and kayaking. It’s about flatwater paddling, about stand-up paddleboarding, about rock climbing, mountain biking, canopy tours … . In short, it’s a microcosm of everything adventurous you can do in North Carolina.