Labor Day has come and gone, the summer with it. Now, we get down to the serious business of fall fun in North Carolina!

Coast | Coastal Plain

There’s something romantic about an open-water swim in the ocean: riding the swells, being buoyed by the salt water, sharing space with all manner of aquatic life.

Yup, it’s romantic, all right. Until you’ve done it and realize what an incredible challenge it is, battling current, keeping your bearings, trying not to swallow those swells.

That’s the challenge faced by competitors in Saturday’s Pier-2-Pier Swim Race at Wrightsville Beach. The race covers the two miles of open water between Johnny Mercer’s pier and Crystal Piers. (For the mile counters, yes, that total distance is 1.71 miles; the additional 0.29 includes “the swim to and from the ‘dry’ finish and start.”

Vital Stats: Saturday, Sept. 10, 8 a.m., Wrightsville Beach, $40-$60. More info here.

Saturday forecast: Mostly sunny, race-time temp of 75.

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Looking ahead: American Craft Walk, Saturday, Oct. 15, Wilmington. More info here.

Piedmont

Saturday, apparently, is Grandparents Day, and North Carolina’s state parks are celebrating. Hikes and nature programs are planned at Morrow Mountain, Raven Rock, Cliffs of the Neuse and Pilot Mountain state parks, among other parks statewide.

Make it an intergenerational Saturday, by seeking out details below

Vital Stats: Check out the list of Grandparents Day events, here.

Saturday forecast: Sunny throughout much of the region with highs near 90.

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Looking ahead: Centennial Celebration at Mayo River State Park, Mayodan, Oct. 8. More info here.

Mountains

What could be more fun than a 5K road race at Biltmore Estate? Maybe a 5K road race at Biltmore Estate followed by a 13.25-mile off-road bike ride at Biltmore? Now, that would really be cool, the best! Unless, that is, you were to tack on a 5K off-road run. That would truly be swell.

And that would be Sunday’s Asheville Duathlon at Biltmore. The riding is non-technical, and on trail not typically open to the public. All good reasons to do the Du.

Vital Stats: Sunday, Sept. 11, 7:45 a.m, Biltmore Estate, Asheville. More info here.

Sunday forecast: Mostly sunny, race-time high of 66.

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Looking ahead: Take a Child Outside Campout, Sept. 24-25, Chimney Rock State Park. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

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Coast

Within just 58 acres, Halyburton Memorial Park is representative of the wide-ranging ecology in the Wilmington area. It’s this biological diversity that makes it easy for park naturalists to have a different focus for each of the park’s bimonthly Discovery Hikes.

The next hike in this series is Saturday at 10 a.m. The hike is on the park’s 1.5 miles of path and is appropriate for ages 5 and up: an entertaining and informative start to the weekend.

Logistics: Saturday, Aug. 15, 10 a.m., Halyburton Memorial Park, 4099 S. 17th St., Wilmington. Free. For more info, call 910.341.0075 or visit the park website.

Saturday forecast: Sunny with a temperature of 78 at 10 a.m.

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Looking ahead: Summer Paddle, Dismal Swamp State Park, South Mills, Sunday, Aug. 29, 1 p.m. 252.771.6593.

Piedmont

How many times has this happened to you: You’ve made the climb to 2,579-foot Moore’s Knob at Hanging Rock State Park and stood atop the observation tower to enjoy the vast 360-degree view. It’s peaceful — until the know-it-all gets fired up: Look, up north — that’s Pennsylvania! You can see all the way to Pennsylvania from here! People think that’s Winston-Salem down to the south there, but actually it’s Atlanta! And if you squint real hard looking west you can see right past the Appalachians to the Rockies!

Now, you’re pretty sure that’s Virginia to the north, that Winston-Salem is indeed on the southern horizon, and not even Superman could see the Rockies from here. But you aren’t entirely sure, so you say nothing.

Well, hold your tonuge no longer. Make the 4.2-mile (roundtrip) hike to the top of Moore’s Knob Saturday at 2 p.m. and an environmental educator will be waiting to tell you with certainty what you’re looking at. And not just the seemingly obvious (Atlanta!? Seriously?): learn the peaks you’re observing in the Blue Ridge.

Logistics: Saturday, Aug. 15, 2 p.m., Moore’s Knob observation tower, Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury. Free. More info at 336.593.8480.

Saturday forecast: Sunny with an afternoon high in the mid-80s.

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Looking ahead: Edible / Medicinal Plant Hike, Elk Knob State Park, Todd, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2 p.m.. 828.297.7261.

Mountains

As the clock begins to tick on summer, are you suddenly fretting about opportunities lost? The 10K you’ve yet to race? The triathlon you’ve promised to do? The mountain road ride that remains unchecked off your list?

Make amends, big time, this weekend at the 11th annual Lake Lure Olympiad. Starting Friday and running through Sunday, three days of all that: a 10K, a tri, a 25-mile bike ride plus a 5K. All in the idyllic Hickory Nut Gorge. (Read more about the event in this Asheville Citizen-Times article.)

Logistics: Friday – Sunday, Aug. 14-16, Lake Lure/Hickory Nut Gorge. For all your details, go here.

Weekend forecast: Highs in the mid-80s, chance of a thunderstorm Saturday.

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Looking ahead: Guide Profile Trail Hikes at Grandfather Mountain State Park, various hikes lead by the Chargers & Rechargers Hiking Club starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 22. 828.963.9522

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

The post This weekend: Tick, Tick, Tick appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

• 210 miles of Hiking Trail. That includes a range of experiences, from short escapes in your neighborhood — at Durant Park in Raleigh, at West Point on the Eno in Durham, Hemlock Bluffs in Cary — to day-long treks at Umstead State Park, with 33 miles of trail, and Eno River State Park, with 28 miles of trail.
• 281 miles of greenway. Not 20 years ago, the Triangle was dotted with mile-long stretches of random, paved, greenway, great for families who lived nearby, but that was about it. A building boom spearheaded by Raleigh (with help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) and Cary has brought to near fruition the Circle the Triangle concept conceived in the 1990s. Today, with two short hiccups, it’s possible to take greenway from Clayton in Johnston County, through Raleigh, into Umstead State Park, across to Cary, through Chatham County and into downtown Durham. Within the last five years the Triangle’s greenway system has blossomed into a secondary transportation network for non-motorized vehicles.
• 105 miles of mountain bike trail. In 1992, the first mountain bike trail opened in the region, at Lake Crabtree County Park. Today, thanks largely to the efforts of volunteers, there are 113 miles of singletrack trail at nine venues. And that’s just the legal trail!

Not to mention:

• Whitewater kayaking. After a good rain, local kayakers flock to the lower Haw River for Class III action on Gabriel’s Bend, Harold’s Tombstone, Moose Jaw Falls and more. Meanwhile, in Raleigh local paddlers have organized to turn the output from Falls Lake Dam into a whitewater park. The Falls Whitewater Park Committee  already has $350,000 committed to the project.
• Backpacking. Eno River State Park has three primitive campsites along its 28 miles of trail, while two new backcountry sites have been built along the 60-mile Falls Lake stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, bringing the FLMST’s primitive camping options to four. Jordan Lake and Falls Lake also have primitive camping sites.
• Mountains-to-Sea Trail. So complacent about great local hiking options have we become that we nearly let mention of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail pass as an afterthought. What an omission that would have been: at present, 107 miles of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail runs through the Triangle, making it possible to walk from Clayton in Johnston County to nearly Hillsborough in Orange County. (About 620 miles of the overall MST are complete; eventually, it will run about 1,000 miles, from Clingman’s Dome atop the Smoky Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge at the coast.)
• Flatwater paddling. Great paddling options abound on the fingers of Jordan and Falls lakes, and at at least 14 municipal lakes, whose primary purpose is flood control but also rent canoes and kayaks — for as little as $5 an hour. Got a hankerin’ to watch the sun set over the water? It’s yours for a five spot. Dependable year-round paddling options as well on local rivers including the Neuse, Deep and Cape Fear, and on stretches of the Haw and Eno.
• Climbing. The Triangle has two state-of-the-art climbing gyms in the Triangle Rock Club’s North Raleigh and Morrisville gyms, the latter with a 54-foot wall, the highest between Atlanta and the D.C. area.

Scuba diving. Yes, scuba diving. In Rolesville, at Fantasy Lake, an abandoned rock quarry turned underwater playground, where on summer weekends you’ll find hundreds of local divers negotiating an abandoned rock crusher, VW, CAT bus and assorted other challenges of the not-so-deep (40 to 60 feet, on average).

Convinced?
Then cast your ballot here.

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]]> https://getgoingnc.com/2015/05/one-last-appeal-rdu-for-besttown2105/feed/ 0 https://getgoingnc.com/2014/12/this-weekend-trees-stars-rocks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-weekend-trees-stars-rocks https://getgoingnc.com/2014/12/this-weekend-trees-stars-rocks/#respond Thu, 11 Dec 2014 18:01:32 +0000 http://getgoingnc.com/?p=7343 A learning experience at the coast, stargazing in the Piedmont, and in the mountains, drawing inspiration from some true rock stars. Coast Can you tell an oak from a hickory, … Continue reading This weekend: Trees, stars, rocks →

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]]> A learning experience at the coast, stargazing in the Piedmont, and in the mountains, drawing inspiration from some true rock stars.



Coast

Can you tell an oak from a hickory, a beech from a boxelder? Maybe in summer, when a full canopy displays each tree’s distinctively shaped, tell-tale leaves. But in winter, when the leaves have vacated, identifying the dendrologic denizens of the forest can be more challenging.

All the more reason to take a break from the holidays and spend an hour on Saturday’s Winter Tree ID hike sponsored by Lake Waccamaw State Park in Lake Waccamaw. Says the park website: “Join a park ranger in using clues to identify trees by unique crown shape, fruit and/or their leftover containers, persistent leaves, live twigs and growth habit.” Conducted by a state park ranger but held at the Depot Museum in Lake Waccamaw (where you should plan to spend a little extra time learning about the human history of the area).

Sounds like a good investment of an hour, with takeaway benefits for subsequent visits to the woods.

Logistics: Saturday, Dec. 13, 2 p.m., Depot Museum, Lake Waccamaw. For more info: 910.646.1992

Saturday forecast: Sunny, high of 57.

Piedmont



Wednesday night, on a GetHiking! Triangle hike on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along Falls Lake, we paused in a clearing, flipped off our headlamps and took in a surprisingly vivid night sky. Hiker Ron mentioned a NASA website where you can plug in your location and will give you the best opportunities for viewing the International Space Station. I mentioned that it appeared we had just missed the Geminid meteor shower.

Turns out I was wrong. Turns out the annual viewing of this night sky spectacular is his Saturday. And it turns out that you can catch this year’s show at Medoc Mountain State Park between Louisburg and Roanoke Rapids. It’s a great spot to catch the show: the huge grass field at the park’s entrance is about as removed from light pollution as you can get in North Carolina. (A viewing is also scheduled, from 8-10 p.m., at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area in the Triangle.)

Logistics: Saturday, Dec. 13, 5:30 p.m., Medoc Mountain State Park, Hollister. More info: 252.586.6588.

Saturday evening forecast: Clear, with temperatures in the upper 40s.

Mountains



Historically, the Triple Crown Bouldering Series has had three fall events: in Boone; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and, Steele, Ala. This year, they’ve added a fourth, at Rumbling Bald in the Hickory Nut Gorge area near Lake Lure.

The series draws top boulderers — climbers without ropes, but only going about 15 feet off the ground (they fall, no biggie, especially since they land on a crash pad).  Between 600 and 1,000 competitors are expected this year.

We suggest this spectator event primarily because, with the new year approaching, many of us are in search of new pursuits, new ways to push ourselves. New ways to live. Check these competitors out. We promise they’ll inspire.

Logistics: Saturday, Dec. 13, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Lake Lure. Go here for details.

Saturday forecast: Sunny skies, high of 59 (perfect weather for climbing, btw).

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below.

Coast

CapeFearCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar for the Cape Fear/Wilmington/southern N.C. coast searchable by date and event name.

Coastal Guide
Comprehensive calendar including nature programs from a variety of costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs. Covers the entire coast.

Crystal Cost Tourism Authority
Comprehensive calendar focusing on the Crystal Coast. Good source for programs offered by N.C. Coastal Federation, Cape Lookout National Park, N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve and other costal conservation and research agencies that offer nature programs.

NCCoast.com
Comprehensive calendar including programs for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast.

North Carolina Coast Host
Comprehensive calendar for the entire coast that lets you search for events by day, by region, by county, by city or by event (based on key word).

This Week Magazine
Primary focus is the Crystal Coast (North Carolina’s coastal midsection).

Mountains

Asheville Citizen-Times
From the main page, click on “Outdoors,” then WNC Outdoors calendar.

Blue Ridge Outdoors
Searchable calendar lets you extend your reach to events throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast (or you can just limit it to North Carolina). Also lets you search a boatload of categories, ranging from Hiking, Mountain Biking and Climbing to Trail Running, Triathlon and Road Walking.

The Mountain Times
From the main page, click on “Calendars,” then Main Events.

Todd’s Calendar

Piedmont

Charlotte

Charlotte Observer events calendar
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including Nature, Recreation, Recreation & Wellness, Running

Charlotte Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triad

GoTriad.com
Comprehensive calendar includes a Sports & Recreation category.

Piedmont Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Triangle

Triangle.com
Comprehensive calendar searchable by category, including: Birding, Boating, Cycling, Nature, Rec & Wellness, Recreation, Running, Swimming, Tennis, Yoga.

Carolina Parent
Comprehensive calendar concentrating on things the family can do together.

Statewide

Great Outdoor Provision Co.
Calendar includes three weekly events for each of its seven markets: Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem. Search by market.

Office of Environmental Education
One calendar for the numerous Environmental Education Centers statewide.

North Carolina State Parks
Lets you search for programs at the state’s parks, recreation areas and natural areas by location, by month, by topic. To reach the calendar from the home page, click on “Education,” then “Fun & Free Programs at Parks.”

National Forests in North Carolina
From the home page, click on Carolina Connections for news updates on the state’s four national forests as well as hints on recreational opportunities and a detailed rundown of recreation areas and the amenities at each.

U.S. National Wildlife Refuges
Rundown, by month, of regular activities at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuges in North Carolina.

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]]> https://getgoingnc.com/2014/12/this-weekend-trees-stars-rocks/feed/ 0 https://getgoingnc.com/2014/07/90-second-escape-huck-redux/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=90-second-escape-huck-redux https://getgoingnc.com/2014/07/90-second-escape-huck-redux/#respond Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:09:06 +0000 http://getgoingnc.com/?p=6918 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, … Continue reading 90 Second Escape: Huck Redux →

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]]> 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 or slide show 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.
Today’s 90-Second Escape: Huck-A-Buck Redux


Saturday was the 14th running of the Huck-A-Buck at Lake Crabtree County Park in Morrisville. The Huck-A-Buck is a tradition in Triangle mountain bike racing, born of the inspiration of Happy Fun Racing and its visionary leaders Pat Lundergan and Chris Pappas. Three years ago, its demise was rumored. Fortunately, the rumor proved to be just that.

Alas, we weren’t able to make this year’s race. Instead, we take a look back to the race’s 10th running, in 2011. Come along for the ride.

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