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.
Category Archives: Hiking
This weekend: ‘Bubble Soccer’?
Yup, Bubble Soccer: get the scoop in Wilmington on Saturday. Or get the low-down on the newest park in the N.C. State Park system (Carvers Creek, near Spring Lake), or discover a 5K that sums up why we run 5Ks.
Coast
Everyone, we’re convinced, has at least one thing that will motivate them to move — it’s just a matter of discovering it. Some get hooked on the endorphin rush of running. Others prefer the slower, more scenic rewards of a hike. While still others like more … esoteric pursuits.
This weekend: Forecast of fun
Hike the coast, hike one of the most rugged areas along the East Coast. Or go for a run — for as long or as short as you want.
Options? You got ‘em this weekend.
Coast
Sunday, it’s one of our favorite guided hikes at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area. At less than a mile in length, the Basin Trail offers about as much bang for the hiking boot as any trail around. The park’s website says it best: “Fort Fisher provides a glimpse of the dynamic ecosystem known as a barrier spit where the only constant is change. Sixteen threatened and endangered species can be found at Fort Fisher depending on the time of year.”
This weekend: Find a swan, a bald, your way
Tens of thousands of tundra swans make their way south from Canada to the North Carolina coast every year, never once stopping to ask directions. Yet we got lost between the parking lot and the trailhead. Check out those navigationally gifted tundra swans at the coast this weekend, or learn how to successfully find the trailhead in the Piedmont. Or, go to the mountains and climb a high bald you’ve likely never heard.
This weekend: Curl up with a smooth stone
Curling is one option this weekend. So are running and hiking.
Coast
If you need a reason to run, you won’t find a much better one than Saturday’s Run, Roll & Stroll 5K, 10K and 1-mile fun run in downtown Wilmington. The reason? The race benefits Purple Heart Homes, whose goal is to “help reintegrate veterans into the community, and to proudly acknowledge the sacrifice they have made on our country’s behalf. Whether it is adapting an already owned home, building a home from the ground up, or adapting and modifying a foreclosed home, Purple Heart Homes is committed to guiding the veteran through the entire process.”