OK, time for a current events quiz. What was the most disturbing aspect of a Goldsboro middle school principal’s decision to allow kids to earn grades by selling candy for a fundraiser. Was it:
a) That the parent advisory council that pitched the scheme felt so pressured to raise money to supplement programs once funded by the school district that they resorted to the candy-for-grades scheme?
Of all the ways to stay active outdoors during the dark days of winter, you’d think walking might be the simplest and safest. What could be easier than bundling up before dinner and taking a brisk half-hour walk around the neighborhood?
Alas, you live in North Carolina, a number of other activities. According to a recent report by the advocacy group Transportation for America even walking in broad daylight is a risky proposition in the Tarheel state. Riskier still if you happen to live in the Triangle, found by the group’s just-released Dangerous By Design study to be the nation’s sixth most dangerous metropolitan area to walk in. Forty-three pedestrians were killed in the Triangle in 2007 and 2008, earning the region a Pedestrian Danger Index — a calculation of the rate of pedestrian deaths compared to the amount of walking local residents do — of 128.6. (While the Triangle was the sixth worst place to walk in the nation among metro areas with populations of 1 million or more, it was a safer place to walk than six North Carolina cities: Rocky Mountain, Wilmington, Burlington and Greenville all ranked as more dangerous places to walk. Go here for a rundown of North Carolina’s 15 biggest cities.)
That we don’t live in the most pedestrian-friendly area comes as no surprise, especially if you live in a neighborhood built during much of the 20th century. Sidewalks are a rarity in all but the oldest neighborhoods built during that period, forcing pedestrians to walk in traffic. And it’s not simply that the pedestrian was forgotten during this time; In some cases, development was downright hostile toward the non-motorized. Witness the traffic patterns around most schools built from the late 1960s through the 1990s, which appear to have used streets as moats to protect them from hordes of children walking to school. It’s not that kids don’t walk or ride their bikes to school because they’re lazy. It simply isn’t safe.
Thankfully, that’s starting to change. New housing developments — Southern Village and Meadowmont in Chapel Hill, Biltmore Park in Asheville come immediately to mind — have become aggressive about making neighborhoods safe for walking and riding bikes. There’s even some encouraging news in Transportation for America’s Dangerous By Design study: The Triangle may be the sixth most dangerous place to walk, but it ranks 30th — ahead of outdoors-friendly Denver — in per capita spending on sidewalks and such.
But unless you live in a Meadowmont or one of the state’s other emerging pedestrian-friendly developments, you need to take precautions if you want to walk the neighborhood at night. You need to make sure that you’re seen by the vehicles with which you share the road. And you can do so for a minimal investment.
“It’s probably worth it to pay $20 to $30 to be able to [walk] at night,” says Bobby Mack, with The Athletes Foot store in Raleigh’s Cameron Village. In fact, says Mack, you needn’t spend that much.
With that, Mack pulls down a $13.99 Brooks wristband made of 3M reflective material that also includes a series of blinking LED lights. The band can go around either your wrist or ankle, and Mack says it’s especially effective at attracting attention because the swinging motion is more effective at catching the beam of a car’s headlight. Plus, the motion is more suggestive of a living object.
“As soon as the clocks were turned back,” Mack says of the recent switch from Daylight Savings Time, “we started selling out of these.” A cheaper ($10 MSRP), lower tech version is also available. (While The Athlete’s Foot caters to runners, Mack, who is also the assistant cross-country coach at N.C. State, says the store sells most of its reflective gear to walkers.)
Also popular, says Mack, are lightweight reflective vests and hats, both of which can be found for $20 to $30. Mack says some nightwalkers use LED headlamps, which sell for as little as $15.
If you want maximum coverage, Chuck Millsaps a couple doors down at the Great Outdoor Provision Co. recommends the Brooks LSD Lite Jacket. The jacket is about 75 percent reflective neon green and weighs 4.3 ounces. At $95, it’s also a pricier solution.
Once you’re sure you’ll be seen while walking at night, a few tips to further insure you have a safe, healthy workout (with input from the Springfield, Mo., police department):
Every Wednesday through Thanksgiving, GetGoingNC.com will feature a hike in North Carolina that just about anyone can do. It won’t be a long hike (though we may throw in a recommendation for going long), it won’t be strenuous hike (thought there could be a hill-climb option as well). The hikes will be timed to coincide with the changing colors of fall. This week, three loop trail options totaling 5 miles at Medoc Mountain State Park.
Medoc Mountain State Park
Distance: Variable, from .75 miles to 5 miles.
Type of route: Loops.
Getting there: From the east: From I-95, take exit 160 and go west on NC 561 for nine miles. Turn left on SR 1322, which will take you into the park. For the trails recommended, go past the Visitor Center to the second parking area. From the south: Take NC 561 east from Louisburg for 30 miles, then turn right on SR 1002. Go 0.9 miles, then go left on NC 322 for another 0.9 miles, the the park entrance.
Map: A trail map is available at the Visitor Center. You can also find one here.
Highlights: Solitude. Even on a peak fall afternoon, the place is pretty much yours at this off-the-beaten-path park. (In August, Medoc Mountain had just 5,338, compared with 69,912 visitors to Crowders Mountain State Park in August, 65,105 visitors to Umstead State Park and 63,063 to Pilot Mountain State Park.)
Why it’s easy and what you’ll see: Medoc Mountain is on the fringe of the Piedmont, where rolling hills give out to coastal plain. But the hiking reflects both geographic regions, with the trails relatively flat and easy, the landscape pure Piedmont hardwood forest. The park also boasts an unusual human history. Whereas most other state parks in the region are on retired farmland, Medoc Mountain was the site of a 19th vineyard, one of the first in the nation. In fact, local vintner Sidney Weller named the park’s namesake, 325-foot “peak” after a French province known for its vineyards. Begin your journey at Medoc Mountain on the 0.75-mile Stream Loop, taking on the 1.25-mile Discovery Loop midway. If you’re up for more upon your return, the 3.0-mile Bluff Loop offers some especially nice encounters with Little Fishing Creek, which bisects the park.
More info: Call the park office at 252.586.6588, or visit the Web site.
Yesterday I felt like getting in a good, full-body, no-nonsense workout.
So I raked the yard.
Raking leaves used to be a Rockwellian pursuit epitomizing fall in America. A time when we rolled up our flannel sleeves, grabbed the Yo-Ho and dedicated ourselves to a Saturday in the yard. For weeks, it seemed a pointless task: Rake a bunch of leaves, a bunch more would fall. But we persevered until the last fallen oak-leaf soldier had been eradicated. We derived a sense of satisfaction through the process, both physical and in the knowledge that we were keeping the homestead in order.
Then, something happened. The birth of cable TV and the promise of 14 straight hours of college football on Saturday, perhaps? Or was it the invention of the leaf-blower, which introduced horsepower to the task, making it suddenly attractive to our 10-year-old kids? Maybe raking’s demise as an respectable physical activity can be attributed to the lack of a celebrity promoter, a Suzanne Somers or a Tony Little, to add sizzle to the cause.
Whatever, raking leaves has become yet another act of physical exertion that we’ve dropped from our repertoire. Which is a shame, because with the meager investment of $15 for a rake (the Ab Circle Pro, by comparison, is $199.75 plus $34.50 shipping and handling), you can get one good full-body workout.
According to AARP.org, raking leaves offers various benefits. It works your arms and upper body and, perhaps more importantly, tones your core — your stomach and back muscles. Maybe you won’t develop six-pack abs by raking leaves, but you will tone your body’s most important muscle group. (Check out this AARP article for tips on raking and bagging.)
Raking can also offer a good aerobic challenge, especially if you make the activity a challenge in itself. At the risk of raising eyebrows, I try to set a PR every time I take to the leaves. The first time I tackled the yard this season, it took me 23 minutes and 15 seconds to rake the north quadrant of our front yard; Last week, I nearly cracked the magical 20-minute barrier, cause for a victory lap around the cul-de-sac.
Perhaps most seductively, raking burns calories, more than you might imagine. According to the Self.com Health Calculator, a 170-pound person burns 348.16 calories during 60 minutes of leaf raking. That beats the following activities (according to another calculator, the Fitness Partner calorie calculator):
Tuesday evening I sat against a log, just off the Appalachian Trail, bundled against the cold, and watched the sun set. At 4,000 feet on a ridgeline, several miles from civilization, it was a long, slow show. When the curtain turned a deep crimson, I noticed it wasn’t getting darker. I glanced over my shoulder to find a full moon cresting over a near ridge to the east. I switched position and sat for another half hour. It took seven miles of hiking up more than 2,000 vertical feet with 35 pounds on my back, but it was worth it. I’m pretty sure I had the best seat in the house to see November 3rd come to a close in North Carolina.