On this spring weekend, take a serene paddle or work up a sweat at a festival.
Coast
Warmer weather means more paddling opportunities. Saturday’s three-hour guided kayak trip down the Lumber River, for instance. Bring sunscreen, drinking water, a snack “and any other necessary items,” says trip organizer Eric Siratt, a ranger with Lumber River State Park. It’s free, but space is limited for this trip that shoves off from the Chalk Banks Access Area at 10:30 a.m.; call 910.628.4564 to register.
It’s one of those weekends in North Carolina where you wish you could triplicate yourself … .
Coast
When anyone asks me for a good beginner canoe trip with great scenery, I never hesitate with the answer: Merchants Millpond State Park. For starters, it’s one of the few places in the state where you can rent a canoe year-round. Then, it’s only $5 an hour (that’s for the first hour; it drops to $3 an hour for the second and subsequent hours). But the main reason to paddle Merchants Millpond is the scenery. Paddling here is on a 190-year-old, 760-acre millpond peppered with bald cypress and tupelo gum trees draped in Spanish moss. The pond’s dark, acidic waters support floating mats of duckweed and water fern. It’s the quintessential swamp paddle minus the alligators (it’s been years since one has been seen).
There’s no lack of options this weekend for working off some excess energy.
Coast
Two races Saturday in two beach towns where you’ll want to linger afterward.
5K Race for the Planet at Fort Fisher. “This flat, mostly asphalt course is scenic with views of the ocean, maritime forest, and historic Fort Fisher Civil War site,” according to race organizers. Run the race at 8 a.m. (registration begins at 7) then hang out and tour the aquarium and hike out to the Fort Fisher Hermit’s old digs. $25 to race. Music and refreshments follow. 910.458.7468 for more information, or go here.
The Triangle’s greenway system is a tiny step closer to becoming a complete network.
Joe Godfrey, parks planner with the Town of Cary, tells GGNC that a 1.3-mile missing link of the Black Creek Greenway should be finished mid-April. The stretch would extend the existing 5.6 miles of Black Creek Greenway running south from Lake Crabtree to Chapel Hill Road on to Maynard Road. A short stretch of the sidewalk/greenway will run alongside Maynard before it crosses High House Road. From there, Godfrey says another short missing link should begin construction soon and will link with existing greenway into the heart of Bond Park.
When I last talked with Gilbert Anderson more than five years ago he had just relocated his eclectic North Road Bicycle Imports from downtown Raleigh to Yanceyville and was just getting unpacked. When we dropped by his downtown Yanceyville shop Saturday he was … still getting unpacked. The reason wouldn’t surprise anyone who knows the affable Anderson: Distract him with his favorite topic — bikes, especially unusual ones — and he’ll stop what he’s doing and embark on a discourse that may bounce from internal hubs to belt drives to ultralight steel frames of the ‘70s, to why road racing was banned in England to the latest cycling sensation. All, seemingly, in the same breath.